History

The concept of the tiger team came from the innovation of NASA to come up with systematic solutions to the technical problems. These teams first focused on testing computer security in assistance to the military and aerospace

The agile team is hired to determine if the security and data system of an organization would be hacked or accessed. If the work of the team is successful, the team leave messages or notes that says “busted” or “the code is stolen.

These teams are made up of experienced hackers who have wide experience and expertise in attack communication channels and remote networks. The teams are on once focused on spying but later turned in solving a large number of IT problems for persona and businesses.

What is it?

Defined as gathering of experts, these teams are hired to make the important purpose of doing a project or an event. They are commonly tasked to solve and investigate and come up with solutions to certain problems and situations. Here, the team is tested according to the agility, decision making skills, communications they would do to finish the work.

How to?

The work of the team could be considered as limitless. The team are tasked to gather information about a certain problems so that they would come up with the best solutions for it. The scope of the work they have to do could be big or small depending to the assignment given to them.

The tiger team is required to be a team for days or even years. At this point, the members might meet on a seldom or regular basis. However, in doing this, they still need to meet the requirements given to them so that powerful events would be created.

Practical Examples

There are several kinds of Tiger teams created and all of them proved to be valued assets in solving problems. A few examples of these teams are the Red Cell or also called as the NSA Cyber Defense Tiger Team. This team was made by National Security Agency.

Furthermore, NSA Engineering and Safety Center or NESC had made a program that comprises of tiger teams. These teams are made up of scientists and engineers who are assigned to NASA centers. Their job is to solve big complex problems.

Existed from 2009 to 2011, the Gray Team was hired to solve medical problems in the countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. The common problems that were solved were related to stress disorder and the injuries made to the brain as a result of trauma.

Common pitfalls

In order to make the projects successful, first process requires the root of the problem. However, since deadlines are met, the team hardly gets near to the root of the problem that sometimes result an unsuccessful results

Criticisms

The work of the tiger teams require the right scope, money and time. However certain criticisms reflect that the not all the requirements are met by the team.

Hence, there are certain cases that the work is completed but there is a lack of small information to make the results function faster.

— Slimane Zouggari

Imagine you are in place with project managers, graphic designers and other experts on software development are gathered. You might think is an important meeting or an event. Well, it’s called a hackathon. Do you want to know what is it? Read on and have interesting information about it.

What is it?

Also known as hack day, or code fest, Hackathon is a sprint event wherein the computer programmers such as the interface designers gather or meet up to do a collaborative work on software projects. At some cases, Hackathons are made for social purposes or educational reasons. But the real purpose of the event is the creation of usable software.

When to use it?

The event is required if you want to build an app, hardware hack or building a site. At this point, the process of developing the software would take for 24 to 48 hours. The, then, the teams who are present in the event are required to present the demo of the things they have built. Here, they would eventually compete for the prizes.

When not to use it?

The event couldn’t be used if there are no ideas that could be turned into a new project. It is required that ideas would be built up so that new technologies would be produced. Furthermore, if you could not take the lack of sleep and the poor eating habits, programmers and designers are not advised to use it.

Concrete Examples

Since this event is famous and large attendees exist, there are notable examples of is the hack that is GroupMe. This is a kind of messaging app that is acquired by Skype for about $50 million. Other examples would be the “Like” button on Facebook and the Facebook Chat.  These worked showed during the internal company events.

Variants

As different programmers and designer are present in the event, the event is composed of different variants that yield in the successful creation of new technology. The variants are classified as web development, mobile apps, operating systems, development of video games and more.

Each of these variants results to a new technology that would be helpful to many people and businesses. Hence, there is a sure way of having the technological advances the world needs. This is due to the expertise of the agile experts.

Criticisms

Since Hackathons is an addicting event, the lack of sleep is criticized due to the result of codes that are poorly written. The concept of creating new technology is great by the lack of eating habits and sleep affects the health of programmers, causing them to be less agile.

However, despite the criticisms being thrown at the event, the demo and other results of the experts give birth to the new technology that would be proven essential to the world at all times.It might be addicting and as others say – tiring, still, this gathering is one of the most awaited events the world is able to witness as it gives lots of fascinating advantage for the people and the businesses they are running.

— Slimane Zouggari

The acquisition of skills is an essential ingredient in attaining success. In connection to this, with the continuous innovation of technology, models of skills acquisition were developed. One of these was the Dreyfus model of skills acquisition.

Short History

The Dreyfus Model was developed by brothers Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus way back in 1980. It was applied on an 18 pages report on their research at the University of California in Berkeley, Operations Research Center for the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Moreover, the original Dreyfus model suggests that a student passes through five distinct stages including novice, competence, proficiency, expertise, as well as mastery. The latter model is an efficient tool when it comes to agile adoption.

The Importance of Dreyfus Model

In an organization, to be able to have a united team, Dreyfus model can help to achieve success both in life as well as in the software industry. To mention a few, the following stages are the important things that you must consider in order to make the most out of your project.

The Novice

This is the first stage in the Dreyfus model. It is also called as the beginner, wherein an individual is just starting to learn and acquire new skill.

Competence

It was also considered as the recipe stage. Competent people refer to rules and utilize analytical procedures. However, since the problems that you may encounter are more complex, then you can rely on your past experiences to make a wise decision.

Proficiency

In the Dreyfus model, the proficient team starts to formulate on their emotional experiences from their past success and failures in order to determine the elements of the situation that they are focusing on. In this stage, an individual may take higher risk and commitment to produce positive and rewarding outcome. With this, you may know the things that you must do to be a proficient team.

Expertise

In this stage of Dreyfus model, the expert or the individual does not only see the things to be done, but also see the possible solutions even without having undergoing on an analytical process. In this level, the person has completely immersed in understanding the situation, formulating decisions on how to proceed, as well as the outcome of the situation. With this, the acquisition of the skills and knowledge will be easy and quick.

Mastery

With the use of Dreyfus model, then the team can now go more on agile development. As a result, the flow on projects would be easy and can attain a higher level of success in a particular industry or niche.

The Dreyfus model can be used in different fields such as in medical education and a lot more. It can be the best tool for you to acquire the essential skills that you can use for your future success. This tool can help to increase the level of expertise to make the most out of a particular niche or even in life.

Criticism of Dreyfus Model  

The criticism of the Dreyfus model has been made by Chassy and Gobet. They are the one who developed an alternative theory of intuition. For them, there is no such empirical evidence for the presence of stages when it comes to the development of expertise.

— Slimane Zouggari

What is CLD?

The CLD or commonly called causal loop diagram is an analytical tool that explains the dynamics of the system used to develop an understanding of the complex system of the connections. It usually aids in explaining the interrelation of the different variables present in the system.  This fundamental tool is essential in explaining how the system works in Six Sigma methodology. Although there are other analytical tools that could be used, there is still a great advantage in using tools that are comfortable and offers convenience.

Using of CLD as an alternative analytical tool for six sigma methodology is a unique discipline that provides a better understanding of the complex system. Thus, the causal loop diagram composed of a collection of nodes which in turn creates the feedback loops. The diagram is represented by the loops in general. The nodes of one or more references to the symptoms related to the problem while the rest of the nodes is the causal nodes which correspond to the source of the problem.

The causal loop diagram can be applied to six sigma in just a simple way of visualizing the intricate process involved and through identifying the cause of the problem. In addition, this delicate job of causal loop diagram provides insights how complex the process is. Because of the complex behavior of the system, causal loop diagram can easily make it easier to comprehend and understand.

Not just that. The causal loop diagram provides the systemic feedback involved in the process by just expressing how the X variable affects the Y variable and how the Y variable affects Z variable and this can flow in a series of cause and effect. By using CLD, it will be much easier to explain the interactions of the variables as well as the behavior involved in the entire system.

CLD and Applications

Since the CLD is mainly characterized by closed cycles presented in a diagram, it is the easiest form of presentation that can be understood by anyone who is seeking the interaction between the variables involved in the cycle. It can be used as a very good choice of model to some of the complex process.

A typical causal loops diagram consists of arrows that came together in a form of loops wherein each loop is labeled as R or B. the R is the reinforcing loop that describes the relationship and creating growth and collapse in the system. For example, if the person drives more of his car, the tendency is more gas to be used. And when they use more gas, they would spend more of their money just to buy a gas and the cause and effect go on and on like this. Another is, if the car owner spends more money just to buy gas, they will look for possible alternative methods in order for them spend less. And this involved the reinforcing loop feedback. This is how the causal loop diagram is applied in many cases.

— Slimane Zouggari

A variety of marketing design has been used in order to catch the attention of a specific audience based on the products that have been displayed. Using personas is considered as one option employed for the marketing strategies. Personas have a design of a detailed craft, synthetic biographies of a pretend users that are designed for a product. It is characterized by a visual and concise approach in providing a common layout usually laid by a single page composed of a name, professional details, and a photograph.

Personas as one of software products are designed with the quality to use more than one category of a person with expectations to the products and the potential to the different preferences. The marketing team usually creates one persona in every category. Furthermore, the design of personas helps in providing focus to the surrounding components by means of adding layers of a real world based conversation.

Since persona are created to illuminate and copy the customer’s behavior pattern, here are few examples of marketing personas. It is mainly directed to give people the ideas on how to create a built out marketing personas.

1. You can make a persona that is based on the profile of the Enterprise. The raw data that have been included is composed of specific information. There is the position in the Enterprise, the description of the company, course degree that the persona took and a little background check for your life status. It should have the goals and the challenges involved in the business. Thus, the reason of why you love a certain mechanism involved in marketing. This will make the readers more interested to read. All the information that is presented is more specific.
2. You can also make personas in a more comprehensive and detail oriented manner. All the information that is presented consist of the position of the persona and other related position, qualification of the persona, the demographics mainly based on some of the personal information, goals, and challenges and the reason of why choose that specific persona. The personas represent a personality type.

How to Make Personas?

Making persona design can vary based on the business and industry that need the process. Personas are created in a combination of raw data, educated guesses, the template and the audience that would be interacting with the personas. Marketing personas deliver the most relevant content that would be useful for the audience.

A typical personas template composed of the name of the persona, Job title, demographics, goals and challenges, values and fear and the marketing message that need to be forwarded to the readers. Although it may take some time before to fully comprehend the specifics in persona making, it is very important to identify first to collect the raw data that is the initial things that need to be considered.

Common Issues in using Personas

The usage of personas in product marketing has been confused with the other conceptual tools that are used in defining software requirements. Because of this, personas are considered to be not a user role. This user role refers to a sales person, administrator and many other that are defined based on the task and job description.

Moreover, persona design emphasizes the goals and behaviours of the users. And, personas are not market segments. It is defined based on the demographic attributes which describe personas as users rather than buyers. The confusion in using personas as part of marketing approach makes other think that it’s a little hard to understand the idea behind the personas usage.

— Slimane Zouggari

The Three Amigos refers to the primary perception to examine the work before, during and after. These perceptions are the business, development, and testing. The first to use the term “3 Amigos” was George Dinwiddie for the agile development in the year 2009. The term was named after a movie from the mid 90’s. The Amigos function roles are mentioned above.

The Three Amigos solely represents the and literally mean more than three. The collaboration between agile teams was across the three roles. George wants these three to be heavily collaborative with the Acceptance Test for each of the user story. Business refers to the problem we are trying to solve. Development refers to the solution to the solution of the problem. And testing refers to the things that could possibly happen.

There are people who hold to the perspective that collaborates to easily determine what to do and what are the solutions to these problems. The best concept of the Three Amigos is the balance between the collaboration of people with the various perception which includes the entire team in talking about the details of the increment in work. There were rumors that there was a scheduled 3 amigos style meeting. The idea was created to for each of the users to be ready for the sprint execution. The three amigos limit its discussion for only three people. But if there are other people or stakeholders involve in the work, they may also be included in the discussion. The three amigos discussion may also be expanded into a team. The intention of this work is to include every necessary perspective into the group. The three amigos concept is a meeting which is being scheduled as a regular meeting and is treated as a ceremony for the team.

When do the Amigos Meet?

The three amigos meet as a part of the backlog development and grooming. For example, during the development of the story, the three amigos basically check and ensure the story and make sure that it is on track. Usually, there are demos and discussions to help complete the code drive. Upon the completion of the story, the three amigos will gather around and execute it. They will continue to accept the criteria until the Product Owner is being satisfied. The collaboration in the planning meeting tells how the story is perfectly fit on the Sprint and what will it look like.

What do They Do?

The Three Amigos have its general format. These formats include the 30mins-1 hour meeting. This is set up to 1-2 sprints. There is 1 developer and 1 QA are being invited to the meeting. These are individuals who are invited to test the features. It is the job of the business analyst to preside and begin the meeting by simply introducing the features of the three amigos. The analysts then will show to everyone the requirements which are being reviewed by the amigos. This requirement should be ready for further updates and are ready for development. The developer will ask if the task needs to undergo a pre-feature test.

The Three Amigos shared understanding about the increment of the work. This also helps in identifying the early confusion and thus allow learning to happen. The Three Amigos also provides a reasonable guard which is involved in the discussions about the given work at hand.

— Slimane Zouggari

It is a fact that change is the foundation of all progress. Well, with this, you must develop a more innovative plan to create an effective change management to attain a higher plateau of success. In relation to this, one of the most sought after change models today was the ADKAR model. It was established by Jeff Hiatt way back in 2003. Later on, it was featured as a practical tool by Prosci, a popular change management consultancy and learning center.

ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability as well as Reinforcement. The best thing about this change management tool is that it will able you to discover why change is hard and why other changes succeed while others are not. Even more important, it is very effective in the agile industry, thus it can improve the success of every organization.

The Essence of ADKAR Model

Awareness – To attain the goals and missions of a particular organization, it is important that its employees must be aware the importance of change.

Desire – Employees must have a strong desire to cooperate and support the change.

Knowledge – Having the knowledge regarding the process of change, the ultimate goal for the change will be explicit for the organization’s team.

Ability – Change can be achieved successfully by simply having the ability to acquire the essential skills and behavior management.

Reinforcement – Reinforcement will support the change and make it clear to the employees that there is no turning back.

When to use it?

ADKAR model is a more innovative change tool to attain success in a specific organization. Even more important, it is also essential to identify the reasons behind the success or failure of a certain change. As a result, you can learn what not to do the next time and commit less mistakes for your goals or projects.

If you are finding for an effective change management tool, then it will be a wise decision to opt for the ADKAR model. It cannot be denied that change is difficult to achieve. Definitely, the latter tool will able to guide you on the essential things that can lead to a successful change.

Concrete Examples

One best example of portraying the ADKAR model is within a business organization. Success of the company will never be achieved without a greater level of discipline, perseverance as well as teamwork among the employees. With this, change is really important to improve the flow of the business transactions. The employees must be willing to change their working attitude to achieve the goals and missions of their company.

On the other hand, the ADKAR model is also applicable to individuals who want to attain their personal goals. For example, if you want to attain perfect health, then you must have the strong desire to change your habits that are detrimental to your health. Moreover, you must acquire the essential skills in order to be consistent about the specific thing that you want to achieve.

To sum it up, ADKAR model can be your powerful tool to make a better change in your life. It can aid you to live the life that you most desire.

— Slimane Zouggari

When it comes to websites, before it is launched, it must undergo a usability testing. Nobody wants to introduce a website with too many flaws which will not satisfy its users in the end. It could be your loss in the end too. Thus, it is best to have a website undergo testing to see if it can satisfy the user and will not provide any problem.

The term used in knowing if a thing is easy for the users to utilize is called Usability Testing. This is a method that almost all companies are performing in order to identify the user experience which can be a basis for improving something to meet the user experience.

What is Usability Testing?

Usability testing is utilized as a method for assessing to know if a website is easy to use or not. Testing the usage of a website can be a big factor whether it will bring a good experience to the users or will not bring satisfaction. The usability testing is done by researchers who will monitor real users. With this, real users will be able to experience the website and will provide what could be the possible problems that they have encountered during the testing.

Usability testing may be compared to the typical testing done for a website such as acceptance testing and bug testing. However, usability is fairly different from other tests because, in this kind of testing, real users are the one who will experience the website and accurate information will be provided since it came from people who have experienced the product.

When to use it?

Usability testing can be used when you want to compare your website to another. Comparative usability testing is the term for this. This testing is being done if you want to compare your website with another website. Also, comparative usability testing is also done if you want to match the designs of two websites in order for you determine which one will work on the experience of the users.

In addition, usability testing is also used in order to know what should be included on the website, product, or service in order to achieve the needs and satisfaction of the users.

Concrete Example of Usability Testing

In order to know how a usability testing is done, here is an example.

A researcher will be the one who will lead the testing. This will know if the usability is good or needs to be improved.

A researcher will read a task on the participant like how a technical support is contacted. After the task was delivered, the researcher will let the participant perform the task on its own. For the researcher not to be biased, it will just go with the provided script and the script will be read to all participants.

Once the participant is done with the task, the researcher will read the next task until the testing is done.

Usability testing can be the key for developers and business owners to improve their user experience in order to meet the needs and satisfaction of their customers.

— Slimane Zouggari

What Is It?

MoSCoW method is known to be an efficient prioritization technique often used in business analysis, management, project management and software development. This method is used to reach a common and detailed understanding with some stakeholders. This is especially true with regard to the significance of placing a delivery basing from all necessary requirements. This is also known as MoSCoW analysis or MoSCoW prioritization.

MoSCoW is an acronym that is derived from the first letter of each prioritization categories with the interstitial addition of Os to make the complete word even more pronounceable. While Os are found in the lower cases that indicate that they do not stand for something, they are all capitalized.

How to Use It?  

As far as MoSCoW method is concerned, you could just make use of it when you will prioritize all the needed requirements. Developers who use this kind of method must deliver all necessary requirements that include the following:

1. Must Have

These are really essential to the timebox’s current delivery to acquire success. If one of the must have requirements is not presented, the delivery of the project will be considered as a failure.

1. Should Have

These are the requirements which are essential but not as essential as the must have requirements. But, despite the same significance that it covers as the must have requirements, these pieces do not need to be time-critical. You can choose some other ways to completely satisfy these requirements.

1. Could Have

These are the requirements which only aim to enhance the satisfaction of the customer and experience of users with little cost on the development. This will be required if resources and time permits are required.

1. Won’ Have

These are the requirements which have been agreed on by some stakeholders as the least critical ones, not appropriate and the lowest payback. These are not planned requirements which can be either reconsidered or dropped for inclusion.

When you already have these requirements, you’re already sure to make use of the MoSCoW method.

When to Use It?

MoSCoW is primarily used in timeboxing wherein you are given fixed deadline with a strong focus on the most essential requirements you need. With such idea in mind, this method is usually used in some agile kind of approaches in software development such as DSDM, RAD or rapid application development and Scrum.

Concrete Examples

For instance, a team who has a lot of potential epics can make use of MoSCoW method for the next release of their product. They would only need to select which of the epics belong to the Should Have and Must Have requirements. Oftentimes, any team can find that to help them identify the minimum viable product.

After that, they can already make use of the MoSCoW method to determine what kinds of features belong to Should Have, Must Have and so on to meet the needs of the users. If there are also some sufficient capacities in selecting minimum viable product, then the team can also plan of associating the Could Have and Should Have items.

— Slimane Zouggari