Usability in agile development: A systematic mapping 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). A SMS is a form of systematic literature review that aims to identify and classify the research papers published about a specified issue. Results: We retrieved a total of 161 primary studies, which 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. Judging by the increase in the number of publications over the last decade, the integration of human-computer interaction (HCI) activities and techniques into the ASDP is an issue of notable interest. Conclusions: There are very few papers that study the literature holistically and report the current state of usability in the ASDP. Additionally, there are no formalized proposals for adopting usability techniques in ASDP.