So, things got a bit busy a while back, and my blogging activity took on a steep decline. The thesis is progressing just fine, I’ve been delving deep into a bunch of interesting history behind the theory and practice of the concept of continuous quality. Craig Larman’s talk on Lean Thinking and the Toyota Production System at the recent Agile Finland conference got me interested in how some of the quality control measures Toyota engineers implemented some 50 years ago have influenced the QA activities we see in (agile) software projects today. Fascinating stuff.
Two books worth recommending: The Toyota Way outlines and explains the principles and practices behind the Toyota Production System, and lessons Toyota learned from prior work by the renown US quality consultant W. Edwards Deming. The Poppendiecks’ book on Lean Software Development ties the Lean principles all together with software development.
