Arup Workshop

Frontstage vs. Backstage  Service components are broken down into frontstage and backstage, depending on whether the customers sees them or not. Think of a theater performance. The audience sees everything in front of the curtain: the actors, costumes, orchestra, and set. However, behind the curtain there is a whole ecosystem: the director, stage hands, lighting coordinators, and set designers. 

The GE-McKinsey nine-box matrix A systematic approach for the multibusiness corporation to prioritize investments among its business units

The nine-box matrix offers a systematic approach for the decentralized corporation to determine where best to invest its cash. Rather than rely on each business unit's projections of its future prospects, the company can judge a unit by two factors that will determine whether it's going to do well in the future: the attractiveness of the relevant industry and the unit’s competitive strength within that industry.

Placement of business units within the matrix provides an analytic map for managing them. With units above the diagonal, a company may pursue strategies of investment and growth; those along the diagonal may be candidates for selective investment; those below the diagonal might be best sold, liquidated, or run purely for cash. Sorting units into these three categories is an essential starting point for the analysis, but judgment is required to weigh the trade-offs involved. For example, a strong unit in a weak industry is in a very different situation than a weak unit in a highly attractive industry.

The ideas of Agile are great. It’s the way it has been codified into rituals and certifications, and rolled out mindlessly that misses the point.

When people talk about Lean, the conversation often ends at process optimization, waste, and quality, and misses so much of what the Lean mindset offers.

Design Thinking is held high as the new magic trick of design facilitators.

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Design Thinking is how we explore and solve problems; Lean is our framework for testing our beliefs and learning our way to the right outcomes, and Agile is how we adapt to changing conditions with software.

Hype Cycle Trend No. 1: 

Composite architectures In the face of rapid changes and decentralization, organizations need to shift to more agile, responsive architectures. A composite architecture is made up of packaged business capabilities built on a flexible data fabric. This allows the enterprise to respond to rapidly changing business needs.  

 For example, a “composable enterprise” supported by a composite architecture offers increased business resilience. This modular design enables organizations to “recompose” when needed, like during a global pandemic or economic recession. The composable enterprise has four core principles: Modularity, efficiency, continuous improvement and adaptive innovation. Although many organizations apply these principles in a piecemeal fashion, a composable enterprise applies all four across all parts of its organization — from business models to how employees work. 

This report aims to provide an objective framework for city regions to think about connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and the approaches they might take to them. It looks at CAVs from the perspective of city region transport authorities in the context of their wider objectives and responsibilities; it recognises that vehicles are becoming increasingly connected and autonomous; and that the range of connected and autonomous vehicles goes beyond just cars to include buses and public service vehicles. It also analyses the safety, economic, social and environmental considerations of CAVs.

An unstoppable business revolution is under way--and it is Agile. Sparking dramatic improvements in quality, innovation, and speed-to-market, the Agile movement has helped companies both large and small learn to connect everyone and everything . . . all the time.With rapidly evolving consumer needs and technology that is that is being updated quicker than ever before, businesses are recognizing how vitally essential it is adapt. And adapt quickly. The Agile movement enables a team, unit, or enterprise to nimbly acclimate and upgrade products and services to meet these constantly changing needs.

(via The Age of Agile :HarperCollins Australia)

Common practices of agile small teams

Work in small batches

Small cross-functional teams

Limited work in process

Autonomous teams

Getting to done

Work without interruption

Daily standups

Radical transparency

Customer feedback each cycle

Retrospective reviews

» https://www.amazon.com.au/Age-Agile-Smart-Companies-Transforming-ebook/dp/B072J5XPTP

A short version: 

Small batches of work are delivered in a cycle-based working mode by empowered and co-ordinated cross-functional project teams.  

To date, there is no model in service design research that offers a comprehensive analysis and structure of the influencing factors in the implementation of projects. Based on the empirical results, the KUER model was developed, consisting of four phases and main activities (see Figure 1). KUER stands for ‘Key Prerequisites’, ‘Understand & Discover’, ‘Enable & Define’ and ‘Reinforce & Deliver’. In addition, Figure 2 presents the factors and their relationships. Looking at the KUER process model, it becomes apparent that the entire process begins with the clarification in Phase 1 (‘Key Prerequisites’), but that the phases do not have to follow each other linearly because setbacks and feedback must be taken into account. In Phase 2 (‘Understand and Discover’) a temporary project organisation (‘safe space = physical and mental space for new ideas and thoughts unfamiliar to the organisation and co-creative working’) is set up and extensive diagnostics are carried out. Users, the client organisation and economic parameters must be analysed. Solutions developed in Phase 3 (‘Enable and Define’) are tested in rapid cycles with users, employees and relevant stakeholders and evaluated at decision nodes using a three-dimensional selection mechanism. As activities to support the process and its orientation are used iteratively as required, the transition to the integration Phase 4 (‘Reinforce and Deliver’) is seamless.

Machine Intelligence Garage Ethics Committee has created an Ethical Framework consisting of seven concepts, along with corresponding questions intended to inform how they may be applied in practice.

Be clear about the benefits of your product or service

Know and manage your risks

Use data responsibly

Be worthy of trust

Promote diversity, equality and inclusion

Be open and understandable in communications

I’ve recently obtained the 2018 Standish Group Chaos Study results which show Waterfall and Agile project success and failure rates. It should come as no surprise that Agile projects are statistically 2X more likely to succeed, and 1/3 less likely to fail than waterfall projects. Read on for the most current statistics from the Standish Group Chaos Studies which back this up.

As awareness and capability grows for service design, more and more people are talking about “service experiences.” We are “designing for service experiences,” we are “delivering service experiences,” and we are “experiencing services.” But what makes up a service experience? What is this “lifecycle” thing all about?

An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of Global Warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels and related greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

Carlo Ratti, MIT professor and global leader in city design, says people should embrace “good density”, arguing efficient use of space fostered greater human interaction and growth in new digital-inspired industries.

Electric vehicles are no longer a thing of the future, and manufacturing processes are catching up to propulsion technology. Composite materials like carbon fiber can be found in many mass-produced cars, but construction is still based on the traditional assembly line. German 3D printing company BigRep has unveiled the Nera, an electric motorcycle that is completely — you guessed it — 3D-printed. 

Who makes a Facebook meme group about trains? The Numtots, that’s who: a global network of millennials who want to make cities better