Competency Leader

Kieran Conboy

The development and promotion of agile and lean methods have been driven almost exclusively by practitioners. While this has many benefits, some has shown that, in relation to agile approaches, those in existence lack sufficient grounding in management theory, organisational theory, and indeed theory behind all the disciplines which contribute to the field of Software Engineering (e.g. Abrhamsson et al, 2009; Conboy, 2009). This lack of conceptual grounding has caused some issues in practice, with developers concerned over inconsistencies and misinterpretations regarding agile methods and their use. Appropriate conceptual and analytical agility frameworks are present in other disciplines such as manufacturing, but are still missing from Software Engineering. As we now transition to Lean, and as industry interest in these approaches is increasing rapidly in search of productivity gains, it is highly likely that the same trend will occur. Despite the huge productivity gains experienced in Lean mangagement and manufacturing, very little effort has been given to implementing Lean principles in the field of software development. While some efforts have been made (e.g. Poppendieck, Middleton), there is a distinct lack of research in this area despite significant interest from industry. No Lean approach has been developed per se, and certainly none that match the prevalence or popularity of agile counterparts such as XP or Scrum.

Competency Team

Fergal McCaffery

Lorraine Morgan

Ligaj Pradhan

Ita Richardson