What is it? A reflection tool to capture how the team members understand Deming’s 14 Management Principles. Why use it? Reflecting on the management principles enables the team to share their beliefs on management, to share their views on where the organization is, and to identify areas for improvement. Steps Take a blank sheet of paper, or use a whiteboard, Draw a 2x2 matrix, The horizontal axis represents your agreement with the principle.

What is it? Test Driven Development (TDD) is a software development process that relies on the repetition of a very short development cycle. Requirements are turned into test cases, then the software is developed to pass the tests. In other words, it creates a safety net that serves to keep the developer’s problems or bugs at bay while enabling the developer to refactor efficiently. This is opposed to software development that allows software to be added that is not proven to meet requirements.

What is it? With Continuous Deployment (CD), the development team maintains software so that it can be released to production at any moment, specifically on demand. This practice builds on top of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. As a result, the software configuration and deployment orchestration becomes part of the development team’s duty. Why use it? The development team maintains deployable code and configuration over new features. It enables fast feedback from end users.

What is it? A tool that facilitates conversations about relative priorities and focuses upcoming activities. A finite set of topics/dimensions/areas that can be relatively prioritised against each other. A slider for each dimension where groups of people collaborative slide the relative importance to the right (more important) or left (less important). A practice that increases the autonomy of teams (see decision making below) Why use it? Enables an alignment and consensus on areas of focus.

What is it? A tool to capture and articulate the goals and outcomes a team are striving to deliver. Can include customer (end user) based outcomes as well as business and capability based outcomes. Often harnesses and summarises the findings and learnings from other Discovery practices into a finite set of statements that can be publicly displayed for team and stakeholders to regularly reference. Why use it? Helps achieve alignment and focus across stakeholder groups and team members.

What is it? An empathy map is a collaborative tool used to develop insight into customers, users, etc.. It is often a starting point for gaining empathy for the people a team is solving problems for. Like a persona, an empathy map can represent a group of people, such as a user or customer segment. A way to form a better understanding of users and build personas The information is captured as a brainstorm for a team to develop assumptions about the people The information can also be directly added from interviews, observation and other facilitated conversation exercises Senses captured can include what the person is seeing, thinking, doing and feeling with information captured on a big visible chart When to use it?