SOLDIER-CENTERED AGILE


Not all feedback will result in innovation; however, if you are hearing consistently that something is problematic, it probably warrants further investigation.


applicable to both and extensible to non- Agile development efforts as well.


POINTS OF CONTENTION Agile is typically a developer-led philos- ophy whereas Soldier-centered design is driven by human factors practitioners, human-systems integration analysts or user experience professionals. Te Agile Scrum approach minimizes upfront plan- ning in favor of producing code quickly, whereas Soldier-centered design maxi- mizes upfront planning informed by user research (Soldier touch-point events) to produce a rough design that will evolve and crystallize through iterative user testing into a concrete final product. Agile measures progress by the amount of working software developed, while Soldier-centered design measures prog- ress by how well users can achieve their goals using the system.


Just like other government program


managers before us, we followed the Defense Acquisition Framework and integrated aspects of Agile development— sprints, releases, user stories, backlogs and burn down. We merged Agile devel- opment with Soldier-centered design to lay the foundation for system design— identifying the most frequent, critical and problematic tasks that require design


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USERS FRONT AND CENTER


Through Soldier-centered design, end users are front and center in the development process. Rather than testing a prototype after design has been completed, this approach emphasizes early and frequent feedback from Soldiers throughout the process. (Image by Getty Images)


emphasis and documenting user stories by observing them at work in the field and sitting with them as they demonstrated system use during normal operations. We also conducted online surveys, focus groups and participatory design sessions. When software releases became available, we began conducting usability tests to identify design issues and enhancements, which is where the focus remains for both programs, at present. Along this journey, we found some things worked well and some did not. Here, we focus on what worked well and what we will do differ- ently in the future.


LESSONS LEARNED Te top 12 lessons learned during our efforts to integrate Soldier-centered


Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2021


design into Agile development include the following:


Build a strong design foundation with early Soldier-centered design activities.


Bringing human factors and human- systems integration onboard early to lead Soldier touch-point events builds a solid design foundation by validating user needs, documenting workflows, devel- oping user stories and identifying what is working well and what is not, as well as uncovering feature sets requiring design emphasis and capability gaps existing in manual processes and legacy systems. With these essential building blocks, the Soldier-centered design team will create a rough design of the user interface that


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