Yayici - Business Analysis Methodology Book: Business Analysts Guide to Requirements Analysis, Lean UX Design and Project Management at Lean Enterprises and Lean Startups

Companieshave to develop innovative and high-quality products faster than theircompetitors to create temporary monopoly periods with maximum profitability.However, they usually have tight deadlines and limited budgets fornew product development projects .

Toovercome this challenge, high-performance companies apply a lean businessanalysis, design, and developmentapproach that has its origins in the Toyota car production system .

Leanmainly focuses on eliminating muda (waste) throughout the product developmentlifecycle (PDLC) and passing resource savings to innovativeprojects.

Waste elimination can be achieved by injecting the followinglean principles in to the companies DNA:

1.Be Value Oriented

- Focuson producing outcomes (value) rather than outputs (deliverables).

-Alwaysprioritize product features; focuson must-have rather than nice-to-hav e" ones.

- Eliminate the waste of low-priority product features that arenot essential for customers.

2.BeCustomerCentered

- Be likethe sun but not the moon; illuminate yourself with the light of your own customersinstead of your competitors. Concentrate on being more responsive to the needsof your target customers instead of benchmarking yourself with your competitors.

-Becustomer centric rather than product centric. Consider products not as anobjective but as a tool to meet your customers needs.

-Developproducts around your customers. Always listen closely to the voice of your customersthroughout PDLC. Set up and maintain a continuous customer feedback loop.

-Askcustomers about their needs but not their proposed solutions. Remember HenryFords famous quotation: If I had asked people what they wanted, they wouldhave said faster horses.

3.Be Iterative

- Startyour product development journey with small steps. Think big, but start small.

-Bepatient; remember that Rome w as no t b uilt in a da y.

-Moveevolutionary rather than revolutionary: Use prototypes to gather early customerfeedback. At the initial iteration, release a core version of the product includingonly high-priority features. In following iterations, use customer feedback fromprevious releases to refine the product by adding, updating, and even dropping features.Iterate until the product satisfies business and customerneeds.

4.Be Simplistic

- Rememberthat less is much more in the lean approach. Do not complicate it.

-Focuson just enough and what is really necessary to satisfy customer needs.

-Appreciatedownsizing the product by removing nonessential features, rather than upsizingit with bells and whistles.

-Indetermining product features, think as if you are decorating a small house.Dont make your users feel claustrophobic as if theyre in a small, crowdedspace with a lot of furniture.

5.Dont Be Afraid of Early Failure

- Rememberthe famous quotation from American scientist and author Dr. James Jay Horning:Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

-Beadaptive, learn early from failures in initial iterations, and use thisexperience for later ones.

-Focuson kaizen, which means continuous improvement, at all levels of PDLC byusing lessons learned at previous iterations.

6.Optimize the Work Flow

- Act justin time throughout PDLC. Requirements analysis and design artifacts representWIP (work in process) inventories in the product development lifecycle. Createthem at the right time and with sufficient detail to prevent WIP-level waste.