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Understanding the Scrum Pillars – Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation

Like any other project management framework, the Scrum methodology is not without some foundational principles that serve as its backbone. Scrum is very easy to understand and is applicable to product development of all kinds, not just in IT. In fact, it is currently used in marketing, HR, education, and other fields.

Nevertheless, it is often difficult to master the Scrum framework because it requires continuous practice and familiarisation. In order for an agile team to maximise the use of this framework, understanding the three scrum pillars, transparency, inspection and adaptation, is one of the first important steps to make.

What is Scrum?

Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, co-developers of Scrum, defines this framework as a way to address complex adaptive problems in an organisation while creatively and productively delivering products of the highest value. If we are to go deeper in understanding this definition, we will realise two basic concepts that make up the Scrum methodology:

It is a process framework. Scrum is not a complete process for building products. The Scrum methodology only provides a specific framework or manner of doing things, not the step-by-step process. It is up to the agile team what techniques, processes and tools to be used throughout the course of the project.

 

It addresses complex adaptive problems. What makes Scrum really effective and relevant in today’s’ organisational needs is that it has the ability to quickly adapt to situations that are complex, unpredictable or always changing. Contrary to the defined process control wherein there is a set of predefined processes to be followed from launch to completion, Scrum utilises empirical process control. This approach is based on observations and evidence rather than detailed and upfront planning.

Empirical Process Control

The Scrum methodology is based on an empirical process. This concept revolves around the idea that we can find out the truth through experiments with concrete and observable results.

But in order to make good observations, there are three things necessary: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. We call these the three Pillars of Scrum.

Let’s dig a little bit deeper into each one.

Scrum Pillars – Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation
Transparency

By transparency, we mean that everyone in the agile team should have a clear understanding of the Scrum goals and their individual roles and responsibilities. How do you know that you are practising a high level of transparency in your team?

First of all, an agile team should have a common language particularly when it comes to the processes involved. Everyone, from the Scrum Master to the Product Owner, team members, and stakeholders know what they are dealing with and what needs to be done in order to achieve their goal.
The team has to be aligned with a single definition of done. So when an increment or task from the product backlog is done, everybody knows what that means and implies.
There’s an easy and transparent flow of information. Everyone should have a complete understanding of the Scrum artifacts: product backlog, sprint backlog, project vision and mission, increment, etc.
They also have to be present during daily meetings, sprint review meetings, etc. and must be aware of the tools that the entire team uses (e.g. Burndown Chart, Scrumboard).

Inspection

Inspection is a critical aspect of empirical process control as it what makes the Scrum framework adaptive to complex problems. Inspection is done not only by the Scrum Master, PO or CEOs. It is done by everyone involved in the project.

Organisations using Scrum regularly inspect artifacts to see undesirable variances and provide opportunities to correct them. One example is when the Scrum team shows the progress of the product outcome to the customer (client) at the end of each sprint to get their feedback. When there are changes proposed by the customer or the stakeholder, the team adapts to these changes until they all agree with the final product.

Apart from the product, inspection can be done in all other aspects of the Scrum framework – the processes, people, practices, etc. However, the inspection should not be as frequent as to get in the way of the work and cause delays.

Adaptation

Unlike the waterfall process model wherein changes and adjustments are really difficult to make, the Scrum framework is widely used by many organisations because of its adaptability. Of course, adaptation is not possible without the first two pillars. It is only when the team practices transparent workflow and inspection can they figure out whether things have to be adjusted or changed. Adaptation is done as soon as possible to optimize the project outcome.

This is where the sprint review meeting comes very handy. During the review, the process is assessed against the sprint goals. The entire agile team and the stakeholders collaborate about what was done during the sprint, and the things to be done in the succeeding sprint in order to optimize the product value.

Apart from the sprint review, the Scrum framework features other events for inspection and adaptation:

Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum
Sprint Retrospective

Now You Know Why Scrum Works!

Again, the Scrum methodology is an easy framework to understand as it is generally made up of a few roles, artifacts, events and rules. However, it can be difficult to master as it requires daily, continuous practice. To fully adopt this project management framework in your organisation, one of the first steps is to understand what lies on its foundation – the empirical process.

Empirical process, to summarise, is gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. In Scrum, empirical process has three underlying Agile principles: transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

By keeping these three Scrum Pillars in mind in all your daily dealings, undertakings, meetings, and collaborations, you will certainly be able to master Scrum like many other well estalished teams did… in no time! You will also realise that Scrum is the fastest way for working because it has a favourable pattern, a structured programming, planning and meeting styles, and more importantly, an effective mechanism for tracking project progress.

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Why Your Team Can Never Go Wrong in Scrum Sprint

If you want things to move as quickly as possible and get your project completed on time (and with a big likelihood of success), implementing an efficient scrum sprint planning is important.

I have been practising the scrum methodology in managing multiple projects and I can say that it is one of the best tools for an agile company to save time and money. It’s true that the scrum method was created to support software developments, but it can also be applied to other complex, innovative or new product developments.

As a project manager, you understand that time is of the essence. For many teams, trying to sort out what should be done next while cramming for deadlines is a sure mess. Add the trouble of knowing that your team isn’t working efficiently as they should be.

Not to mention that you’re using an outdated process which makes the entire product development even more time-consuming.

All is but a disaster.

But what if you can change all that? What if you could have an organised flow of daily activities that streamline your process, ensure that everything important is given attention, and every member of your team gets the job done on time?

On this post, let us shift our focus on agile sprint planning and how you can utilize this to ensure that your projects are done properly the first time. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you’re into software development or some other product development. The scrum principles work with most types of projects and that makes this framework powerful.

Agile Sprint Planning

A scrum sprint is the basic unit of development in the scrum methodology. It is described as a regular, repeatable work cycle (not exceeding 30 days) in which work is completed and made ready for review. Behind every scrum sprint is the need for intensive planning and daily checks.

The planning involves the Scrum Master who facilitates the process, the Product Owner who serves as the subject matter expert and clarifies all the details of the product backlog items, and the entire agile team who are basically the people who define the work and effort necessary to complete the project.

Key Practices to Follow When Planning Sprints
Give proper context. Set expectations.

Before getting into the details such as the sprint backlog items, a major step towards a successful scrum sprint is to ensure that everyone in the agile team understands the sprint goal and what it needs to get there. Have everyone get acquainted with the ideal work with the guidance of the product owner. During the sprint planning, the following areas should be discussed:

Acceptance criteria
Backlog items
Timeline

Setting proper expectations and proper context helps cuts down ambiguity which could result in sprint failure.

Enable the team to get things done.

Once the tasks or backlog items have been assigned to specific members of the agile team, it’s time to enable them to get out of their way. Giving the team autonomy to perform their duties helps a lot with creativity and productivity, rather than controlling them. The Scrum Master should make the team members feel safe about not knowing everything. His role is to have everyone interact with each other, jumpstart activities and collaboration, and help them figure out the solution to challenges and problems. The Scrum Master should also reinforce the story point values or time estimates to keep everyone aligned with the sprint goal.

Holding a daily meeting.

A daily meeting need not be an exhaustive one. It can be a brief, very organised meetup to keep track of the team’s progress and whether they are lagging behind schedule. It’s a great way to see what has been done, what is being done, and what everyone else is working on next. 30 days can be a short period for complex software or product development initiative. Thus, no time should be wasted. These quick catch-ups also offer an opportunity for the agile team to remove items that no longer add value to the project, as well as bring up any questions that may arise.

Fostering collaboration.

Everyone in the agile team should know what their roles and responsibilities are. Typically, the planning process involves the following steps:

Product owner meets with the stakeholders to gather information about the sprint goals.
Product owner takes notes that moves the tasks to the sprint backlog.
Product owner meets with Scrum Master to discuss the tasks and determine the sprint length.
Scrum master schedules a meeting for the scrum sprint planning.
Team discuss people capacity and task velocity.
Scrum master assigns tasks, moving project backlog to sprint backlog.
Team members commit to completing tasks on time.

Providing tools and resources.

Agile teams can largely benefit from using tools and software programs in planning their sprints. For determining team capacity, for instance, you can use capacity bars to quickly see who is over or under capacity.  Meanwhile, a velocity chart is a useful tool to gain insight into how much work your team can complete during a sprint whereas a forecast tool estimates work that can be accomplished in future sprints.

Reviewing Sprints.

Towards the end of the sprint, allocate time for a little retrospective. Feedback is important to determine opportunities for improving processes in the next sprints. You can start by asking your team members what went well, what could have been done better, or what could use some adjustment. For one-week sprints, the review meeting should take about one hour. So for a four-week sprints, allocate four hours. Another important aspect of the scrum sprint review is to assess the project against the sprint goal.

Scrum sprint is vital to the completion of a successful software or product development. Think of a sprint as a piece of a puzzle. You can’t create a clear picture without taking each sprint. And for it to be successful, intensive planning and preparation are necessary. Hopefully, by implementing these best practices, you can scale your agile team and obtain the results you want in less time and with minimum chances of error.

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How to Create a Sprint Backlog Like an Expert

Organisations looking for agile ways to manage projects can largely benefit from adopting the scrum methodology. If you’ve been following my blog lately, you have a pretty good idea of what this framework is all about and how it can be used to address complex problems and make your team efficient, creative and productive.

Sprint Backlog in a Nutshell

An important aspect of the Scrum methodology (which has many uses but is often misused) is the sprint backlog. In this guide, let me show you what a sprint backlog really is and share you some best practices that I’ve learned in the past years. At the end of this article, you and your agile team should be able to create a backlog like an expert and ensure success in future projects.

Alright. First thing’s first – what is a sprint backlog?

If this is your first time learning about the scrum methodology, you might be overwhelmed with the technical terms used to describe this project management framework. Among the first important terms, you will encounter is the word “Sprint”. Scrum Masters refer to “sprint” as a time period of one month (or less) in which certain items should be accomplished in order to create a releasable product increment. It is also referred to as the “Done” stage of the project. Take note, however, that the Sprint is not the end goal (Sprint Goal), but a milestone that is used to accomplish something.

Within a Scrum, Sprint is the sprint backlog. In simple terms, it is the plan for the sprint. In creating a sprint backlog, the major question to be asked is how does your team get this work done? Think of the whole process as a comprehensive to-do list with a timetable. You’ve got a list of tasks needed to be completed within a period of one month, along with the status of each task, the person-in-charge, progress, etc.

It all starts with the Product Owner presenting a list of items or activities that have to be prioritised. The entire scrum team then analyses the list, figure out what they can do, and then create a plan to execute it. Just as the Sprint gives the team a high-level view of what should be done in order to achieve the Sprint goal, the backlog provides them with a detailed view of what needs to be done on a daily basis. It serves not only as a guide but also a measure of how far they’ve accomplished, with the time-boxed period as an important consideration.

Building Effective Backlogs: Key Steps
Sprint Backlog Planning

Building an effective sprint backlog starts with planning which is usually done during the Sprint meeting. In the planning phase, the Scrum team selects product backlog items, in the sprint. Once those items have been selected, the team goes on to plan how they will go about the work. It doesn’t have to be a thorough and very detailed plan. However, it should reflect the key steps to take as well as the hours to be allocated to each item. This is a great way for the agile team to know if they are spending too much or less time on each task. A good team will think of most things during a sprint backlog. But it is impossible to have everything covered because as they start working, things change and the team might discover things that have to be revised or added.

Daily Assessment & Plan Revisit

Members of the Scrum team meet daily for what is often called the ‘scrum stand-up’. This is a good chance to get in sync and ensure that everyone is on track as to their product backlog items. Successful agile teams take advantage of their daily meetups (which should not be more than 15 minutes) to measure progress and deliverables.

Management of the Sprint Backlog

The Development Team takes charge of managing the sprint backlog. The Product Owner has to ensure an open communication with the team, check on everyone’s progress, set expectations, and discuss possible solutions to issues. Take note however that once the sprint backlog is created, no one in the team can remove items. Your team may add items but not remove them. Only the Product Owner can do it once he determined that a specific item no longer provides value to the sprint goal.

Capacity Planning

Capacity planning is a critical part of creating a sprint backlog. The Scrum Master should be able to identify how much time (on a daily basis) has to be allotted and whether there are enough people to cross out the items from the to-do list. Ideally, team members should render 6 hours of work each day. But adjustments and forecasts need to be made early on in case there are issues with team members’ availability.

Tracking the Sprint Backlog

There are various strategies to track sprint backlog. The most commonly used tool is the sprint burndown chart which is a graphic representation of the rate at each work is being done and how much work still needs to be done. This chart is aimed at making the work visible to the Scrum team. It enables everyone to see the available number of hours and the actual work remaining. The sprint backlog can also be tracked in a spreadsheet or much better, using a dedicated project management software.

Behind every successful sprint is a well-established product backlog. A well-organised agile backlog does not only make the release and iteration planning easier. It also gives the Scrum team a clear overview of what needs to be done, at a specific timeframe, to get to the Sprint goal. Now that you know the importance of a sprint backlog and how to create one, you can be confident that your agile team is all geared towards success. Again, the sprint backlog must be clearly written and organised, checked and updated on a daily basis, in order to be effective. Furthermore, there has to be enough capacity for all items to be carried out.

Are you ready to get stuff done? Here are some more tips that you should know.

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Scrum Values are the Foundation of Agile. Here’s why…

Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. It is a popular project management framework for agile software development but is currently applied in many other other industries. The Scrum Guide defines the roles, events, artifacts and the rules that define this framework. Almost two decades ago (in 2001), 17 software development thinkers came together to create another important aspect that led to the development of Agile Manifesto – the Scrum Values.

Not all product development frameworks have a certain set of values like Scrum. These values play a significant role in the success of agile teams because they give direction to how people work, behave, make decisions, plan, and execute their tasks. Every Scrum team understands the need for these values to be incorporated in every step, process and sprint that they accomplish.  

The Scrum Values
Commitment

The first Scrum value is commitment. It is easy to misunderstand ‘commitment’ in Scrum as a promise to deliver. But it is not. Commitment is not simply the intention to do something at a specific time and date or meet the deadline. These things fall into the definition of ‘forecasting’. In agile teams, challenges are inevitable especially when it comes to software development. People get ill, new insights about the product are developed along the way, adjustments are made, and so on. Commitment is not meant to put pressure on the Scrum team, rather keep them focused on achieving high-quality results at the most reasonable amount of time.

Commitment is central to the empirical process. At the same time, it fosters collaborative work – an essential aspect of the Scrum methodology.

This value, in the context of Scrum, covers the following:

To deliver quality products. The Scrum team commits to delivering quality work regardless of the challenges that come along the way.
Meet the sprint goal and work on the backlog items with the highest value.
Deliver a shippable product that meets the expectations of the customer.
Focus on the success of the team by promoting productive problem-solving, trust, and high team standards.
Dedication to doing their best.

How can your agile team promote commitment? Because Scrum is a well-established, highly structured framework, you won’t have to create rules to drive commitment from your agile team. The Product Backlog, for instance, drives commitment by fostering transparency. From the very start, everyone in the Scrum team already understands what needs to be done and at what pace in order to meet their sprint goal. Meanwhile, the Sprint Retrospective promotes the commitment to practice continuous improvement.

Courage

To build a successful product, it takes more than just commitment. Courage is essential in solving complex problems and in growing high-performing teams.

Courage comes in various forms. We practise it when we have to stand up to the boss and let them know about the incorrect decisions being made. We show it when we admit that we don’t know everything or that we commit mistakes. But why is courage important in Scrum? As we’ve discussed before in one of our Scrum articles, Scrum is designed to address complex adaptive problems. Agile software development is really challenging. And it takes a lot of courage to achieve great results.

How else does courage apply in the Scrum methodology?

To be transparent in everyone’s progress, no matter how difficult the task is.
To hold others accountable for their respective roles and responsibilities.
To change the sprint backlog items after feedback by the customers.
Build something that no one has done before.
Share a dissenting opinion in a positive and encouraging manner.
Admit mistakes and shortcomings.

Inspection and adaptation, which are among the three pillars of Scrum, embody the value of courage. During an inspection, the Scrum team members openly listen to feedback and assume that they may need to change direction along the way. Additionally, the time-box nature of the sprint allows the Scrum team to try new things, experiment, and challenge the status quo. Ultimately, the Sprint Retrospective allows the team to identify opportunities for improvement.

Focus

Amidst the complexity, unpredictable and ever-changing nature of agile product development, there’s one thing that keeps us get stuff done. That’s focus.

There’s a reason why the Scrum Team is called a team. People work together to achieve one common goal. Regardless of everybody’s expertise, task and skills, they are focused on one end goal – deliver a high-quality product. Collaboration is essential to the success of the team. By employing this value, the Scrum team discover the best ways to get things done in less time.

Here’s how focus is practised in agile teams:

Determine what needs to be tackled first. During the sprint planning, the PO creates the epics, user stories, and tasks of the project and the members voluntary gets a task based on their skills and expertise.
Decide on what is the most important thing at the present moment and work on it first. Less time wasted.
Accept uncertainty and take steps to move forward.
Focus on the desired outcome.

The Scrum events and artifacts are what drive the focus and the time-box Sprint creates a sense of urgency.

Openness

Openness, as a Scrum value, fosters transparency. It simply means being honest. Scrum team members should keep no secrets relevant to their work and responsibilities. Furthermore, organisations that adopt the agile framework is open and visible to feedback, inspection and adaptation.

Below are the ways in which openness is reflected in an agile framework:

Asking for help and guidance when necessary.
Offering help to one another.
Share their perspectives and support team decisions.
Admit mistakes and change direction.

The Product Backlog demonstrates openness as everyone gets to see what other people are working on. Furthermore, the Sprint Retrospective drives openness to feedback and the need to change.

Respect

The last but not the least of the Scrum values is ‘respect’. When there is respect, the Scrum team is able to maintain transparency and stick to their goals. It empowers the team to self-organise, solve problems, and collaborate with one another.

Respect is shown in many different Scrum dealings:

Respect and acknowledgement of the team’s diverse backgrounds, experiences, and range of skills.
Respect that everyone, despite being part of the team, has autonomy, purpose and mastery of their own skills.
Respect for everyone and the assumption that they all have good intentions.
Respect for all opinions and perspectives.

Respect is observed in all Scrum processes, from the Sprint planning to the product backlog creation, and Sprint Review.

That’s the quick rundown of Scrum Values that you should be inculcated in the culture of your team. How do you plan to integrate this in your company culture? Let us know in the comment box.

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Google Sprint Overview: How to Deploy Innovative Solutions in Five Days

Many leaders and business owners are looking for effective ways on how to cut lead time and make the most out of their human resource to deploy innovative undertakings for their company. Usually, team huddles focus on discussing “big” ideas that rarely reach the end user and customers.  More often than not, this type of “meeting and brainstorming session” leads the project stakeholders more confused than they were when they entered the boardroom. This is where Google Sprint Design undercuts all these unorganised attempts of companies to maximise the full potential of their human resource and collaborative energy of their team.

Google Sprint Design is a collaborative framework that harnesses the talents of a company to deliver a working solution to a well-defined problem in a product or project. In just five working days, a team can provide a well-crafted, tried and tested, and high-impact solution to a specific company/product/project challenge without spending resources on guesswork.

Design Sprint Overview

Google Ventures developed Design Sprint in 2010 led by Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz. Its design was built from the idea of Design Thinking. The process should last for five days. It includes the response to difficult business challenges. Problems are identified through its design, model-making and testing ideas with end users and clients in mind. It is an innovative process of dealing with new product and project challenges in a more streamlined and efficient operation.

Here’s a quick overview from Jake Knapp himself, on how to use Google Design Sprint in your company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=K2vSQPh6MCE   

The Sprint Master facilitates the participants to produce better performance for the entire calendar of the sprint. The primary purpose of the Sprint Master is to find out what problem should the team be fixing and build up the best solution for the Design Sprint.

Meaning

Google Sprint Design is an easy way of learning more about the challenge and problem at hand. It is generally sharing ideas of employees from different backgrounds who will use the six stages of the design. It is composed of five days of workshop headed by the Sprint Master.

Participants

Around 7-8 persons from different departments. Reason being is, they can offer more flexible insights during the discussion. They will be presenting challenging arguments for a multifaceted evaluation.

Facilitator- preferably an Agile coach or a Scrum Master
Manager/s- They are the participants who have the power to decide who knows what the challenges are all about.
Participants with different views- They can show the “invisible” factors in a problem. Sometimes they can be difficult, but their ideas should be considered along the way.

Step- by- step Process

The Sprint Master should start by determining and explaining the problem. He/she should tackle the six process of solving the problem. He should be knowledgeable and flexible enough to absorb each participant’s thoughts and contribution.

Understand

It is imperative to understand the challenges. They should have the right people sharing the goals of the business, the capability of the technology and the users who need it most. They should be able to understand more about the product/ project.

Without proper understanding, everybody will be at lost throughout the entire workshop.

Diverge/Sketch

You can do anything with your imagination. The partakers of the activity should check all the possible answers to the problems presented by the each one of them.

The participants should feel free and comfortable in sharing their ideas. The Sprint Master role is to make sure that the designs will be entertained. Even if their ideas are not very workable, the “sharers” should not be embarrassed in any way. The Scrum Master should practice a non-aggressive, kind, and constructive way of addressing the “mistake”.

Decide

They should choose the best option for resolving the problems, upon the evaluation of all the ideas. The decision wouldn’t be easy and can be a little bit tricky. It is essential to be very detailed about each aspect of the decision process to avoid misinterpretations which can affect the final decision.

It doesn’t mean that Sprint Design does not have any blind spot, but it would substantially lessen the chance of having it.

Prototype

Developing a prototype is crucial. The beauty of this framework is it doesn’t require or pressure your team to have an overly-polished prototype that would consume time, money, and resource that might be a flop after all.

In the sprint process, people are like inventing the “best solution” for the challenge by just testing things at a fraction of the real price of actual development. Like any other inventions, it should undergo a “test-drive.” But, the test-drive doesn’t have to be an actual car. Just something that looks like a car that the consumer or end user can test and give feedback on.

Validate

Check and balance is really a part of this problem-solving process.

Sometimes, it seems everything is fine already, but without validation, you might encounter a hidden problem later on. Validation will let the team dwell on the different ways to manage feedback from real customers and end users.

In Validation stage, the team can try using a small group of customers who can give them feedback about the prototype so they would know the improvements they can later work on.

In just a matter of a week, your team can produce a potential solution to a problem that has been “approved” by actual customers and users.

When is it applicable?

You can use Google Sprint anytime you need to solve a problem in a business set-up.

For instance, GSD is a great framework for refining a product.
It can be used when you are encountering crossroads in your product development.
A solution to maximise company talents by cultivating unrestricted creativity, problem-solving skills, and teamwork.
When there’s a time-sensitive problem in a product or project

What can we get from Design Sprint?

It can give faster but more well-thought solutions for a problem.
The users’ perspective and feedback can be verified easily.
Early detection of failure- It is better to fail faster and not invest in solutions that are not tested yet and may not work for users/customers after all. It will cost you less damage resource-wise.
We can plan the Agile Point of view by using the Design Sprint.
It can promote teamwork which is one of the essential core values of any company. Working in harmonious relationship with colleagues is a good practice in a workplace.

In conclusion

The design sprint makes the problem-solving process faster and less complicated. It helps companies especially the small and starting ones to save on resources. It efficiently predicts every possible scenario by deeply analysing every problem, situations and possible outcomes of the decisions to be made.

It can be a threat to some companies with traditional corporate set-up. It’s because the approach is too independent and bypasses the structural order of a regular company. But if you will look at it the other way around, it can also promote confidence in each participant. Their ideas are not just ideas anymore—it can be the possible solution to different challenges in their company.   

ORGANISATIONAL MASTERY SCORECARD

We have developed a free assessment in the form of a Scorecard to help you establish which areas of business you need to focus on to achieve your particular Organisational Mastery.

Take The Test

The post Google Sprint Overview: How to Deploy Innovative Solutions in Five Days appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.

Google Sprint Overview: How to Deploy Innovative Solutions in Five Days Without Spending Thousands for a Prototype

Many leaders and business owners are looking for effective ways on how to cut lead time and make the most out of their human resource to deploy innovative undertakings for their company. Usually, team huddles focus on discussing “big” ideas that rarely reach the end user and customers.  More often than not, this type of “meeting and brainstorming session” leads the project stakeholders more confused than they were when they entered the boardroom. This is where Google Sprint Design undercuts all these unorganised attempts of companies to maximise the full potential of their human resource and collaborative energy of their team.

Google Sprint Design is a collaborative framework that harnesses the talents of a company to deliver a working solution to a well-defined problem in a product or project. In just five working days, a team can provide a well-crafted, tried and tested, and high-impact solution to a specific company/product/project challenge without spending resources on guesswork.

Design Sprint Overview

Google Ventures developed Design Sprint in 2010 led by Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz. Its design was built from the idea of Design Thinking. The process should last for five days. It includes the response to difficult business challenges. Problems are identified through its design, model-making and testing ideas with end users and clients in mind. It is an innovative process of dealing with new product and project challenges in a more streamlined and efficient operation.

Here’s a quick overview from Jake Knapp himself, on how to use Google Design Sprint in your company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=K2vSQPh6MCE   

The Sprint Master facilitates the participants to produce better performance for the entire calendar of the sprint. The primary purpose of the Sprint Master is to find out what problem should the team be fixing and build up the best solution for the Design Sprint.

Meaning

Google Sprint Design is an easy way of learning more about the challenge and problem at hand. It is generally sharing ideas of employees from different backgrounds who will use the six stages of the design. It is composed of five days of workshop headed by the Sprint Master.

Participants

Around 7-8 persons from different departments. Reason being is, they can offer more flexible insights during the discussion. They will be presenting challenging arguments for a multifaceted evaluation.

Facilitator- preferably an Agile coach or a Scrum Master
Manager/s- They are the participants who have the power to decide who knows what the challenges are all about.
Participants with different views- They can show the “invisible” factors in a problem. Sometimes they can be difficult, but their ideas should be considered along the way.

Step- by- step Process

The Sprint Master should start by determining and explaining the problem. He/she should tackle the six process of solving the problem. He should be knowledgeable and flexible enough to absorb each participant’s thoughts and contribution.

Understand

It is imperative to understand the challenges. They should have the right people sharing the goals of the business, the capability of the technology and the users who need it most. They should be able to understand more about the product/ project.

Without proper understanding, everybody will be at lost throughout the entire workshop.

Diverge/Sketch

You can do anything with your imagination. The partakers of the activity should check all the possible answers to the problems presented by the each one of them.

The participants should feel free and comfortable in sharing their ideas. The Sprint Master role is to make sure that the designs will be entertained. Even if their ideas are not very workable, the “sharers” should not be embarrassed in any way. The Scrum Master should practice a non-aggressive, kind, and constructive way of addressing the “mistake”.

Decide

They should choose the best option for resolving the problems, upon the evaluation of all the ideas. The decision wouldn’t be easy and can be a little bit tricky. It is essential to be very detailed about each aspect of the decision process to avoid misinterpretations which can affect the final decision.

It doesn’t mean that Sprint Design does not have any blind spot, but it would substantially lessen the chance of having it.

Prototype

Developing a prototype is crucial. The beauty of this framework is it doesn’t require or pressure your team to have an overly-polished prototype that would consume time, money, and resource that might be a flop after all.

In the sprint process, people are like inventing the “best solution” for the challenge by just testing things at a fraction of the real price of actual development. Like any other inventions, it should undergo a “test-drive.” But, the test-drive doesn’t have to be an actual car. Just something that looks like a car that the consumer or end user can test and give feedback on.

Validate

Check and balance is really a part of this problem-solving process.

Sometimes, it seems everything is fine already, but without validation, you might encounter a hidden problem later on. Validation will let the team dwell on the different ways to manage feedback from real customers and end users.

In Validation stage, the team can try using a small group of customers who can give them feedback about the prototype so they would know the improvements they can later work on.

In just a matter of a week, your team can produce a potential solution to a problem that has been “approved” by actual customers and users.

When is it applicable?

You can use Google Sprint anytime you need to solve a problem in a business set-up.

For instance, GSD is a great framework for refining a product.
It can be used when you are encountering crossroads in your product development.
A solution to maximise company talents by cultivating unrestricted creativity, problem-solving skills, and teamwork.
When there’s a time-sensitive problem in a product or project

What can we get from Design Sprint?

It can give faster but more well-thought solutions for a problem.
The users’ perspective and feedback can be verified easily.
Early detection of failure- It is better to fail faster and not invest in solutions that are not tested yet and may not work for users/customers after all. It will cost you less damage resource-wise.
We can plan the Agile Point of view by using the Design Sprint.
It can promote teamwork which is one of the essential core values of any company. Working in harmonious relationship with colleagues is a good practice in a workplace.

In conclusion

The design sprint makes the problem-solving process faster and less complicated. It helps companies especially the small and starting ones to save on resources. It efficiently predicts every possible scenario by deeply analysing every problem, situations and possible outcomes of the decisions to be made.

It can be a threat to some companies with traditional corporate set-up. It’s because the approach is too independent and bypasses the structural order of a regular company. But if you will look at it the other way around, it can also promote confidence in each participant. Their ideas are not just ideas anymore—it can be the possible solution to different challenges in their company.   

ORGANISATIONAL MASTERY SCORECARD

We have developed a free assessment in the form of a Scorecard to help you establish which areas of business you need to focus on to achieve your particular Organisational Mastery.

Take The Test

The post Google Sprint Overview: How to Deploy Innovative Solutions in Five Days Without Spending Thousands for a Prototype appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.

Communities of Practice Measurement: Focusing on the Right Metrics to Grow Your Company’s Knowledge Capital

Making Sense of Your Company’s Knowledge Capital – Communities of Practice Measurement

Several factors affect the growth of a business or an organisation such as; the economic conditions in a country, changes in government policies, changes in the industry factors, and the competence of the team. In most cases, it’s virtually impossible to control the first three factors. These are external factors that are affected by the local and international community. Fortunately, you can take charge and influence the growth of your team without being pushy about it. One of the best frameworks to do this is through the formation of communities of practice in your company.

What is a Community of Practice?

A community of learners/practice (CoL/CoP) is defined as a group of individuals who shares beliefs, practices and values and actively engages with one another. This learning practice aims to create a system of learning by which both students and educators learn from each other and create a system of knowledge capital. The ability of the community to learn is determined by the members’ ability to gather information and formulate methodologies collectively.  By forming communities of practice in your organisation your team learns and grows “organically” in their profession and trade. Also, in return for cultivating this professional growth and learning community, it will affect the growth of your company.

Understanding Knowledge Capital

Knowledge capital is often referred to as the intangible assets of a company. It is comprised of the acquired techniques, knowledge and innovations. The intellectual capital guides a company in making decisions. It also gives a company a higher competitive edge because the employees have access to the necessary knowledge and techniques they need to work.

Human Capital – This may be the skills, information, technique or a different perspective provided by a team member. Other personal values are included such the ability of a person to inspire and drive change.

Reputational Capital – This is the collective voice of a company or community. What are the characteristics of the team? How is the team different from the others? The reputational capital helps increase the collaboration between each member plus external groups such as company partners and affiliates.

Social Capital – This refers to the relationship between the members of a team, the company collaborators, sponsors, partners and other entities. It also covers the personal reputation of the members.

Now that we’ve established the value of Knowledge Capital let’s focus on using the communities of practice measurement that we should apply in assessing your company CoPs.

How to Gauge the Contributions of CoP within your Organisation

More often, it is not easy to measure the success or the contributions of a CoP to a company or an organisation. Etienne Wenger, Beverly Trayner and Maarten de Laat laid out a framework that can be used to assess the value of this type of network. The framework was published by the Open University of Netherlands.

It aims to help organisations and institutions generate both qualitative and quantitative data to help assess the efficacy of the community of practice. Below are the five levels of values and metrics that you can use to evaluate the community of practice in your organisation:

Immediate Value – refers to the valuable interactions or activities between the members of the community. A few examples include helping a team member work on an arduous task, visiting a new office location and assessing the tips provided by a colleague. These activities not only generate value in terms of the collected knowledge but also allows members to explore new perspectives.

Potential Value – not all of member activities or interactions immediately provide value to the community. Some are only saved up for later. For example, a colleague shares how he handled conflicts with other members of the team for future reference. While the issue might never happen again, it still provided valuable information to the team.

Applied Value – some of the knowledge acquired by the community may or may not be useful, which is why they need to be tested through application. Picture a team changing the procedures according to the collated information. Applied value is observed when the team opts to revise a procedure to test the knowledge capital they have.

Realized Value – Continuous improvement is not guaranteed even after a set of knowledge is applied and validated. It is also crucial to identify the effects of applying such knowledge. For example, once the changes are implemented, what are the effects observed for both the team and each member?

Reframing Value – there are instances when a proven knowledge capital changes the way the organisation defines success. For example, changing the procedure did not help the team meet the selling quota, but it led to the uncovering of a new market. This will prompt the team to reassess priorities, strategies, values and even the end goals.

Aside from the framework, you can also assess the benefits you get from establishing communities of practice by correlating the company or group’s productivity to the number of new members, engagement rate, number of successful activities, and rate of resolving disputes.

An Example of an Organisation that Uses Community of Practice to Achieve its Goals

IRRESISTIBLE stands for Including Responsible Research and innovation in cutting Edge Science and Inquiry-based Science education to improve Teacher’s Ability of Bridging Learning Environments. It is a project founded by the European Union last 2013. The project involves ten countries and 14 partner companies.

Their goal is to create activities that help students and help the public understand how Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) works and raise social awareness on the issues that surround it. The project used formal and informal learning approaches.

Their learning community is comprised of teachers who work in classrooms, researchers who use high-end technology, science centres which focus on using informal teaching approaches and educators who aim to share their knowledge about research.

The project has two phases. During the first phase, ten modules were developed by the CoP on several assigned RRI topics. The modules are then tested by each class. For the second phase, each teacher involved in the first phase will have to train colleagues on how to use the modules. This is one great example of how powerful a CoP can be in terms of Knowledge Capital.

However, having a community of practice is not all sunshine and roses. There are “dangers” to a community such as the tendency to become impermeable due to the history of the group and their established way of handling matters. Over time, if the strategy and the system used by the CoP is not re-evaluated, the group becomes inward-focused.

As such, it is crucial to sustaining the engagement between the members while maintaining the identity of the entire group. Constant negotiation and renegotiation are also required to encourage the development of the community’s knowledge.

Establishing a community of learners within your organisation can help you reap various benefits such as faster resolution of disputes, increased team productivity, more group innovations and lesser time and resources spent on training.

Working with Me Or Evolution4all

I have developed the “Organisational Mastery” product. The aim of this product is to create a coalition that drives change and internal innovation alongside shared knowledge throughout the organisation. It’s extremely suitable for companies that want drastically improve the alignment between executive leadership and delivery teams.

ORGANISATIONAL MASTERY SCORECARD

We have developed a free assessment in the form of a Scorecard to help you establish which areas of business you need to focus on to achieve your particular Organisational Mastery.

Take The Test

The post Communities of Practice Measurement: Focusing on the Right Metrics to Grow Your Company’s Knowledge Capital appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.

Why transparency and strong vision are crucial to run a company

When I started blogging 7 years ago, my main idea was to share my experience with the agile community. I wanted to share my learnings so others would not waste time doing the same mistakes.

After several years, my target audience changed and nowadays I write mainly for executives and entrepreneurs, but the idea is still the same: educating people and sharing my experience and learning so they do not do the same mistakes I did.

This week I want to share something with all of you. For past couple of years I have performed several leadership roles but everything changes when you own your company. I think the responsibility is different and the way how you manage your own employees is a bit different than when you are employed and you have a team of Scrum Masters.

I have always preached to my customers and managers how important it is to have a policy of a salary transparency, actually not only salary but a complete monetary transparency.

I also challenge my customers about the vision. Most of them do not understand why I am so pushy about this topic, but hopefully at the end of this post you will better understand why.

Now I want to share a story with you . Some of you know that I am in a process of hiring the first employee for evolution4all. This person is a brilliant lady that I put a lot of hope for. She hasn´t started working yet, but we already discuss the conferences and trainings she wants to attend. And this is when my story begins…

Often I explain to many people and to her as well what vision do I have for my company, what is our customer target audience and what is our market.

Our soon to be colleague will soon become a CST  and she must attend several Scrum gatherings in order to reach that milestone. So we discussed a possibility for her to attend the Scrum gathering in South Africa.

To be very honest, I am sure if I said no, she would be upset and we would not start the relationship in the best possible way, but instead, I asked: “Can you tell me the vision of our company, what is our target customer and market?”

Because I constantly communicate the vision that I have for the company, it was very easy for her to answer my questions and understand that a Scrum gathering in South Africa did not have anything to do with what evolution4all aspires for.

Afterwards, I was very transparent with her and told her exactly how much money our customer will pay for her services and how much money we would loose if she went to South Africa. I explained the cost that evolution4all have with her, including her salary, social security, health care and all the costs associated of having her as employee.

It was very easy for her to understand that attending a Scrum gathering in South Africa would cost almost the entire salary.

I asked her what she would do if she were me, and she agreed that this would not be a wise investment for the company. Instead, she would look for options that would be aligned with evolution4all vision.

Being transparent to you, our target audience is Executive leaders in Europe, our vision is to create a better world by improving one company at a time and we do that by deploying our Organisational Mastery product at medium sized companies.

This being said, a Scrum gathering will never be evolution4all main focus but everyone knows that supporting a colleague that wants to become a CST is a great asset for any business. What we will do is to find events that will enable her become a CST but at the same time we relate it to our vision.

Why did I share this story? Because I believe if I wasn´t completely transparent with my employee about our vision, strategy and cost structure, I would not be able to have such an open and productive discussion.

I really believe that employees care with companies, but I also believe that 99% of employees do not have a clue about the current strategy of their company. And most probably they do not have any idea how their work contributes to the revenue and how much they cost to an organisation.

Having a very strong vision together with a cost transparency policy is the key to get employees making the right decisions for your company.

I really hope you enjoyed this personal story.

The post Why transparency and strong vision are crucial to run a company appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.

Agile Portfolio Management Definition: How To Run Your Company at Its Fullest Potential

It’s interesting that a lot of IT projects are considered as failures even though the development teams were able to submit the output on time and within budget. As it turns out, these projects were not considered as successes since they didn’t meet the demands or standards of the stakeholders. There was also minimal coordination between the project team and the investors.

Of course, IT and project development teams can only manage so much, especially if the client is confused as to what they want or what they expect from their investment. Luckily, the agile method does away with most of these problems, making it easier to manage and close projects on a high note.

What is Agile Portfolio Management?

Agile is a project management method characterised by the division of tasks into short time frames and frequent coordination with clients to assess, reassess and adapt plans. The agile method is often used for software development.

Agile portfolio management deals with how an organisation identifies, prioritises, organises and manages different products. This is done in a streamlined way to optimise the development of value in a manner that’s sustainable in the long run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcXvx8FH8Vw

What are the Key Principles of Agile Portfolio Management?

An agile manager needs to have the proper mindset to successfully manage an agile portfolio. The agile outlook has been outlined and discussed in the Principles of Lean Software Development and Disciplined Age Manifesto.

Here are some of the key principles you need to understand when it comes to agile portfolio management:

Simple and Streamlined is the Way to Go: Portfolio managers know that agile activities and projects have to be kept streamlined. Bear in mind that the end goal here is to make the right decisions when it comes to projects and to provide the right guidance to project team members. Therefore, there’s no need for generating and reviewing extensive documentation.
Put More Emphasis on Value Instead of Cost: Any portfolio manager worth their salt knows that the value of a project will create is more important than the price tag attached to it. Putting more emphasis and focus on value will help the manager come up with ways on how to enhance the business’ current and future endeavours. Plus, any positive changes in this area will only serve to extend the team’s capacity to develop more value for consumers.
Lessen the Cost of Delay (CoD): A good strategy is to optimise the stakeholder’s value by developing functionalities that will provide the company with the most revenue or worth in the shortest possible time. For instance, if a functionality is delayed by half a year and it’s estimated to generate about $10 million in annual revenue, then the company will lose $5 million due to Cost of Delay.

This can be avoided under a good portfolio manager since they will consider factors like the cost of developing a solution, the CoD from not pursuing or starting said solution, and the revenue or savings cost when they evaluate and assess the worth of the proposed solution.

Stable Teams are Better Options to Project Teams: There’s more to agile portfolio management than coordinating with and managing different teams. The agile method understands that the team’s responsibility and initiative don’t stop just because a project ends. Clients will expect and demand changes, and the team will be expected to design and release another solution. Because of this, it’s better to have long-standing stable teams – which has members that have evolved and sharpened their skills through various projects – than teams who work only on short-term projects. Aside from the former having numerous advantages over the latter, it has been proven that there’s a boost in productivity when a company gives the project to a stable team instead of pulling people from different departments to create a new team.
Remember That Diversity Empowers: A lot of companies now understand that diversity empowers. In every new project, the team member will encounter a unique situation that will change over time. Therefore, teams should be given the freedom to group themselves and change their methods in relation to the circumstances.

An agile frame of mind focuses on providing, and contrasting and comparing, different methodologies and techniques. This means that managers should also be adaptable and have various ways of managing each team and handling each project. And while every team deals with projects in their unique way, managers still have to monitor and guide them, which is why flexibility is a must.

What are the Factors to Consider in Portfolio Management?

There are a number of key factors to think about in the agile portfolio management process.

Identify Upcoming Value: The portfolio manager and his/her team are mandated to identify what new products to design and build, as well as come up with new features and ideas. The team accomplishes this by monitoring the relevant business niche and the competitors, securing feedback from clients and anticipating what their customers might need in the future.  
Look for Potential Endeavors: The management team will look for and try to understand the merits of potential projects. The team can start a case study, run a focus group, study return on investment or analyse a product’s market potential.
Prioritize Possible Projects: Companies often have to prioritise possible projects because of budget constraints. They then invest in projects that have the highest potential. To do this, the team has to consider factors like product value, business risk and deadlines.
Start on the Endeavors: New features or products have to be designed and built by the project team. Depending on the kind of product and its uniqueness, the company might have to start with an exploratory or lean startup approach. This means the product’s market potential has to be validated first via numerous experiments.
Fund the Project: Every future project will need funding. This includes the initial budget for teams created for the project’s inception, the development efforts and the funding for ongoing Construction and Transition as well as the launch and implementation of the project. The funding will require regular and responsible monitoring to make sure that the money is used properly.  
Plan IT Capacities: The portfolio manager also has to plan and manage the resources of the different department. This includes the budget and personnel. In short, the manager has to ensure that the company’s employees have proper skill and are available at the proper time.
Manage Vendors: Vendor or supplier management is a vital component of agile portfolio management. This means the portfolio team is tasked to procure or award contracts, narrow down and identify possible vendors, oversee ongoing projects and end a contract.
Manage Portfolio: There should also be someone tasked to manage the whole portfolio. This includes all current development projects as well as upcoming operational solutions.

In Conclusion

Agile portfolio management makes certain that a business can supply their clients with the value they deserve for their investment. A responsible portfolio manager or team knows and embodies the principles of the agile method while also taking into account the factors essential to the success of the company’s projects.

Working with Me Or Evolution4all

I have developed the “Organisational Mastery” product. The aim of this product is to create a coalition that drives change and internal innovation alongside shared knowledge throughout the organisation. It’s extremely suitable for companies that want drastically improve the alignment between executive leadership and delivery teams.

ORGANISATIONAL MASTERY SCORECARD

We have developed a free assessment in the form of a Scorecard to help you establish which areas of business you need to focus on to achieve your particular Organisational Mastery.

Take The Test

The post Agile Portfolio Management Definition: How To Run Your Company at Its Fullest Potential appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.

How to Calculate Cost of Delay So You Know Where You’re Losing Money

Deciding which project should be given top priority is a dilemma that business owners and managers face regularly. For instance, would it serve the company better if it focuses on a $1 million, a three-month-long project first or push through with the smaller project that would cost $20,000 but with a two-week deadline? Sadly, making a concrete decision isn’t easy and often entails blurry visualisations using project management tools that don’t really tell you anything.

This is why more companies are actively using Cost of Delay (CoD) projection when it comes to determining its future projects. Why? Because it’s the most straightforward data-backed decision-making approach that you can bet your company’s future on. Well, using CoD is just one tool that you can learn now after reading this blog post. If you want to see it in action and other forecasting techniques, check out this blog post on how I save a company from spending another 20 Million Euro on a failing project where they already spent 15 Million Euro.

In this blog post, you will learn how you can use CoD to make reliable decisions in a very limited time.

What is Cost of Delay?

Cost of Delay is the monetary impact of a project’s delay. It pertains to how much a company will lose, or how massive the fallout will be if the project does not meet its deadline.

Let’s say one manager got caught in traffic and was subsequently late to a crucial meeting with an investor. Obviously, this delay will cost the company in terms of time and resources. The example is simple, and it goes without saying that there’s more on the line when it comes to delays in vital company projects. Missed deadlines and delays can lead to high labour costs, the loss of a client or the launch of a poorly-designed product.

How is Cost of Delay Calculated?

When it comes to calculating Cost of Delay, critical elements like additional labour cost, the market value of the product or feature or missed business opportunities should be taken into account. There are several ways of computing CoD (or its metrics). Here are some of them:

You can compute the cost of delay by estimating the revenue or sales the project is expected to generate once it’s launched and how much a delay will cost. For example, your product’s new feature is estimated to generate weekly revenue of $15,000. This means your company will lose $60,000 if the project is delayed for four weeks. You also have to consider the salaries you’ll continue to pay the team, the changes in marketing and any damage the delay will have to your company’s reputation.
Another way to compute Cost of Delay is to follow Cost of Delay Divided by Duration (CD3). To compute using this method, you have to:


Compute the project’s estimated weekly profit.
Assess the amount of time required to launch the project.
Divide the estimated project duration against the expected revenue.

Once the computations are done, you can compare which projects have higher CD3 value. A higher CD3 means the return of investment is quicker. Therefore these are the projects that should be given top priority.

CoD can also be computed using the formula –

Total Cost of Delay = Lost Month Cost + Peak Reduction Cost

Lost Month Cost indicates the peak month of sales – the period wherein sales of the product are high or stable and before it begins its downward turn. You can calculate Lost Month Cost by multiplying the product margin and the sales volume of the peak month. Most consider Lost Month Cost as part of the CoD.

Meanwhile, peak reduction cost deals with the product cycle. This refers to the sales volume, which can be determined by how fast the product is developed and launched, how quickly the sales and marketing team can advertise it to clients and secure sales. Unfortunately, delays in the product launch have a significant impact on sales and leads to a lower sales peak. Assigning a number to the reduced peak in revenue is not simple, which is why most companies disregard it.

What are the Different Types of Cost of Delay?

Companies should also familiarise themselves with the various types of Cost of Delay since these can affect CoD calculations.  

Fixed Date Curve: This type of CoD refers to projects that have a fixed and rigid time frame. It’s therefore vital that a company follow a strict schedule in order to meet the deadline, as missing it will be costly. For instance, the product has to be launched before a new regulation that will greatly affect the product is passed. Or the company has a TV advertisement that’s set to be released internationally.

In this situation, calculating the Cost of Delay is a little complicated. The company should expect the CoD to grow at an average pace initially. But there will be a large sales increase following a particular time frame before settling to a minimal growth rate.

Intangible Curve: Projects with a low Cost of Delay typically have an intangible curve. This is because they have little effect on the company due to it being low on the project food chain. The company faces no risks even if these projects are delayed since CoD in virtually nonexistent.
Standard Curve: Projects with a standard curve shows a Cost of Delay that moves in a linear manner. It’s also easy to compute this type of CoD since there’s no difference regardless of how long the project lasts.
Urgent Curve: As the name implies, projects with a compelling curve CoD have to be wrapped up and launched as soon as possible to create value for the business. Any delay to the project will end with the company losing revenue. For example, your company has to come up with a product in order to compete with a competitor that’s already preparing for a huge product launch. Projects with this type of curve will see high Cost of Delay when the deadline hits, and this will continue to increase over time.

Cost of Delay is very fluid, and the CoD curve is subject to change. Let’s say a company as successfully launched a unique product feature. Since it has no competitors, the company will follow a standard CoD curve. But if after a year a rival company launches a similar feature on one of its products, the standard CoD curve can change and become a fixed date one.

Last Words…

Companies should understand how vital Cost of Delay is when it comes to choosing and managing projects. It’s also vital they know how to calculate CoD since it has a significant impact on the business. It also assists the management in deciding which projects should be moved up or down the pipeline.

Successful companies are based on five pillars: the ability to reduce time to market, connecting strategy to daily operations, having an environment of continuous improvement, creating an environment of sharing knowledge and drive innovation. Analyse these 5 areas in your organisation right now to find out how close your organisation is from achieving fantastic results.

The post How to Calculate Cost of Delay So You Know Where You’re Losing Money appeared first on Luís Gonçalves.