The main principles of the Lean methodology include:
- Eliminating Waste
- Amplifying Learning
- Deciding as Late as Possible
- Delivering as Fast as Possible
- Empowering the Team
- Building Integrity In
- Seeing the Whole
Lean development eliminates waste by asking users to select only the truly valuable features for a system, prioritize those features, and then work to deliver them in small batches. It relies on rapid and reliable feedback between programmers and customers, emphasizing the speed and efficiency of development workflows. Lean uses the idea of a work product being “pulled” via customer request. It gives decision-making authority to individuals and small teams since this has been proven to be a faster and more efficient method than a hierarchical flow of control. Lean also concentrates on the efficient use of team resources, trying to ensure that everyone is as productive as possible for the maximum amount of time. It strongly recommends that automated unit tests be written at the same time the code is written.
