Individual Assignment Unit 2

Presented by: Eliana Lopez

To: Professor Joe Malak
Write: Add a “Principles Applied” section to your paper. Write 1000 words on how you see the
lean principles applied in your current organization. If you do not see the principles applied, write
where and how they could be applied in your current context.
Principles Applied
The Lean principles that I see applied in my current organization are:
1. Build Quality: Within the company, our first and foremost rule is to maintain high code quality
and application performance. The customer is always first and we care to develop software with
high-quality and deliver services that are according to the requirements. The software is built on
time and on reasonable price, and the most important without sacrifice quality. Constant quality
tests are done during all phases and processes.
Our team has gone through several stages, a couple of years ago the team were smaller, around
six only. Were only four developers and usually was happening that when a task arrived, each
developer accumulates and got a huge list of pending tasks and sometimes the quality was
sacrificed in the way to finish on time. On the other hand, now that the team is higher, and is
possible to see the quality of our services and our products (software). The customer is very
satisfied and is possible to notice the improvement in our processes. This is recognized by the users
than approve and accept the application or software when are ready.
Usually, we have one weekly meeting on Saturday where the progress is shared, and the developers
have the opportunity to present their implementations from the point of view of the source code.
This is intended for new developers to see creative and optimal ways to solve problems presented
with the client and open doors to share knowledge. This has resulted in a notable increase in quality
and also that the group has become more integrated since developers can ask each other how they
implemented certain changes. In addition, the shared knowledge base allows everyone accesses to
suggestions, information, etc. previously written.

2. Eliminate Waste.
In the list of changes and improvements that were done is the fact to establish a fixed schedule of
publications. Now, only once a week, the client's web platform is updated and all changes required
and ready are integrated. There are daily meetings between the developers, and the Project
Manager to constantly see the progress of the tasks and in case of impediments communicate them
and provide possible reasons for slowing down the progress. The structure of the features, user
stories, comments, etc. were unified in the Jira Project Management software in the following
way:
  Header comments: Description, requirements.
 Task body comments: Implementation form and relevant comments to the application
source code between the developer and the project manager.
 First task footer comment: The developer notifies the project manager that the task is ready
and integrated into control version.
 Second task footer comment: The project administrator confirms to the client that the task
footer correction is published on the test server.
 Third task footer comment: When there are no errors the client comments that it can be
published in the production server.
In this way, the extra processing time is eliminated because now each developer has an idea of
what the customer expects during the development of each task.

3. Create Knowledge
In our company, we know that with develop a solution for a client, implement it and publish it,
there is a little space to increase knowledge. However, the company knows that training will lead
to the creation of value. And is taking into account that during the time that the workflow is low,
is allowed to investigate and spent time getting new knowledge in new areas.
These new areas are typically AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things), source code
architecture, ways to write a question. All this new information is developed in small articles that
are shared internally in the company during the week and help to increase knowledge by creating
a solid knowledge base.
The topics of research are chosen by the Project Manager mainly, there is a base of ideas related
to the web platforms that are managed in the company. In this way, the results of the researches
increase the knowledge and are aligned with the objectives, goals, and strategies of the company.

4. Respect People
Being in an agile environment, where any change that is required, the client can incorporate easily.
All team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities, which makes the environment less
complex and conflictive. Developing and integrating a new feature entails a great deal of
responsibility on the side of the development team and in the client. In our company there is the
option that the client can communicate high priority information directly to the person responsible
for the task (developer), this is done with the aim of timely solving small errors that have passed
the testing stage and with high priority must be corrected in the production server.
This option opens up a wide range of possibilities and is the reason why each person in the group
is constantly researching the right way to ask and respond to the customer. The command direction
is always oriented in the following way:
Developer -> Local Project Manager (Colombia) -> Project Manager (Swiss) -> Client.
When the client communicates with the developer directly, the developer has the responsibility of
first, updates the Project Manager notifying of the problem and the procedure that is going to be
executed. Each Project Manager decides how much time they will grant and the level of
supervision since a correction on an already productive work must be more detailed.

5. Defer Commitment
There is not a detailed plan and in some cases, modifications and changes are done during the
development cycle. Extend the timeframe when a task is too complex, or short the time when
quick results are required; leads to taking decisions that include multiple small test or experiments,
and both project managers and the client are involved.