7 Principles Of Lean Software Development

4. Lean Software Development

Principles of Lean Software Development

There are seven principles of Lean Software Development, drawn from the seven principles of Lean Thinking. These principles are guideposts for devising appropriate practices for your environment. They have led to dramatic improvements in areas as diverse as military logistics, health care delivery, building construction, and product development.

The 7 principles are as follows;

a) Eliminate Waste

b) Build Integrity In

c) Create Knowledge

d) Delay Commitment

e) Deliver Fast

f) Respect People

g) Optimize the Whole

i) Eliminate Waste

Anything you do that does not add value from the customer perspective is waste. The seven wastes of software development are:

® Partially

The way to achieve perceived integrity is to have continuous, detailed information flow from the users, or user proxies, to the developers. The technical leader facilitates information flow and domain understanding, he or she is intimately involved in the day-to-day work of the developers. However, it is the developers, not the leader, who make the detailed, day-to-day decisions and trade-offs that shape the system.

Conceptual integrity means that all of the parts of a software system work together to achieve a smooth, well-functioning whole. Software with conceptual integrity presents the user with a single metaphor of how a task is to be done. It is achieved through continuous, detailed information flow between various technical people working on a system. Everyone should be involved in detailed discussions of the design as it develops, from the earliest days of the program. Instead of a documentation-centric approach, use a test-centric approach to integrity. Test early, test often, test exhaustively, and make sure an automated test suite is delivered as part of the product.

iii) Create Knowledge

The game of development is a learning game: hypothesize what might work,

Measure the team’s defect count, not that of individuals. Make testing as accountable for defect- free code as developers. Lean organizations have found that individuals are rarely able to change the system which influences their performance. However, a team working together and responsible for its own processes, can and will make dramatic improvements.

Advantages of Lean Software Development;

1. The elimination of waste leads to the overall efficiency of the development process. This speeds up the process of software development which reduces project time and cost.

2. Delivering the product early is another advantage. It means your development team can deliver more functionality in a shorter period of time, hence enabling more projects to be delivered.

3. Empowerment of the development team helps in developing the decision making ability of the team members which in turn, creates a more motivated team. This way they can determine how best to develop the functionality which will usually result in a much better end product.

Disadvantages of Lean Software Development;

1. The project is highly dependent on cohesiveness of the team and the individual commitments of the team