Becoming Lean

“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize”

~Shigeo Shingo

The topic for this month’s edition of the Agile Journal is “Becoming Lean”.

The foundational elements for adopting a Lean Production System are:

• Vision
• Leadership
• Knowledge
• Participation

The six pillars of a Lean Production System are:

• Customer value
• Value stream mapping
• Pull
• Continuous improvement
• Continuous flow
• Sustaining results

Integrating a lean culture into your company is comprised of:

• Embracing and enabling lean principles and methods by providing training; targeting augmenting ones knowledge and advancing ones skills
• Revising company values, policies, and organizational performance measurements
• Modifying procedures, and company rewards
• Implementing continuous improvements involving everyone

Karl Scotland in his article Kanban System Design, insightfully articulates the essence of being lean and that the end goal is to be successful and a Kanban System is a means to that end, not an end in itself.

Alan Shalloway in his article, Becoming Lean – The Why, What and How, presents a different way of looking at Lean Software Development – one that is independent of Lean’s manufacturing heritage. It begins by presenting Lean as a collection of a body of knowledge applying Lean principles to software development. It then shows how this creates a new paradigm of management, one that does not inevitably lead to micro-management or chaos. Alan concludes with a discussion about how organizations can use Lean to improve their ability to learn.

Dr. Ian Mitchell in part one of his two part article, PRINCE2 and Agility: Reclaiming the Manifesto, describes the problems that are commonly associated with Agile Methods vis-à-vis process rigor, and sets the scene for a remedial approach which will be presented in the second article.

Mike Dobbles is his article, Four Reasons Medical Device Companies Need Agile Development, discuses the waterfall style of development is so deeply engrained into the culture of most medical companies they can’t imagine anything else being used to develop software that has power over human life.  However, Mike makes the case that precisely because of patient safety, medical device companies in particular need to adopt lean agile practices.

Jurgen Appelo is his article, The Shape of Change, sheds a new light on effectively dealing with challenges brought about by a need to change by focusing on changing the environment instead of the team.

I hope you can take time to enjoy the holiday season with family and friends.

Take care.
Your agile buddy,
Russell Pannone
Editor-In-Chief
Agile Journal