Keywords

36.1 Introduction

Lean is a unique idea for providing better service for the user by means of removing items which are considered as waste. A task in a process that tends to consume time or resources without increasing the price is considered as a target for removal. Lean concept is widely practiced in manufacturing industries but is not popular in the software sector. In a production context, the products and production methods are closely observed; hence, waste is simple to perceive, whereas waste in software sectors are not as same as in the manufacturing/production. Many industries do not realize the importance of Lean methodology hence retaliate to change the organizational culture that suits implementation of Lean methodology rather they flow the conventional way. But the constantly changing market situation put more demand to pay greater attention on client which without a doubt adds value. The motivating factor behind this study is to analyze the Lean concepts for IT industry taking Indian IT sector as domain due to the reason that Indian IT sectors are not achieving that much profit ratio as compared to the foreign IT sector. Main reasons are wastes produced during the business process and less quality product. This research aims to introduce the Lean mindset and its requirements in the software industry.

36.2 Review of Literature

Word “Lean” was first used by Krafcik in 1988 to elucidate the Toyota manufacturing system. However, this became a widely used concept after the release of a book entitled “The Machine that changed the world” (Womack et al. 1991). Another e-book entitled, “Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit,” authored by using Poppendieck and Poppendieck particularly been a bedrock of many Lean initiatives in software development domain. Poppendieck and Poppendieck [13] laid the foundation of Lean tasks. The authors provide justification as to why the Lean principle works in improvising the software devices. They also provide seven concept of Lean software development. According to Economic Times, when one of India’s eminent software exporter Wipro, was searching solutions increased inflation and outsourcing complexities, Wipro, alongside many other Indian software industries possessed all the quality certifications viz ISO 9001 to SEI CMM. But like most initiatives and certificates, even that they had become mere tags and did not help to form a difference as a result of which Wipro thought of adapting the Lean methodology. Unlike conventional methods of improving performance and quality of software projects, Lean focused on identifying and cutting waste to enhance ROI. In a software sector, waste could include duplication of efforts, and time utilized in preparing for a new project. Wipro has almost 1600 projects which are Lean and save an average of almost 20% yearly. In 2004, the organization launched a pilot “Lean” initiative: an attempt that attempted to translate the Lean manufacturing concepts from production to S/W development, and operational performances were highly impacted by the Lean initiative at Wipro. Its observed that Lean initiatives have higher performance rate, reduced efforts, and overall performance than non-Lean projects. The idea of “going for short wins” is intuitively famous, although he understood the concept of Lean as an ongoing development tool. Every industries or manufacturer should learn to implement the concept of Lean. Lean is not just a thing they ought to usher in practice, but they ought to also attempt to bring various other Lean concepts into account. Lean should not be implemented by itself to achieve maximum output, and it should be implemented strategically. Industries like Timberline Inc. adapted the Lean subculture. Here, Lean principles are employed by the software development agency so as to extend productivity and to attenuate waste. Timberline extensively uses the concept of takt and an everyday stand up assembly acquainted from their plans and also to motivate individual. After adapting Lean, the time required to review defect from the entire improvement cycle dropped by 65–80%, among other improvement. Alvarez et al. observed that the implementation of Lean methodology results in operational excellence, continuous development and elimination of non-value-added activities. Taylor et al. provided a Lean framework to analyze the impact of Lean. With comparison within Lean culture, Lean layout, Lean supply chain management with the traits, and factors of various ways of innovation various strategies for various industries to attend stability while implementing Lean and innovation at the same time are also discussed. Behrauzi et al. (2010) analyzed the idea of Lean production system which was initiated from Toyota, a Japanese automating company, which has been continuously growing within the international market from years. Ohno in 1988 discussed and reviewed the Toyota production system which improved business to deal with the production difficulties the company had to face as consequences of the World War II. TPS was compelled to pick the waste discount to attend strategic aim. Bhim et al. (2010) talked about the benefits of value stream mapping (VSM), a concept of Lean manufacturing, to improve the assembly line for production companies. Gadre et al. [9] studied that the Lean is considered to be a system for financial savings, reduction of inefficiency, and to increase customer satisfaction. In a Lean approach, the mixture of change control and an integrated method approach, throughout all elements that impacts worker behavior in an economic services agency, is the most effective manner to work successfully to achieve sustainable results. As Lean is being widely used in manufacturing industries, it has also stared to mark its presence in software industries too, Wipro is one of the best example for the same. Unlike manufacturing industries, software industries have their own challenges to implement Lean, since the processes type of outcomes in software are completely different; hence, the Lean principles also vary. Table 36.1 represents the Lean principles in software industry.

Table 36.1 Key principles of Lean software development
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Waste elimination is a key principle of Lean methodology. Waste is considered as anything, a process or a task which does not add value to the customer. In context of manufacturing industry, inventory is considered as waste. One reason of it may be the undiscovered defects in inventory. These defects later tend to be more expensive to fix in the process. In software industry, an unfinished product can be considered as waste or the waiting time required for products for testing or any other type of approval can be considered as waste (Table 36.2).

Table 36.2 Lean software wastes from literature
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The worldwide organization, BBC, introduced Lean practices during a nine person team working for BBC with different roles and responsibilities within the organization. Middleton et al. (2012) main target was to review the lead time. By minimizing variance and decreasing dimension of units of work, they were ready to limit the work to capacity. However, switching from agility to Lean was described as “an advanced improvement that agility is not abandoned when Lean is accepted.” This is often natural, because agile practices focus more on project development, whereas Lean focuses on the entire value chain. Wang et al. (2012) the “Agile Manifesto” emerged in early 2001 to provide a solution to the problems of current software program improvement strategies and hastily changing surroundings. Lately, agile framework has begun to seem closer to Lean software improvement tactics. Software products are not as tangible as manufacturing products; hence, the Lean principles of manufacturing process differ to that of the software processes. Table 36.3 represents variety of the Lean methods and their results from literature. If one controls the enterprise and merchandise, it could be much easy to attain Lean.

Table 36.3 Lean methods and their outcomes
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36.3 Research Gap

A thorough study of lean methodology is performed to perceive the scope of adapting lean in software development. Lean ideas from various researches are studied and presented a couple of authors have provided more educational frameworks [13], while others have focused on case studies. Middleton et al. (2012) mainly focus on lean application on Indian IT zone because agile has already been implemented and also studied in software process improvement initiatives (Dyba et al. 2008). Cawley et al. [5] did a survey on the adaption of Lean and agile methodology, wherein they mentioned that Lean methods have the potential to enhance and improve safety critical systems. Shah et al. evolved an operational degree of lean production and presented a framework that identifies its most salient dimensions. Although very useful, the tool is not always commonly applicable, and it is especially designed for manufacturing sector and hence cannot be applied in software development process. There is intrinsically no definitive listing of Lean software development ideas. Identified wastes in a software product customization process using the value stream map with the intention to reduce lead time: waiting time, extra features, and motion which were the identified wastes. The value stream map helped in identifying the non-value-added activities in the process. Table 36.4 gives an in-depth survey and review of research papers from various domains to spot research gaps scope of improvement while implementing lean.

Table 36.4 Literature review and identified research gap
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36.4 Conclusion

Lean principles from literature have been studied and presented here, some authors designed frameworks [13] (Poppendieck et al. 2009, 2010), whereas some of them have focused on case studies (Middleton et al. 2012). This research mainly emphasizes on the application of Lean in the software development since agile methods have already been studied and adapted in many software projects (Dyba et al. 2008). Lean approaches seem to be better than agile (Wang et al. 2012), because of which Lean and Lean principles are the basis of this research. Dyba et al. (2008) organized a systematic literature review on agile software development till 2005, and from the identified 36 studies, they identified that only one applied Lean practice to software development. Shah et al. developed an operational measure of Lean production and provided a framework that identifies its most salient dimensions. Although very useful, the instrument is not generally applicable because it was developed for a production environment and not for other environment. Software industries especially in India need to adopt the Lean culture to improve investments and customer satisfaction. Lean focuses on reducing waste, whereas agile focuses on flexibility and adapting to customers’ requirements. There is no specific well-defined list of Lean principles. To achieve “Lean,” a software sector needs to identify certain Lean factors like types of waste and Lean principles relevant for the adaption of Lean approach. This investigation aims to identify the Lean requirements which can be adaptable in the software development domain. The research study gives an idea on how to apply Lean concepts for the software industry sectors and make it as a Lean organization.

With Lean concepts, IT sectors will have the following advantages:

–More disciplined process

–Decreased cycle time less inventory

–Improved productivity

–Increase capital utilization

–Improved quality of the product and process

–Improved efficiency

–Reduction in 5 m’s (men, machine, material, money, and management)

–Improved quality of the product and process

– Customer satisfaction

–Reduced staff turnover