InfoQ Homepage Continuous Improvement Content on InfoQ
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Kaizen in Lean Software Development
Lean methods employ Kaizen, or continuous improvement, to reduce waste and improve results on a regular, even daily, basis. On the leanagilescrum group, Alan asked, "Are there known techniques for facilitating kaizen activities within Lean/Agile software development?"
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Frequent Retrospectives Accelerate Learning and Improvement
When we seek process improvement by discarding traditional SDLC rules, how should we work? Retrospectives are a tool teams can use to reflect on their process and improve it gradually over time. In this article, Rachel Davies offers help for teams who have ideas for improvements but are not sure how to get them off the ground.
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InfoQ Article: Reflecting on Success: Good Agile Karma
Agile relies heavily on discipline, rather than genius. We're told that average teams, even in the early stages, can achieve dramatic performance improvement if they are disciplined. As we do these things, the effects of our words and actions actively create, and re-create over time, the environment in which our teams and projects operate - for good or ill.
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Lean Process Works at Toyota USA
Since the "Toyota Production System" emerged in the late 80's, GM, Ford and Chrysler have applied TPS ideas, but they still trail Toyota. In his article, "No Satisfaction at Toyota," Charles Fishman suggested that the key is in teaching new ideas about what success looks like. It's an interesting read for those thinking about waste reduction in software development.
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Performance Goals For Agile Teams
Inspired by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith's book The Wisdom of Teams, Mishkin Berteig looks at the importance of performance goals for driving a team towards self-organization and accountability.
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New Book on Lean Software Offers Practical Advice
In 2003 Mary and Tom Poppendieck adapted the revolutionary principles of Lean manufacturing for software development. Their new book offers a blend of history, theory, and practice, drawing on their experience optimizing the software "value stream". They present the right questions to ask, the key issues to focus on, and techniques proven to work for those implementing a lean software process.
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Book Excerpt: Agile Retrospectives
InfoQ brings you an exclusive chapter excerpt from the recent book "Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great", by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. These expert facilitators show how teams can run focused, helpful retrospectives themselves, without an outside facilitator. We asked the authors a few questions about the making of their book.
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Tips for Effective Kaizen Process Improvement
Agile software development and Lean Thinking go hand-in-hand for many practitioners. Six-Sigma blackbelt Mike Wroblewski has blogged some lessons learned from a recent kaizen session. People are a key variable in both manufacturing and software environments, so his lessons learned in manufacturing are also interesting for Lean Software practitioners using kaizen events for process improvement.
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Mary and Tom Poppendieck Discuss Their Next Book
Bob Payne interviewed Mary and Tom Poppendieck at Agile2006 about their next Lean book, which focuses even more on software than the last. Mary summarizes it as "So you think Agile is a good idea: now what?" saying it will help people get started with Lean, going beyond the recipes of the first book to provide practical information and case studies to help teams do their own process experiments.
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Leveraging the Wisdom of Project Newcomers
Experienced newcomers can't be onboarded like programmers just out of school. The experienced professional will have specific but difficult-to-anticipate gaps that will impede their performance. In addition, this provides a great opportunity to get a fresh but experienced feedback on your processes. Gannthead.com offers some pointers wrapped in three fictional Dr. Phil episodes... (really?)
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InfoQ Article: Exclusive Excerpt from Practices of an Agile Developer
Andy Hunt, one of the originators of the Agile Manifesto, and Venkat Subramaniam have written a compilation of the habits, ideas, and approaches of successful Agile software developers in "Practices of an Agile Developer". InfoQ brings you a free excerpt on Agile Debugging.
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Agile Work Cheatsheets Posted
It's been said before: Agile may be simple, but it's not so easy. Mishkin Berteig contributes some one-page quick-references to jog our memories and keep us focused on delivering value.
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Google's Lean Software Process
On the Manageability.org blog, Carlos E. Perez asked "how closely do Google's development practices match Lean software development?" and compared their process against the seven Lean Software practices: Eliminate Waste, Amplify Learning, Empower the Team, Deliver as Fast as Possible, See the Whole, Build Integrity In, Decide as Late as Possible.
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TOC More Powerful than Six-Sigma, Lean
A manufacturing study has shown that TOC is twenty times as effective as Six Sigma, and nearly ten times more effective than lean at causing cost savings. This is the only scientific double-blind study of its kind performed "in the wild", i.e. in actual business plants. These ideas are frequently discussed in Agile circles and integrated into Agile methodologies.
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Personal Retrospective: How Did I Do?
Nynke Andering gives us an inside view of a process of self-retrospective, which she uses after a consulting engagement. She shares not only her questions, but her answers, in four categories: Collaboration, Learning, Consulting, Responsibility.