Lean Software Development and Scrum

Last Tuesday I attended the 2009 edition of the Valtech Days.
I was able to attend 2 very interesting workshops on Lean Management and Lean Software Development, an agile methodology that has been implemented by Thales.
Several interesting points that I was interested in:

• The first is the culture change by introducing the value for customers
• The other principle is the elimination of waste, the objective is to implement practices for improving the efficiency of the process to add value to the customers

What is the relationship with Scrum?

Scrum defines practices that enable process improvement and waste cutting.
How can we define the concept of waste in software development? It is any activity that absorbs resources (human, machine, etc.) without adding value to the customer.
In software edition industry, wastes most often observed are:

• Too many features
• Work done partiallyCommunication
• Knowledge Transfer
• Switching between different tasks
• Delays
• Defects

For me, Scrum is the ideal framework for eliminating all waste:

• Iterative development can meet the challenges of "Work done partially"
• TDD (Test Driven Development), Refactoring and continuous integration can eliminate the problems of "defects"
• Backlog & sprint planning meetings, Pair-programming and one cross-functional team can eliminate the problems of "communication", "knowledge transfer", "defects" and "too many features".
• Adding Sustainable rythm, collective responsibility of the code and the Scrum dashboard can eliminate the problems of "delays"