The Kaizen Software Manifesto
Kaizen (pronounced “kigh-zen”) is the time-honored practice of continuous, incremental improvement. In the software industry, it’s the practice of actively improving designs, code, processes, and everything else, continuously, now and forever, to create a complete customer experience. The principles of the Kaizen Software Manifesto are:
1. Make continuous improvements in every aspect of the business.
2. Actively pursue a superior, complete customer experience.
3. Continually improve designs, code, and processes.
4. Strive to increase agility (binshou) while reducing costs.
5. Use the Deming Cycle to minimize disruption from change.
6. Prevent errors (poka-yoke), in software and in business.
7. Respect people, leverage expertise, and trust staff.
8. Reward suggestions, improvements, and progress.
9. Always move forward.
To put this into practice, see the list of recommendations.
Why a manifesto?
Software companies have adopted a wide range of processes, none of which seems to provide a solution that works completely. This is because written processes are limited by their own nature and cannot definitively and consistently work for all companies that adopt them. What’s needed is not another process, it’s a foundation that allows for improvement regardless of how the improvements occur.
The Kaizen Software Manifesto is offered to create a foundation that processes themselves cannot provide. Instead of proposing another process, the Manifesto offers a mindset - a culture - that can be used to give birth to new processes, whatever they may be. Instead of confining practisioners to the restrictions of any one process, it enables them to improve processes, or even to invent new ones. The goal of the Kaizen Software Manifesto is not to confine, it is to enable.
The Kaizen Software Manifesto is offered to enable you to look beyond the constraints of current practices and continually find new ways to improve your business, process, design work, code, products, and customer experiences, all while lowering costs and fostering an environment of respect for all involved.