Lean Software Development for Any Company

Lean software development comes out of the agile community where people are learning how to manage their time and energy better. It has some basic tenants that anyone can follow, and it needs to be adhered to when a company wants to be sure that they can make better products in less time. These products should be generated using the smallest amount of resources possible, and that is why these companies are trying to make sure that they can follow these principles as much as possible. They are very good for the company that wants to be sure that they can make their deadlines, and it also works for a company that wants to cut a lot of their spending because they feel like it is taking too long to get things done. They will instantly see an uptick in their productivity.

The Education and Waste

Every business that is trying to save money has to cut all the waste in all their programs. There is no need at all for any of these people to working unless they have something to do. That means that there are no empty projects, and there are no items that amount to busy work. The busy work that gets done is a drain on the company and its resources, and that is why it has to go. The next step would be to teach everyone in the office something about their job every week. Adding to the education that people get in the office will be much better than just forcing people to get the work done. They will be more efficient on more projects because they are educated. That alone will make it so much easier for the business to function well.

Empowerment and Teamwork

Everyone who is managing this work needs to be sure that they have empowered the team to get work done. There is so much more to be done when the company is run by someone who believes in empowerment, and the person who is trying to make sure that they can get better results will be sure that they have figured out how to get people to work together. The teamwork will go a long way, and it will help people be sure that they have all that they need to work. It makes more sense for a company to cut away the waste as they start to give people their own chances to work. They deserve to have the support of their leaders, and it will help people find out that they can get more software work done in a day. That delivers more to the client every time.

Extreme Programming Moves Faster Than Anything Else

Extreme Programming is an idea that has come out of the agile community where the developer is supposed to move fast and do a lot of releases so that they can adjust to what the market wants. The market is demanding, and there are people who are always submitting their input. These people are going to keep sending in their input, and they will be able to keep changing with updates that might even happen every couple days. This is a lot faster than any other method of making software, but people who are not used to doing this need to remember that they can align their whole business with this if they want to. It is all about being able to respond to the market so that people can get what they want out of the software that has been created.

Why Move Faster Than Other Companies?

There are a lot of people who are wondering why they should have to move this fast, and it is because they want to be ahead of the competition. The competition might pretend that they are doing better work, but the problem is that these companies are not actually doing work that is any better than any other company. They are just moving slower to help their customers. They are going to start to learn that they have to keep up, and a company that is moving faster will force them to do that. They will wonder how they are going to be able to pace themselves to get alongside another company, but they will have to move fast while the company is already set up to do this. Changing the whole manner in which the company is run makes more sense, and it will help everyone understand why it is necessary to do this. They will all see the results that they are getting, and they will notice that they can do two or three updates in the same time that another company will do one. The bugs get worked out faster, and the customer is a lot happier because of this.

The Plan for The Company Moving Forward

This also means that a company can program more things at once because they are planning to move them out faster than anyone else. The company that is willing to spend that much time and money on its programming in this manner will have multiple projects come out at the same time, and they will notice how easy it is for them to get the work done that needs to be done. They can outpace the other companies around them because they have chosen to move faster. They can incite more passion in their fans because they have more things coming out, and they can start teasing new content because they planned. That is so much easier for these people to do than it is to just sit there and wait for one new project to come out.

Extreme Programming is the wave of the future because there is no company that wants to wait that long to get the results that it wants. It needs to see results right now, and they have to be sure that they have figured out how they will realign everything to make it extreme. They can get every programmer on the same page, and they can get the company to move at a pace that no one else will be able to knock out all their programming at this rate and with such success.

Teamwork is Key – Agile Software Development

According to the definition, agile software development is a term that surfaced among the inner circles of the programming culture in the early 2000’s to symbolize the teamwork factor that developing the future of various software products as it relates to the developmental stage. While it is in no way shape or form focused on the multitude of various methods and practices the agile software development term seeks to focus attention on the fact that it takes the basic concepts of programming and developing in an effort to further along the evolution of software developmental practices, roles and responsibilities, and other related areas of the overall software development process. Additionally, the idea of agile software development is dependent on making changes to a wide selection of various requirements needed to improve upon the tools and resources that already exist. This article will provide a basic overview of the history, in addition to the roles and responsibilities of agile software development.

The Early History

Although, there are various challenges that are common in developing various forms of software. Overall, the issue was seen that the immediate delivery of the most up-to-date was released long after its most common users (businesses) had the need for the software. This put customers everywhere behind the technological curve in that the wide selection of tools and resources weren’t available when the software was most needed. Simply put, the given history prior to agile software development made things difficult to complete in terms of computer-oriented tasks due to slow software. It wasn’t until the mid to late 1990’s that agile software development allowed for a bridge in the gap when it came to the delivery system of various software programs. Additional to this, though, was the fact that not only would software be released in a shorter time frame but developers would also obtain feedback on how the software ran more quickly as well. This provided an excellent advantage because any existing glitches were able to be investigated and fixed faster than before.

Roles/Responsibilities, and Practices

The overall idea of agile software development focuses on the whole idea of a teamwork based environment that works not only to develop and evolve software functions more quickly but to also determine the correct processes that are required to give software proper functionality. That said, this form of software development is not meant to carry on the idea that software development is not based on a series of methods, practices, nor processes (although in total this is the way in which software operates). These methods and practices are merely a thought to keep in mind as the software is developed. Rather the software is within the designing or coding phase, in the end, there will be several roles or responsibilities that various users that will play a different role in the operations of the software. From the programmers and testers to the consumer each person is key in the software’s ability to function and operate in the way in which it was intended to in the first place.

The Extreme Tuesday Club

The Extreme Tuesday Club is a core meeting in London where people can get together and talk about anything that strikes them as important. They are trying to figure out how they will get through their next project, and they need to be sure that they have come with all their ideas when they show up. This is a place where people can work out what is going on in their head, and it is a support group for people who are trying to be more productive. These people bring all their thoughts to the meetings, and then they can see what will happen when they talk this out with a large group of people. There are many people who will be able to have their thoughts run over by a large group, and it will help them save time in the future.

The Meetings Are Informal

The people who come to the meetings are in an informal setting that will help them relax as they think. There are a lot of options for every person who is trying to learn, and they can hide in a corner with someone they want to talk to or go to a large table where they can share with the group. Some people come just to share what they think, and they might get inspired while they are there. The whole idea behind this meeting is for people to learn that they can do more than just think about things on their own. These people need some support, and that is why they are coming to the meetings in the first place. They want to know that other people feel the same way about their own idea.

Coming to the Extreme Tuesday Club can help people when they know that they are struggling to find the best ideas to work with. They are trying to figure out how they will work with these ideas, and they need to know that they will have a place to come for help. It makes a lot more sense for these people to be sure that they are among like-minded company, and that is why they are at the XTC meetings. They can learn, talk or share to find out what the latest ideas are in the industry regardless of where they are working.

The Scrapheap Challenge Is an Inspiration to Designers

Everyone who is looking for inspiration for their building needs to be sure that they have watched some of the Scrapheap Challenge which became Junkyard Wars in the States. This was a show that pitted people against junk that they had to use to make their project. This is a show that people need to get behind because it would teach them to be creative, and it would help them when they were trying to figure out how they could make something out of nothing. That is what businesses have to do a lot, and that is why it is important for them to be sure that they are really looking at what was done on the show. The show is a good metaphor for work, and it is something that people need to be sure they have figured out before they lead a team.

The Premise Is Good in The Office

Every office that wants to have more creative people in it should make sure that they are telling people they can be more creative. It is very easy to encourage people to be creative when they are looking at their work like the process of going through the Scrapheap Challenge. They will see everything as a chance to learn, and they will find out that it is a lot easier to do this than it is to sit around and hope for better resources to come in. The people who are complaining about this all the time will have problems that they cannot resolved because they are not being creative. Taking inspiration from the Scrapheap Challenge will make it so that every person in the office is going to get more work in a day because they are simply more creative with what they have.

Teaching a while office of people to think outside the box is pretty easy when they are looking at it like a TV show. That is why the Scrapheap Challenge is something that people need to really look at for inspiration. They can learn a lot of things, and they can find out that they have more chances to do good instead of just wondering how they will get done with the project that is sitting in front of them. They will see everything as a material, and they will do their best work every time they come into the office and there is a problem to solve.

Kanban Helps with Inventory Control

Kanban is a Japanese card system that was created at Toyota so that the company could start to control inventory. They might not have heard of it in its original form, but it is very popular among businesses even today because they can manage their inventory without any problems at all. The cards are all set up to move to and from a single item, and they will alert the company to how it should manage the inventory it produces. This is a great concept for a company that has to ship a lot of products, and it works for the company that wants to see how they can better control what inventory they have. Sometimes they get lost in trying to control everything, and they would do a lot better to just use this system when they send out products from their warehouse.

Kanban Cards Go with Every Product

The concept at Toyota was to apply a Kanban card to the product that left the factory. The card was there to show that the product was new and ready for shipment. It would stay with the product until it was sold. The sale of the product sent the card back to Toyota, and they knew that they had to produce something in its place. This prevented the company from blindly creating products that no one needed, and it created a simple inventory chain that anyone could follow. The receptionist at the front desk could understand how much was sold, how much was produced and how much should be produced. A product that was not selling would then be taken out of production for something that could do better. Toyota has been using this system in one form or another for decades, and they have simply improved it over the years. It is all electronic now, but it gives the same results. They can see when something sells, and they can decide how fast their production lines should be going at any one time.

Kanban Helps Everyone

Kanban might be a Japanese concept, but it helps everyone who runs a large business. they can use it as much as they want on all their products. It only makes sense for people to be sure that they can get more work done, and it can be used for anything. There are many applications for the cards, and the cards can be turned into stickers that are placed on boxes or product packaging. This is much simpler to use in all cases, and it provides a very simple platform that people can use for inventory that does not involve complicated math or any other options that will need to be implemented by an expert. The company can start out with Kanban cards just like the team at Toyota did when they wanted to manage their inventory better. It is very easy to use, and it will work in any setting whether the company is making cars or making collectibles.

Timeboxing As a Concept

Timeboxing is a business concept that requires people to devote a certain amount of time to a certain task. The tasks cannot be decided upon as they work because they will use arbitrary numbers to determine what they should be working on. They will do well if they make their timeboxing plan before they start working. Begin every day with the list of things someone needs to do, and follow that timeboxing plan to the letter. Someone might not get everything done, but they will get closer than they were before. They must build in a lot of time as they do this, and that is why they need to plan the timeboxing in advance. It is a lot faster to do this work every day when they sit down with a plan they already created.

The Schedule

The schedule they make should include the work, the breaks, the meetings and the phone calls they will do in one day. They know every single thing that must be completed, and they can arrange these by priority. That important phone call they have to make can get its own block in the schedule, but a bank of phone calls will fall under a generic block of time. They must make time for working, for meetings and for their breaks. They might have a five-minute break every hour, but it gets its own block. It has to be set apart so that they know that they must stand up and stretch for those five minutes. The schedule will change every day, but they might want to create a template that they can fill in every week. A lot of things are consistent, and that is why they should keep using that template.

The Design of The Timeboxing Schedule

They need to make a timeboxing schedule that they actually want to look at. Most people will use something boring that makes them want to stop working. They need to create something that will make them want to keep working. The design of that scheme should be such that they are excited to look at it every day even though they might have a lot on their plate. They will do so much better when they have the schedule to work from, and they will discover that they can get a lot more done in the meantime. They deserve to work in an environment where they feel like they are getting more work done than normal. They are trying to create a business that anyone would be proud to work with, and the only way to be sure that they have produced a good business is to work hard. Working blindly without a plan is a waste of their time, but timeboxing will help them get a lot done in a very short period of time every day when they enter the office.

Being Up-To-Date: Continuous Obsolescence

The definition of continuous obsolescence can be best defined and described as a process or action that occurs between a system and its software when the software is in need of an update. While this is most common in computer and video gaming technology, in addition to other technologies, it can just easily become the technology of the past. When various issues go wrong, in regards to obsolete software, systems become outdated and slowly start to function improperly. While the issues can be with flash or java software technologies an entire operating system (OS) can just as easy go unresponsive if the software within the system is, for whatever reason not updated on a regular basis. Although these are generalities in terms of some of the most common scenarios and situations in which technologies are deemed as obsolete there are others that are more advanced reasons yet there is always a solution.

Unclear Picture

Aside from technologies that deal with obsolete issues regarding old outdated java, flash, and/or operating system software, there are other areas that can potentially cause a system to go obsolete. One such way that this can take place is in the way of graphics as it pertains to video games and the way in which they are capable of going out-of-date. The issue lies not so much in the fact that the actual video game is out-of-date but the fact that the technologies (be it video game consoles or computer systems) have outdated graphics. Additionally, the other part of the issue lies in the fact that video games are released at such a fast pace that the changes in updated graphics don’t have time to catch up thus resulting in instability in the functioning of such systems and technologies. Alternatively, there are other scenarios with why, or how, software can become obsolete is when a software developing company chooses to make a certain application or technology more stable and compatible over another.

Communication

Overall, when the woes of outdated software meet the vast advancements of today’s technologies there simply must be one, if not multiple solutions, to get both the software and the technology synced back into communication with one another. While there are many ways to accomplish this feat is to make software and its associated technology compatible with one another based on the developmental specifications of the technology (i.e. Windows and iOS systems, as well as Android, etc.). Additionally, it will also take expanded resources in terms of time and money to expand such efforts. Even more is the fact that it all comes down to the need for the developmental standards of various software development to be in tune with the compatibility standards set by various technological components such as computers, phones, gaming systems, and the like. While all these components are equally important to have the same amount of compatibility the amount of popularity toward that of the consumer aids in determining the systems that are kept up-to-date.