Combination of Design Thinking and Scrum in Software Project Management
1. Combining Scrum and Design Thinking in
Software Project Management
Recep Yalçın
recep.yalcn@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/recepyalcin
2. Agenda
Relay Race vs Rugby Approach
Hermeneutic Circle
Scrum
Design Thinking
Reasons of the Hybrid Model
How
What will combination provide?
Challenges
Usage Examples
Schedule
Q&A
3. Relay Race vs Rugby Approach
“The… ‘relay race’ approach to product development…may
conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility.
Instead a holistic or ‘rugby’ approach—where a team tries to
go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth—
may better serve today’s competitive requirements.”
Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka,
“The New New Product Development Game”, Harvard
Busine ss Re vie w, January 1986.
4. Hermeneutic Circle
Hermeneutic Circle is the process
of moving between abstract
models and concrete evidence in
order to grasp the real meaning of
a situation.
Agile Engineering and Design
Thinking are essentially same
thing, Hermeneutic Circle.
5. Scrum
Scrum is an agile process that allows us to focus on
delivering the highest business value in the shortest time
Teams self-organize to determine the best way to deliver
the highest priority features.
Every two weeks to a month anyone can see real working
software and decide to release it as is or continue to enhance
it for another sprint.
Necessitates problem solving & analytical skills.
7. Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a human-centered, rapid prototype
based innovation method.
Its main idea is to develop a solution in close exchange
with stakeholders and target users to ensure desirability,
viability, and feasibility of the final solution.
The methodology provides a process framework that
allows for constant communication between the developing
team and stakeholders & target users.
Out-of-the box thinking, and interdisciplinary teams
required.
DT was adapted for business purposes by David M. Kelley
(Stanford, IDEO)
9. Reasons of the Hybrid Model
Scrum provides time-to-market delivery.
DT provides human-centric products, and innovation.
Agile processes speed-up development process but
requirements engineering is treated as a black-box.
In some cases, Agile is not enough alone, some hybrid models
are already developed; Scrumban for maintenance projects.
For user-centric or innovative
organizations, Scrum&Design
Thinking are a great match.
Scrum helps us to “do the things
right”, DT helps us to “do the right
things”
10. Proposed Models – Design Sprints
Using common features of two processes;
Customer focus,
Iterativeness,
Learn/apply cycles
Using best practices of processes.
Result can be;
Recursive,
Nested,
Predecessor-successor models.
11. Proposed Models – Design Sprints
Product Owner is
responsinle to
decide which
sprint type is
applicable.
12. Proposed Models – Design Planning Meetings
Using common features of two processes;
Customer focus,
Iterativeness,
Learn/apply cycles
Using best practices of processes.
Result can be;
Recursive,
Nested,
Predecessor-successor models.
14. Measurement Methods
Hypothesis-Driven Development
Instead of traditional user story framework:
As A... <role>
I Want... <goal/desire>
So That... <receive benefit>
Hypothesis-Driven Development should be used:
We Believe That... <this capability>
Will Result In... <this outcome>
We will Know We Have Succeeded When... <we see a
measurable signal>
15. Measurement Methods
Hypothesis-Driven Development
We believe <this capability>
What functionality we will develop to test our hypothesis? By defining a ‘test’
capability of the product or service that we are attempting to build, we identify
the functionality and hypothesis we want to test.
Will result in <this outcome>
What is the expected outcome of our experiment? What is the specific result
we expect to achieve by building the ‘test’ capability?
We will know we have succeeded when <we see a measurable signal>
What signals will indicate that the capability we have built is effective? What
key metrics (qualitative or quantitative) we will measure to provide evidence
that our experiment has succeeded and give us enough confidence to move to
the next stage.
16. Measurement Methods
Data Analysis Sessions
- Usage statistics, usage paths, usage demographics and failure
statistics are recorded in data analytic tools
- Recorded data are reviewed in data analysis sessions.
Can be inserted in 2 ways:
- Additional Data Analysis Meeting could be inserted to Scrum
Sprints.
- Scrum Retrospective Meeting content could be extended to
cover Data Analysis.
17. What will combination provide?
Innovative and user-centric solutions could be created for
software-based products,
Correct application of Design thinking could lead correct
requirement gathering, and prevent wasted time to implement
wrong requirements,
Known problems of Scrum, like quality issues, could be
diminished by successful solution finding approaches of DT,
Usage of both analytical and creative abilities.
18. Resources
- An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide
- Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001
- Wikipedia
- Jumpstarting Scrum with Design Thinking, 2013, Christophe Vetterli, Barbara Stortz,
Franziska Häger
- Map and Territory Article, 2013, Maurice McGinley
- Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, “The New New Product Development Game”,
Harvard Business Review, January 1986.
- Tobias Hildenbrand, SAP, “Building the Right Solutions Right”, March 2013
- Jens Broetzman, SAP, “Design Thinking & Agile”, December 2013