Dan describes how the Agile impact in software is similar to the Lean impact in manufacturing of the 90′s. I initially struggled with the analogy until I realized he is not saying that software development is like manufacturing. He is saying that the concepts and techniques applied in Lean manufacturing are coming to large-scale software development.
I completely agree and believe the model of how we build software is changing just like Dan describes. Using the model from the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, the change looks like this:
Lean Software Concept
That was a great decade – I see much of the last decade of improvement coming from a real effort to take responsibility for how we perform our craft. The ground up work in Agile, Scrum, XP and Lean has increased velocity, increased quality and increased the quality of life for many in our industry. I am personally in a much better working environment; how about you?
So what’s ahead for 2010?- With Agile software development hitting the mainstream, the guiding ideas on how to design and deploy software is changing for most software driven organizations. As more teams and organization make the transition to the Agile/Lean triangle, I see us increasing our investments in skills training, teaching, experimenting and innovating with an increasing number of new tools, techniques and methods. As a result, I see this decade moving us past the Lean models of Toyota to something uniquely our own. I am really excited about the improvement this decade could bring to our industry and all the industries that we impact with our software.
On our recent webinar “Demystifying Cloud, The Next Generation Architecture” we had a number of thoughtful and tough questions related to security, intellectual property and risks. We provided answers to these questions in the recording, but I found the recent SD Times article “Cloud Providers Answer Tough Questions” an even better source. In this article, a number of experts on specific platforms from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce as well as Rally’s own Zach Nies answer questions about security, lock-in and IP.
Henry Ford didn't foresee the impact of the first car - do we foresee the true impact of the Cloud?
Daryl Plummer from Gartner also did a great job recently describing the real point of cloud computing as he reviews Russ Daniels recent Forbes article. Russ says:
“In my view, the ability to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship in this new model is one of the most promising ways to ignite the next wave of economic growth. We can no more see the full impact of the cloud than Henry Ford foresaw the impact of his desire to produce more cars in less time.”
As a result of SD Times’ tough questions and our desire to “ignite the next wave of economic growth,” we decided to talk in our next webinar with Global Logic and IBM about how to go to the cloud and mitigate risk along the way. As with any pilot, the goal is to enter wisely, learn fast and then move forward. Given the iterative and incremental method of Agile is best suited for this fast-learning approach, we will title our next talk “Going to the Cloud – the Agile Way.”
We are structuring the content now, but I would love to hear your ideas, questions or feedback on this topic. I will also post a registration link for the webinar as soon as I have it.
Thesis: Taking a learning-first approach to your cloud efforts can help you avoid the risks of vendor lock-in, IP security and a spectacular failure
Proposed Agenda:
Review the innovation, benefits and risks
Typical approach – Choosing early, over selling, dramatic big bang
The Agile/Lean approach – Set-based, scientific and learning-based
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