Lean canvas

The Lean canvas is a one-page business plan, which was initially created by Ash Maurya. Primary objective of this single page business plan is to deconstruct the idea that you have into the key assumptions. It was derived from the business model canvas that was developed by Alex Osterwalder. Then the Lean canvas was optimized to match perfectly well with the requirements of learn start-ups that exist out there. Along with the implementation of a Lean canvas, it is possible for you to eliminate elaborate business plans.

It takes a considerable amount of time to write a business plan. You will be able to reduce that time being spent with the support and assistance offered by Lean canvas. It will only take less than 20 minutes for you to go ahead and create a Lean canvas. Therefore, any agile lean start-up will be able to start using it and experience the benefits that are offered in the long run.

There are different elements in a Lean canvas. In here, you analyse the problem and solution along with key metrics. Along with that, you pay extra attention towards unfair advantage as well. Along with this, it is possible for you to decode the business ideas that you have in your mind and implement them in the real world.

As a business entrepreneur, it is important for you to get ideas out of your head and write them down in paper. That’s because you will never be able to process everything within your head. When you get the ideas into paper, you should follow the Lean canvas. Then you will be able to develop the problem solution in an effective manner. A traditional business plan will not be able to deliver the best results to you with achieving this and that’s why it is important for you to stick to the Lean canvas at all times.

— Slimane Zouggari

Applying Kano model to Agile

Kano Model is focusing on maximizing client satisfaction with regards to a software development project. It is something that you should never ignore when you are working on a software development project. That’s because it can contribute a lot towards the overall success that you will be able to achieve at the end of the day. That’s because all the time and effort that you spend on developing the software will be in vain, when the client is not happy about the final product that he is getting.

In order to make sure that the client will not be satisfied about what he is getting at the end of the day, it is important to go ahead and implement Kano Model to the agile development methodology. You will need to pay attention towards three important parameters when you are applying Kano Model into agile software development methodology.

As the very first thing, you need to get a clear understanding about the basic and mandatory expectations of the customer. These expectations are the features that must be present in the product that you develop. If you ignore to implement these features, customer will not be able to use your system for business purposes. As a result, you will end up with a dissatisfied customer. For example, if you are trying to introduce a hotel booking website, a hotel search functionality must be available.

The second parameter that you should be concerned about is the desired quality. This represents the characteristics of the system that you develop, which are in a position to ensure customer satisfaction at the end of the day. They are often related to the performance of the system. You should never ignore the delighters such as the user-friendliness of the system that you develop, which can help the customer to make his life easy. You need to be mindful about these parameters when you are creating the product backlog.

— Slimane Zouggari

Kano model

Kano Model was developed with the objective of prioritizing customer satisfaction and customer happiness. When it comes to a software development, a massive backlog has to be completed. The product development team will have to spend a considerable amount of time in order to get the backlog items cleared. After the development of the product, the client will go through what is developed and check whether it matches with the business requirements and see whether there is any possibility to take the business to the next level with the help of it. That’s where Kano Model will come into play.

Kano Model was developed by a Japanese consultant and a researcher named Noriaki Kano. It uses techniques and ideas, which can help you to get a better understanding about the satisfaction of a customer with related to product features. The customer satisfaction level about the features will entirely depend on the level of functionality that is available. There is a possibility to classify features into four different categories. It is possible for you to go ahead and determine how the customers will feel about a feature by providing them with a questionnaire.

There are several important parameters, which will be able to determine the overall customer satisfaction levels. Performance of the system holds a prominent place out of them. The system should be a highly performing one, which caters to all customer requirements in a timely manner. On the other hand, the features that the customer must expect to get the basic requirements catered should be present as well. It is also important for the system to be attractive to the customer. Then the customer will prefer to spend more time along with the system and get work done. Last but not least, the customer is expecting the system to be indifferent.

— Slimane Zouggari

Heart of Agile (Allistair Cockburn)

While you are working hard to implement agile within your workplace, it is important to pay extra attention towards Heart of Agile as well. It will provide you with the opportunity to get the most out of agile practices and change the world. The work that you do within the agile software development team is capable of changing the world at least to a certain extent. In the meantime, it is also important to keep in mind that great ideas fail due to misunderstanding that people have about the way how the world will react. Or else, the ideas will fail due to the presence of errors. That’s where Heart of Agile will be able to help you with.

Heart of Agile is simplifying two decades of agile practice into four different imperatives. They will be able to boost your overall effectiveness at the end of the day.

  • Collaborate

This is about collaborating closely with others to come up with better ideas. Along with that, it is important to maintain smooth communications at all times for smooth transitions to take place as well.

  • Deliver

This is about delivering small probes and analyzing feedback that you get on them. Then you will be able to understand how the world will work. Along with that, you will be able to expand the deliveries as you keep on learning how to predict the outcomes.

  • Reflect

Heart of Agile encourages you to reflect periodically. Then you can think about the things that you have learned through collaborations and the deliveries that you have made.

  • Improve

Last but not least, you will be able to improve the direction of your technical implementation, ideas and the internal processes that you follow in order to achieve something. Along with that, you will be able to release effective products to the market.

— Slimane Zouggari

Enterprise Agile

Enterprise agile is all about improving the way how a company is working to achieve one common objective in the long run. It has got the ability to create a strong impact on the overall success and effectiveness of an organization. We often see how the software development companies are sticking to agile methodologies because of the positive results that they can experience out of the methodology.

When implementing enterprise agile within a workplace, the very first step would be to begin with a MVP or a minimum viable product. Then it is possible to release the MVP and get feedback on it. Based on the feedback, it is possible to make appropriate changes, which will preserve the good features and save engineering time.

At the time of developing enterprise agile environment, it is important to focus on creating a single product backlog. It is the responsibility of the product manager to create this backlog and maintain it. Then you will be able to quickly spot what the high priority tasks are. Along with that, you can bring the high priority tasks down in the timeline.

It is important for a collaborative culture to be present within a company for enterprise agile to deliver the best possible results. For example, the product owner, tester and developer should get together and review the features and requirements that exist on the backlog.  Then the tester will be able to explain potential problems whereas the developer will be able to explain the implementation process.

It a large-scale agile framework is used, it will be possible to get the best out of enterprise agile. Some of the most prominent frameworks that are using in large scale enterprises out there in the world include Large Scale Scrum, Disciplined Agile Delivery and Scaled Agile Framework.

— Slimane Zouggari

Sociocracy 3.0 – Principles

Sociocracy 3.0 is based upon seven different principles. If you are looking forward to implement that and shape your agile organizational culture, you will need to have a clear understanding about the seven Sociocracy 3.0 principles. Along with that, you will be able to assist the people to appreciate the value that principles of S3 will bring into them.

  1. Principle of effectiveness – This is where you devote the time only on tasks that can help you to get closer to the goals or objectives that you want to achieve in the long run. Along with that, you can stay away from distracting from the work that will keep you away from achieving the goals as well.
  2. Principle of consent – This principle of Sociocracy 3.0 is all about raising and seeking out to resolve the objections to actions and decisions. When you come across a problem, you should resolve it by making appropriate decisions.
  3. Principle of empiricism – This principle is about testing all the assumptions that you have through experimentation methodologies. You will also be introducing continuous revision to ensure that they can deliver positive results.
  4. Principle of continuous improvement – This is where you change incrementally, so that you will be able to accommodate the steady empirical learning procedure.
  5. Principle of transparency – Principle of transparency is all about making the information accessible for everyone who works within the organization. This should be done only if there is no need to ensure privacy.
  6. Principle of equivalence – Principle of equivalence is about involving people to make and evolve the decisions, which will create an impact on them at the end of the day.
  7. Principle of accountability – Principle of accountability is responding when something is needed. Then the employees will be able to do what they agreed.

— Slimane Zouggari

Posted in S3

Sociocracy 3.0

Sociocracy 3.0 is a practical guide, which is designed for evolving agile as well as resilient organizations. It is possible for an organization of any size to move forward with Sociocracy 3.0. In other words, a small scale start-up or a well-established large scale enterprise will be able to go ahead and implement it to experience the positive returns that are offered at the end of the day.

Sociocracy started back in the year 1851. The third version of it, which is known as Sociocracy 3.0 was implemented by Bernhard James Priest back in the year 2015. When your agile organization implements S3, you will be provided with a coherent collection of principles that are based on patterns. You have the freedom to go ahead and use these principles to navigate through complexity, ensure collaboration, evolve and adapt accordingly to different situations that you will come across. It is also in a position to provide an excellent assistance to the people so that they will be able to incrementally process with the information available. This will ensure improvement of the products, value stream, skills and services.

Sociocracy 3.0 is also in a position to provide assistance for an organization to get the best out of talent available to implement a flexible organizational structure. Along with that, it is possible for them to ensure appropriate flow if information. In addition to that, it will also ensure flow of value.

Sociocracy 3.0 can provide an iterative and an organic approach to change, which will meet the organizational requirements and help them to move forward at their own pace, while adhering to the unique needs and context. Moreover, it will help them to draw collective intelligence to the group. This will facilitate the development of new strategies, which are safe for an organization to try.

— Slimane Zouggari

Posted in S3

Consent decision making

At the time of working to create an agile organization, it is important to pay extra attention towards consent decision making as well. Along with consent decision making, it is possible to make sure that the decisions made within the organization are more inclusive. It can also provide an ideal environment to ensure quick decision making.

Consent can be considered as a well-documented process. Hence, consent decision making will always help people to end up with better results than ordinary decision making. In here, consent will be based upon just in time decision making. This will receive quick feedbacks. As a result, it is possible to make decisions quickly. However, there are drawbacks associated with consent decision making as well. For example, it is not the most effective method when you are making massive decisions, which can create a major impact on the organization that involves the participation of numerous stakeholders. If all of them are not present in the table, consent decision making will never deliver positive results.

If you are looking forward to implement consent decision making within your agile organization, you need to have a clear understanding on how to do it. In here, a single person will present peer-reviewed solution. Then the group will ask for clarification questions. This will not be a debate or a discussion. A mood check will be used in order to determine if the group is starting out with this proposal.

Then the facilitator will call for consent. If the mood is favorable among all participants, a consent decision will be made. If there are any objections, they will be heard during the process as well. Based on the feedback received, it is possible to update the proposal and make appropriate decisions. This is done until all the objections are resolved.

— Slimane Zouggari

Competing Value Model Framework

Competing Value Model Framework, which is also known as CVM framework was developed in order to figure out the organizational effectiveness criteria. This criteria is in a position to create a differences in the internal and external flexibility, stability and culture of an organization.

In order to understand the functionality of Competing Value Model Framework, you should be aware of internal-external dimension and stability-flexibility dimension. The company will have an internal orientation, where they focus on collaboration, development, coordination and integration of activities. On the other hand, it will also have an external orientation, where they conduct market research, figure out what the competitors are doing, figuring out the latest technologies and understanding what customer requirements are.

It is important to ensure both internal and external attention to ensure success in the long run. However, an agile market will create an external orientation. On the other hand, a stable environment can result in internal focus. In here, the competing nature of the values and the way how you pick inside or outside can be done at the same time.

The second dimension is focusing on flexibility or stability. The organizations tend to organize and ensure better stability at the end of the day. Then they will have clear planning, structures, reliability and budgets. They will also be able to remain aware about the reality. Flexible organizations are equipped with the power to assume the opposite. In reality, it is never possible to predict everything or taking control over everything. However, being flexible will be able to deliver an excellent assistance for these organizations to quickly adopt according to different changing circumstances.

The effectiveness of Competing Value Model Framework is validated through lots of research activities. It is properly aligned with the other dimensions that explain how people are behaving when they organize.

— Slimane Zouggari

Scrum anti-patterns

When working on a software development project while adhering to the agile framework, it is important to have a clear understanding about Scrum anti-patterns. An anti-pattern is following a process that doesn’t adhere to the guidelines of agile methodology. When such a method is followed, it will not be possible to achieve positive results as a scrum team. The scrum team will be making the life harder when moving forward with the software development project. Due to the same reason, it is important to have a clear understanding about the Scrum anti-patterns and take appropriate measures to get rid of them.

Here are some of the most prominent Scrum anti-patterns that you can find in agile teams. When you are aware of these Scrum anti-patterns, you will be able to take appropriate measures to overcome them.

Absence of a product owner is one of the most common Scrum anti-patterns that you can find. Even if a product owner is present, he might be absent during most of the sprint. Then it will not be possible to answer the questions that the development team will come up in a timely manner. As a result, a micro-waterfall approach will be created. The development teams will never be able to release their developments in a timely manner. Due to the same reason, it is important to make sure that the product owner is present during the entire development phase.

Lack of flexibility shown by the product owner is another example for Scrum anti-patterns. In here, the product owner should be flexible to adjust the acceptance criteria, especially when the initial requirement cannot be achieved due to technical limitations. If there is no impact on the business, product owner shouldn’t worry too much about it and the product owner should change acceptance criteria.

— Slimane Zouggari