Integrating Usability into the Agile Development Process: A preliminary empirical study

Abstract

Background: Interest in the integration of the agile software development process (ASDP) and user-centred design (UCD) has grown over the last decade. However, there are not many papers that study this issue holistically and uncover the current state of this integration. Aim: This study sets out to answer the following research question: What is the current state of integration between agile processes and usability? Method: We conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS). We analyze the articles and the results were cross checked by the authors, and any disagreements were discussed and resolved in meetings. Results: We retrieved a total of 161 Primary Studies. There are very few papers that study the literature holistically and report the current state of usability in the ASDP. Conclusions: We categorized according to four criteria: process, practice, team and technology integration. The largest group refers to process integration with a total of 76 Primary Studies.