This document provides an introduction to lean IT and lean software development principles from Athena Consulting. It discusses the seven principles of lean thinking as applied to the IT world, including eliminating waste, amplifying learning, deciding late, delivering fast, empowering teams, building integrity in, and seeing the whole system. It also describes how to establish a lean software factory using continuous integration and DevOps to fully apply lean principles across the IT organization.

1. D.LAPERE - September 2013
Athena
Consulting
Introduction to Lean IT
and
Lean Software Factory
Designed for Board members and Executives
for general knowledge purpose

2. -2-
Athena
Consulting
Lean management philosophy (reminder)
Operational Stability
Production
Flow
First-time Quality
Lean System
• Quality at the
source (no control)
• Avoid rework
• Autonomation
(Man – Machine
synergy)
• Workplace organization
• Standard work
• Total Productive Maintenance
• Stream value
mapping
• Kaizen
• Pull production
(Kanban)
• Just-in-time
• Quick changeover
Best quality – Lower cost – Shortest lead time – Customer focus
Organize and streamline your
production in order to
remove all waste.
Waste being what a customer
would not willing
to pay for.

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Athena
Consulting
7 principles of lean thinking (reminder)
Lean thinking
Eliminate
Waste
Amplify
Learning
Decide as
late as
possible
Deliver as
fast as
possible
Empower
the team
Build
Integrity in
See the
whole

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Consulting
Translation to the IT world
Useless documentation
Extra features
Inactivity & timeout
Defects, abnormalities
Feedback
Iteration
Synchronization
Don’t dive into details
Avoid rigidity
Prioritize
End-user expectations
Tunnel effect
Small batches
Self-determination
Commitment
Motivation
Leadership
Lean thinking
Waste
Learning
Decide
late
Deliver
fast
Empower
Integrity
See the
hole
Short iterations
Refactoring
Testing
No repetition
No extra features

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Principle # 1: Eliminate Waste
What? How?
Excess documentation
Extra features
Building of wrong things
Waiting for information
Task switchning and
motion
Defects
Track inefficiency
Reduce inefficient
management activity
Rethink authorization systems
Retrain your brain to see waste
Map & check your value stream
Eliminate anything that doesn’t add value

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Principle # 2: Amplify Learning
What? How?
Feedback
Iteration
Synchonization
Run tests as soon as code is
written
Real-time feedback loop
Immediate customer response
Short useful cycles
Configuration Management
System
Automated testing
High level of communication

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Principle # 3:Decide as Late As
Possible
What (to avoid)? How?
Drilling into details too fast
Respect order of creation
without priority
Rigidity
High stakes decisions have
to be made firstly
Full view over time
Feature highest value
topics first
Change is manageable
High stakes decisions can
be deferred until the last
moment

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Consulting
Principle # 4: Deliver as Fast as
Possible
What? How?
Avoid tunnel effect
Limit time for the end-
users to change their
minds
Large batches of work take
longer to process
Rapid delivery
Just-in-time
Reduced cycle time
Steady rate of arrival: release
small & prioritized packages of
work
Steady rate of service: parallel
the processing of work to avoid
bottlenecks
Develop an Economic
Application Model (breakdown
of costs)

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Principle # 5: Empower the Team
What? How?
A mature organization
looks at the whole system
(Lean Assumption #1)
A mature organization
fosuses on learning and
empowers people (Lean
Assumption #2)
Self determination: the team
design their own working
procedures
Motivation: create a sense of
purpose at work ; clear,
achievable
Commitments: the team make
it’s own
Leadership: master developers
and respected leaders

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Principle # 6: Build Integrity In
What? How?
Communication between
developers and end-users
Immediate feedback
Scaffolding
Smaller systems, single team,
short iterations
Design driven development,
Test driven development
Integrity: simplicity, clarity,
suitability, no extra features
Testing : customer tests and
developer tests, automated
testing

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Principle # 7: See the Whole
System dynamics
Common pattern
Root cause analysis
Measurements
Contracts

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Lean Software Factory
 Application Service Center / Lean Software Factory
 Managed as a factory
 Applying lean principles
 Able to develop in agile mode
 Outfitted with a Continuous Integration Platform
 Continuous Integration platform
 Maintain a code repository
 Automate the build (thru build servers)
 Real-time control source code quality
 Perform tests (automated unit test and integration test)
 Test in a clone of production environment
 Benefits
 Reduce rework (thus reduce cost and time) : less debug
 Reduce production costs
 Improve maintainability (source code quality)

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DevOps
 The ultimate way to extend Lean principle to the whole IT System
 Projects driven through Programs
 Development – production cultures are merged
 Lean inspiration : small lots
Application
(Software Engineering)
Quality
Assurance
Infrastructure
(Technology Operations)
DevOps

14. Thanks for your attention
Athena
Consulting