Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit

Introduction

This is a book of thinking tools for software development leaders. It is a toolkit for translating widely accepted lean principles into effective, agile practices that fit your unique environment. Lean thinking has a long history of generating dramatic improvements in fields as diverse as manufacturing, health care, and construction. Can it do the same for software development? One thing is clear: The field of software development has plenty of opportunity for improvement.

Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group, told an attentive audience¹ the story of how Florida and Minnesota each developed its Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS). In Florida, system development started in 1990 and was estimated to ...