Application of 5S in agile methods

Question

A lot has been said in Scrum, XP, Lean... But here at work they also talk a lot in Japanese 5S. There is some connection of this working methodology for software development?

Answer 1

Just like Lean and Kanban 5S appeared in Japan from JIT (Just in Time).

The 5S was and still is widely used in the automotive industry and complements the Kanban to maintain a perspective of improvement.

Kanban was introduced to the software industry by David J. Anderson

The concept of 5S

5S is a model for organizing the working environment or a manufacturing factory etc. Once 5S is implemented in the environment, employees' work is cleaner and more organized.

To use an analogy see the image below:

How it works in traditional industry:

1 - Organize
Organize the area and Clean up waste, where waste can be a tool in a place where waste is not useful.

2 - Straighten

After the site has been organized and positioned in a way that the work can be completed generating as little waste as possible. In order to avoid waste, if you need to move a tool 100 times a day the ideal is that it is in one of the most affordable places to save time.

3 - Polish (Shine)

Ensure the place is always clean and tidy (ready to use).

4 - Standardize

Make standards to ensure positioning is maintained.

5 - Keep

Check that patterns are being followed as designed.

How to relate the concepts in our industry:

1 - Organize

Remove old and no longer in production codes, get free from what no longer matters.

2 - Straighten

Sometimes in software production there is the concept of : "make it work and then arrange to stay beautiful". Separate code with some form of distributed orientation (aspects, objects) so you don’t need to check what happens in a main.c 20,000 lines of code.

3 - Polish (Shine)

Allow yourself time to refactor the project and document the functions as something in the Javadoc sense (you don’t need to be programming in Java to maintain the standard proposed by Javadoc).

4 - Standardize

If your team doesn’t have a code pattern to follow, don’t expect a new member to scan existing code and try to follow a possible pattern.

5 - Keep

Once standards are set it is important to maintain them to ensure that the company continues to follow the same.

Answer 2

A while ago I wrote a blog post on the subject: http://gustavoemmel.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/cinco-s-kaizen-aplicados-no.html

Basically the 5S are:

Seiri: separate;

Seiton: to organise;

Sap;

Seiketsu: to standardize;

Shitsuke;

Like the Lean methodology of software development and Kanban, Kaizen was also born in Japan as part of Toyota’s work methodology, also known as Just in Time. 5S has been and continues to be widely used to support methodologies such as Kanban to help in the ongoing improvement process.

The concept of 5S is to be a method that aims to organize the workplace or a workflow. Once we apply Kaizen in the workplace, the team of employees will have a cleaner and more organized workplace. When applied in a stream, any contributor can fulfill the steps of it and quickly identify if any of them is missing or has been skipped'.

A development team can benefit from the practice of Kaizen in their work routine, let’s look step by step how we can apply in our projects:

Seiri: separate;

Review our old code to remove any obsolete and unused functions, as well as many functions that end up not being used anymore and leave comments inside the code. We often use version control (git) tools, and it will save the changes for us, we don’t need to leave the code commented to see what happened. Remember here the concept of YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It)

Seiton: to organise;

Often in software development, we end up making a task force to expedite the completion of a particular program. With this task force, we ended up doing certain 'gambiarras' to deliver the software on time. We must take care to separate a time and unlock the code, separate the classes well and use the concept of OO.

Sap;

It’s important that we take the time to refactor our code. Whenever we have the opportunity, we should try to improve and clean up an already developed programme. But we must always remember to run the test routines after refactoring. Having used TDD can be very useful when refactoring your code.

Seiketsu: to standardize;

We must maintain an encoding standard. Our code must be readable and quickly understood. A great technique of Extreme Programming to create a pattern in development teams is Pair Programming.

Shitsuke;

Once the development standards have been established and the code has been revised to ensure the best technique and performance, we must keep at a high level both our skills as developers and the code developed.

Answer 3

SOURCE

I believe that yes the 5s have influence with the development. 5s is a methodology, a method tells us what to do and not how to do, think to do quality teamwork which better than organization, standardization, proper use, discipline and cleanliness as a whole, there can be interpretations. For a worker for example the cleaning and organization are different things, different understandings of a programmer or a support analyst, but refer to the same principle.

below the definition of 5S as in the source;

Principles of 5S

The concept of 5S is based on the five Japanese words whose initials form the name of the program. The words are

Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke,

that migrated to Portuguese were translated as "sensos", in order not to uncharacterize the nomenclature of the program. They are:

sense of use, sense of organization, sense of cleanliness, sense of health and sense of self-discipline.

Let’s see separately the concepts of each of the 5S:

1) SEIRI - Sense of Use

It means using materials, tools, equipment, data, etc. with balance and common sense. Where is carried out the disposal or relocation of everything considered expendable for carrying out the activities. The results of the application of the Sense of Use are immediately evidenced.

Space gain Easy cleaning and maintenance Better control of stocks Cost reduction Preparation of the environment for the application of the other concepts of 5S

2) SEITON - Sense of Organisation

The sense of organization can be interpreted as the importance of having all things available so that they can be accessed and used immediately. For this you must fix patterns and use some very simple tools such as panels, labels, shelves, etc. Everything should be very close to the place of use and each object should have its specific location. We can identify as results of the sense of organization:

Saving of time; Ease in locating tools; Reduction of unsafe points.

3) SEISO - Sense of Cleanliness

The translation for the word Seiketsu is cleanliness. This sense defines the importance of eliminating dirt, waste or even foreign or unnecessary objects to the environment. It is about keeping the floor accepted, cabinets, drawers, bookshelves, etc. The sense of cleanliness can go beyond the physical aspect, also covering the personal relationship where it preserves a work environment where transparency, honesty, frankness and respect prevail. The application of the sense of cleanliness brings as a result:

Healthy and pleasant environment; reducing the possibility of accidents; Better conservation of tools and equipment; Improvement in interpersonal relationships.

4) SEIKETSU - Sense of Standardization and Health

The sense of standardization is translated into the fixing of patterns of colors, shapes, lighting, location, boards, etc. As it also covers the concept of health, it is important that the state of bathrooms, cafeterias, work rooms are checked, etc. in order to identify problems affecting the health of employees such as ergonomic problems, lighting problems, ventilation problems, etc. This sense has as main purpose to maintain the first 3 S' (selection, ordering and cleaning) so that they do not get lost. The main results of the application of this concept can be highlighted:

• Easy location and identification of objects and tools;
• Physical and mental balance;
• Improvement of common areas (bathrooms, cafeterias, etc);
• Improvement in safety conditions.

5) SHITSUKE - Sense of Discipline or Self-discipline

The last stage of the 5S program is defined by the fulfillment and personal commitment to the previous stages. This sense is composed of the ethical and moral standards of each individual. This stage will actually be performed when individuals go on to do what needs to be done even when there is no surveillance usually done by the leadership or when they extend these concepts to personal life demonstrating their full involvement. Faced with a self-disciplined environment around the 5S principles it is possible to have:

• Better quality, productivity and safety at work;
• Pleasant daily work;
• Improvement in human relations;
• Enhancement of the human being;
• Compliance with operational and administrative procedures;

Living together with the five senses presented leads individuals to better understand their role within an organization and makes them part of the pyramid of the results achieved, giving rise to the awareness that it is necessary to be disciplined even when there are no charges. Therefore, the Quality Programs have helped companies in the process of continuous improvement of products or services, mainly through cultural change, in order to obtain the necessary competitive advantage that will be harvested in the short, medium and long term.

Answer 4

Yes, the 5S, in software development, are directly linked to the use of philosophy LSD.

Just as Lean Software Development and Kanban, and the 5S are systems JIT (just in time system) and you can use them together, complementing each other in a vision of continuous improvement.