Practical Lean for the Practicing Developer

Much is said today by the software methodology “talking heads” about the need for organizations to “go lean.” The question is, what does it mean to go lean? Is this the job of IT management? Or is it the job of the practicing software developer? And furthermore, does this simply mean the adoption of of another set of processes and procedures? Or is it something entirely different?

Ultimately, going lean simply means removing all of the impediments that prevent our organizations from achieving more of “the goal.” While that goal may differ from context to context, for the vast majority of us that means “making more money,” by improving our efficiency at moving from, as the Poppendieck's have so aptly said, from “concept to cash.”

While a great many of us do not have the role power necessary to spur top-down organizational change, there are many practical things each of us can do to bring the power of “going lean” to our teams. As we apply these principles and practices to our day-to-day work, we can build the credibility necessary to become change agents.

In their books, the Poppendieck's have helpfully summarized lean software development into seven principles:

1. Eliminating Waste
2. Building Quality In
3. Creating Knowledge
4. Deferring Commitment
5. Delivering Fast
6. Respecting People
7. Optimizing the Whole

In this talk we'll walk through each of these principles and examine how we as individual contributors and software teams can make practical, actionable changes within our own spheres of influence that will ultimately help us to deliver more value to our organizations.