Introducing some Lean thinking to improve flow

So far, we've looked at breaking work down into small chunks. We've also looked at how we can better inform the work that we carry out by shifting left the activities that we have traditionally neglected until the end of our development cycle.

Now we will apply some Lean thinking to see how we can improve the flow of work.

Just as a refresher, in Chapter 2, Agile Software Delivery Methods and How They Fit the Manifesto, we discussed the key tenets of Kanban/Lean, which are:

1. Make the work visible so that we can inspect and adapt.
2. Break down work into similar size units, to smooth flow and reduce the "waste of unevenness."
3. Limit our work in progress so that we focus on improving our end-to-end flow.

In the following section, we talk specifically about how we enhance flow through our system, but first let&apos...