Jidoka in Software Development

Presenters: Kevin Rutherford
Type: Thinktank
Duration: 60 minutes
Audience: Anyone who wants to improve their software development process. Developers and managers; apprentices, journeymen, experts

Abstract

Lean manufacturing is based on two pillars: Pull and Jidoka. Agile methods focus most of their attention only on Pull: customers pull features or user stories from the development team, and the development team carries out every task just in time and without building up inventory. Jidoka – the policy of stopping the production line whenever a fault occurs, and then fixing both the fault and the cause of the fault – has been largely forgotten. But Jidoka is what keeps value flowing fast through the process, iteration after iteration. And yet there are no published studies or collections of Jidoka practices.

In this think-tank the participants will work together to describe, discuss and discover "jidoka moments" - points at which software development projects are, could be or should be stopped in order to prevent faults passing downstream.

Benefits of attending

Participants will be armed with opportunities to implement fail-fast mechanisms in their software development processes. I hope they will also "learn to see" how value flows are diminished when problems are detected too late.

What will the organiser learn

I have a few jidoka moments on my list already, but I know there are many areas I haven't yet looked at. I would also like the participants to publish a catalogue.