Lean Software Development: Values and Principles

1. Lean Software Development
Values and Principles
Balaji Sathram, PMI-ACP, CSP, CSM.
15th May 2015.

2. Agenda
• Lean-History
• Lean-Definition
• Lean-Values
• Lean-Principles
• Activity
• Lean Practices
• Conclusion
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3. Lean - History
• 1988: The term “Lean” was first coined by John Krafcik in his article, "Triumph of the Lean
Production System“.
• 1991: Word “Lean” was mentioned in the book “The Machine That Changed the World:
the Story of Lean Production” by James Womack, Daniel Jones, and Daniel Roos as a
term to describe the Toyota management approach.
• 1992: The term Lean Software Development was first coined as the title for a conference
organized by European Union in Stuttgart, Germany.
• 1993: Robert “Bob” Charette explored better ways of risk management in software
projects and suggested the concept of “Lean Software Development”
• 1995: Five pillars of Lean thinking are defined in the book titled “Lean Thinking: Banish
Waste and Create Wealth in your Corporation” by Womack, James P and Daniel T. Jones
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4. Lean-Definition
Muda – literally meaning “waste” but implying non-value-added activity
Mura – meaning “unevenness” and interpreted as “variability in flow”
Muri – meaning “overburdening” or “unreasonableness”
• Five pillars of Lean thinking are value, value stream, flow, pull
and perfection. These pillars have become the working definition
of Lean. People started identifying & eliminating waste activities
(non-value-added activity) in the workflow to reach perfection.
• Eliminating waste is an exclusive property/practice of Lean till
date.
• Womack and Jones didn’t share the definition to the world,
Toyota management principles are difficult to describe or to
analyze. The word “Waste” is described in detail with three
Japanese terms:
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5. Lean Values
In 2011, the Lean Systems society published a set of values. Those values are
• Accept the human condition
• Accept that complexity & uncertainty are natural to knowledge work
• Work towards a better Economic Outcome
• While enabling a better Sociological Outcome
• Seek, embrace & question ideas from a wide range of disciplines
• A values-based community enhances the speed & depth of positive change
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6. Accept
the
human
condition
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7. Accept that complexity & uncertainty are
natural to knowledge work
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8. Work towards a better Economic Outcome
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9. While enabling a better Sociological Outcome
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10. Seek, embrace & question ideas from a wide
range of disciplines
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11. A values-based community enhances the
speed & depth of positive change
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12. Lean Principles
There are 7 lean principles which seems to
agreed & practiced globally with most of the
software development processes
• Eliminate Waste
• Create Knowledge
• Build Quality In
• Defer Commitment
• Optimize the whole
• Deliver Fast
• Respect people
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13. Eliminate Waste
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14. Create Knowledge
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15. Build Quality In
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16. Defer Commitment
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17. Optimize the Whole
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18. Deliver Fast
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19. Respect People
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20. Activity
You and your friend has gone to a bakery to eat a cake
• List out all the activities in the process (primary flow)
• Identify alternate flows
• Identify value adding and non-value adding activities
• Provide improvement actions
• Calculate Efficiency
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22. Lean Practices
Apart from lean values and principles, there are quite a number of practices commonly
adopted. Some of the lean practices are mentioned below.
• Cumulative Flow Diagrams
• Visual Controls
• Virtual Kanban Systems
• Small Batch Sizes / Single-piece Flow
• Automation
• Kaizen Events
• Daily standup meetings
• Retrospectives
• Operations Reviews
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23. Conclusion
• No hard and fast prescriptions to follow from Lean Software Development.
• Follow any of the available software development methodologies but make sure that
actual process definitions are aligned with the Lean values and principles to be lean.
• Definitely Lean is a methodology which will trim the fat from the software process
(Starting from requirements to product delivery to the customer)
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24. Thank you
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