Discover what is often unnecessary at work. Waste is everything you could remove from a system to get the same or better result. This document was developed in 2011 with companies in Sweden and shows a categorisation of wastes in software and hardware development. It should help you finding unproductive things, plus tips for removing them.

Download PDF: Eight development wastes (English)
Download PDF: Acht Entwicklungs-Verschwendungen (Deutsch)

History: The categorisation of waste (Japanese "Muda") has its origin in Lean Manufacturing (Shingo & Ohno) and Lean Software (Poppendiek). The Agile Manifesto knows the principle of maximizing the amount of work not done.

Background: Productive systems create value and waste. Tip: Identify what creates value and what doesn't in the long run, then remove unnecessary or unproductive things from your daily work. Ask people what costs a lot of time.

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About the author

This article was written by Mark Seuffert. Read more about the author.