Adapting the Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool for the Software Development Domain

Abstract

Lean principles have attracted the attention of software development companies due to their potential to improve competitiveness. However, the application of such principles in the software domain is still in its infancy. This paper presents a proposal for adapting the Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool (LESAT) to guide the transformation of software development companies toward Lean. LESAT, developed by the Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been widely used in other domains. In this study, concepts and expressions of LESAT were analyzed and mapped to software development following the ISO/IEC 12207 standard. Seven assessment items concerning life-cycle processes were modified from the original LESAT. The modified LESAT for software was compared with a lean assessment approach called "Lean amplifier," which has been developed and successfully used in practice by Ericsson R&D in Finland. The results indicated that LESAT may complement lean assessment in the software domain at enterprise level, involving the entire value stream. Moreover, they clearly emphasized the role of leadership in the transformation.

Hitting the Target: Practices for Moving Toward Innovation Experiment Systems

“…Although the same agile R&D principles apply, moving beyond agile practices means: a) integrating business strategy planning, operations and other corporate functions into shorter development and release cycles [4], [15]; b) utilising automated testing practices that allow for frequent builds [12] and c) implementing continuous experimentation and innovation with customers [2,3,4] to better understand real customer needs. The specific aspects involved in going beyond agile as well as more holistic views of agility have been discussed in recent SE studies [15,16] and especially in the context of lean software development [17]. As recognised in these studies, the main motivation for companies moving beyond agile is that, even though agile practices can improve R&D efficiency and product quality, they are insufficient for achieving benefits in a business ecosystem [18] and at the enterprise level [16].…”

“…The specific aspects involved in going beyond agile as well as more holistic views of agility have been discussed in recent SE studies [15,16] and especially in the context of lean software development [17]. As recognised in these studies, the main motivation for companies moving beyond agile is that, even though agile practices can improve R&D efficiency and product quality, they are insufficient for achieving benefits in a business ecosystem [18] and at the enterprise level [16]. To realise benefits at these levels, companies need to scale the benefits they experience at a team level, that is shorter development and feedback cycles, to include product management and customers.…”

Lessons learned on applying design science for bridging the collaboration gap between industry and academia in empirical software engineering

“…Statements created but considered later to be of little interest were accordingly dropped. In addition, the MIT solution for assessing the leanness of an enterprise and its capacity to change according to Lean principles in the aerospace domain, LESAT, was reviewed [4]. This process resulted in a survey assessment instrument called Team Amplifier.…”

“…Researchers also have time to explore the base of knowledge and look at different design alternatives, and can support practitioners in this way. For example, we explored the base of knowledge regarding Lean assessment models and proposed Ericsson to take ideas from the LESAT MIT solution [4]. Researchers can therefore provide new ideas and serve as external persons who can challenge the problem from different perspectives and with critical thinking.…”

Building lean thinking in a telecom software development organization: strengths and challenges

“…Thus, the Excel spreadsheet was also shared with the researchers after every focus group session. Additionally, the MIT solution for assessing the leanness of an enterprise and its capacity to change according to Lean principles, LESAT, was reviewed in a couple of sessions [13]. As result of this process, a set of statements (114) was collected.…”