A Practice-Informed Conceptual Model for a Combined Approach of Agile, User-Centered Design, and Lean Startup

Organizations worldwide have been adopting software development approaches that deviate from common agile methods in order to overcome some of their shortcomings. It has been reported that combining agile methods with Lean Startup and User-Centered Design results in a very powerful development approach, and academic research has developed some high-level process models for it. However, this combined approach is not well-documented, making it hard for inexperienced professionals to start using it. A grounded conceptual model of the combined approach enables the development of further instruments to help in adopting the approach, but such a model does not currently exist yet. We aim to showcase an initial conceptual model based on the empirical study of two software development teams that use the combined approach. We performed a case study where we investigated their day-today work using daily observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus group sessions; and built a conceptual model of the activities, techniques, and work products that both teams use daily. We reflect on how the conceptual model was conceived and the next steps in refining it, namely having it augmented with concepts sourced from literature.