Lean software testing defined

To explain Lean as it is understood today, we’ll take a giant step back in history, then move very fast, explain the modern meaning, and then inject testing. If you’re not a history buff, bear with us; we believe a deep grounding in the concepts will result in a better implementation. So, buckle up.

Here goes!

After the Second World War ended, the American industrial complex went into a massive period of high effort. Fueled by a workforce returning from the war, full of new technology (the washing machine, the mass-produced automobile, and more), and with a hungry customer base outside the US whose manufacturing was depleted by war, the American manufacturing process returned to traditional mass-assembly efforts. That left very little place for those who, during the war, had learned to “do more with less.” To a great extent, the outside-of-the-box things, such as W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, found a ready market...