Insegnamento a.a. 2024-2025

20761 - DESIGN THINKING AND AGILE METHODOLOGY

Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English
Insegnamento riservato agli studenti CEMS

Student consultation hours
Class timetable
Exam timetable
Go to class group/s: 31
IM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/10)
Course Director:
MARCO SAMPIETRO

Classes: 31 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: MARCO SAMPIETRO


Suggested background knowledge

None

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Fierce competition, shorter product life-cycles, new technologies, new paradigms and change in the customer values are variables organizations have to deal with. The impact, from an organizational perspective, is pressure to innovate and ability to adapt. Design thinking and Agile are two effective ways to reply to those requests. Design thinking, also known as human-centered design, has changed the way organizations develop products, build markets, and solve problems. These methods are now important tools for individual contributors, managers, and executives. In the the course, students will learn how to facilitate effective design thinking processes from beginning to end. Agile is changing the way organizations react to changes and implement new or improved products and services. Agile can be used both with an opportunistic and a strategic approach. During the course, students will have a proper and realistic understanding of Agile and will learn how to apply Agile.

CONTENT SUMMARY

  • Market and customer discovery “sprints”
  • Design thinking problem definition
  • Ideation tools and techniques
  • Prototyping tools like Balsamiq and InVision
  • Customer feedback gathering tactics
  • The new paradigm of Agile
  • Agile framework: Scrum
  • Agile at scale
  • Agile organization
  • Working with Agile teams
  • Using tools suitable for Agile such as Trello

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Explain the basic principles of human-centered design.
  • Describe how design thinking relates to lean, agile, and six sigma
  • Explain the values and principles of Agile
  • Describe how Agile works and how it should be implemented

 

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Conduct design research interviews and observations with customers
  • Use a “lean canvas” to define an opportunity and problem
  • Generate many ideas about solving a problem using ideation techniques
  • Prototype product ideas quickly and cheaply using InVision and Balsamiq
  • Test prototyped products with customers
  • Define effective “potentially shippable products” through prioritization
  • Estimate effort in an Agile setting
  • Ste-up and work in an Agile team
  • Set-up Agile at scale

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Individual assignments
  • Group assignments
  • Interactive class activities on campus/online (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

DETAILS

  • Exercises on specific tools and methodologies related to Design Thinking and Agile
  • Individual assignments, to improve the deep understanding of the topics
  • Group assgnment, as before, to improve the deep understanding of the topics 
  • Case studies to understand the structure of Agile organizations
  • Interactive class activities (role playing, simulation, instant polls) will be used to ask for the opinion of the class on some subjectcs and to simulate Design Thinking and Agile

Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
    x
  • Individual assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
    x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

The final grade will be the composition of 3 elements: 

  • In class group assignments (40% of the final grade). This assessment method evaluates the ability to apply Design Thinking and Agile Methodologies in practice and it is related to all the Applying Knowledge and Understanding ILOs. 
  • Final individual exam (20% of the final grade). This assessment method is mainly related to Knowledge and Understanding ILOs since it will evaluate the understanding of the basic principles of human-centered design, the relationships between design thinking and lean, agile, and six sigma, the Agile values, principles and practices. 
  • Final individual assignment (40% of the final grade). The final individual assignment consists of the application of design thinking and agile to an a new product/service or a product/service improvement. This assessment method evaluates the ability to apply Design Thinking and Agile Methodologies in practice and it is related to all the Applying Knowledge and Understanding ILOs with the exception of setting-up and work in an Agile teams and setting-up Agile at scale. 

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The final grade will be the composition of 2 elements: 

  • Final individual exam (50% of the final grade). This assessment method is mainly related to Knowledge and Understanding ILOs since it will evaluate the understanding of the basic principles of human-centered design, the relationships between design thinking and lean, agile, and six sigma, the Agile values, principles and practices. 
  • Final individual assignment (50% of the final grade) 
    The final individual assignment consists of the application of design thinking and agile to an a new product/service or a product/service improvement. This assessment method evaluates the ability to apply Design Thinking and Agile Methodologies in practice and it is related to all the Applying Knowledge and Understanding ILOs with the exception of setting-up and work in an Agile teams and setting-up Agile at scale. 

Teaching materials


ATTENDING STUDENTS

Doorley, S., Holcomb, S., Klebhan, P., Segovia, K., Utley, J. (2018). The Design Thinking Bootleg. Stanford University School of Design, cards 1-30

Kim, Daniel. “Palette of Systems Thinking Tools.” (2018). The Systems Thinker.

Zawadzka, A. and Zawadzki, L. (2021) The user-centered design canvas.

Rigby D. K., Sutherland J., Takeuchi, H. (2016) Embracing Agile, HBR.

Schwaber, K., Sutherland, J. (2020). The Scrum GuideTM.

How do you estimate on an Agile project? ThoughtWorks®, 2013

Sampietro, M. (2021). A Brief Guide to Trello. Università Bocconi

Acharya, B.; Palacios, R.C. (2019). A Systematic Literature Review on Autonomous Agile Teams. 19th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (ICCSA).

Shastri, Y.; Hoda, R.; Amor, R. (2017). Understanding the Roles of the Manager in Agile Project Management. ISEC '17: Proceedings of the 10th Innovations in Software Engineering Conference, February 2017

Sampietro, M. (2021). Agile at Scale. SDA Bocconi School of Management.

Brosseau, D.; Ebrahim, S.; Handscomb, C.; Thaker, S. (2019). The journey to an agile organization. McKinsey&Company.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

All the readings of the attending students, in addition:

Marsh, S. (2022). User research: second edition. Kogan Page. Read chapters: 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26

Klein, L. (2016). Build better products: a modern approach to building successful user-centered products. Rosenfeld. Read chapters: 5, 6, 9, 10, 11

Cohn, M. (2005). Agile Estimating and Planning. Prentice Hall.  It IS NOT necessary to read chapters: 5, 8, 10, 12, 17, 21, 22, 23

Last change // :