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Applying
Just-in-Time and Lean Manufacturing to Software Product
Maintenance
Abstract:
Different
stages of a Software Development Lifecycle are shaped by
different objectives and constraints related to the
process of delivering value.
During the ongoing operations and maintenance of
a software intensive system, key objectives are to
minimize total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) and optimize
resource productivity.
This more deterministic lifecycle stage is
fundamentally different than the earlier, more unknown
and stochastic period of time when software investment
ideas and significant architectural decisions are
explored and reasoned about.
Software maintenance is unique because most of
the functionality is already baselined, with only
fine-grained adaptive, perfective, corrective and
preventative changes being performed.
Also different is the incremental nature of the
change requests, whereby the original product is only
“enhanced”, and the demand for change may be more
diffuse across the system for a given interval of time.
This leads to the direct applicability of the
processes leveraged in incremental product development
originating from Lean / Just-in-Time Manufacturing.
Applying manufacturing-like processes to software
product maintenance yields a more linear delivery, and
are more conducive to creating high performance
organization structures optimum for ongoing product
maintenance. Specifically,
reducing batch sizes such that work-in-progress per
matrixed “work-unit” cell is limited, and leveraging
a pull-oriented signaling flow control approach yields
higher productivity along with higher quality.
This paper discusses the application of Lean
thinking to Software Product Maintenance.
Obtaining
a copy: Please
request this paper by emailing contact@fourth-medium.com
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