Lean Software Strategies: Proven Techniques for Managers and Developers

by Peter Middleton, James Sutton

Overview

Lean production, which has radically benefited traditional manufacturing, can greatly improve the software industry with similar methods and results. This transformation is possible because the same overarching principles that apply in other industries work equally well in software development. The software industry follows the same industrial concepts of production as those applied in manufacturing; however, the software industry perceives itself as being fundamentally different and has largely ignored what other industries have gained through the application of lean techniques.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781563273056
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/27/2005
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Middleton is a senior lecturer in computer science at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His research interests are software quality, lean software development, and how to successfully implement change. He received his PhD in computer science from Imperial College, London and an MBA from the University of Ulster. Before joining Queen’s University, he worked in industry for 10 years, with 5 years as an information systems manager. He can be contacted on [e-mail]. James Sutton is on senior staff at Lockheed Martin Aerospace and applies many of the lean strategies in this book to company and corporate projects. He recently advised the U.K. agency updating the London Air Traffic Control System software on how to meet competing integrity, cost, schedule, and political goals; most suggestions were adopted. He created lean software lifecycles as lead software and technical-processes architect for information-processing software for the C-5B, and central flight software for the 382J aircraft. Both projects doubled productivity and improved quality by an order of magnitude compared to industry norms. He has published numerous conference papers, been keynote and feature speaker at industry workshops, and in the 1980s, authored the software-engineering book Power Programming.

Table of Contents

Preface, Acknowledgments, Introduction, Part One: What Kind of Industry is Software?, Chapter 1: There’s Three Kinds of Industries, Chapter 2: Understanding Earlier Production Systems, Chapter 3: Lean Production—Five Principles, Chapter 4: Determining Software’s Industrial Paradigm — Reuse Practice, Chapter 5: Determining Software’s Industrial Paradigm — SEI CMM Practice, Chapter 6: Determining Software’s Industrial Paradigm — XP: Extreme Programming, Chapter 7: The Way Out of the Software Crisis, Part II: Building Lean Software—Customer Space, Early Lifecycle, Chapter 8: Lean Value—Finding the Gold Hidden Within Your Customer, Chapter 9: Choosing the Right Project, Chapter 10: Choosing a Value Representation, Chapter 11: Values—When Customers Know What They Want, Chapter 12: Values—When Customers Don’t Know What They Want, Chapter 13: Predicting How Customers Will React to Having Their Values Implemented , Chapter 14: Planning Implementation, Part III: Building Lean Software—Producer Space, Late Lifecycle, Chapter 15: The Value Stream—Design, Chapter 16: The Value Stream—Production, Chapter 17: The Value Stream—Verification-Smart Development, Chapter 18: The Value Stream—Choosing Programming Languages and Tools, Chapter 19: Flow—Applying Industrial Insights to Software Production, Chapter 20: Flow—Through Stage Transitions, Chapter 21: Pull and Perfection, Part IV: Experiences of Lean Software Producers, Chapter 22: Is Microsoft’s Build and Synchronise Process Lean?, Chapter 23: Industrial Engineering Insights on Variance in the Software Development Process, Chapter 24: Why Culling Software Colleagues is Necessary and Even Popular, Chapter 25: XP and Lean Software Development—the Spare Parts Logistics Case Study, Chapter 26: Case Study: Timberline, Inc—Implementing, Lean Software Development, Conclusion: A Roadmap for Lean in Your Organization, Appendix A: The LM Aero 382J MC OFP Software Product Family, Index, About the Authors