Maximizing Flow - Lean Agile Team Productivity

Do you know what impacts your teams productivity?  Whether you're passionate about Kanban or Scrum you will want to avoid bottlenecks and maximize the flow of work.  To do this it is vital that there is an understanding of the impacts to team productivity.  If you don't know what your impacts are then STOP and take a step back.

Part 2: Hiring Software Developers - The Process

In the previous post we looked at the difference in performance between a 'star' and a hero' software developer. You may agree or you might not but one thing I hope you have seen is that there is a difference in performance with your key team members.  Having these team members certainly makes delivering quality software quickly a real possibility, meeting lean principles and accelerating organization agility.

So how do we hire a 'star' software developer?

Part 1: Hiring software developers - a star or a hero?

If you are new to Lean and Agile, or if you have just started on this journey, then before you make further process changes you should take a step back and look at your team members. Having the right sort of team members with the right kind of mindset is key to lean principles.

One of the things that is noticeable in a team is the difference in performance between a 'star' and an 'average' performer.  It's difficult to quantify the difference but research by Hunter & Schmidt suggests that the difference in performance could be 32% more then the 'average' performers.

Within a software development team the difference in performance will very much depend on how you measure or perceive productivity.  How do you measure the productivity of your software engineers?

Kanban Software Development E-Book

A software development team in today’s economy must focus on delivering business value quickly, meeting increasing commercial pressures which are driving the need for "just in time" delivery and building in quality at an early stage ensuring continued business success.  If you work as an IT Professional and you are interested in learning more about Kanban (Kan Ban) then keep reading.

Do you work in IT Project Management and are you under constant pressure from changing priorities and the need to deliver frequently?  Have you tried other agile methods such as Scrum and found short comings in your environment?  Are you dealing with managers or team members who want agility but their actions do not back up their words?

If you need answers to these questions or if you just want to understand what Kanban is then "Kanban Software Development: The Just In Time Evolution" could help you.

Popular Books for Lean and Agile Software Development

The best way to get started with Agile Project Management, Agile Coding and Testing Techniques, and Lean Software Development is to buy a couple of good books. Alternatively you can search for a decent e-book or read the different blogs that discuss agile. At some stage though you will need to buy some reference books which you will read through once but you will use again and again.

What is lean?

Lean Software Engineering

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an example of a lean manufacturing system that uses a pull production system. The lean system used by Toyota is primarily concerned with making a profit, and satisfying customers with the highest possible quality at the lowest cost in the shortest lead-time, whilst developing the talents and skills of its workforce.  This is an aim that is very relevant for all companies in today's global economy.

What is lean software engineering and how are these concepts applied to the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)?

What is agile?

So what is agile? Agile, Lean and Kanban Software Development are simply different styles of working compared to more traditional software development life cycles like Waterfall and the V-model.

The dictionary definition of agile is "characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement; nimble".

What are the main characteristics of Agile Development and what are the most popular methods used by software development teams today?