The Art of Lean Software Development

Description

This succinct book explains how to you can apply the practices of Lean software development to dramatically increase productivity and quality. Lean principles are being applied successfully to product design, engineering, the supply chain, and now software development. You'll learn how to adopt Lean practices one at a time, rather than taking on the entire methodology at once. At each stage, you'll see significant, measurable results.

Full Description

This succinct book explains how you can apply the practices of Lean software development to dramatically increase productivity and quality. Based on techniques that revolutionized Japanese manufacturing, Lean principles are being applied successfully to product design, engineering, the supply chain, and now software development. With The Art of Lean Software Development, you'll learn how to adopt Lean practices one at a time rather than taking on the entire methodology at once. As you master each practice, you'll see significant, measurable results. With this book, you will:

Understand Lean's origins from Japanese industries and how it applies to software development
Learn the Lean software development principles and the five most important practices in detail
Distinguish between the Lean and Agile methodologies and understand their similarities and differences
Determine which Lean principles you should adopt first, and how you can gradually incorporate more of the methodology into your process
Review hands-on practices, including descriptions, benefits, trade-offs, and roadblocks
Learn how to sell these principles to management

The Art of Lean Software Development is ideal for busy people who want to improve the development process but can't afford the disruption of a sudden and complete transformation. The Lean approach has been yielding dramatic results for decades, and with this book, you can make incremental changes that will produce immediate benefits.

"This book presents Lean practices in a clear and concise manner so readers are motivated to make their software more reliable and less costly to maintain. I recommend it to anyone looking for an easy-to-follow guide to transform how the developer views the process of writing good software." -- Bryan Wells, Boeing Intelligence & Security Sytems Mission System

"If you're new to Lean software development and you're not quite sure where to start, this book will help get your development process going in the right direction, one step at a time." -- John McClenning, software development lead, Aclara

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Why Lean?
1. The Problem with Software Development
2. The Agile Success Story
3. The Lean Success Story
4. Lean Principles
Chapter 2 Applying Lean to Software Development
1. Lean Software Development
2. Lean Versus Agile
3. Getting Started
Chapter 3 Practice 0: Source Code Management and Scripted Builds
1. About Zero Practices
2. Source Code Management
3. Scripted Builds
4. Discipline in an Integrated Environment
5. Summary
Chapter 4 Practice 1: Automated Testing
1. Why Test?
2. What Is Automated Testing?
3. Kinds of Tests
4. Approaches to Testing
5. Summary
Chapter 5 Practice 2: Continuous Integration
1. End-to-End Automated Builds
2. Dedicated Build Servers
3. Continuous Integration Software
4. Implementing Continuous Integration
5. Continuous Integration Builds Quality in
6. Resistance to Implementing CI
7. Summary
Chapter 6 Practice 3: Less Code
1. Leaning out the Codebase
2. Developing Less Code
3. Resistance to “Less Code”
4. Summary
Chapter 7 Practice 4: Short Iterations
1. Short Iterations Generate Customer Value
2. Developing with Short Iterations
3. The Fallacy of Iterative Development
4. Big Tasks in Little Pieces
5. Summary
Chapter 8 Practice 5: Customer Participation
1. Customer Participation Is a Two-Way Street
2. Paving the Street
3. An All-Too-Common Problem
4. Summary
Chapter 9 What Next?
1. Lean Thinking and the Analysis Practices
2. Kaizen
3. Kaizen Workshops
4. Value Stream Maps
5. Other Lean Techniques
6. Other Complementary Approaches
7. Where to Go from Here

Appendix Resources
1. Chapter 1: Why Lean?
2. Chapter 2: Applying Lean to Software Development
3. Chapter 3: Practice 0: Source Code Management and Scripted Builds
4. Chapter 4: Practice 1: Automated Testing
5. Chapter 5: Practice 2: Continuous Integration
6. Chapter 6: Practice 3: Less Code
7. Chapter 7: Practice 4: Short Iterations
8. Chapter 8: Practice 5: Customer Participation
9. Chapter 9: What Next?
10. Other
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Product Details

Title:

The Art of Lean Software Development

By:

Curt Hibbs, Steve Jewett, Mike Sullivan

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print Release:

January 2009

Ebook Release:

January 2009

Pages:

144

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-51731-1

| ISBN 10:

0-596-51731-9

Ebook ISBN:

978-0-596-15780-7

| ISBN 10:

0-596-15780-0

Customer Reviews

About the Authors

Curt Hibbs

Curt Hibbs has always been slightly obsessed with new technologies and tracking technology trends. But he will tell you that this is simply because he is lazy, always looking for new methods and technologies to make his work easier and more productive. This led to his discovery of Ruby in 2001 (when it was still relatively unknown outside of Japan) and to his founding several highly successful Ruby open source projects.

For most of his professional career, which started in the early 1970's, Curt has been a consultant to well-known companies like Hewlett Packard, Intuit, Corel, WordStar, Charles Schwab, Vivendi Universal, and more. He has also been a principal in several startups. Curt now works as a Senior Software Engineer for The Boeing Company in St. Louis.

View Curt Hibbs's full profile page.
Steve Jewett

Steve Jewett is a software developer with The Boeing Company, where he is involved in the development of network-centric cognitive decision support systems. His software experience started with BASIC and FORTRAN on a DEC PDP 1170 back in high school. The trail from there to the present day includes a litany of languages, a broad spectrum of design strategies and development methodologies, and a bevy of software projects, some of which were actually successful. Over a 20+ year career, he has developed software for automated test equipment, weapon/aircraft integration, embedded systems, desktop applications and web applications. His primary areas of interest are software architecture design and software development methodologies, particularly agile software development and its relationship to lean processes.

View Steve Jewett's full profile page.
Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan has over 6 years of experience teaching at the university level, and has spent the last 4 years working with software teams in small companies and large corporations to drive valuable solutions and improve team dynamics. He is currently working in a small research team within a large corporation, implementing Lean techniques to improve the software his team delivers. Mike's interests include golf, Cardinals baseball and teaching.

View Mike Sullivan's full profile page.

Colophon

The cover image is a stock photograph from iStockphoto. The text font is Adobe's Meridien; the heading font is ITC Bailey.

O'Reilly Books & Videos

The Art of Lean Software Development

A Practical and Incremental Approach

Chapter 1 Why Lean?

The Problem with Software Development

The Agile Success Story

The Lean Success Story

Lean Principles

Chapter 2 Applying Lean to Software Development

Lean Software Development

Lean Versus Agile

Getting Started

Chapter 3 Practice 0: Source Code Management and Scripted Builds

About Zero Practices

Source Code Management

Scripted Builds

Discipline in an Integrated Environment

Summary

Chapter 4 Practice 1: Automated Testing

Why Test?

What Is Automated Testing?

Kinds of Tests

Approaches to Testing

Summary

Chapter 5 Practice 2: Continuous Integration

End-to-End Automated Builds

Dedicated Build Servers

Continuous Integration Software

Implementing Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration Builds Quality in

Resistance to Implementing CI

Summary

Chapter 6 Practice 3: Less Code

Leaning out the Codebase

Developing Less Code

Resistance to “Less Code”

Summary

Chapter 7 Practice 4: Short Iterations

Short Iterations Generate Customer Value

Developing with Short Iterations

The Fallacy of Iterative Development

Big Tasks in Little Pieces

Summary

Chapter 8 Practice 5: Customer Participation

Customer Participation Is a Two-Way Street

Paving the Street

An All-Too-Common Problem

Summary

Chapter 9 What Next?

Lean Thinking and the Analysis Practices

Kaizen

Kaizen Workshops

Value Stream Maps

Other Lean Techniques

Other Complementary Approaches

Where to Go from Here

Appendix Resources

Chapter 1: Why Lean?

Chapter 2: Applying Lean to Software Development

Chapter 3: Practice 0: Source Code Management and Scripted Builds

Chapter 4: Practice 1: Automated Testing

Chapter 5: Practice 2: Continuous Integration

Chapter 6: Practice 3: Less Code

Chapter 7: Practice 4: Short Iterations

Chapter 8: Practice 5: Customer Participation

Chapter 9: What Next?

Other

Colophon

Curt Hibbs

Steve Jewett

Mike Sullivan