Coaching culture model as a driver for a successful team management

Current fast-paced environment challenges companies to shift the focus of business away from control, power and micromanagement towards personal and professional progression by learning and upskilling practices, as well as nurturing leadership competencies, in order to stay competitive. Coaching has been considered a practice that enables businesses to facilitate growth, assist learning, thus getting to a safe environment pushing self-confidence, mutual support, creativity, multicultural communication. Yet, there is a lack of clarity on what coaching represents as a phenomenon, as well as how exactly companies can benefit from it and, if they can, which formats are the most efficient in which cases. Moreover, it is not enough to develop and implement a set of separate coaching practices - in order to see the qualitative outcomes, coaching culture model should be developed and applied. Therefore, this study takes a step forward in the understanding of coaching culture framework, develop a coaching culture model and see how it can be useful within the corporate environment. Theoretical base for this research consists of coaching theories by Whitmore, Bachkirova, Cox, Clutterbuck, Jakonen, Vesso, Alas as well as other authors, such as Wolf, Rosha, Lace etc. who studied factors impacting coaching process and its outcomes. Change management models by Lewin and others are used for coaching culture model implementation planning. The empirical analysis was made with qualitative research. The case company participating in the research went through the company-wide questionnaire, while a few team members completed the semi-structured interviews. The activities were made before and after the coaching culture model was implemented in the company. The conclusion of the study is that coaching culture model has a positive effect on the team management process. The final version of the model ensures that by addressing the following aspects: having structured processes towards agile and team metrics’ establishments (Objectives and Key Results, Key Performance Indicators etc.), waterfalling practices from the leadership team as the starting point and towards the rest of the teams, making sure applied practices are customized for each particular team to ensure its full efficiency, encouraging commitment and engagement, thus boosting employees’ potential. These results are discussed by formulating the theoretical and practical implications of the research, limitations and suggestions for further research on the topic

Which research in design creativity and innovation? Let us not forget the reality of companies

Studying design creativity and innovation from practical perspectives for companies requires both a good understanding of the company ecosystem and its inner processes contributing to delivered innovations and a rigorous design research methodology to provide effective design models, methods, platforms that are truly effective in the context of company. Working in an Industrial Engineering laboratory, we advocate a more systemic vision of design creativity and innovation in company ecosystems. We present in this paper an attempt to develop and make professional an innovation engineering. Our research works are illustrated along the different research topics of an innovation process. We start by a recent survey on innovation practice and organizational models led in 28 large companies. The lessons learned about this survey reinforce our belief that there is a need for a new method in agile management of radical innovation projects in company contexts. We currently develop, test and apply such a methodology named: Radical Innovation Design(RID). Its effectiveness has been evaluated through a large scale evaluation of the project outcomes for the company. Two extensions of RID have been proposed and deployed in company contexts: a selection procedure for innovation clusters and a value-driven process for airplane development projects

Käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattaminen suunnittelukäytännöillä ketterissä sovelluskehitysprojekteissa

Modern software development aims to produce valuable digital solutions by benefiting from customer- and user-centred agility. These can be supported by design practices, with which user understanding can be deepened. The goal of this thesis was to study how design practices can help small companies to increase their user understanding in agile software development projects. The empirical study was conducted as an insider action research. In this study, four design practices were tested: semi-structured interviews, user stories, scenarios, and prototyping. The four design practices helped to increase user understanding, by explaining who the users are, why they use the product, and how they use it. Semi-structured interviews helped to discover users’ values and motivations to use the current and future versions of the product. User stories allowed for creative thinking and writing of perceived user needs in a clear sentence. Scenarios described realistic stories of users. The stories gave details of the user, their interactions, circumstances, goals, and environment. Prototyping was used alongside the other three design practices to help the users feel and test the product. Testing the product in real context allowed for spontaneous idea creation for system improvement. The results of this thesis indicate that a small company could use semi-structured interviews, user stories, scenarios, and prototyping to increase user understanding in agile software development projects. Increasing user understanding requires careful selection of design practices. The design practices should provide detailed information about who the users are, what their needs and motivations are, and how they would use a product.Nykyaikainen ohjelmistokehitys pyrkii tuottamaan arvokkaita digitaalisia ratkaisuja hyödyntäen asiakas- ja käyttäjäkeskeistä ketteryyttä. Näitä tukevat suunnittelukäytännöt, joilla syvennetään käyttäjäymmärrystä. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli tutkia, kuinka suunnittelukäytännöt voivat auttaa pieniä yrityksiä kasvattamaan käyttäjäymmärrystä ketterissä ohjelmistokehityksen projekteissa. Empiirinen tutkimus toteutettiin toimintatutkimuksena, jonka toteuttaja oli diplomityön tekijä. Tutkimuksessa testattiin neljää suunnittelukäytäntöä: puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja, käyttäjätarinoita, skenaarioita ja prototypointia. Nämä suunnittelukäytännöt auttoivat käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattamisessa. Käyttäjäymmärryksellä selitetään tuotteen käyttäjäryhmät, syyt tuotteen käytölle ja kuinka tuotetta käytetään. Puolistrukturoidut haastattelut auttoivat löytämään käyttäjien arvoja ja motivaatioita tuotteen nyky- ja tulevien versioiden käytölle. Käyttäjätarinat sallivat luovaa ajattelua ja havaittujen käyttäjätarpeiden kirjoittamista selkeinä lauseina. Skenaarioilla kuvattiin realistisia tarinoita käyttäjistä. Tarinoissa kuvattiin yksityiskohtaisesti käyttäjät, heidän vuorovaikutukset, olosuhteet, tavoitteet ja ympäristö. Prototypointia käytettiin kolmen muun suunnittelukäytäntöjen ohessa testauksen ja kokeilun tukena. Tuotteen testaus oikeassa kontekstissa mahdollisti spontaanin tuotekehitysideoinnin. Tämän työn tulokset viittaavat siihen, että pienet yritykset voisivat käyttää puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja, käyttäjätarinoita, skenaarioita ja prototypointia käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattamiseen ketterissä ohjelmistokehitysprojekteissa. Käyttäjäymmärryksen kasvattaminen vaatii käytettävien suunnittelukäytäntöjen huolellista valintaa. Niiden tulee vastata yksityiskohtaisesti siihen, keitä käyttäjät ovat, mitkä ovat heidän tarpeensa ja motivaationsa sekä kuinka he käyttävät tuotetta

Communication tools used by distributed teams in a BIM learning project

The constant changes in the world market demand flexible and fluid organizational structures, such as rotating and engaging human effort, to provide high performance. Therefore, organizations make use of distributed multicultural teams, meetings, and online lead projects. However, these social categorization processes can become a disadvantage if trigger potential conflicts during task performance. Distributed teams can also be difficult to manage, and their members can face extra adversities in communication. Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry (AEC), is a context where the use of distributed teams is growing significantly, particularly through the enabling features of Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodologies. This paper was aimed at the diagnosis of communication behaviour in distributed teams in the context of a PBL methodology that requested students to work in distributed teams on two distinct locations. For that, the authors managed a workshop on Lean Project Management and Collaborative Tools in the European Master in Building Information Modelling (BIM A+) using a Lego for Scrum activity, adapted to a team of students distributed in Portugal and Slovenia. After that, nine distributed teams of students had to design exposition pavilions in BIM platform and using collaborative tools. At the end, each team had to present the project for the entire body of students and faculty, located in Guimaraes (Portugal) and Ljubljana (Slovenia).- (undefined

Data Analysis Methods for Software Systems

Using statistics, econometrics, machine learning, and functional data analysis methods, we evaluate the consequences of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemics for wage inequality and unemployment. We deduce that these two indicators mostly reacted to the first lockdown from March till June 2020. Also, analysing wage inequality, we conduct analysis separately for males and females and different age groups.We noticed that young females were affected mostly by the lockdown.Nevertheless, all the groups reacted to the lockdown at some level