Implementing Lean Software Development

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Queueing theory

Speaking to the impact of WIP limits.

Variation is often dealt with by reducing the size of batches moving through the system

For example, many stores have check-out lanes for “10 items or less” to reduce the variation in checkout time for that line

Utilization and its impact on efficiency

Value Stream Mapping

I think a lot about how outcome/output is measured in software teams, especially around the contrast of measuring individual output vs team output and how that connects to the flow of value through a system that I’ve heard about from time and time again from these sources: successful teams are organised around flow. Flow of information, flow of requirements, flow of value from concept to customer. You want to design your information structures in a way that facilitates the flow of information & valueJames Lewis

  • Accelerate book & stuff from the SPACE framework

  • Team Topologies' chapter on team first thinking

  • Dan North on Value Stream mapping

  • helps break down what’s happening around lead time. identifies the amount of time that a unit of work spends ‘waiting to be picked up’, vs ‘being done’ (the value adding activity)

    • why lead time is a useful metric
    • DORA & accelerate
    • in software, work sitting in a queue, or WIP state, is liked to inventory in the manufacturing process
  • how queuing theory fits in

7 Wastes of Lean in Software Development