Evaluating Usability as a Key Human Factor in Agile SPM Tools Through Expert-Based Techniques

Despite the importance of adopting SPM tools for supporting agile practices and the significance of usability as an essential component of human factors engineering, their usability evaluation was neglected in the literature. This study aims to identify the common usability issues in SPM tools and propose suggestions for enhancing their usability. Two of the most widely used SPM tools were selected as a case study for this study, namely Jira and Pivotal Tracker. Three independent evaluators participated in the usability evaluation, using two human factors techniques: Heuristic Evaluation and Cognitive Walkthrough. The results revealed a total frequency of 123 issues in both tools. Both tools had a nearly equal frequency of issues in each evaluation method but different severity levels. Learnability issues were the issues that were raised the most in the evaluation for both tools. Most of the issues had minor to major severity, with the following percentages of total issues: 41.33% and 46.67%, respectively, while only 13.33% were catastrophic. Considering the proposed solutions by designers and developers for this type of tool can help enhance the design of SPM tools, leading to increased user satisfaction and tool adoption.