ABSTRACT
Executive summary: Kaizen is one of a set of inter-related “tools” included in the overall concept of Lean, developed primarily by Toyota in Japan. While Lean and Kaizen are not software methodologies per se, they have nonetheless been quite influential in the field of software engineering—Lean thinking is the foundation for all Agile approaches. Kaizen is an approach to continuous improvement that emphasizes small incremental improvements rather than large step changes. To grasp the full power of Kaizen, it is useful to understand some of the related concepts, including Poke Yoke, quality circles, Kanban, 3-Ms, demand management, and standardized work. All these ideas are potentially relevant to the optimization of any selected software development methodology.
