Agilists and the Art of Integrated Assessment Tool Development

Software engineering for Integrated Assessment needs to address the fact that systems and models developed are increasingly used in participatory settings. Applying old principles of inside-out design and development using waterfall model based processes is no longer sufficient. New software engineering insights based on interaction design and iterative, agile processes for the development help in building systems from a more outside-in perspective. Based on two case studies from large European projects on integrated assessment this switch from applying old to applying new principles will be described, and its effects discussed. Elements were taken from interaction design: personas, story boards, mock-ups, focus groups and focus tasks. These were mixed with an iterative and incremental development process, using agile elements such as: daily stand-ups, user stories, planning games, Test Driven Development and continuous integration. The resulting process was used for the development of the two systems (SIAT and SEAMLESS-IF) for integrated assessment, giving them a more useroriented focus than what would have resulted from following the old principles.