Introduction To Lean Software Development And Value Stream Mapping

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Introduction To Lean Software Development And
Value Stream Mapping

• Mikko KorkalaVTT Technical Research Centre of
  Finland
• mikko.korkala_at_vtt.fi

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Contents of the presentation

• Introduction to Lean Software Development
• Origins of Lean Software Development
• Principles of Lean Management and Lean Software
  Development
• Comparison of Lean and Agile Principles
• The concept of waste
• The Seven Wastes of Software Development
• Value Stream Mapping
• The purpose of Value Stream Mapping
• How Value Stream Maps are done
• An example of a Value Stream Mapping
• Suggested readings

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Origins of Lean Software Development

• Originates from Toyota Production System (TPS)
• Called also Kanban or Just-In-Time system
• Post WWII Japanese automobile industry could not
  compete with U.S. mass production systems
• Inspiration for TPS found in the 1950s from U.S.
  supermarkets
• Customers could get what they wanted, when they
  wanted it and shelves were refilled when items
  were about to run out.
• The concepts transferred to the domain of
  software engineering by Mary and Tom Poppendieck
  (2003, 2007).

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Lean Management Principles(Liker 2004)

• Base your management decisions on a long-term
  philosophy, even at the expense of short-term
  financial goals.
• Create continuous process flow to bring problems
  to the surface.
• Use pull systems to avoid overproduction.
• Level out the workload.
• Build a culture of stopping to fix problems to
  get quality right the first time.
• Standardized tasks are the foundation for
  continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
• Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
• Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology
  that serves your people and processes.
• Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work,
  live the philosophy and teach it to others.
• Develop exceptional people and teams who follow
  your companys philosophy.
• Respect your extended network of partners and
  suppliers by challenging them and helping them
  improve.
• Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand
  the situation.
• Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly
  considering all options implement decisions
  rapidly.
• Become a learning organization through relentless
  reflection and continuous improvement.

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The Principles of Lean Software Development
(Poppendieck Poppendieck, 2007.)

• Eliminate waste
• Waste is something that does not add value. For
  example unnecessary work.
• Build quality in
• QA should not be a separate phase at the end
  of the project. Instead, it should be continuous
  and something that is constantly improved.
  Automatization and refactoring as tools.
• Create knowledge
• Share information, teach others.
• Defer commitment
• Make decisions at the last responsible moment.
• Deliver fast
• Deliver smaller increments of the product in
  short intervals
• Respect people
• Respect colleagues, let people decide what and
  how to do it in order to meet goals
• Optimize the whole
• Optimize the whole value chain from customer
  request to complete product. See the whole.

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Comparison Of Lean and Agile Principles

• Eliminate waste
• Simplicity is essential
• Satisfy customer through early and continuous
  delivery
• Working software is the primary measure of
  progress
• Build quality in
• Working software is the primary measure of
  progress
• Create knowledge
• Regular reflection
• Close collaboration
• Defer commitment
• Welcome changes
• Deliver fast
• Deliver fast and frequently
• Satisfy customer through early and continuous
  delivery
• Respect people
• Self-Organizing Teams
• Optimize the whole
• All agile principles

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The Lean Manifesto?

• Itsekussakin työssä ja toimessa tulee
  ennenkaikkea kysyä, mikä arvo ja hyödytys niillä
  on sillä työ, millä ei hyödytystä ole, on
  parempi tekemätönnä, kun tehtynä.
• (Elias Lönnrot, in the city of Kajaani, Finland.
  October 23, 1841)

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The Lean Manifesto?

• Considering what ever work or action one should
  above all ask, what is the benefit and value of
  it because work that does not benefit is better
  left undone

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Waste in Software Development

• Something that does not create value
• Two categories of waste (Muda in Japanese)
• Type One muda something that does not create
  customer value but cannot be removed from the
  current production environment
• Type Two muda non-value adding activities that
  can be eliminated immediately.
• Value Stream Mapping is a method for identifying
  and eliminating waste

The definitions of muda are from J. P. Womack
and D. T. Jones, Lean Thinking Banish Waste and
Create Wealth in Your Corporation. New York, NY,
USA Simon Schuster, 1996, pp. 350.
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The Seven Wastes of Software Development

• Partially done work. Something that is not done.
  E.g. untested code, undocumented or not
  maintained code.
• Extra features. Something that is not really
  needed.
• Relearning (waste of knowledge). E.g. forgetting
  decisions, re-trying solutions already tried, the
  inability to utilize the knowledge of other
  people.
• Handoffs. Passing the information/work to someone
  else, getting information/work from someone else.
  
• Task switching. How many other tasks people need
  to do. E.g. the amount of projects done
  simultaneously.
• Delays. Waiting for something.
• Defects. Something that does not meet the
  targets, or is not what it is supposed to be.
  E.g. software bugs, incorrectly implemented
  business requirements.

Poppendieck Poppendieck, 2007. Implementing
Lean Software Development From Concept to Cash.
Addison-Wesley.
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Value Stream Mapping

• Aims to map and visualize each individual step
  e.g. in product development from customer request
  to completed product.
• The target is to identify the steps and actions
  that create customer value and the steps and
  actions that can be considered as waste.
• Concrete actions for removing the type two waste
  are planned.
• Even though the focus is on optimizing the
  whole, Value Stream Mapping can be applied to
  smaller processes as well.

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Value Stream Mapping Process

• Three general steps (Abdulmalek and Rajkopal)
• Choose a particular product or product family as
  the target for improvement.
• Draw a current state map of the process. This can
  be seen as a snapshot of how things are currently
  being done and is created by walking along the
  process. This provides the basis for analyzing
  the system and identifying its weaknesses.
• Create a future state map. This is a picture that
  depicts how the system should look like when
  wastes have been removed.
• The weaknesses of the process can be further
  elaborated for example by applying the technique
  of Five Whys which aims to identify the
  root-cause behind the weaknesses.
• Value Stream Mapping is not a process conducted
  just once. Follow the continuous improvement
  philosophy of Lean (Kaizen).

F. A. Abdulmalek and J. Rajgopal. Analyzing the
benefits of lean manufacturing and value stream
mapping via simulation A process sector case
study. Int. J. Production Economics 107(1), 2007.
pp. 223-236.
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An Example of Value Stream Mapping Inspired By A
Real Life Experience From Software Industry

• Large software intensive company using an agile
  process.
• Group of people responsible for gathering and
  managing software requirements before they
  entered development stage.
• Their work was selected as the the process to be
  analyzed and improved.

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Current State Value Stream Map
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Examples of Wastes and Improvement Suggestions

• Entering requirements to the system
• Partially done work
• Incomplete requirements
• Improvement
• Guidelines for preparing the requirements and
  entering the requirements to the system
• Prioritization
• Delay
• Waiting for someone to do the prioritization.
• Improvement
• The need for people is to be planned more
  accurately beforehand
• Process steps consuming time
• Management acceptance
• Type One muda

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Future State Value Stream Map
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Experiences From Value Stream Mapping Process

• It makes one really think how things are done,
  what could be improved and how.
• Provides a more clear picture of the work
  process.
• Achieving concensus on how things are done and
  for how long something takes is not
  straightforward. There are different views to the
  work process, even though a documented process
  exists.

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Suggested Readings

• Ohno, T., 1988. Toyota Production System Beyond
  Large-Scale Production. Productivity Press.
• Womack, J.P and Jones, D.T. Lean Thinking Banish
  Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. New
  York, NY, USA Simon Schuster, 1996.
• Liker, J.K., The Toyota Way. 14 Management
  Principles from the Worlds Greatest
  Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA. 2004.
  330 p.
• Poppendieck, M. and Poppendieck, T., 2003. Lean
  Software Development An Agile Toolkit.
  Addison-Wesley, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.
• Poppendieck, M and Poppendieck, T., 2007.
  Implementing Lean Software Development From
  Concept to Cash. Addison-Wesley.

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Thank You!

• Questions and comments, please!

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