awall A Socio-Cognitive Tool for Agile Team Collaboration using Large Multi-Touch Wall Systems

Transcription

1 awall A Socio-Cognitive Tool for Agile Team Collaboration using Large Multi-Touch Wall Systems Magdalena Mateescu 1 magdalena.mateescu@fhnw.ch Martin Kropp 2 martin.kropp@fhnw.ch Roger Burkhard 1 roger.burkhard@fhnw.ch Carmen Zahn 1 carmen.zahn@fhnw.ch Dario Vischi 2 dario.vischi@fhnw.ch 1 School of Applied Psychology University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, Olten, Switzerland 2 School of Engineering University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, Windisch, Switzerland Abstract Agile methods emphasize highly interactive and close collaboration within teams and among stakeholders. Due to still missing adequate digital tools, agile teams use mostly physical artefacts like wallboards and story cards. In this paper, we present awall, an agile team collaboration tool for large multi-touch wall systems. awall was designed based on empirical user research using new interaction and visualization concepts to support and foster the highly collaborative and communicative agile work style. The application is based on web technology and can be used in both colocated and distributed setting. The implemented prototypes were validated with end-users in a user workshop. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). ITS '15, November 15-18, 2015, Funchal, Portugal ACM /15/11. Author Keywords Agile; collaboration; communication; socio-cognitive; team; multi-touch; project management; software development; HCI; surface. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.2. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): User Interfaces 361

2 Figure 1. awall running on a 2x2 46 Screen Wall Figure 2. A physical card wall Introduction Large multi-user touchscreens have been shown to benefit collaborative work by supporting social interaction and group cognitive activities, are still scarce commodity. In agile software development, which became a predominant method in the IT industry in the last 10 years [8, 10], physical wallboards combined with digital tools like are still used predominantly. Such tools are crucial for agile teams, since the agile process depends on an intensive interaction, collaboration, and constant open communication among all stakeholders between team members [1]. Such intensive collaboration needs very close feedbacks loops in the sense of the Plan-Do- Check-Act (PDCA) management method [6]. Agile management tools like JIRA Agile [3], VersionOne [4] are not sufficient to support the collaborative process in agile teams. Azizyan, Magarian, and Kajko- Matsson [5] found that 31% of the interviewed companies used both project management tools and physical walls. The predominant usage of physical tools reveals their importance for teamwork. Therefore, we consider that it is necessary to deepen our understanding of the requirements for collaborative agile tools and their usage in the agile process. User Research We conducted in depth interviews with 44 agile practitioners in 11 companies and observed the collaborative process in four agile teams. Our results show that physical card wall (Figure 2) are valued for their extreme flexibility and light-weight, meanwhile the digital tools employed at the moment (JIRA Agile [3]) are seen as helpful for storing information on long term and being able to provide traceability. The latter are not adequate for the highly interactive agile team collaboration. Neither physical nor digital tools seem to be sufficient to support the collaborative process in agile teams. Based on the results of this empirical study and by taking advantage of the availability of 4K-technology, we developed a concept for a socio-cognitive tool for agile collaboration for large screen-wall systems. We started implementing the concepts in the awall prototype that supports agile team collaboration and fosters the agile style of work through a large multitouch wall system (see Figure 1). awall takes advantage of the 4K resolution and web technology and by that surpasses the possibilities of existing desktop tools. Design Considerations for the Agile Wall Based on our empirical findings in the study we explored new visualization and interaction concepts for an agile collaboration tool running on an extra-large touch wall to support the whole agile process. Each agile meeting has specific goals, and different tools are used to achieve them. Different types of artefacts are used and modified during each meeting. During the Daily Stand-Up meeting most teamwork focuses on modifying task cards. However, we observed that during meetings teams usually need additional information (e.g. list of acceptance criteria for a task or Definition-of-Done, Impediment-List. They consult this information during meeting and sometimes modify it. On physical card walls this extra information is typically arranged around the main task board as shown in Figure 2. To support these two different types 362

3 User Story Workshop Poker Game Action Retrospective User Story Grooming Sprint Planning Task Board Whiteboard functionality Drawing Communication Video Conference Vision Rules Agreement Definition of Done Bugs Product Backlog Team View Burn-Down/Up Chart Pair Programming Information Figure 3. Agile collaboration model Maintenance Phases Fun Information View Action View Figure 4. Action and Information View Figure 5. Information view widgets of information handling, we differentiate between action and information views. We developed a general agile collaboration model as shown in Figure 3. The model visualizes three important aspects for agile collaboration tools: the need for tools to sustain the activity of the agile team (action dimension), the communication needs of the agile team, and third their needs to actualize information that might be distributed among team members and artefacts (information dimension). The actions and the information dimensions are represented in dedicated views, that we further call action views and respectively information views. Agile module Action views Informa tion views Technology Affordances Represent information (e.g. create new tasks) Modify the information (e.g. move location of the task card) Consult information about project status, agreed norms (e.g. Definition of Done). Modify represented information (e.g. add a new impediment) Sociocognitive functions Contribute directly to goal achievement. Problem solving process. Support for team s transactional memory, distributed cognition. Table 1. Action and Information View for Daily Standup An action view is dedicated to a specific meeting and contributes directly to the main goal. Actions views have been carefully designed to sustain most interactions that need to be performed during a specific meeting. The information view provides extra information needed for a meeting, and by that contributes indirectly to goal achievement. Information views represent team s transactional memory. Any memory system needs to allow for change. Therefore, the information represented in these views can be manipulation at any time. Table 1 provides an overview of their technological affordances and socio-cognitive functions. Design Concepts Based on the aforementioned requirements and agile collaboration model, we derived the following design guidelines. Size Matters Digital walls replacing a physical wall system need to be at least comparable in size with physical walls. They need to provide enough space to display all project relevant information. To embody there design concept built a multi-touch multiuser system consisting of four 46 4k high-resolution screens with a 12-point multitouch infrared frame from pqlabs (see Figure 1). The touch wall is 2.05m width and 1.25m height. Direct Interaction Manipulation of information on the wall should remain visible to support team awareness. Team members movement toward the wall increases team awareness. Several interaction technics have been proposed for large displays, like manipulation from afar, direct touch, or visual interaction [9]. However, we consider direct touch to better support the collaborative work. Support Action and Information View 363

4 Figure 6. Scaled up User Story Figure 7. Task board with floating team view Derived from our agile collaboration model, we divide the layout of the screen into an action-view area and an information-view area. Figure 4 illustrates the basic design for the Daily Stand Up meeting. The action views are at the core of the awall application. They provide an optimized view and access to information that is going to be manipulated during meetings. All information can be directly and quickly accessed and edited, new information can be added and existing information can be easily deleted. Information views (e.g. Timer, Burn-Down Charts, Team View) represent the teams transactional memory encoding information about project status, norms and rules - Figure 5. They display the information in small, customized widgets and respond to the transparency and availability of information requirements. These widgets provide context-dependent information during outside team meetings and act as an information radiator. Scalability of Information While it usually suffices for the team to see the title of a card to know what it stands for, this does not diminish the importance of being able to easily display more or less information as needed. To enable this the user can modify scale any widget, task card or Use Story to change the amount of shown information by just dragging the frames of the widget as shown in Figure 6 illustrates this principle for the User Story card. Accessibility with Floating widgets Widgets can be dragged out of the information view and placed anywhere on the action view. They facilitate easy access to information and enable the team to reposition information near other relevant information and thus creating favorable conditions for team cognition. For example, the team widget can be moved on the action view, to easily drag-and-drop team members onto the task card (Figure 7). Support the Collaborative Process not only its Result Most agile management tools sustain remarkably well the product of the agile planning, but fail to sustain the collaborative process. Following our agile collaboration model, the awall provides dedicated views for all typical agile meetings like Daily Stand Up (Task Board), Sprint Planning 1 and 2, User Story Workshop, Poker Game (a cooperative effort estimation method), Retrospective, and User Story Grooming and by that sustains the collaborative process in itself. The user can easily navigate between meetings by choosing a different meeting at the bottom of the awall as shown in Figure 8. The Digital Realm as Transactional Memory Through the extra information displayed in the information view, awall acts as a teams external memory and sustains awareness of information both intra- and inter-team. Configurability of Functionality Different meetings require specific information. Therefore, the information view needs to be configurable, so that the user can choose only those widgets they deem necessary. Therefore, the awall s information view can be easily adapted to team needs. Information at your finger tip All relevant information should be available instantaneously; therefore we decided to avoid menu trees or lists. The only menu in the system is the bottom level menu used to select the desired meeting 364

5 Figure 8. Meeting navigation Figure 9. The Fun and Avatar widgets Figure 10. awall System Architecture as shown in Figure 8. All other information is available through the action views and information views. Simple and Homogenous layout It is important that users can easily orient themselves, find information easily and in a constant way especially when it comes to large screens. Thus, throughout the whole system the overall layout of the screen is into three parts, the information view, the action view and the main menu at the bottom as shown in Figure 4. Foster agile values Our observations have shown that agile teams often add additional information to the boards that is not necessarily related to the project but contributes to team building and team spirit. For example they often add private information e.g. holiday greeting cards or childbirths. The awall supports this behavior by providing appropriate information widgets as shown Figure 9. Multi-Device Interaction While large multi-touch walls perfectly meet team collaboration need to make interaction with information not only possible but also visible to other team members, they are less adequate for data input with keyboards or handwriting, like entering user story descriptions. Therefore, we are striving to implement simultaneous interaction with the information on the board by means of tablets; for example, to enter new task cards in the Sprint Planning 2 meeting. Prototype System Architecture The application is developed as a three-tier Web application as shown in Figure 10. Web technology supports very well the collaborative process in distributed teams; no local installation is required; it offers better user interface design capabilities with CSS. An important feature is the connection to third-party issue tracking systems like the JIRA [3]. Many organizations use such tools in their workflow [5] and therefore we can avoid disruption in team process. Evaluation in User Workshops We conducted two user workshops with 11 agile practitioners to validate our design. The participants considered it to be very usable and emphasized that such a system may be able to support the collaborative agile workstyle and process very well. Size Aspects and Display of Information The participants valued the large size of the wall especially for the fact that it supports real team collaboration as with large wallboards. They mentioned the potential risk that some elements might be out of reach for smaller people. The general concept of larger titles was well accepted. Cards were seen by some participants as being too small. It must be very simple show enlarge the font to be readable from the distance. The participants valued the team view, but requested to have more information integrated into it, like also showing the absence of team members. Offering tags and avatars as well as the fun widget was positively seen as bringing emotions onto the board. Flexibility and Adaptability The need for flexibility and customization became evident in the interviews. For example, our time boxing widget which asks for a moderator, allow to run with or without an assigned moderator. The flexibility in the way a meeting is conducted was also positively rated, especially when it comes to the Retrospective Meeting 365

6 that sometimes might prove strenuous. Not having to use different media or application was rated positive: e.g. during the Daily Stand-Up meeting the new status of the tasks gets immediately updated in the agile project management tool (JIRA), during the Planning meeting, the user stories can be visualized in the application. The usage of colors for different types of user stories was suggested to increase readability (for example, to distinguish between technical cards, bug reports, user requirement) Discussion and Future Work In this paper we presented a user interaction concept for a collaborative agile wall application for agile software development teams. It was designed and evaluated in close collaboration with eleven IT companies. awall is unique in that it is designed for large multi-touch wall systems and to explicitly address fostering the agile work style. We have presented the various underlying concepts and the so far implemented prototype together. Using Web technology for these kind of application is a path. However touch and especially multi-touch support and gesture recognition for the web is very evolving. New frameworks steadily appear, and browser support is still limited. Our future work will focus on developing further concepts to improve and foster collaboration using large wall systems. This includes concepts for interaction with other devices, concepts for recommender and buddy systems, and better support for distributed collaboration. The very promising feedback from the evaluation makes us believe that the large awall system can be the tools to foster agile collaboration in teams by combining the strengths of the physical and digital tools in one system. References 1. Agile Manifesto. Retrieved May 18, 2015 from 2. Apoorve Chokshi, Teddy Seyed, Francisco Marinho Rodrigues, Frank Maurer. eplan Multi- Surface: A Multi-Surface Environment for Emergency Response Planning Exercises. In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS '14). pp Atlassion. JIRA Viewed Version One. Viewed Azizyan, G., Magarian, M. K., & Kajko-Matsson, M. (2011). Survey of agile tool usage and needs. IEEE Xplore, Deming, W. E. Out of the Crisis. The MIT Press. ISBN-13: interact.js Accessed at Kropp, M., Meier, A., Swiss Agile Study - Einsatz und Nutzen von Agilen Methoden in der Schweiz (German). Retrieved May 18, 2015 from 9. Nacenta, M. A., Pinelle, D., Gutwin, C., & Mandryk, R. (2010). Individual and group support in tabletop interaction techniques. In C. Müller- Tomfelde, J. Karat, & J. Vanderdonckt (Eds.), Tabletops - horizontal interactive displays (pp ). Springer London 10. Version One. State of Agile Development Survey results. Retrieved May 18, 2015 from opment_survey/11/ 366