Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point [Paperback]

Mary Poppendieck (Author), Tom Poppendieck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321620704 | ISBN-13: 978-0321620705 | Edition: 1

Building on their breakthrough bestsellers Lean Software Development and Implementing Lean Software Development, Mary and Tom Poppendieck’s latest book shows software leaders and team members exactly how to drive high-value change throughout a software organization—and make it stick. They go far beyond generic implementation guidelines, demonstrating exactly how to make lean work in real projects, environments, and companies.

The Poppendiecks organize this book around the crucial concept of frames, the unspoken mental constructs that shape our perspectives and control our behavior in ways we rarely notice. For software leaders and team members, some frames lead to long-term failure, while others offer a strong foundation for success. Drawing on decades of experience, the authors present twenty-four frames that offer a coherent, complete framework for leading lean software development. You’ll discover powerful new ways to act as competency leader, product champion, improvement mentor, front-line leader, and even visionary.

• Systems thinking: focusing on customers, bringing predictability to demand, and revamping policies that cause inefficiency
• Technical excellence: implementing low-dependency architectures, TDD, and evolutionary development processes, and promoting deeper developer expertise
• Reliable delivery: managing your biggest risks more effectively, and optimizing both workflow and schedules
• Relentless improvement: seeing problems, solving problems, sharing the knowledge
• Great people: finding and growing professionals with purpose, passion, persistence, and pride
• Aligned leaders: getting your entire leadership team on the same page

From the world’s number one experts in Lean software development, Leading Lean Software Development will be indispensable to everyone who wants to transform the promise of lean into reality—in enterprise IT and software companies alike.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mary Poppendieck has led teams implementing various solutions ranging from enterprise supply chain management to digital media. Mary is the president of Poppendieck LLC, which specializes in bringing lean techniques to software development.

Tom Poppendieck, an enterprise analyst, architect, and agile process mentor, currently assists organizations in applying lean principles and tools to software development processes. The Poppendiecks are authors of Lean Software Development, winner of the 2004 Jolt Software Development Productivity Award, and Implementing Lean Software Development (both from Addison-Wesley).

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (October 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321620704
• ISBN-13: 978-0321620705
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not As Satisfying But Still Worthwhile August 10, 2010

By Maurice Hagar

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Anything by Mary and Tom Poppendieck is recommended reading but I'm not quite as impressed this time around. To be sure, there is much we can learn here about the application of lean principles to project management and software development. The discussion of value demand vs. failure demand is particularly good. And I couldn't agree more with their assessment of targets and "goals gone wild." Our systems, as well as our people, are what they are; targets will not change their capabilities. We're more likely to produce distortion and cheating than improvement. And "relative goals can motivate competitors to sabotage each other's performance. Thus ranking performance relative to peers can be damaging...if reward systems are based on this ranking." Performance rewards should be "shared equally among all competitors." A number of themes span multiple frames--a weakness of the "frames" construct--and the authors revisit this one several times.

More lessons from Toyota--the darling of every lean study--are helpful even if quotes such as this one now ring hollow: "One of the fundamental elements of TPS [the Toyota Production System] that management must be fully committed to is the `customer first' philosophy."

Frame 6: Quality by Construction is generally helpful but this is where I first began to notice some incendiary rhetoric and straw-man argumentation against waterfall or "sequential" development. For example: "not trying to find [defects] until the end of development" demonstrates "the distorted logic of the sequential frame of reference." Later, in telling the fascinating story of the Empire State Building's construction: "They did not break down the job into tasks" and the project "was not framed by cost, schedule, and scope." Yet they did break down the job into "small batches" and the project was framed by a number of constraints including "$35 million of capital...and May 1, 1931." And "Let's be honest; customers do not need scope. They need to have business goals accomplished"--the definition of scope. And "I often wonder how companies can expect superior performance...when there is no one whose job it is to uncover the strengths of each person and match the job to the individual."

Some concepts advocated here, such as eliminating defects, change control, and work queues, are debatable and sometimes raise more questions than answers. On quality, for instance, the authors quote Edsger Dijkstra who says "effective programmers...should not waste their time debugging--they should not introduce bugs to start with." Bug-free programming is certainly possible but at what cost, even in a lean environment? And on eliminating work queues: "'But,' you protest, `our customers won't tolerate that!' Or `How will we learn what customers want if we turn down their requests?' Or `How will we keep track of what has been discarded?' Or `Won't customers simply keep their own queue?' Or `What do we do with the list we have now?' These are all good questions, and you should search for good answers." Such conclusions are not quite satisfactory. Nonetheless, this work will certainly force you to think and is, therefore, recommended reading.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars lean - by frames of reference November 5, 2009

By Jeanne Boyarsky

Format:Paperback

Wow! I was blown away by how good it was. I expected it to be "light reading" as I'd read about many of the concepts elsewhere. Somehow the authors managed to present them all in a thought provoking way. Even the introduction had me scribbling in the margins. As a result, I only finished 5 chapters in a 6 hour flight. I promptly finished the remainder the next morning. A real page turner.

Each of the chapters follow the same format: detailed example of company applying concepts, 4 frames and brief portrait of how used. A frame is a point of view - like a camera frame. There were detailed examples throughout. Each chapter ends with questions to think about - these aren't classroom exercises - they really help. The frames really drew me in - each time I started the next one, I felt the mental shift.

I'm not sure what my favorite part of the book was - between the current examples (banking crisis, Captain Sully, Obama's website), historical ones (Empire State Building construction), clear diagrams, etc.

The beginning of the book really grabbed me. It explained why Southwest Airlines is so much more successful than the traditional airlines. The fact that I was on an airplane at the time helped, but the example stood on its own.

The fact that I didn't go more than 5 pages without writing a note or more than 1-2 pages without underlining something really speaks for itself. The book was great!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value June 8, 2011

By Manfred Lange

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book - as expected from Mary and Tom - is good value for money. Although some of the items are common sense and known to the active practitioner there are still enough gems in it for the experienced reader.

Those who have read the Mary's and Tom's other books on Lean Software Development will find new perspectives and ideas. This book is certainly on the list of books I regularly consult.