Lean software development

Lean software development is a translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, it is emerging with the support of a pro-lean subculture within the agile community. Lean offers a solid conceptual framework, values and principles, as well as good practices, derived from experience, that support agile organizations. The expression "lean software development" originated in a book by the same name, written by Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck in 2003. The book restates traditional lean principles, as well as a set of 22 tools and compares the tools to corresponding agile practices. The Poppendiecks' involvement in the agile software development community, including talks at several Agile conferences has resulted in such concepts being more widely accepted within the agile community. Lean development can be summarized by seven principles, very close in concept to lean manufacturing principles: Eliminate waste Amplify learning Decide as late as possible Deliver as fast as possible Empower the team Build integrity in Optimize the whole Lean philosophy regards everything not adding value to the customer as waste (muda). Such waste may include: Partially done work Extra features Relearning Task switching Waiting Handoffs Defects Management activities In order to eliminate waste, one should be able to recognize it. If some activity could be bypassed or the result could be achieved without it, it is waste. Partially done coding eventually abandoned during the development process is waste. Extra features like paperwork and features not often used by customers are waste. Switching people between tasks is waste (because of time spent, and often lost, by people involved in context-switching). Waiting for other activities, teams, processes is waste. Relearning requirements to complete work is waste. Defects and lower quality are waste. Managerial overhead not producing real value is waste. A value stream mapping technique is used to identify waste.