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Showing posts from May, 2009

From cars to software

Since I have spent half of my working life in the heavy industry, from the time I broke into the software, I have been sceptical, even doubtful about finding a practical and repeatable solution to develop the software products with a consistent level of quality. After years of learning, I should agree, this industry is on its way to handling its maturity. Often, we compare our industry to the car one and their histories are damn close. If you get the chance to visit a car museum you will notice the amazing number of craftsmen that were melting, welding, bending metal everywhere in the world in the early twentieth century. Count today car manufacturers , then astonish yourself by looking at the wikicars makers pages , and finally try to compare the concentration phenomenon to the software industry. Far from an accurate data analysis, that would lead to mumbo-jumbo, at least a lesson can be learned from the strongest car manufacturers and Toyota is the one we really need to em

Agile without Lean organisation

If you are a software agilist, you may struggle to move people's mentalities toward a different view. Agile Methods have proved their effectiveness around the software team, but It will never jump to the next level without a wave of reniewals for our companies. InfoQ is probably the most intesting slideshow/video ressource about our modern software world. If you have 30 minutes, take a break and watch the interview of Robin Dymond : Lean Organizations to Support Agile Teams. He gives a summary of the lean history( Toyota production system), proposes an example of an implementation at GM, then further explains what comes next: marketing, team base organisation, etc. Don't forget to push F11 to set your browser to full screen mode. Sources : InfoQ : Lean Organizations to Support Agile Teams