Lean Product Development (LPD)-A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Context: The major goal of development processes in software engineering is to avoid unnecessary features and to provide value driven software products. Lean product development (LPD) resolves these issues to some extent by emphasizing on reducing waste and increasing customer value. LPD is reaction based approach. The ultimate goal of lean is to eliminate waste, balance the process and to undergo demand-driven planning. Lean brings flexibility in the development and manufacturing processes. Lean works on its seven principles hence improving the development process. Objective: The main objective of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to get insight of lean product development. We aim at identifying, summarizing, and analyzing the existing high-quality primary studies on principles of Lean and discuss its positive and negative impacts. Lean’s impact on various aspects of software development organizations (SDO) such as people, process and product is analyzed. The methods used by different organizations to apply lean principles to software development processes along with their models, tools and frameworks are discussed. There are several studies on LPD and there is no systematic review performed so there is need of an effective and unbiased SLR in this domain. Methodology: The selection process includes data extraction, detailed analysis and reporting of findings. Primary studies are selected by following a systematic and unbiased selection procedure according to standard PRISMA guidelines. This study highlighted five research questions which need to be addressed regarding LPD. Conclusion: Lean principles
have their impact on all stages of development employing its seven principles. Chronological distribution of selected studies have shown a decreasing trend of LPD after 2014 which also justifies the need for this systematic literature review. Findings include the methods used for LPD so far and overall research productivity of this domain. This SLR also discusses more research perspectives to be considered in this domain.