The manifesto lists a number of interesting lessons and practices from the famous Toyota Production System, where many of ideas originated that turned the car-industry upside down. For the un-initiated; a Toyota factory doesn’t just produce cars as its core-business; ideas to improve the way of working are equally important. As you probably know, the results for Toyota have been stunning, especially compared to those of a certain competitor. Although these ideas have been common in the domain of manufacturing for several decades, they have only come to the area of software engineering during the past few years. Continuously improving bóth the product that is under development, ás the way of working until they are as elegant as possible, that is key.

While development process and process-improvement methods (such as e.g. DSDM or CMMi for Development) have been around for some time, very little tools have aimed for translating code-analysis and test-results into visually attractive and useful diagrams which can be used to guide the development process. Ooh, a useful diagram by my definition is one which in the middle of the table during management discussions.

For Java applications, Complexity Map helps to visualize where the actual solution deviates from the optimal solution, setting a clear direction for improvement of the product and helping to make business tradeoffs. This is why I developed ComplexityMap…

A next time, we’ll discuss the fine nuance between delivering high quality in a sustainable way and gold-plating the solution.

Finally getting there, don’t hesitate to post your reaction.

Thanks,
- Mark