How to Implement ‘Lean’ Principles into Software Development Practice?: Visualization of Delays and Defects

Software industry still has many deep-seated problems. As a natural consequence, it may have to learn from best practices in more mature industry like manufacturing. An example is ‘lean’ software development which is defined as translation of ‘lean manufacturing’ principles to the software development domain. The principles include ‘eliminate waste’ and ‘amplify learning.’ It was much asserted that these principles are worth applying. Not much study, however, was done on how to practically implement these principles into software development practice. In this study we attempt to present a method in which project lead time and software defects are regarded as major targets of management and are visualized using Cumulative Flow Diagram. We further applied this method on actual projects. The result confirms that agile is positively effective on reducing wastes.