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In 2011, Interactions featured an article by John Zimmerman arguing that we have actually taken a step backward. He states that “It is time to cast off the mantle of UCD before it makes us irrelevant.” (Zimmerman, 2011, p. 11) He proposes that we move to what he refers to as client-centered design where the focus is on how usability can move forward the value of the client’s products and services to the end user. For most organizations, the shift from user-centered development (UCD) to client-centered design has come in the form of Agile development.
Gartner research predicted that 80% of software development projects will be executed using an Agile development process by the end of 2012 (Murphy et al., 2010). Furthermore, research by the Project Management Institute (PMI) supported the prediction when they found that the use of Agile methodologies has tripled from December of 2008 to May of 2011(3). A study performed by Ambler and Associates (2014) determined that about 89% are using at least some Agile methods. This move away from Waterfall development is not surprising given that Waterfall was first used for defense applications in an era where hardware and static requirements dominated (e.g., see Benington, 1956 for first-known application of Waterfall).
Agile evolved as new IT requirements needed to become more fluid, rapid, and customer-driven (Ashmore and Runyan, 2014). The move toward Agile development has also elicited increased research in the area of Agile development with the focus on what it means to be Agile. While there are studies comparing Waterfall and Agile teams (e.g. Ashmore, 2012, Ji and Sedano, 2011), no studies have compared Waterfall-developed and Agile-developed products in terms of quantity and value of customer requirements using regular stakeholder feedback sessions.