How can you apply lean software development to safety-critical systems?

1 Define value and quality

One of the core principles of lean software development is to define value and quality from the customer's perspective. This means that you need to understand what the customer needs, wants, and expects from your software, and how they measure its performance, usability, and safety. You also need to align your value and quality definitions with the relevant standards and regulations that apply to your domain. For example, if you are developing software for a medical device, you need to follow the FDA guidelines and the ISO 13485 standard for quality management systems.

2 Eliminate waste and optimize flow

Eliminating waste and optimizing flow is a key principle of lean software development. Waste is anything that does not add value to the customer, such as defects, delays, rework, overproduction, or unnecessary features. Flow is the smooth and continuous delivery of value to the customer without interruptions or bottlenecks. To achieve this, you can reduce batch sizes and work-in-progress, implement pull systems and kanban boards, automate testing and deployment , apply continuous integration and delivery, and use value stream mapping and root cause analysis.

3 Build in feedback and learning

A third essential principle of lean software development is to build in feedback and learning. Feedback is the information that you receive from the customer, the users, the stakeholders, and the system itself, that tells you how well your software is meeting their needs and expectations. Learning is the process of using feedback to improve your software, your processes, and your skills. To achieve this, you should consider practices such as conducting user research and testing, implementing metrics and dashboards, performing retrospectives and kaizen events, applying test-driven development and behavior-driven development, as well as A/B testing and experimentation.

4 Embrace change and innovation

A fourth important principle of lean software development is to embrace change and innovation. Change is the inevitable result of feedback, learning, and market dynamics, requiring adaptation of software to new requirements, opportunities, and challenges. Innovation is the creative and proactive process of generating new ideas, solutions, and features that add value to the customer and differentiate software from the competition. To achieve this, agile methods and frameworks must be applied, as well as feature toggles and dark launches. Design thinking and prototyping should also be implemented, alongside lean startup and MVP concepts. Additionally, open innovation and crowdsourcing should be applied.

5 Collaborate and empower

Collaboration and empowerment are two key principles of lean software development. Collaboration involves working together with customers, users, stakeholders, and the team to deliver value and quality. Empowerment is giving the team autonomy, authority, and resources to make decisions and solve problems. To accomplish this, you should apply customer-centric and user-centric approaches, implement co-creation and co-design, use pair programming and mob programming, self-organize and cross-functionally team up, as well as adopt servant leadership and coaching.

6 Respect and improve

A sixth and final principle of lean software development is to respect and improve. Respect involves treating the customer, users, stakeholders, and team with dignity, honesty, and trust. To improve continuously, it is essential to adopt practices such as applying ethical and responsible software engineering, implementing code reviews and code quality tools, refactoring and managing technical debt, personal and professional development, and feedback and recognition.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?