Roadmap

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.^[22]

^[22] Lao-tzu (604 BC531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu; this has also been translated, "A journey of a thousand miles begins where you stand."

Lean development is a journey that begins where you are and takes you far into the future. As a farewell, we offer a brief roadmap for getting started on your journey:

1. Begin where you are: How do you create value and make a profit?

2. Find your biggest constraint: What is the biggest problem limiting your ability to create value and make a profit?

3. Envision your biggest threat: What is the biggest threat to your ability to continue creating value and making a profit over the long-term?

4. Evaluate your culture: Establish and reinforce a culture of deep respect for front-line workers and for partners. Remove barriers that get in the way of pride in workmanship.

5. Train: Train team leads, supervisors, and managers how to lead, how to teach, and how to help workers use a disciplined approach to improving work processes.

6. Solve the biggest problem: Turn the biggest constraint over to work teams. Expect many quick experiments that will eventually uncover a path to a solution.

7. Remove accommodations: Uncover the rules that made it possible to live with the constraint. Decide what the new rules should be.

8. Measure: See if end-to-end cycle time, true profitability, and real customer satisfaction have improved.

9. Implement: Adopt changes supported by results.

10. Repeat the cycle: With the biggest problem addressed, something else will become your biggest problem. Find it and repeat the cycle.