All of the above practices and processes are based on the principles and values of Lean Thinking, Empiricism and Metrics, and The Agile Manifesto.

Empirical Data/Metrics

Without empirical data and metrics, decisions will be made with incomplete or erroneous information. "Empiricism 1 asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed."

Lean Thinking

Based on Lean Thinking in manufacturing, we can eliminate waste by mapping our processes and identifying areas of improvement. "The Lean-Agile Mindset 1 is the combination of beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, and actions of SAFe leaders and practitioners who embrace the concepts of the Agile Manifesto and Lean thinking. It’s the personal, intellectual, and leadership foundation for adopting and applying SAFe principles and practices." "Lean thinking 2 reduces waste and focuses on the essentials."

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly

Eliminate Waste: Eliminate features, requirements and processes that do not bring value to an end-user
Create Knowledge: Show organizational commitment to knowledge sharing through training, code reviews, pair programming, project documentation, sharing sessions and more.
Build Quality In: Create focus on developing quality in the product and keep on enhancing the development process to reduce defects.
Deliver Rapidly: Focus on delivering software as fast as possible at the highest possible quality. Create stable workflows based on shared understanding of the process.
Empower Teams: Examine failures by checking for gaps in the process rather than looking at individuals as the problem. Allow innovative freedom for teams to identify the best processes and tools.
Delay in Making Decisions: Make decisions at the "Last Responsible Moment" by keeping options open and to learn and gain more knowledge
Optimize the Whole: Focus on the entire value stream from start to finish to eliminate waste and enable faster delivery of value. Sub-optimization of parts of the system may be necessary to optimize the system as as a whole.

If you can achieve your goals with a single team, do not scale. Employ the minimum number of people required to meet your strategic outcomes.
If you have a single team and it cannot deliver effectively using Agile principles and practices, do not scale. Succeed with a single team first.
Respect, trust, and be kind to your people; foster a climate of open, honest, rapid, and empathetic communication.
Continuously reflect and improve across all levels and maintain focus on the whole; prioritize collective high performance over the performance of any individual team.
Keep teams and their work loosely coupled to preserve flexibility; minimize handoffs and dependencies with cross-functional teams and clearly decomposed work.
Radiate information between and among teams to develop shared understanding and promote asynchronous communication; create visibility across the entire work system.
Aim for a minimally viable bureaucracy and nothing more; effective and repeatable practices, policies, and procedures will emerge as you scale.
Decentralize decision-making; push authority to teams so that they can quickly take advantage of emerging opportunities.
Prioritize experimentation for each individual team over conformity across the organization. Celebrate the learning that comes from experimentation—successes and failures—across all teams.
Ensure each team is working towards the shared vision and delivering real value regularly and consistently. Demonstrate progress with frequent validations by stakeholders.

The Testing Manifesto

We value:

Testing throughout OVER testing at the end.
Preventing bugs OVER finding bugs.
Testing understanding OVER testing functionality.
Building the best system OVER breaking the system.
Team responsibility for quality OVER tester responsibility.

Human-centered design (HCD) is an intentional process in which the needs, motivations, and limitations of the people using a product or service are considered. The HCD process focuses on user needs and characteristics, usability goals, environment, tasks, and workflow in the research and design of a product and the services that enable it.

As a public organization that promotes civic engagement and seeks to fulfill the charge of OMB Circular A-11 Section 280 (i.e., “Managing Customer Experience and Service Delivery”), CCSQ ISG expects product teams to share this responsibility and find ways to regularly engage with and solicit end user feedback throughout the entire product development lifecycle. ISG recognizes that success is defined, not only by achieving business value through met business requirements, but by delivering high value (i.e., usable and desirable) solutions that meet or exceed the needs and goals of their end users.

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Foundational Values

Empirical Data/Metrics

Lean Thinking

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly

If you can achieve your goals with a single team, do not scale. Employ the minimum number of people required to meet your strategic outcomes.

If you have a single team and it cannot deliver effectively using Agile principles and practices, do not scale. Succeed with a single team first.

Respect, trust, and be kind to your people; foster a climate of open, honest, rapid, and empathetic communication.

Continuously reflect and improve across all levels and maintain focus on the whole; prioritize collective high performance over the performance of any individual team.

Keep teams and their work loosely coupled to preserve flexibility; minimize handoffs and dependencies with cross-functional teams and clearly decomposed work.

Radiate information between and among teams to develop shared understanding and promote asynchronous communication; create visibility across the entire work system.

Aim for a minimally viable bureaucracy and nothing more; effective and repeatable practices, policies, and procedures will emerge as you scale.

Decentralize decision-making; push authority to teams so that they can quickly take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Prioritize experimentation for each individual team over conformity across the organization. Celebrate the learning that comes from experimentation—successes and failures—across all teams.

Ensure each team is working towards the shared vision and delivering real value regularly and consistently. Demonstrate progress with frequent validations by stakeholders.

The Testing Manifesto

We value: