Kanban is a visual workflow tool that, while originally used as a Toyota scheduling system, is now associated with in an agile methodology, especially in DevOps software development. It can also be used in traditional project management methodologies. As its popularity has grown, kanban boards have found a use in industries looking for a way to have everyone on the team view the state of their work. This requires real-time communication and an understanding of kanban principles.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how important it is for businesses to adopt digital processes. Many companies closed largely because they didn’t digitize, but for other firms, the pandemic accelerated their digital transformation.
The Spotify model is a people-driven, autonomous framework for scaling agile. The model emphasizes the importance of culture and network and is implemented through Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds. The foundation of the model is the squad and it acts like a Scrum team.
Workflow is the process of defining, executing and automating business processes where tasks, information and documents are passed from one person to another for action according to a set of business process management rules. It involves work by one or more people and transforms materials, information or services.
Project roadmap: redundant artifact or secret weapon? When you need to present your project in a strategic context, one of the most useful documents you can create is a project roadmap. Unlike most other project artifacts, a project roadmap shows not only what’s happening within your project, but also how your project fits within the big picture. It is the sizzle reel for the overarching program, the origin story of your project, and the trailer for the sequels to come – all wrapped into one!
Design thinking is a methodology that was created by Stanford University professor Tim Brown and IDEO’s CEO, an innovation agency where they wanted to improve the service to their customers, from an empathy approach. Every time, the method proposed in Design Thinking is being used all over the world, especially in organizations that want to solve problems, focused on clients, based on ideas, proposals, and experimentation, above all. This dynamic occurs even when the ideal of the final product or deliverable is not yet clear, but if the problem is clear and the work of experimentation with the final customer is enhanced. This way of solving problems has stages, but without a doubt its basis is the focus on the needs of the client, empathizing, observing, evaluating, creating prototypes (experimentation), testing, getting feedback, and improving the product.
Remember when Amazon was just the world's biggest bookseller? After broadening its products to include, well, everything and optimizing its fulfillment and delivery process in the late 1990s, Amazon became the world's biggest retailer. And you may not be aware that the longtime children's plaything, Play-Doh, began its commercial life in the 1930s as an implement for removing coal residue from wallpaper. Another successful pivot, I'd say.While some may say those evolutions were obvious, what is often overlooked is the detailed research, painstaking planning and nose-to-the-grindstone work behind the scenes that led to the decision and implementation of the pivot. In every case, these transformational changes could not be achieved without with asking all the right questions up front. Asking the right questions requires building a diverse and highly competent team and employing one of the most vital techniques for managing any project: design thinking.
