Rolene Groenewald - Accelerate Software Consulting

Rolene Groenewald

The AI-Powered Future of Product Development

Efficiency Featured

The AI-Powered Future of Product Development

In the dynamic world of software, the pursuit of efficiency, speed and customer value has always been crucial for competitive advantage. For years, Lean product development has been a guiding light. Now, with rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence, a transformative shift is underway, ushering in an era of AI-enabled

How to be a catalyst for real change

How to be a catalyst for real change

Inspired by the book The Catalyst (Jonah Berger) I have been doing some soul searching in terms of my lifelong approach to Change Management. Throughout my career in software leadership, I have been recognized for a strength around driving organisational change. I think that’s because I realized early on

Simplifying the dark art of Project Management

Simplifying the dark art of Project Management

How much of your role actually involves project management? Whether you are planning offsite meetings, leading business transformations, launching new products, developing features or driving internal improvements - chances are, you are managing projects more often than you think. Now ask yourself: How much project management training have you had in

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts - Kanban

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts - Kanban

Continuing the journey of helping teams connect with proven concepts for improving software development flow, this article dives into some core ideas from Kanban. And, more importantly, why they work. #1. Visualizing the Workflow What does this mean? In Kanban, visualizing the workflow refers to creating a visual map of

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts - Scrum

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts - Scrum

Building on Part 1 here, it crucial for leaders to help teams connect with proven concepts, enabling them to apply those in a way that fits their unique context. In this article we will explore some fundamental concepts from Scrum and, most importantly, why they are crucial for improving product

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts instead of specific methodologies

Team Flow: Fundamental concepts instead of specific methodologies

When interviewing candidates, it’s so interesting how many mention that their companies use an Agile “hybrid” framework for product development. To me, this strongly reflects the deep need for flexibility among creatively minded software teams in terms of how they work. They often instinctively recognize that certain elements of

Team Engagement: A Simple Blueprint

Leadership Featured

Team Engagement: A Simple Blueprint

Many businesses recognize that strong team engagement boosts productivity, ensures better collaboration and improves retention. But it's so easy to lose sight of quite how important engagement is as the foundation for continuous improvement. Engaged teams are deeply invested in the success of the business and their team,

The hidden potential of the 5 Whys Method

Continuous Improvement Featured

The hidden potential of the 5 Whys Method

“The basis of Toyota’s scientific approach is to ask why five times whenever we find a problem … By repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.” Taiichi Ohno The 5 Whys method, part of the Toyota Production System and developed by

Lean Startup concepts that can help cultivate true agility

Agility Featured

Lean Startup concepts that can help cultivate true agility

Despite some later critique, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries was a game changer for many entrepreneurs because it introduced key concepts for building adaptable (and therefore competitive) businesses. Interestingly, while many software teams have historically adopted Agile practices, few have fully embraced Lean thinking in their day-to-day

How to Turn a software Ship Around

How to Turn a software Ship Around

Software development leaders who have read Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet will intuitively understand that the approach outlined by the author can be applied to software dev environments. Still, it might be helpful to chart a clear course between operations on a nuclear submarine, and those of software