Lean Software Development

Definition - What does Lean Software Development mean?

Lean software development is a software development philosophy that aims to streamline the production of applications and software products, and to make them more efficient. The philosophy is popularly attributed to the book of the same title by Mary and Tom Peppendieck. It has also evolved based on common lean manufacturing strategies in physical industries implemented by Toyota Project Systems.

Techopedia explains Lean Software Development

In lean software development, various goals apply, including how to:

Eliminate waste
Amplify learning
Deliver as early and fast as possible
Empower people
Assess project integrity
Look at the project comprehensively

Many of these broad goals are expressed in the form of specific efforts. For example, eliminating waste comes in many forms, from creating smarter development modules to finding new ways of writing code. In general, lean software development has merged with another philosophy called "agile software development," which governs the ways that programmers and designers work together, and provides helpful guidelines and frameworks for software development as a whole.