Everything has a beginning.

Sometimes you can point to a single event that set the wheels in motion, whereas other times a soup of ideas, events, and thoughts coagulate in some mysterious way that we never fully comprehend. In the case of this book, the “single event” model definitely applies.

Curt remembers it like it was yesterday—the first time he sat down with a colleague to discuss Lean software development. As they discussed what Lean thinking meant when applied to software development, the colleague asked one simple question: “If I could do only one thing, what should that be?”

It was a good question, a question that stuck in Curt’s mind like a song that you can’t stop hearing in your head, over and over. Pondering this question led him to better understand how much software developers and managers really want to believe that this Lean and Agile development stuff can help them. They feel like they ought to do something, but they’re reluctant (or unable) to adopt a whole methodology because of a legitimate fear of failure.

It’s like asking someone to jump off a cliff with a handy-dandy new jet pack strapped to his back, saying, “Trust me, this will get you to the other side of that chasm much faster.” Maybe…but what are the consequences if it doesn’t work?

If that’s how you feel, this book is for you.

The Lean approach has been yielding dramatic results in manufacturing for decades, and now Lean is being applied just as successfully to the supply chain, product design, engineering, and even software development! At the same time, the Agile software development methodologies have been proving the value of the very same core practices recommended for Lean software development.

These core practices are common to every Agile methodology and Lean software development implementation. Best of all, these practices can be adopted one at a time and still provide substantial benefits—you don’t have to swallow the elephant whole to see benefits.

Many people mistakenly think that Lean and Agile are two names for the same thing. Lean and Agile software development have the same goal—to increase quality and productivity—but they take different philosophical approaches to get there. The first part of this book presents the Lean software development principles. We discuss the differences between the Lean and Agile perspectives as well as the similarities.

The second part of this book presents the core practices, ordered by value. We tell you which practice you should use first to get the most return for your effort and, if you are already doing that, we show you which practice you should adopt next.

This book covers, in detail, the five most important practices that you can adopt as you begin your Lean software development journey. These are simple, incremental steps you can take to lean out your software development—one step at a time!

As you master each practice, you will see significant, measurable results. These successes will give you a deeper understanding of the power of applying Lean thinking to software development.

The more improvements you make to your software development process, the more attuned you will become to the impediments that still exist (“waste,” in Lean terms). This will give you the knowledge and ability to start making your own value judgments about how to continue improving your software development process. After all, Lean is a journey, not a destination!