Lean Software Development Questions and Answers for Viva

Answer-1: Lean Software Development is a set of principles and practices aimed at reducing waste, improving efficiency, and delivering value to customers quickly.

Answer-2: The core principles include eliminating waste, amplifying learning, empowering teams, delivering fast, respecting people, and building integrity.

Answer-3: Lean focuses more on reducing waste and improving flow, while Agile emphasizes iterative development and flexibility. Both share similar values, but Lean has a stronger focus on efficiency.

Answer-4: Waste refers to any activity or process that does not add value to the customer, such as unnecessary code, delays, or over-processing.

Answer-5: The seven types of waste in Lean are overproduction, waiting, unnecessary motion, excess inventory, unnecessary transport, defects, and over-processing.

Answer-6: Waste is identified through regular analysis of processes, feedback, and continuous improvement. Elimination is done by streamlining workflows, reducing delays, and focusing on value-added activities.

Answer-7: Amplifying learning involves fostering a culture of experimentation and knowledge sharing to improve the software and development processes.

Answer-8: Just-in-Time (JIT) in Lean means delivering the right amount of work at the right time, reducing waste caused by overproduction and unnecessary delays.

Answer-9: Feedback in Lean is used to improve processes and outcomes by identifying inefficiencies, validating assumptions, and making adjustments quickly to improve quality and efficiency.

Answer-10: Lean emphasizes continuous improvement through iterative cycles, regular retrospectives, and data-driven decisions to refine processes and eliminate inefficiencies.

Answer-11: Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning continuous improvement. In Lean, it refers to the practice of making small, incremental improvements regularly to improve processes and outcomes.

Answer-12: Value Stream Mapping is a Lean tool used to visualize the flow of materials and information through the entire process, identifying areas of waste and opportunities for improvement.

Answer-13: Lean ensures customer value by focusing on delivering what the customer truly needs, minimizing waste, and continuously iterating based on customer feedback.

Answer-14: Lean addresses bottlenecks by identifying and eliminating constraints in the process, ensuring a smooth and continuous flow of work.

Answer-15: Flow refers to the smooth, uninterrupted movement of work through the development process, where tasks are completed in a timely manner without delays or bottlenecks.

Answer-16: The team in Lean is empowered to make decisions, continuously improve, and collaborate to remove waste and optimize the development process.

Answer-17: Pull is a system where work is only done when it is needed, based on customer demand, rather than pushing work into the system in advance.

Answer-18: Lean reduces overproduction by focusing on producing only what is necessary for the customer and avoiding work that is not required at that moment.

Answer-19: Lean minimizes waiting by optimizing the flow of work, ensuring that processes and resources are aligned to avoid delays and downtime.

Answer-20: "Respect for People" is a Lean principle that emphasizes valuing team members, empowering them to contribute to decision-making, and fostering a culture of collaboration.

Answer-21: Common metrics in Lean include cycle time, lead time, throughput, and work in progress (WIP), which help assess the efficiency and flow of the development process.

Answer-22: Lean optimizes delivery speed by reducing bottlenecks, eliminating waste, and focusing on delivering work in small, manageable chunks that can be quickly validated and iterated.

Answer-23: Lean emphasizes early detection and correction of defects through frequent testing and quality checks, ensuring that issues are resolved as soon as they arise.

Answer-24: Muda is a Japanese term for waste or inefficiency in processes. Lean focuses on identifying and eliminating all forms of Muda in the development cycle.

Answer-25: "Build Quality In" refers to designing processes that ensure quality at every stage of development, rather than inspecting quality at the end.

Answer-26: Lean aims to reduce process variation by standardizing workflows, reducing complexity, and ensuring consistent practices across the development cycle.

Answer-27: Lean and Agile share many principles, such as iterative development, customer feedback, and continuous improvement. Lean enhances Agile by focusing on waste reduction and optimizing flow.

Answer-28: Visual management in Lean involves using visual tools like boards, charts, and dashboards to monitor workflow, track progress, and identify potential issues quickly.

Answer-29: Lean encourages cross-functional teams where members with diverse skills collaborate closely, ensuring faster decision-making, and a more holistic approach to problem-solving.

Answer-30: Kanban is a Lean tool used to visualize work, limit work in progress (WIP), and optimize the flow of tasks across the system to avoid bottlenecks and improve efficiency.

Answer-31: Lean ensures a sustainable pace by focusing on continuous improvement, eliminating unnecessary work, and balancing the workload to avoid burnout and inefficiencies.

Answer-32: Lean helps manage risk by encouraging early identification of issues, reducing batch sizes, and delivering incremental updates that allow for faster adjustments.

Answer-33: Lean promotes innovation by creating an environment that values experimentation, learning from failures, and making continuous improvements in both processes and products.

Answer-34: Continuous improvement in Lean is applied through regular retrospectives, incremental changes, and a culture of experimenting with new approaches to improve efficiency and value delivery.

Answer-35: Takt time is the time required to produce one unit of work, based on customer demand. It helps in pacing the development process to ensure timely delivery.

Answer-36: Lean focuses on customer collaboration by involving the customer throughout the process, gathering feedback, and continuously adjusting the product to meet their needs.

Answer-37: Lean reduces cycle time by eliminating waste, streamlining processes, reducing delays, and improving the flow of work, thus speeding up delivery.

Answer-38: Challenges include resistance to change, balancing the pace of delivery with quality, and aligning all team members with Lean principles and practices.

Answer-39: Empowered teams in Lean are given the authority to make decisions, experiment with processes, and implement changes that improve efficiency and reduce waste.

Answer-40: Lean ensures customer-centricity by prioritizing value delivery based on customer needs, involving customers frequently, and making decisions that directly benefit the customer.

Answer-41: Lean ensures flexibility by encouraging small, iterative cycles, embracing change, and making it easy to pivot based on new information or customer feedback.

Answer-42: Lean is applied in large-scale projects by using tools like Kanban, managing work in small batches, and empowering multiple teams to work in parallel with a focus on efficiency.

Answer-43: Pull systems in Lean mean that work is done when there is demand for it, reducing waste from overproduction and ensuring that resources are used efficiently.

Answer-44: Lean improves team morale by empowering teams to make decisions, removing unnecessary work, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.

Answer-45: Lean deals with uncertainty by using small iterations, quick feedback loops, and an emphasis on adaptive planning, allowing for adjustments based on new insights.

Answer-46: Lean handles change by maintaining flexibility, responding to customer feedback, and ensuring that changes are integrated smoothly into the workflow without causing disruptions.

Answer-47: Key Lean metrics include lead time, cycle time, work in progress (WIP), throughput, and defect rates, which help measure efficiency and identify areas for improvement.

Answer-48: Lean promotes cross-departmental collaboration by encouraging open communication, transparency, and alignment of goals across teams to eliminate silos.

Answer-49: Flow efficiency measures how effectively work moves through the system without interruptions, delays, or waste, aiming to achieve the fastest possible throughput.

Answer-50: Lean fosters a culture of continuous learning by encouraging experimentation, feedback, knowledge sharing, and the incremental improvement of processes and products.