The Art of Lean Software Development

The uniqueness of this book is it's size - just about 130 pages.That does not make it short, in fact it makes it concise.The book starts with the four most common problems of software development projects: time overrun, cost overrun, inability to meet the business needs, or killed in the middle.What's fascinating here is that the authors didn't even attempt to establish these are the most common problems.Instead they clearly set the expectation about the profile of the readers at the beginning, thereby saving some valuable pages.Remaining pages of the first chapter were spent in describing the various models of software development, and the basic principles of Lean techniques.



The second chapter focuses on the application of Lean techniques in software development and its comparison with the Agile techniques.By completing the first two chapters, the reader would also gather some useful piece of information on Lean techniques thereby building his/her awareness on this topic.The authors focused on only the topics of Lean that would matter most for the understanding, and did not waste pages (and readers' time) on elaborating how it worked like a charm in manufacturing (like any other Lean proponent would do).




The following six chapters described eight different practices from Lean techniques as applicable in the software development domain:

a) Source code management

b) Automated testing

c) Continuous integration

d) Less code

e) Short iterations

f) Customer participation



As one would understand these are not necessarily new practice in software development, but comes back with a renewed emphasis.Fundamentally, it puts back the focus on improving quality and productivity all through the release cycles.Each of the topics are to the point, and the precisely defined without leaving anything ambiguous.That has improved its readability a lot.



This book is not for someone who is hoping to learn software engineering, agile programming, or lean techniques.One should know at least two of these before starting to read this book.This book essentially bring a fresh perspective into the practices of software development, so that the practitioners can try it out on job quickly.The book has used some codes as examples and gives everybody the freedom to use those as needed.Such a good gesture is also uncommon in the books of computer programming.



I would recommend this a refreshing book to seasoned practitioners of software development - across the roles and ranks.



This review was originally posted at by yours truly.
Full Post