This document discusses applying lean principles to web development with WordPress. It introduces concepts from lean manufacturing like eliminating waste, reducing costs and time, and continuous improvement. Lean software development focuses on maximizing customer value while minimizing waste. Visualizing work, measuring goals and progress, inspecting and adapting processes, prototyping features, delivering work often, communicating, collaborating, limiting work in progress and waste, focusing on value, and embracing change are some lean techniques discussed. Attending conferences and online groups are recommended for further learning about applying agile and lean tools to software projects.

1. LEAN
web solutions
with WordPress
Wordcamp Milano 2011

2. “How many of you develop
web solutions using WordPress?”

3. [Expected answer]
“Quite a few / almost everybody ...”

4. “How many of you are 100%
happy with your job AND
with your customers AND
of your wage?”

5. [Expected answer]
“Really 100% happy,
nobody, or almost nobody”

6. WHERE WE ARE
WHERE WE WANT TO GO
HOW TO GET THERE
(and what all of this has to do with Lean, and with WordPress ...)

7. WE’RE OFTEN HERE ...

8. OR HERE ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35821702@N07/5243385418/

9. OR HERE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spanishalex/5506236833/sizes/l/in/photostream/

10. WHERE WE WANT TO GO
[Example of goal]
“To be able to complete
more assignments
on time ,
with less stress
and more laughter!”
http://blog.crisp.se/mattiasskarin/2011/05/16/1305497493763.html

11. ENTERS ...
LEAN

12. lean
manifacturing
(from TPS -Toyota Production System)
• eliminate waste
• reduce costs and time to market
• continuous improvement

13. lean
software development
2003 - Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendieck,
“Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit”
“maximize customer value
while
minimizing waste”

14. Agile Software Development
• Individuals and interactions over
processes and tools
• Customer collaboration over con-
tract negotiation
• Responding to change over follow-
ing a plan
[www.agilemanifesto.org - 2001]

15. Cool , but ...
in practice?

16. VISUALIZE
Choose simple and efficient tools, where everybody can visualize the
state of your project(s!) and of single tasks inside them.
Whenever possible, opt for phisical (vs digital) tools, like boards on the
team room walls.
Always know where we are / how far we got.

17. MEASURE
Being able to measure both our goal and our current situation is
a key step in order to understand and see the actual distance be-
tween the two.
Es. How do we define the SUCCESS of this web project (Page
views? Ads revenue? Registered users? ...)
Define actionable goals.
I can measure my productivity, the number of bugs closed after the
product release, the average delivery time of an additional feature,
...
Metrics are essentials to measure, compare and make corrections.

18. INSPECT
AND ADAPT
ALWAYS do retrospectives.
Try to understand what did not work the way it was expected to,
last time.
Find the cause(s). Fix the process.

19. PROTOTIPE
WP is perfect for prototiping! The 1st “demo” can be online in a
flash!
Use that, with your customer, and limit meetings, plans, require-
ments, based on “abstract ideas” .

20. DELIVERY
OFTEN
Make small, progressive releases. Minimize risks!
Remember to prioritize most relevant things / features
(importance in terms of business value).

21. COMUNICATE
With your customers. And with your colleagues.
Talk. Ask. And listen.
(Which does not mean to spend whole days in endless meetings ;-)

22. COLLABORATE
Work together, with the colleagues, and the customers, and not against
them (nor anybody by his/her own).
The project success must be a shared goal.
(This is also called “alignment”)

23. LIMIT (IT)
Do not add unnecessary complexity.
Do not code unrequested features.
Do your best, to “obtain more with less”.
(Ex: Choosing hosting for a WP project. Maybe for that site
wp.com is just great, or godaddy is fine, or ...)
Limit Work in Progress (WIP)

24. IMPROVE
Put yourself in a mood of constant self-improvement and continuous
learning (KAIZEN)

25. DEAL WITH
CHANGE
instead of suffering it

26. Embrace change!
Things change. It’s a fact.
We have to live with it.
(requirements change, budgets change, customers change, technolo-
gies change, stakeholders, market, competitors, WP changes ;-)
We can do our best to manage change.
Smartly. To work better.
We’re NOT predestined to mental strain,
headache, rage, overwork.

27. REDUCE
WASTE
“Eliminate waste”.
Unfinished features are waste. As well as delivered features never
used. And unread documentation. And meetings without a clear
focus and scope. And sofware defects. And pauses in software de-
velopment (while waiting for ...)
All that does not produce value is potentially muda (waste).

28. FOCUS
ON VALUE
What does actually generate value, for my customer, in this web
app? (ie: “makes him earn money”) What’s superfluous?
What, in my organization, is central in respect to this value produc-
tion? What’s superfluous?

29. Lean & Agile tools,
techniques, practices ...
Maybe next time! (Kanban, SCRUM, Pair programming, “courage”,
timeboxes, pomodoro technique, ...)

30. Study, take part, share!
www.agileday.it (Roma, November 2011)
www.webdebs.org (Brescia , once a month)
http://tech .groups.yahoo.com/group/milano-xpug/
www.linkedin .com/groups/Lean-Agile-Italy-1944601
and much , much , much more !

31. merci
@carloz
http://it.linkedin .com/in/beschi
carlo@devsum.it
ping me!