Lean Development Basics: How Is It Beneficial For Start-ups?

Developers implement Lean techniques to optimize software production value stream yet being congruent with agile practices as Scrum and Extreme programming. The lean development process defines a proposal that learns as the project process flows. It enables entrepreneurs to test their ideas before determining the actual result.

Lean vs. Agile: How does Lean differ from Agile Programming Methodology?

Lean encourages context switching and delivers fast by managing flow. This practice limits the work-in-process and thus improves focus; Agile teams cross-functions on delivering iterations.

Why is a Lean software development approach suitable for start-ups?

Lean start-ups use a business model based on a hypothesis after rigorous testing. This method is faster and less expensive than the final product itself. It gives you a minimum viable product (MVP) which reduces the risk that start-ups face by decreasing their typical high failure rate. Entrepreneurs use it to reduce the product development lifecycle and rapidly discover if the proposed business model is viable. Developers can achieve this by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases and validated learning.

Many start-ups try building upon an idea without checking the feasibility of the proposed solution. They eventually tend to deliver something that the audience does not want.

Principles: Underlying principles for creating lean start-ups

• Omnipresent Entrepreneur: Every budding organization is experimenting with their choice of a business idea. Implementing a lean approach helps cut some wastage and focus on the best idea.

• Flexibility: Lean approach enables entrepreneurs to be flexible in jotting their idea. They get to check the feasibility of the solution before turning it up into a successful project.

• Validated Learning: Start-ups that follow a Lean approach know their customer’s requirements and what works best. It validates their idea, the end product and the learning process.

• Innovation Accounting: Lean start-ups track what works best for them. They gauge progress on the amount learned about the innovation rather than creating new work.

• Build-Measure-Learn: Lean start-ups go about building the simple product that is best for creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It goes through rigorous and lengthy evaluation tests and user feedback to collect data about how targeted users accept the product. Frequent iterations make it better.

Need: Why business should adopt Lean Development Approach?

Once the business obtains money from investors, the development begins. Developers spend thousands of hours to proceed with design-development-testing-deployment with minimal customer input. They receive substantial feedback only after the product successfully launches.

Entrepreneurs often learn in a loop over a while that most of the product features are not desirable or are not required anymore. After decades of following the same pattern, we’ve learnt three things:

1. Business plans rarely survive beyond the first contact. Every business comes with a strategy until they face the realities.
2. Five-year plans turn out to be fictitious and rarely outlined in real.
3. Start-ups can turn out to be larger companies. But they rarely unfold by master plans.

While existing companies execute a business model, start-ups look for one. A start-up based on the Lean approach is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Wastes that organizations should avoid: Over-production, over-processing, rework, transportation, motion (unnecessary movement of people-parts-machines), waiting and inventory (raw material without any value added to it).

Going By the Rules: Lean Software Development Principles

Lean start-ups expect potential customers – partners – purchasers to provide feedback on all elements of the business model (price, features, channels, and distribution and customer acquisition strategies). It emphasizes speed, rapidly assembles minimum viable products and elicits customer feedback to revise their assumptions. They start the cycle over again, test redesign offerings and follow smaller iterations. During this process, a start-up searches for a business model that works.

(Customer discovery -> Customer validation -> Customer creation -> Company building)

• Never make guesswork a part of your untested hypothesis.
• Eliminate Waste
• Amplify Learning
• Decide as Late as Possible
• Deliver as Fast as Possible
• Empower the Team
• Build Integrity

Lean Concepts: What to consider?

• It is feasible to test frequently and learn quickly.
• It is advisable to build a final product only after undertaking numerous tests.
• Analyze how the target audience uses MVP; watch how they behave; what to redevelop to meet user needs?
• Lean developers learn early on about what works and what does not hold potential.
• Lean software development focuses on actionable metrics by creating a favourable impression about performance and avoid vanity metrics.

Value: Why is Lean Development a Hit-Or-Mis Proposition?

Budding businesses scribble their business plan, pitch it to their investors, assemble a team, introduce their product and start marketing and promotion with all their might. The lean start-up movement is still in its nascent stage. Why? Because organizations have to reverse-engineer from where they began, as always, every business owner creates a business plan with the size of an opportunity, the problem to be solved, the solution that the new venture will provide. It typically includes a five-year forecast for income, profits, cash flow. Lean turns out to be a research exercise to figure out the unknowns of a business in advance, even before raising money and executing the idea.

Conclusive: Where can we go from here?

Lean development brings about smarter working, a way to control your business, reduce risks, be flexible, have a faster rate of interest, quality product and customer satisfaction. We follow Lean development as it focuses on business value. It prioritizes features, makes mobile application developers understand what’s imminent to the client’s business and what they can deliver in the most valuable and fastest way. Curious? Follow us!