Your Development Pipeline: DOWNTIME and the 8 wastes
- May 2, 2018
- 2 min read
While the concept of the "waste" is primarily seen in its original environment of manufacturing, in software development, the same concept can be adopted to look at areas of improvement through various cycles. You see, Toyota and Tiashi Ono identified the 8 wastes listed below, which create the acronym "D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E.," to assess any impacts to its assembly line, and quickly remove any blockers from production. In the same way, the 8 wastes can be used in software engineering and development through its agile and iterative processes of development, testing, integration, delivery, and deployment to identify "waste" and continuously deliver better code. While everyone is guilty of having waste in their processes at one time or another, being aware of the need for change will ensure that you are more efficient and produce a better quality product. Are you guilty of any of these?
D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E.
Defects
Information, products and services that are inaccurate or incomplete
Example: Defects after being released to a QA branch for testing rather than being tested prior to deployment
Overproduction
Making more earlier and faster than the next process needs it
Example: Backlog of features ready for testing, without the adequate testing resources or automation in place to handle capacity
Waiting
Delay in goods or services by man, machine, information, etc.
Example: Excessive cycle times between processes; exceeding SLAs
Non-utilized Talent
Not utilizing intellectual capital (experience, skills, knowledge, creativity)
Example: Lack of empowerment; A “that’s not my job” attitude
Touches
Unnecessary movement of materials around an organization
Example: Inefficient flow where there are excessive “touches”; Excessive transfers between quality teams, developers, and release management
Inventory
Excess of the appropriate quantity at the appropriate time
Example: Unoccupied desktops with operating computers, phones, etc. consuming electricity; unnecessary on-premise hardware when cloud solution has been implemented
Motion
Unnecessary movement that does not add value to the product or service
Example: Opening multiple software applications and having to click around user interface
Extra-processing
Effort that does not add value to the service provided from the customer’s perspective
Example: Work-arounds and unused information; excessive forms that are never reviewed or utilized
The article does a great job explaining how downtime and unnecessary steps can slow a development pipeline and reduce overall efficiency. Looking at workflows from a lean perspective helps teams identify waste and focus on continuous improvement instead of just working harder. As a student, I’ve definitely had moments where I felt overwhelmed and thought, I need someone to take my exam, but this post is a good reminder that improving processes and planning ahead often leads to better results than relying on shortcuts. nice post
This post does a great job explaining how small delays and wasted steps can slow down a whole project. When I was working on a class assignment about productivity, I used a cheap assignment writing service uk because I was running out of time and needed some extra help. It helped me stay on schedule while I learned more about planning my work better. Good habits really make a big difference.
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