The elephant and rider is an effective method available to motivate and move forward an agile software development team. When the team lacks motivation, team leader will be able to take a look at this concept and practice it accordingly. This can eventually help the development team to conceptualize how to make decisions and create lasting changes.

According to the elephant and rider concept, rider is referring to the rational brain. Rational brain loves to contemplate the future. However, it tends to focus more on the problems, instead of the solutions. It would look for the analysis options and patterns and then make the plans accordingly. However, the brain will usually get frustrated due to uncertainty.

Elephant refers to the emotional brain. It is dealing with stress and fear. It is possible to spook the elephant easily. However, the elephant doesn’t want to do things that don’t offer immediate gratification. Hence, the elephant always prefers to look for pleasure, so that it can avoid pain. The elephant needs reassurance. On the other hand, it can easily get demoralized and overwhelmed.

The rider is sitting on top of the elephant and it looks like the rider is setting the navigation. Therefore, people usually tend to misunderstand that elephant is bad and rider is good. We all should overcome such emotions. The emotions are responsible for providing us with motivation. Instead of taking control over the emotions and forcing them to remain silent, the elephant and rider should both collaborate each other. Then they will be able to refrain from struggling and cater to the desires pf each other. This method of thinking will motivate and an agile team and ensure the success of it.

— Slimane Zouggari

4 Rooms of Change is a proven psychological theory. We can often see how this theory is being used along with agile software development to ensure the best returns with change management. Let’s deep dive and learn more about what this psychological theory is all about.

When a software development team starts working on a new software development project, they will not be able to see the change. This is where the team will stay in the Contentment Room. The current situation will deliver a satisfying experience to all the team members. No team member will have the need or desire to change anything as well.

However, things will change along with time and this would trigger the team to move into the next room, which is the Denial Room. It becomes essential for the software development team to adapt according to the change. This is where the team would ask why it is important to adapt according to the change. Resistance to change that arises in such a situation will lead the team towards getting into the Denial Room.

Once the change is accepted, the development team would get into the Confusion Room. This is where the team goes through an emotional journey that is filled with anger, fear, and many other related emotions. That’s because the team is facing a new situation and they don’t have a clear understanding on what would happen next.

With commitment and dedication, it is possible to move to the next room, which is the Renewal Room. Everyone will have adjusted mindsets when getting into the room. In other words, they are ready to embrace the new challenges. The entire process represents the journey associated with change management in agile software development.

— Slimane Zouggari

The Theory of Constraints, which is also known as ToC explains how organizations are kept away from achieving their goals in a timely manner due to the presence of one or more constraints. The constraint that you can find in agile environment will be a production value or a product quality related issue. If you want to break these constraints, you will have to continuously improve the system, so that the existing constraints are improved or protected. Then they will no longer become a constraint in the future.

In order to overcome the negative effects created by Theory of Constraints in an agile team, it is important to follow five different steps. Here’s a quick overview of those five different steps.

The first step would be to identify all the constraints. In here, it is possible to understand all the poor practices and anti-patterns that exist within the agile team. Then it is possible to improve the system. Upon the discovery of constraint, it is important to go ahead and exploit it. This will be the second step. In here, it is possible to get a clear understanding about the product backlog, so that you can make sure that you are not sending out poor inputs that can negatively impact the developments. On the other hand, it is important to identify all dependencies beforehand and resolve them.

The third step will be to subordinate everything related to the constraint. Then everyone is aware about where the bottleneck is and they will be able to overcome the bottleneck effectively. The fourth step will be to elevate the constraint. Some methods that can be followed in here would be to improve the tools used and provide appropriate training. Last but not least, it is important to make sure that inertia is not creating a constraint as well.

— Slimane Zouggari

Nonviolent communication, which is also known as NVC or compassionate communication is a methodology that is developed by Marshall Rosenberg back in the year 1960. This principle is based upon the assumption, which says that all the human beings have a capacity to empathy and compassionate. People tend to violate only when they notice that there is no other effective method available for them to get their requirements catered. While working in an agile environment, it is important for you to have this understanding about nonviolent communication in mind and move forward accordingly.

According to Nonviolent communication, it is believed that human behaviour is originated from the attempt to meet the basic human requirements. Then it is said that their needs are never in conflict, but they are just strategizing to meet to meet their needs and end up with clashes. In the meantime, Nonviolent communication is proposing that it is important for the people to get to know about shared needs. These shared needs will be revealed through feelings and thoughts. Then they will be able to collaborate and develop better strategies, which will eventually help them to focus on catering the needs of each other in a better way. Along with that, it is possible to ensure interpersonal harmony. Along with that, proper cooperation can be achieved.

Nonviolent communication principles can be applied to an agile software development team as well. For example, when the testers are waiting too long for the developments to be released for testing and when they notice that there is not enough time available for testing, they will end up with getting into conflicts. Instead of going for such conflicts, the testers and developers will be able to work collaboratively and come up with an appropriate methodology to get their requirements catered.

— Slimane Zouggari

When you are launching agile projects and teams, it is important to have a clear understanding about the concept called Lift off. During the Lift off process, all the people who are associated with the agile project will come together and define their initial inventions and the approach. Along with that, it is possible for them to go ahead with the team building process.

When the teams don’t start well, it is quite difficult to recover at a later stage. Hence, it is important to make sure that you go ahead with a proper start and continue with it. That’s where Lift off will be able to help you with. Along with that, it will be uniting the strategy and execution, so that all the project team members will be able to remain focused on what the client expectations are. Development of the team will go ahead and achieve a shared understanding on what is involved as well. On top of everything, people who work within the team will be provided with the opportunity to start developing themselves into a team.

You can often find Lift off taking place at the beginning of the project. Then it is possible for everyone to discuss about the broad outlines. Along with that, the intentions of the project can be discussed effectively as well. Once this is done, you can make sure that all the team members are on the same page and there is no any possibility for ambiguities to take place. The outlines will be created appropriately and the team will be able to focus on what can help them with the successful implementation of the project.

Lift off can be done in the form of a workshop. Then it is possible for everyone to come together and achieve the objectives associated with it.

— Slimane Zouggari

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

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