Utilizing Digital Tabletops in Collocated Agile Planning Meetings

In agile software development, planning meetings play a pivotal role in establishing a concrete under-standing of customerspsila requirements. Using tools to enhance the effectiveness of the planning meetings without affecting the agility of the practices or disturbing the traditional settings is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose the use of digital tabletops as a means of collaboration in agile planning meetings for collocated teams. To support this proposal, we introduce Agile Planner for Digital Tabletops, a planning tool that was specifically designed for use on large horizontal displays. A multipart study involving a variety of qualitative methodologies was conducted to evaluate this approach. The study involved 14 individual participants plus a five member agile team. The individual evaluation suggested that in general, the tool is usable with minor issues to be considered in future design revisions. The agile team evaluation revealed a significant interest in the tool and its added benefits to the agility of the planning meeting with some issues to be further enhanced.