Mary and Tom Poppendieck later mapped original seven wastes from Toyota Production System to wastes we found on software development. (Poppendieck, Mary and Tom. Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash. Addison-Wesley, 2006.)
- Partially Done Work
- Extra Features
- Relearning; Extra processes
- Handoffs, Motion
- Delays; Waiting
- Task Switching
- Defects
With value stream mapping we can try to identify steps on processes that add value to customer. But how we can measure direct value for example Configuration Management or Risk Management?
Root cause analysis can be used to try to find what was the original problem. There exists many methods, but I have find most effective to just ask enough why's to get the answer. Official name for this is 5 Whys. IMHO Most of time (1-5) whys should be enough.
But even then seeing the waste is hard. And is it actually always necessary?
If carrying along few extra unnecessary lines of code does not cost you anything, is it just waste of time to remove them? Is refactoring always necessary?
Manual work is eliminated by automation. But which one is waste; spending 4 hours to create one time script or doing 2 hours of manual work that accomplishes same thing?
We all are happily carrying 90% unnecessary DNA with us. I don’t want to eliminate it even that I do not know what to do with it. So my best practice for eliminating waste is; use your brain - or 10% of your brain, since nobody knows how to use the rest of it.
See also
"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." -- Thomas Edison
Root cause analysis can be used to try to find what was the original problem. There exists many methods, but I have find most effective to just ask enough why's to get the answer. Official name for this is 5 Whys. IMHO Most of time (1-5) whys should be enough.
But even then seeing the waste is hard. And is it actually always necessary?
If carrying along few extra unnecessary lines of code does not cost you anything, is it just waste of time to remove them? Is refactoring always necessary?
Manual work is eliminated by automation. But which one is waste; spending 4 hours to create one time script or doing 2 hours of manual work that accomplishes same thing?
We all are happily carrying 90% unnecessary DNA with us. I don’t want to eliminate it even that I do not know what to do with it. So my best practice for eliminating waste is; use your brain - or 10% of your brain, since nobody knows how to use the rest of it.
See also
"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." -- Thomas Edison
Interesting notes about business value of purely technical features:
ReplyDeleteHow to translate “business value” of things that are technically important