Who Moved My Lab?: The Effect of Constant Organizational Change on Usability Practice

Abstract

Competitive pres sure has forced organizations of all kinds to become more flexible in their structure and more responsive to market changes. Mergers and acquisitions are commonplace, often followed by redundancy programmes. While this may make for a reduced cost base, constant organizational change can have a potentially adverse impact on groups within the organization and the way they work. Usability engineers are no exception and must react to changes in the operational model or in management, often needing to modify methodologies quickly and effectively. This chapter covers three major organizational events in a large business software company. It provides details of the challenges presented by these events, shows how usability professionals responded to these changes, and describes the lessons the team learned in the process.