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This is the third post in a series giving the features of the various agile project management frameworks that exist, starting with Agile and Extreme Programming, the most widely used frameworks, and ending with the “minor players” in the agile world.    These have been mapped out by John Stenbeck in chapter 2, “Introducing Agile Project Management,” from his book “PMI-ACP Exam Prep PLUS Desk Reference”.

1. Lean Software Development (LSD) History

• 1950s–W. Edward Deming develops Total Quality Management, with its focus on process and the idea that those who use the process must be those who improve it.
• 1999–Dr. Elihayu M. Goldratt in his book Theory of Constraints (TOC) stresses the need to identify constraints and them remove them (or at least improve them) in order to improve the business organization

2. Points in Common with Scrum

1. Both Scrum and LSD focus on the project management aspects of software development rather than the technical ones; this makes it easy to integrated LSD with other agile frameworks such as XP (which focuses on the technical facets of software development)
2. Both Scrum and LSD seek to manage costs and improve the project’s Return on Investment (ROI)

3.  LSD team roles

1. As opposed to Scrum and XP, which have stricter role definitions, team members are cross-trained on functional and technical facets of the system.

4.  7 Principles of LSD

1. Eliminate Waste–eliminate it if it does not add customer value
2. Build Quality In–validate all assumptions and use metrics throughout the process to ensure practices create value
3. Create Knowledge–Use short iterative cycles to get continuous feedback
4. Defer Commitment–Don’t make decisions until a clear understanding of the problem, the solution choices, and the trade-offs of each solution choice are available.
5. Deliver Fast–Identify business issues as quickly as possible and then deliver a system that solves them
6. Respect People–Only the employees using the system can improve it, so empower the entire team to succeed
7. Optimize the Whole–Always use cross-functional teams so that critical facets of the problem aren’t overlooked and the solution design will solve it

The three agile frameworks that are required for the ACP exam are Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Lean Software Development (LSD).   The other agile frameworks are not part of the knowledge base required for the ACP, but John Stenbeck has listed them in his “PMI-ACP Exam Prep PLUS Desk Reference” because he feels it is worthwhile to have a cursory understanding of them   These are:

• Feature Driven Development (FDD)
• Agile Unified Process (AUP)
• Crystal

The next post will cover the first of these three, Feature Driven Development or FDD.

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