Lean Execution: Six Questions for Software Executives

Frode L. Ødegård
August 30, 2007

Summary

Successful sports teams do not merely show up for games with the best players they can muster. They spend most of their time developing ways to improve their performance. Not showing up for practice is a serious infraction for professional athletes. Successful coaches understand that their ability to succeed in the long term depends on constantly improving themselves and helping their players do the same – individually and as a team.

At Toyota, the originator of the Lean Enterprise philosophy, such continuous reflection, learning, and improvement is part of the very DNA of the company. In contrast, most software executives tend to focus on short-term projects. Such projects include getting a product release done, hiring a new CFO, and winning a new key customer. When software executives do pay attention to business processes, it tends to be as a short-term project, e.g. designing and rolling out a new product development process. Once a new and improved process is in place, however, attention quickly moves elsewhere.

Long-term success beyond the startup phase requires more than recruiting great players or getting a home run. Software executives should continuously work to help their organization improve its game. In this article, we pose six basic questions that should be on the agenda for any management team that wants to improve its ability to execute. We also introduce some Lean concepts that help provide answers to these questions.

This article is available as a PDF download.

About the author

Frode L. Ødegård is the founder and CEO of the Lean Software Institute. He has more than twenty years of experience as a software entrepreneur and trusted advisor to high-tech executives. Organizations he has helped include Sony Electronics Inc., Lockheed Martin, Candle, Conexant Systems, Mindspeed, and Plantronics. Frode is currently writing a book about Lean and the software industry. Before founding the Lean Software Institute in 2004, Frode was the CEO and founder of Ødegård Labs, Inc., a software engineering research and consulting firm. Prior to founding Ødegård Labs in 1991, Frode was the CEO and founder of Modula-2 CASE Systems A/S, a Norwegian company building next-generation tools for embedded software developers. His interests outside work include history, philosophy, psychology, and strength training.