Book Review: Lean Software Development by Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck


https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Poppendieck-Lean-Software-Development-An-Agile-Toolkit/PGM73091.html

Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom Poppendieck is a great refresher for those of you who have adopted and are practicing agile development. However the book goes further in enlightening the reader on how to eliminate waste from any development activities. Mary and Tom start by describing the origins of lean thinking at a small company named Toyota back in 1940s. Taiichi Ohno who was the father of the Toyota production system is credited as the driving force behind the lean movement. The book describes in great detail the seven wastes of software development including partially done work, extra processes, extra features, task switching, waiting, motion (time it takes to get the right information) and defects. Mary and Tom advise the reader to start with mapping the value stream of your project to identify the wastes in your software development life cycle. They stress on the need for feedback loops and provide numerous examples on its importance. While it doesn't come natural for many engineers, the authors strongly recommend the need of retrospectives and feedback which are important to course correct early and often. Mary and Tom are great advocates of making big decisions on a project as late as possible. They give examples of how making a big architectural decision too early in the project could have negative impacts downstream causing potential delays and cost overruns. The authors recommend delivering software as fast as possible. They strongly recommend reducing the cycle times on every aspect of the project. Mary and Tom are strong advocates of refactoring software due to bloat over time. They provide great examples on why its important to empower the team to make the decisions rather than a top down approach. Finally Mary and Tom provide great insights into how one could structure customer contracts in a lean agile world. This book is a must read bible for anyone working on any aspect of software development.

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