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EssenceTeam-based Software InnovationIvan Aaen

PrefaceAct without doing;work without effort.Think of the small as largeand the few as many.Confront the difficultwhile it is still easy;accomplish the great taskby a series of small acts.Lao-TzeThe next round of globalization is sending upscale jobs offshore (Businessweekcover, February 3, 2003). Newspaper headlines with such predictions have beenaround for years, and by now we know that they reflect important changes to majorparts of the industry in general; the software industry included. The codemonkey who writes code for a living may soon be history in high-cost countries.Computer programmers must be able to do far more for their pay than simplywriting code if they want to survive in a global world.High-tech may be one strategy to save upscale jobs in our end of the world.The problem with this strategy is that high-tech is no longer the prerogative ofhigh-cost countries. China, India and other countries have industrial sectors atleast as advanced as ours.Innovation is another strategy often put forward as a specialty for our industries,but obviously there is a lot of innovation going on in the rising economies inthe East as well.If we combine high-tech and innovation, we may be able to keep a competitiveedge within select industries, but if innovation and development are separated,development and obviously production will soon be outsourced. This was whathit the mobile communications cluster in North Jutland after the local companiesbecame branches in international corporations. Soon after, innovation activitieswere taken to places near the corporate headquarters leaving the more trivial developmentwork according to specifications for the Danish branches. The resultwas a matter of time only: Development and production was outsourced. Onemay wonder what comes next and what can be done to ensure a viable softwareindustry here.Globalization and outsourcing calls for software development projects in highcostcountries to produce high-value solutions if they want to stay in business.i

Gone are the days where local software development would be a matter of course.Many development projects are moved to countries where software developmentis less costly.The practical ability to produce high-value software solutions in our end of theworld is crucial, not only to the software industry itself but also to just about anysector of the economy where software is used - i.e. to essentially every part of theeconomy. Software is a core part of virtually any product or process today, andcreative and indeed innovative software development is vital to the competitivenessin companies, industry sectors and the economy as a whole. Software developerscan contribute to create better and more innovative products and servicesvia close collaborations - indeed via learning cycles - between users and producersin sophisticated markets at home and internationally.In a high-cost economy, labour-intensive work will be outsourced unless thereare good reasons not to. The aim of this book is to provide such good reasons,not so much by offering good arguments - I leave that to learned writers on economy- but mainly by offering good practices to software developers. We needmore tools in the toolbox besides ordinary development skills if we are to createhigh-value solutions.The focus in this book is on creativity and innovation at the level of the softwaredeveloping team, and the purpose is to develop methods, tools, and techniquesas well as infrastructures and conceptual models to support teams inproducing valuable solutions throughout the span of a systems developmentproject. Main elements in our strategy are incremental development, testing incrementsagainst real world challenges, and learning from collaboration andexperimentation.Software developers' abilities to come up with new ideas, to improve, refine,and get the best out of their ideas will be crucial in the future. Beyond his technicalabilities a software developer needs abilities to engage in creative work withpeople from other disciplines and business areas. The tenacity of a team to conceive,mature, and implement ideas in collaboration with others is vital.These propositions are obviously based on a number of assumptions about creativityand teams. Among those assumptions are:• Creativity can be learned - a predisposition to creativity is nice to havebut not a requirement for engaging in creative work (Ref to de Bono andperhaps to Amabile, Sternberg, Csikszentmihalyi?)• Teams can engage in collective creative work - a melting-pot for theknowledge and ideas of the team members (Refs)• Creativity is required in any project - be that open-ended or restricted.Even precisely specified projects need creative inputs• Idea development is a process - involving search, selection, evaluation,and maturation• Creativity is part of innovation - providing ideas for implementation inthe innovative processii

The book is intended to be a help for companies that wants to increase creativityin their software development work. The skills needed for this are not yet part ofcurriculum at most engineering and computer science schools.My inspiration for the book comes from the software industry, but I hope thatthis book has something to offer to most development projects calling for diverseviewpoints, for experimentation with users of some kind, for incremental andflexible development by a self-organizing team of collaborators. Many - perhapsmost - projects today concern much broader things than just software, and someprojects may in fact have many similarities with software projects even if not oneline of code is written.The very idea of asking people to just be innovative and generate exciting andnew ideas may be counter-intuitive to some. Creativity involves spontaneity andoften develops in the moment, so how can creativity be on demand? My answer isthat this book is about making such moments more likely to happen. Sometimes -when we use particular techniques - such moments are planned, sometimes theyjust happen by accident, but the structures - the views, roles, tools and techniquesproposed in this book - should make these moments more likely and help theteam be more effective when they occur. These structures encourage creativethinking in a more systematic and approachable way. Furthermore I believe thatinviting an established and confident team to be creative is less daunting thanasking a bunch of individuals to come up with great ideas.Traditional methods focus on getting the job done, on honoring contracts, followingplans, adhering to requirements specifications. Quite many software developers- computer scientists perhaps more than most - view themselves as naturalscientists and regard exactness and formal methods as the bedrock of their profession.This view at times seems to conflict with the uncertainties and latitudesso inherent to creativity and innovation. Yet most software developers wouldprobably agree that their challenges time and again require them to be inventive -even if they do not relate this inventiveness to being personally creative.Teaching Essence is by no means an easy task. It is a great challenge to instructa team of people with diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, and personalitiesto engage in a sudden and comprehensive change in their usual way of working.For anyone to see their rooms redecorated and their entire day impounded for innovativerole-play in an Essence course may be somewhat frightening to individualswho value the sanctity of retaining life as usual.A recurring comment by participants in Essence activities is that it is hardwork. Mental and even physical fatigue is a problem that needs your attention.Even if activities are fun and sometimes even playful they are also mentally stressful.Contributing with new ideas requires hard mental work and this sometimescomes as a surprise. Be lazy, take short or long breaks as you see fit. You will learnthat your subconsciousness works overtime and allows you to come up with ideaseven while you are taking a break. Take a walk, play a game of soccer, take a walk,iii

sit quiet for a moment, be active in whatever way suits you best. It will all helpyou come up with ideas. (Ref to hare and tortoise book).Quite often people drop an idea before it has been thought through. If youtake a short break and then return to the idea, you may find it easier to drop apoor idea and to improve a good idea further. The subconscious mind is a powerfultool for researching and improving half-baked ideas.Another recurring comment is that it feels odd to just start being innovativeand creative using a method. To many people getting new ideas is a random thing;something that cannot be planned or scheduled. I agree that many ideas seem tocome out of the blue when you least expect it. Indeed the main ideas in SIRL andEssence came to me like this. Still I believe that facilitating creative and innovativework among a team of people can be useful. In particular I hope that Essencewill be used on demand more than on schedule. I hope that Essence will be somethingthat a team will use whenever there is a moment of creativity in the project.There may be moments, that are planned, but there will hopefully be many momentswhere the occasion calls for using some of the principles, tools and techniquesin Essence. Essence tools and techniques should be part of the teams toolboxand Essence principles should be second nature to the team members.Good luckiv

Part 1A Starting Point[...] most of our assumptionsabout business, technologyand organization are at least50 years old. They have outlivedtheir time. As a result,we are preaching, teachingand practicing policies thatare increasingly at odds withreality and thereforecounterproductive.Peter F. Drucker(1909-2005)The strategies behind Essence are related to and to some extent inspired by agileparadigm in software development emerging over the last decade. Ideas such asonsite customer, user-driven innovation, incremental and iterative development,self-organizing teams, team member roles have all made their mark on Essenceand SIRL.Although there are many aspects in the new paradigm favoring software innovation,there are also limitations:1) Agile development continues the traditional quest for efficiency; thistime by reducing overheads in the development process2) Similarly, agile development continues the traditional focus on quality;this time by delivering what is expected by developing in close collaborationwith the customer3) The agile paradigm shows little interest in creativity; good ideas apparentlyturn up by themselves1

4) There is little focus on innovation in the agile team; the customer is expectedto know his or her options and needsIn other words: The agile paradigm largely addresses the same type of problemsas did the old paradigm. It deals with yesterdays challenges.The virtue of the agile paradigm is that it takes modern development technologiesand team organization principles into account. The limitation of the agileparadigm is that it failed to identify present day challenges for software developmentin our part of the world. In todays global economy there is a need formoving from software production to software innovation.The aim in Essence therefore is to capitalize on the contributions of the agileparadigm in order to meet these new challenges. The breakthroughs in the agileparadigm provide a strong potential for creative and innovative software development.How this potential might be employed is the topic of this book.Agile ideas form the basis for Essence, but ideas from a number of other areashave also contributed to Essence; in particular ideas from the 'creativity field': InnovationGames ((Hohmann, 2006)), Thinking Hats ((de Bono, 2000)), The CreativePlatform ((Byrge & Hansen, 2009)), Keith Johnstone’s work on improvisationaltheatre (Theatresports) and Solution Camps were all important sources ofinspiration. All of them are helpful in enabling us to see a bigger picture and lookfor opportunities from diverse viewpoints. Yet all of these ideas are somewhatlimited to focus on the creative episode mainly, where our aim is the creativeteam process - i.e. the longer haul of creativity and innovation where ideas arematured and put to work in a specific project or perhaps even across severalprojects over time.2

Chapter 1IntroductionProblems worthyof attackprove their worthby hitting backPiet Hein(1905-1996)The overarching theme of this book concerns how to facilitate creative and innovativework in a team of people. Whether the result is creative and innovativeby the end of the day is your responsibility. Here we aim simply to suggest waysof working that may help you succeed in your efforts. You can say that we careabout the process and leave the rest up to you.Innovative software development will usually rely on unconventional thinkingon problems. Problems that may be well understood or vaguely defined. Theseproblems in turn represent challenges as well as opportunities, and the purpose ofthis book is to propose a portfolio of personal and in particular team-based developmentcompetences for addressing challenges and identifying opportunities.Traditional software development methods and indeed the body of softwareengineering literature rarely pay much attention to creativity and innovation.Their focus is on delivering high quality solutions that meet customer requirementsas effectively as possible. The value of the solution to a large extent relieson the qualities of the requirements - i.e. on something that largely is given whensoftware development starts or on something that comes from outside the teamin the form of demands from the customer.Our focus here is on high value solutions. Such solutions naturally includesconcerns for quality and efficiency, but they transcend these concerns by exploringemerging possibilities and foci in an intense partnership between users, customers,and developers. This book is an addition, but also in some ways as a critiqueof the traditional literature on software development. In this respect, weside with authors like Craig Larman ((Larman, 2004, pp. 3-4)) abandoning the oldpredictable manufacturing paradigm in favor of a new product development paradigmbased on agile ideas. Central elements in the new paradigm is that requirementscan rarely be completely known when projects start, that requirements aresubject to substantial changes during the project, that grand planning is not possible,and that product development will have to adapt to frequent and unpredictablechange.3

The ideas on user driven innovation ((von Hippel, 1986; Bogers & Afuah…,2010)) are also a source of inspiration, but we focus on the whole software teamincluding onsite customers or product owners and therefore on how developersteam up with inspired customers and users to create superior solutions.The aim of essence is to supplement existing development methods with aview to exploit opportunities from new technologies, new components, and newcombinations or contexts of use.Central to our perception of idea development is that ideas are developed aspart of everyday activities and not confined to creative episodes. This means thatideas come out of the routines and surprises that form part of our professional aswell as private lives. Ideas result from our reflections as living beings.In 1926, Graham Wallas published the Art of Thought, one of the first modelsof the creative process (Wallas, 1926). His model consists of 5 stages:1 preparation (exploring the problem's dimensions),2 incubation (internalizing the problem into the unconscious mind),3 intimation (sensing that a solution is on its way),4 illumination or insight (becoming consciously aware of the creative idea);and5 verification (verifying, elaborating, and applying the idea).Wallas' model concerns the creative process of an individual, while we aremainly concerned with creative processes in the team. This means that we are interestedin how the creative processes of the individuals interact and stimulateeach other when a team works on a common challenge.We see idea development as consisting of several elements:• Idea incubation - the generation of ideas based on an understanding of theneeds and current problems related to a challenge we know of or perhapseven have not yet become consciously aware of.• Idea selection - evaluation and election of best suited ideas• Idea communication - sharing ideas and obtaining feed back and new inputfrom stakeholders• Idea development - enriching and sophisticating the idea, understanding itsstrength and limitations, and if need be radically changing the idea• Idea implementation - preparing the idea for practical useIdea incubation is an aha! experience for the team and covers in Wallas’ termsincubation, intimation, and illumination for the individual team member. The remainingelements expand the stage named verification by Wallas.We seek to build a structure for idea development aiming for developing moreand better ideas. For this purpose we devise a number a tools and techniques.We seek to help the team develop and embrace habits that support creativework and in particular idea development. Structures such as Views and Rolesserve to help apply diverse viewpoints on a challenge, and tools and techniquesserve to help employ this diversity for idea development.4

By using modern software development technologies we seek to increase flexibilityin the design and implementation of solutions. This - we hope - will help increasethe innovative spirit in the team and allow for a new ideas at all projectstages thereby increasing the window of opportunity in the project.When starting on idea development, the team faces a dilemma: Should it collectall available knowledge on the challenge and how such challenges have beenaddressed previously? Or should it simply plunge into the challenge and invent itsown proposals without further ado? The collect strategy is rational and systematic,but the creativity of the team may be limited to follow mainly existing paradigmsrather than seeing the problem and solution space as virgin soil open to discoveryand exploration by the team. Vice versa, the virgin soil strategy may leadto reinventing the wheel or repeating the errors made in previous attempts to addressthe challenge.There may be proponents of either strategy in the team, but in many casesthese strategies may coexist peacefully in the team in the first need-finding stagesof the project, but if proponents of one strategy seeks to limit or altogether outlawthe other strategy the team as a whole may experience problems.The work space of the team is important for its ability to focus and be productivebut it also plays an important role for the creativity of the team (Deshpande,de Vries, & van Leeuwen, 2004).We need infrastructures that help the team work together and stimulate ideadevelopment.We will not assume that the team members will work in a largeshared room all the time but we will assume that they will do so a substantial partof the time. The human contact is needed for learning across disciplines and workareas, and for developing ideas that benefit from comprehensive understandings.This ensures osmotic learning (ref to Cockburn) in the team and ample opportunitiesfor creative sessions to occur accidentally in the team. Osmotic learningensures a broad understanding of challenges and options among the team members,and accidental creativity is an important alternative to planned creative sessions.Knowledge, understanding, and opportunity improve the chances of creativeevents in the team.Creativity can be stimulated by arranging the working environment. It is importantto have a room where everyone feels comfortable and encouraged to engagein interactions, discussions and debates. In practice it may be difficult tofind the ideal room, but good working environments and indeed a room whereViews can be easily represented will be a considerable help to teams usingEssence.Some experiments with students have run into problems with the physical layoutand arrangement of the rooms. Our rooms have been too small, with far toofew whiteboards, and the furniture tends to get in the way for the team memberinteraction. Ill suited rooms leads to fatigue and they severely limits the creativework in the team. We encourage our teams to take put furniture aside, to use5

posters on the walls for writing stuff, and to take frequent breaks and leave theroom whenever they can. The bottom line however is that rooms suited for creativeteams are of great importance for the process. Do all you can to make therooms supportive of the team efforts.Working creatively in a team depends heavily on culture - be that organizationalor societal - and methods to support team creativity and innovation should bein accordance with the values affecting the team. This book is written for a culturewith egalitarian and non-bureaucratic values. I believe these values are widespreadin Denmark but expect them to be found in many other countries and indeedcompanies as well.Diverse viewpoints are a potential source of inputs into the creative process,and ideal teams are interdisciplinary and span across business areas. In practice,teams are often less than ideal. For example most members of a software developmentteam will likely share a similar technical background. Such similarities aregreat for intra-team communications but they might limit the ability to apply alternativeviewpoints to a problem. A basic idea in Essence is therefore to help stimulatediversification in the team, even if a large part of the team members sharesimilar backgrounds.Summing up, Essence largely exploits two strategies:• Using diverse viewpoints in the team. This is why we emphasize usingspatial Views and personal Roles. By using the workspace to representvarious views and by emphasizing the roles as a source for personal focusand responsibility, I hope to facilitate a range of viewpoints on the challengeand how this challenge might be understood and addressed. Diverseviewpoints will help see a problem from different angles. Angles whichmay not all be immediately obvious let alone be appreciated and appliedby all members of the team.• Seeing maturation of ideas as a basic and evident work principle. Likemost human constructs, ideas have a life cycle where they develop andimprove over time. This evolutionary view on creativity and innovationwill hopefully stimulate the team in evaluating and refining ideas andarrive at mindful conclusions.Essence should contribute to work out a shared focus for the project and engageand activate the members of the team.The concepts of Views and Roles are simple but by no means trivial and theygive rise to confusion for many people using Essence for the first time. This is duenot only to the learning process but also to the need for adapting these conceptsto the specific project. Expect therefore to spend some time figuring out whatcould be represented in the four Views or how the Roles can be best adapted tothe particularities of your particular project.On the other hand, most of the tools and techniques in Essence are not hardto bring to life and should be fairly easy to implement in any project. Like for any6

other method this too will require translation as well as adaptation to the particularsituation, but this should come natural in most cases. Many teams are inspiredby agile principles and already work incrementally in self-organizing teams. Suchteams should find Essence fairly easy to use. Teams working within a more traditionaldevelopment framework will also find a number of the tools and techniquesrelatively straightforward to put into practice even if Roles, Views and the interactionsusing various forms of prototypes may be somewhat harder to exploitfully.Although my focus is on software development and systems developmentwhere software plays a role, I do believe that the toolbox of tools and techniquesand indeed the use of Roles and Views can be applied in areas other than softwaredevelopment. Many team-based development projects targeting products orprocesses will hopefully find part of this book useful, although some 'translation'of Views and Roles might be required.The book offers a selection of tools and techniques. These are not mandatory,nor is the sequence of them. Use what works for you, and if what you do fails togive results, feel free to adapt or replace the tool or technique in question.Essence is not thought as a step by step method for creating and refining ideas.What is core to Essence is the notion that techniques may be used in combinationsto expand on ideas, to get new ideas and additions, to refine and prunethem, and to evaluate their potential. Roles, Views, and Maturation are core tomy proposal, but how you use them is very much up to you.Over the years I have made a number of experiments involving my students.These experiments have shown that a 'heavy' method for creativity will not fly.This should come as no surprise as it resonates experiences from the fields ofsoftware engineering and software process improvement. Students - and likelymost engineering teams - tend to respond unfavorably when the method itselftakes the center stage. Essence therefore should be light and useful, not demandmuch from the team, not become a straightjacket for the process. I never wantedEssence to be a formalized method, but it has been quite hard for me to build alight method from the start. Formalizations seems to creep into the method andit is hard work to eliminate overly formal elements again. You may still findEssence too heavy for you, but I encourage you to help keep the method light andfun. Use improvisations and adaptations to Essence at all times to meet the conditionsof the moment and to ensure that the team is having fun. A good laugh isa great creativity booster.7

Part 2ViewsWe cannot conceive of matterbeing formed of nothing,since things require a seedto start from... Thereforethere is not anything whichreturns to nothing, but allthings return dissolved intotheir elementsWilliam Shakespeare(1564-1616)We use four views in Essence as one way to introduce a minimal degree of orderto the creative chaos that usually is part of idea generation processes.From Empedocles of Acragas (c. year 400 BC) we borrow the idea, that allmatter consists of four elements: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Therefore we splitthe project up into four distinct Views. Each view corresponds to a P in a 4Pmodel developed with inspiration from Software Engineering [refs from EJIS paper]and Innovation Theory (Tidd, Bessant, & Pavitt, 2005). The four Ps are:Product, Project, Process, and Paradigm.• Product innovation: Changes in the products or services offered by theorganization• Process innovation: Changes in how the products or services are createdor delivered• Position innovation: Changes in the context in which the products orservices are introduced• Paradigm innovation: Changes in the underlying mental models of theorganization19

Essence is about producing propositions for responses to the challenge posedby the customer. The four views are used for mapping and separating the challengeconcerns into four aspects:• Paradigm (how the challenge could be answered from a user or interfaceperspective;• Product (how the response is implemented);• Project (by who and when will the implementation be made); and• Process (describing a range of ways to develop and mature ideas for understandingthe challenge and invent possible responses).The views are used for a visual separation of concerns so that details and separateviewpoints can be addressed while maintaining an overview. Each view helpsto keep related concerns assembled and allows for using the remaining views torecord and consult topics related to any particular concern. This way the Viewsare meant to help the team work out details without loosing focus.Views should be a convenient way to split up a project in its essential aspects.Any major element in a development project belongs to one of these views, andtogether the four views therefore represent all major elements of a project. Youcan say that there is a part-whole relationship between the Views and the project.What they are used for:• Overview - getting the whole picture of the project• Separation - supporting a divide-and-conquer style of work without sacrificingcoherence• Combination - being able to take diverse aspects of a set of problems orsolutions into consideration at the same time• Collaboration - allowing team members to contribute interactively andsimultaneously as they see fitEach View should have its own dedicated board on a wall for writing notes,drawing sketches, etc. Splitting a complex project up logically and physically allowsteam members to dig into facets of a particular detail while maintaining anoverview at the same time. Even temporal inconsistencies between Views whileworking on a particular problem can be accepted. Such inconsistencies may befound and solved as the Views are contrasted later on.A project based on idea generation will involve scenario development, planning,and engineering. All of this will involve the application of a range of methods.We will only focus on methods for idea generation albeit in a fairly broadsense in this book.The Paradigm View sees the product or service being developed from the outside,i.e. from the perspective of the user or other outside viewpoints, for exampleinterfaces to outside system components. We will relate scenario development tothis View. The Paradigm View will often be the primary view when developingand expanding ideas or investigating challenges. Any idea - good or bad - relatedto the use and functioning of a product or service can be put in the Paradigm20

creativity.One further effect of this arrangement is that it serves to remind the team thatthey are in an environment dedicated to creativity and innovation, and not just aplain room. Team discussions with the aid of boards and possibly tangible prototypessupport creative work much better than discussions around the traditionalmeeting table. Eventual furniture should not obstruct the movements betweenboards while the team is developing ideas. If possible and needed, you shouldmove tables and the like to the walls to create an open space in the room.Learning to use Views is a bit of a pedagogical challenge. Deciding on where toput information is not a simple question of classifying something that already exists.Views are used for developing something, and typically Views are introducedas part of learning a technique for idea development. This means that the participantsmust learn to use the technique, develop information while they practicethis technique and simultaneously decide where to put this information and thengo on developing ides and information further. In this process it can be a hard tofind the most natural place for everything that comes up and quite often theseconcerns leads the creative process to a halt and some learners may see the Viewsmore as a distraction than a help for the creative work. We will see examples ofhow the Views are used in the following chapters and hopefully this will help lowerthe learning curve.The following chapters describe each of the four Views in Essence. We willdefine the View in question, describe what it could be used for, how it may beused, and finally point to some of the pitfalls that may cause problems when usingthe View.22

Part 4MaturationInnovation is not the productof logical thought, eventhough the final product istied to a logical structureAlbert Einstein(1879 - 1955)Creativity is about developing new ideas that are acceptable. An acceptable ideais one where there is congruence between content - what the idea is about - andcontext - the conditions under which the idea is to be implemented and used.One illustration of the importance of congruence is how high hopes for ideasconceived during off-site creativity workshops are often dashed upon returning toeveryday life. Many people experience problems in working on such ideas afterthey return from the workshop. We may see the everyday life as a creativitykiller, but the basic problem might be that the idea that sounded so well at theworkshop is hard to implement under practical conditions. Bringing home the baconis simply hard.This is one reason why Essence is intended for use in everyday work and not indiscrete events, and why ideas in Essence are mainly developed by those who willimplement them. Essence is an attempt to facilitate creativity as part of continuedproject work in a software team, including work on• Prototypes subjected to realistic use situations• System architecture• Project planning and feature prioritizationMaturation is about creating congruence so that the resulting idea may beimplementable.In Essence we see an idea as a work-in-progress. An expressed idea is just the80

status of the idea at that particular time. The idea itself develops as the teamlearns from experience, gets new insights or new input from its surroundings. Ittherefore makes little sense in Essence to see an idea as static or final as soon as itis conceived.Does that mean that ideas drift by the wind? Obviously not. The change of anidea is evolutionary - continuous - most of the time, so that the present idea is avariant of the idea that was a while ago. Sometimes ideas do change revolutionarywhen the team sees compelling reasons to change concepts discontinuously orsimply due to serendipity. Even such changes are often reasoned and follows fromteam discussions contrasting new and old ideas.We understand an idea as a thought or suggestion of a possible course of action.More formally we understand an idea as a claim stating that something should bedone. A claim has the property that it can be supported by evidence. Such evidencecan take the form of an argument. In other words, we can see an idea as areasoned suggestion to a possible course of action.By this brief discussion we have touched upon two important properties of anidea in Essence:1 Ideas should be reasoned, so that stakeholders can asses the quality ofthe idea and decide if they are convinced or not2 Ideas change over time, sometimes in great leaps, but most of the time insmall steps as the team progressesBecause of these two properties Essence sees idea development as a maturationprocess of ripening the idea until it is ready for implementation. This maturationrequires the team to be able to reason about the qualities of the idea. Wesee the idea - the suggestion of a possible course of action - as a claim to be reasonedabout using proper argumentation. This is why we suggest using the ToulminStructure explained in the coming chapter as model for expressing the mainidea of an Essence project.The maturation of ideas in Essence has similarities with sandboxing, i.e. gaugingan idea’s feasibility in a safe and cheap environment. Sandboxing is an importantlearning strategy widely used in the testing state of an idea’s life cycle. Thegauging takes place whenever use scenarios are developed, and whenever a usescenario gives reason to reconsider the system architecture or the feature list.Maturation may lead to the idea becoming more specialized, more general,more narrow, broader, combined with other ideas, etc. There are so many ways toachieve congruence between the content and the context of an idea, and maturationis about this development.81

Chapter 11Toulmin StructureHow wonderful that we havemet with a paradox. Now wehave some hope of makingprogressNiels Bohr(1885-1962)The Toulmin Structure in Essence is an argument model intended to give a structuredpresentation of an idea. The model is based on the Toulmin Model of Argumentation- which identifies the basic parts of an argument - developed by theBritish philosopher and logician, Stephen Toulmin (1922 - 2009).Toulmin sought to lay out an argument so that the sources of its validity wouldbe shown (Toulmin, 2003, p. 88). In his model, Toulmin identified a set of interrelatedelements of persuasive arguments for analyzing rhetorical arguments. Thismodel can be used for producing arguments as well in order to provide good justificationfor a claim. In Essence we use this model to communicate an idea anddiscuss the background and limitations of it.The Toulmin Structure is used to assemble a formulated argumentation for theproject idea - e.g. the product functionalities and the reasons for adopting it. TheToulmin structure is also used to see if an idea is matured enough to be decidedupon.The structure makes it possible to abstract a product or other kind of idea intoits main characteristics. This way, one can summarize a long development processin a few concentrated phrases that emphasize key features. The logical constructoffers an easy to understand structure while avoiding the technical details thatmay lead discussions to lose focus.The model therefore is also relevant for presenting ideas to people outside theteam, for example in situations where outsiders need to be convinced that theidea is solid. This way, the Toulmin Structure may serve as base for e.g. an elevatortest making the idea easily expressed and defended thanks to the structure ofthe argument.The model is organized so that an idea is surrounded by a set of components,statements of facts or propositions that justifies the idea, suggests how can it bedone, what needs to be taken care of, and if there are things which could curb thesuccess of the idea. The model makes the team think more about an idea whichat first could seem great or hopeless, but where a second look may help the team82

ealize its qualities.The Toulmin Structure in Essence - as the name suggests - is used to representthe idea in a more structured form, where each element in the model representsdifferent parts of an argument. In the context of innovation, this model can beused to systematically argue why an idea could be a solution to a given challenge.Working out the structure helps mature the idea since different aspects of thechallenge must be examined to construct a full argument. As the different elementsof the Toulmin Structure are filled in, it becomes clear if any part of the argumentationfor the solution is weak. Working on the Toulmin Structure overtime should therefore lead the team to reflect systematically over a challenge andpossible responses to it.The Toulmin Structure helps establishing overview over and building structureinto the idea development process. It may also help team members experienceaha moments - moments of sudden understanding, recognition, or resolution - asthe process unfolds and issues are discussed.The structure is also meant for supporting discussions with external stakeholdersto allow them asses if there is good justification for an idea.The figure below illustrates the Toulmin Structure and its elements.Design an integrated support systemfor virtual teams.The system should work as a portableteam roomChallenge1. Assuming that we have internetaccess.2. Assuming that communicationbreakdown will not involve seriousdata loss.3. Assuming we can find money fordevelopment of this system.We can represent parts of the workenvironment.Contents:- a collaborative suite of officeapplications- video and voice communicationwhenever possible- virtual reality compensations forcommunication limitationsGroundsQualifierIdeaWarrantRebuttalTeam members often want to be ableto collaborate as if they werecollocated.Co-working often implies co-editingdocuments in real time.Team members can usually go online.Available bandwidth may vary andexclude some forms ofcommunication.Great need; distributed work isincreasing all over the world.Safe co-edition of documents ispossible if revision control tools areused.Virtual reality technology canenhance the feeling of working in thesame room.1. Wireless internet access issupported almost anywhere2. The system can be designed tosupport local caching for offline work3. A host of standard components andservices will reduce developmentcostsThe rectangular shapes represent proper elements from Stephen Toulmin’s model,the circle represent the Challenge in Essence, and the grey octagonal shapesexplains the contents of the particular element.The elements in the model are:Challenge. This element defines the overall problem to be addressed – the Challengein Essence terms. The Challenge is not a proper part of Toulmin's modeland this is why it is shown with a shape different from the other elements. TheChallenge defines the context of the idea but not necessarily its scope. Thus anidea could in principle transcend the Challenge and offer a response that more83

than meets the Challenge. Such an idea would offer added benefits to a solutionover just solving the stated Challenge. More often the Challenge is so comprehensivethat the Idea can offer only a partial response to it. Such an idea wouldhopefully solve a major or at least an important part of the stated problem.One example of a Challenge could be to build a portable work room for virtualteams where members work across time, geographical space, and perhaps evenacross organizational boundaries. Since this is a huge Challenge, a possible responsecould limit the scope to focus specifically on the shared work environmentin virtual teams. The proper Toulmin elements in the model should honor thismore limited scope and offer justification for the Idea within this scope.The choice of scope for an idea relative to the Challenge is a matter of judgmentand may not be part of any systematic argumentation. That the idea is indeeda response to the Challenge is the responsibility of the Challenger.Grounds. This element is where facts are presented as problem statements. Inour example it could be expressed needs for collaboration over distance, the needfor co-editing documents, availability of internet access, and the limitations inavailable bandwidth due to particular circumstances. Further grounds could detailwhy it is hard to maintain a group mentality over distances, that body languageand other nonverbal gestures are hard to transmit and interpret over mail andtelephone conversations, which is a significant problem for maintaining a groupmentality in virtual teams.This element provides a basis for the claim by offering evidence and reasoningbehind the Idea. It is the reality upon which the Idea is based. This reality isbased on perception and therefore not necessarily an indisputable truth, yet itshould reflect reality to the best of the teams knowledge. If this condition is notmet - if the grounds are questioned - the grounds turns to claims that should beargued in their own right. Such recursion may impede progress in the team andshould often be avoided.Idea. The Idea element corresponds to Toulmin’s claim and presents a proposed- possibly partial - solution to the Challenge, for example that distant groupwork could be supported via collaborative office tool suites, via voice and videocommunication, and via virtual reality compensations for limitations in the communication.See the discussion above about how Idea and Challenge are related.Warrant. The Warrant element links the Grounds to the Idea by arguing therelevance of the Grounds and thereby legitimizing the Idea. The warrant generallyoperates at more general level compared to the Idea and the Ground. In ourexample, a Warrant could point out the increasing need for such solutions, theavailability of core technologies for safe collaboration and for compensation ofthe problems related to distributed teamwork.Qualifier. The Qualifier indicates the strength of the leap from the Grounds tothe Warrant element. Although the Grounds may already have reduced the scopeof the Challenge significantly, the Idea may still not be a universal response to the84

problems stated in the Grounds element. Qualifiers may limit how universally theIdea applies. In our example the Qualifier may point to access requirements,identified risks when exchanging data across distance, and development costs relatedto needed technologies.Rebuttal. Rebuttals are introduced as counter arguments to the concerns raisedin the Qualifier. The Rebuttal element forces the team to think about obviousdrawbacks with the solution they are working on, and how they can be countered.In our example the team could point to the diverse ways of accessing the internetpractically everywhere; how data loss can be prevented; and how standard solutionsalready exist to help keep development costs down.11.1. Working with the Toulmin StructureThe Toulmin Structure belongs to the Project View as it defines the main idea ofthe project. This idea tells why the project is and what it is about. The idea willbe redefined as the project matures, but the Toulmin Structure always representsthe raison d'être for the project as it is currently understood. The overall featuresand general priorities are rooted in this model.The Challenger calls the shots, so he has the final say on the idea and thereforealso the main responsibility for the Toulmin Structure. Still, the Challenger is farfrom the only rôle to contribute to the model. Apart from the contributions byeach team member based on his or hers personal knowledge and insights, theteam members may interact in discussions over the model attacking the weakpoints of the model and resolving the issues identified in the model.The ideas for a project should not be limited in scope to what was in focus duringan initial brainstorm. Ideas are generated and refined during the wholeproject. Idea development requires reflections and involvement, seeing a problemfrom many angles using the insights from more people. Seen in a process perspective,the aim is to ensure that relevant knowledge is brought to the table, but alsoto ensure that the process increases the qualities sought in the project - in otherwords that the changes an idea undergoes, overall are to the better. The processtherefore should support that knowledge available is brought to bear on the ideaand satisfactorily included in the solution.The Toulmin Structure is a work in progress throughout the project. By slowlyexpanding the structure, the team members are made to ask questions that theynot necessarily would have thought of otherwise, and hereby considering theirproject and process from different perspectives.By supporting a move from detailed to overall perspectives, from representationto evaluation, from rules to exceptions, from reservations to rebuttals, theToulmin Structure helps reflect on the qualities - and indeed limitations - of aproposed solution or strategy.85

Chapter 13Specific Techniquesquote13.1. IntroductionTypes of techniques, what to use them for, how they work, how to apply them.Use of RolesUse of ViewsCheat Sheet89

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What we want to know now, is how this tool has made you happy, successful,safe, or whatever you think describes the benefits from having this tool best.When we know that, we want to focus on how the tool was actually built.Method descriptionThe basic principle is to imagine that a problem has been solved, an outcome hasbeen achieved, and look back to ‘explain’ how this was accomplished and identifythe significant steps leading to this result. This approach makes you focus onsolutions.ChallengerThe Responders will interview about the main qualities of the tool. You will describethese qualities via examples of where, when, and how the tool is used. Youwill describe or draw use scenarios on the Paradigm View as you answer questionsand explain to the Respondents. Whenever you identify features - big or small -in the tool, you will briefly list those on the Project View and return to the ParadigmView.Responders and AnchorYou start out by interviewing the Challenger about how this tool has improveddealing with the challenge.Working at the Paradigm View, you and the Challenger together identify situationswhere the tool is particularly useful, and you discuss these situations in detailto understand how the tool works.Whenever you identify constraints or possibilities for the product architecture,you note this briefly on the Product View and return to the Paradigm View.Together with the Challenger you discover use scenarios at the ParadigmView.In the last part of the session your focus shifts to remembering how your teamsucceeded in building the tool:• How did you accomplish it?• What were the significant steps?• Which were the major breakthroughs?The whole team will try to remember how they did it. Whenever a Respondersee implications for the system or software architecture he or she will note thison the Product View. Likewise the Challenger will note core features on theProject View.Whenever remembering how the tool was built changes your ideas of how theproduct is used, you will revise the Paradigm View accordingly.91

DeliverablesAfter the Backward Mapping session the Challenger, the Responders, and theAnchor will have an initial understanding of use scenarios, architectural aspects,and features.13.3. Use CriteriaIntroductionFollowing the Backward Mapping session you have identified a range of ideas foryour project, possibly pointing to• Superior features• Excellent technological solutions• New ways of working with the challengeThe question now is how to prune these ideas to get a smaller number of ideas.Which ideas are the most promising?Method descriptionStart by reviewing the three views used during Backward Mapping: Identify theoverall ideas - those that could serve as cornerstones in your response to the Challenge.We will call these overall ideas for Claims.To identify the most promising Claims, we need to apply criteria defining thequalities we seek to obtain. One option is to use two axes in a system of coordinatesand plot the Claims in this system. Examples of axes could be:• How interesting is the idea?• How unique?• How likely are we to succeed?• What impact will the idea have?• How expensive?• How long will it take to build?Define your system of coordinates such that the most attractive Claims will bein the upper-right corner. Use the Process View for the evaluation.Choose two criteria - not necessarily those listed above - and plot your Claimsaccordingly. Select the three Claims that are most promising according to the systemof coordinates.92

Challenger, Responders, and AnchorYou will all work together throughout this session.DeliverablesAfter the Use Criteria session you will have a list of three Claims. Your Claimsmay come directly from the Backward Mapping session, or they may be refinedduring this session.Use of ViewsProcess: Criteria applied to Claims13.4. Six Serving MenIntroductionAfter Block 2 you have one Claim scrutinized for weaknesses. Now it is time tofocus on the main features of your product and see if they are well understood.For this we will use the classic questions known from Kipling’s poem:I keep six honest serving-men(They taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and WhenAnd How and Where and Who...Method descriptionUse the feature list based on the Claim identified in Block 2.Apply the Six Serving Men questions to the Claim - e.g. using these questions:• Who (will use these features? e.g. manager, developer, or customer) (ParadigmView)• What (which components and architectures?) (Product View)• Where (are the main features used?) (Paradigm View)• When (should components be available?) (Project View)• Why (are these main features needed?) (Project View)• How (is a feature used?) (Paradigm View)Be elaborate in your answers - provide details when needed. Use the questionsto identify weaknesses and holes in your understanding of the features.93

ChallengerWork with the rest of the team in this session. Revise the feature list on theProject view as you go along.Responders and AnchorWork with the Challenger in this session. Identify technological alternatives andarchitectural elements on the Product View.DeliverablesA more complete understanding of the main features.Use of ViewsSee the Method Description above.13.5. SCAMPERIntroductionThe purpose of this session is to revise, expand, and mature the Claims using theSCAMPER method. SCAMPER helps us expand ideas and find inspiration inearlier solutions to problems.• Try to use questions from all of the 7 categories in SCAMPER• Feel free to revise or expand existing ideas, delete Claims, or add newClaimsMethod descriptionSCAMPER assumes that everything new is based on something already existing.New ideas, products, services etc. can be developed by taking a subject andchange it into something new. There are seven ways to ask questions that canprovoke new ideas:S = SubstituteC = CombineA = AdaptM = Magnify94

P = Put to Other UsesE = Eliminate (or Minify)R = Rearrange (or Reverse)For any of the Claims use the SCAMPER Random Question Tool for generatingnew or modified Claims. Do not censor your ideas and try to elaborate anyidea by looking for alternatives to how to do things or indeed what to do in thetool.ChallengerWork with the rest of the team at the Paradigm View developing the use scenariosfurther. Note new features on the Project view as you go along.Responders and AnchorWork at the Paradigm View on the use scenarios. Identify technological alternativesand architectural elements on the Product View.DeliverablesAfter the SCAMPER session your Claims from are matured and you have possiblycome up with more Claims..Use of ViewsProduct: Technological alternatives and architectural elementsProject: Feature listParadigm: Mature use scenarios13.6. EvaluationIntroductionFollowing the SCAMPER session you have revised and refined the Claims foryour project to a more mature stage. The question again is how to prune theseClaims to get a smaller number: Which Claims now hold most potential?Method descriptionWe will use 2 evaluation methods in this session:95

Label itLabel each Claim after feasibility:• Excellent (will almost certainly succeed)• Likely (needs further refinement)• Possible chance (needs improvement)• 50/50 (could go either way)• Long shot (remote chance of success)Remove or improve the least feasible Claims.Result: The least feasible Claims are discarded.PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting)Prepare a table where each remaining Claim is characterized by their positive,negative, and interesting aspects.• In the ‘plus’ column list all of the Claim’s positive features• In the ‘negative’ column list all of its negative features• In the ‘interesting’ column list everything that is worth noting but is notclearly a positive or negative feature.Choose the best Claim based on your assessment of the PMI findings.Challenger, Responders, and AnchorYou will work together throughout the evaluation session.DeliverablesAfter the Evaluation session you will have selected the best Claim and listedPMI findings for it in your Process View. This Claim may come directly from theSCAMPER session, or it might be refined during the discussions in this session.Use of ViewsProcess: PMI findings for the ideas13.7. Elevator PitchIntroduction96

The classic way to validate the product vision is to answer the elevator test: “Canyou explain your product in the time it takes to ride up in an elevator?” This testleads to a product vision that is clear, engaging, and brief.Here we want to use the Elevator Test to help produce the final product visionfor your product.A product vision helps team members pass the elevator test – the ability to explainthe project to someone within two minutes. It comes from GeoffreyMoore's book Crossing the Chasm. It follows this form:• For (target customer)• Who (statement of the need or opportunity)• The (product name) is a (product category)• That (key benefit, compelling reason to buy)• Unlike (primary competitive alternative)• Our product (statement of primary differentiation)ChallengerYou will do the writing. The Elevator Pitch is your responsibility and property.Responders and AnchorWork with the Challenger in this session. Help ensure that the pitch matcheswhat is on the Paradigm and Product Views.DeliverablesThe final product vision.Main view to useProject97

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