Leading Lean Software Development – Results are not the Point

Published March 9th, 2010 Under Books | 1 Comment

What fascinates me the most in the Lean software development approach is the quality of the people that support it. The Poppendieck are not an exception to this rule. Their book achieves the seemingly contradictory goals of being very insightful but still easy and captivating to read. It might be however easier to have the right flow when you are a Lean adept ;o)

The book starts with a chapter on systems thinking that takes also examples outside the software development world like Southwest Airlines. The next chapter on technical excellence is dedicated to a panorama of the software development approaches. Chapter 3 is kind of my favorite part of the book, extracting process management knowledge from the history of the construction of the Empire State Building, a project that took only one year to be completed. Chapter four presents the tools for improvement. Finally, the last part of the book is dedicated the people and leadership aspects of Lean.

The structure of the book makes it very pleasant to read, mixing the presentation of lean concepts with case studies and short personal stories. It is definitively a book that I will recommend to every software developer and manager…. and wish that every software developer and manager had read. Even if you think that Lean is not for you or you are a Toyota owner, this book provides a mind-opening text about what the values of software development and organizations should be.

Reference: “Leading Lean Software Development – Results are not the Point”, Mary and Tom Poppendieck, Addison-Wesley, 278 pages, IBSN 978-0-321-62070-5

Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk

Lean: Results are not the Point

Published March 3rd, 2010 Under Quotes | Leave a Comment

I have just finished reading the great book “Leading Lean Software Development” by Mary and Tom Poppendieck and I wanted to share with you two quotes excerpted from it.

[...] I started a conversation with the question that had been bothering me: “How do you reconcile the lean view that tests are waste with the need for tests in software development?” Mary’s immediate response: “Unit tests are what let you stop the line.” (quoted from the Foreword by Dottie Acton)

In our experience, the most common causes of policy-driven waste in software development are:
1. Complexity
2. Economies of scale
3. Separating decision making from work
4. Wishful thinking
5. Technical debt

The strategy of designing the effort to fit the constraints, rather than computing the constraints form the design, is absolutely the most effective way to achieve reliable delivery.

Reference: “Leading Lean Software Development – Results are not the Point”, Mary and Tom Poppendieck, Addison-Wesley, 278 pages, IBSN 978-0-321-62070-5

It could seem very provocative to propose an approach based on the slogan ” Results are not the Point”. In their book, the Poppendieck defend the idea that there are many good managers around that could foster the adoption of lean practices. From my personal experience, most of the managers thinking “results are not the point” do this because they think “costs are the most important point”. This is why I think that companies that adopt agile or lean approaches want results…. and quickly! We could all wish that more managers and developers take the time to read book like this one, but even if it was the case, I am very dubious that many companies will really abandon their “command and control” and “short term vision” culture.

Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk

XP Day Switzerland, Geneva, March 29 2010

Published February 24th, 2010 Under Conferences | Leave a Comment

Registration is now open for the second edition of the XP Day in Geneva. Building on the success of the first edition, the organizers have scheduled a program that should satisfy both people that want to discover what Agile is and practitioners that want to improve their agile practices. For the second year, the conference will host the Agile magicians duo composed of Portia Tung and Pascal Van Cauvenberghe that will present the “Coaching with the Wizard of Oz” Agile Fairytale.

This year the conference will also mix French- and English-speaking sessions, an improvement that should please people working for the multinational corporations and international organizations in the Lake of Geneva area.

Attendance is limited to 100 people, so be quick to register on http://www.xpday.ch/

March Software Development Conferences

Published February 23rd, 2010 Under Conferences | Leave a Comment

Here is a list of software development related conferences and events that will take place in March and that have media partnerships with Methods & Tools:

* Enterprise Software Development Conference, March 1-3 2010, San Mateo, USA

* CSM & Scrum in Depth Training with Ken Schwaber, March 3-4, Stuttgart, Germany

* TheServerSide Java Symposium, March 17-19 2010, Las Vegas, USA

* Turku Agile Day, March 17-18 2010, Turku, Finland

* Spring In Finance eXchange, March 18 2010, London, UK

* REConf 2010, March 15-18 2010, Munich, Germany

* XP Day Suisse Edition Francophone, March 29 2010, Geneva, Switzerland

* Agile Central Europe, April 8-9 2010, Krakow, Poland

Find more conferences on SoftDevConferences.com