Lean Accounting Comes to Lean Software Development

33 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2017 Last revised: 18 Sep 2017

Date Written: September 8, 2017

Abstract

I argue that lean software development firms become more productive if they align their lean managerial accounting systems and lean software development processes. I conduct an experiment on software development teams that have used lean and agile software development practices. A treatment group is re-trained in lean software development practices, and after three months, the productivity of the treatment group is compared to that of a control group that did not receive this re-training. This first phase (Phase 1) estimates the productivity improvements from using lean software development practices. Results from Phase 1 indicate that these practices shorten average production time by 80% in software development. In the second phase (Phase 2), a treatment group will be exposed to new lean management accounting measures for three months while a control group will only see existing reported metrics. Software development productivity will be measured for both groups before and after this exposure to evaluate the impact of the treatment. I will also survey both groups before and after treatment to evaluate how lean management accounting measures affect employee engagement and empowerment. The experimental site is a large publicly traded software firm that uses lean and agile software development practices.

Keywords: Lean accounting, lean software development, agile software development, productivity, cycle time, employee attitudes, lean manufacturing.

Suggested Citation

Stone, Thomas W., Lean Accounting Comes to Lean Software Development (September 8, 2017). Seventh International Engaged Management Scholarship Conference, Fox School of Business Research Paper No. 17-030, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3027684 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3027684

Thomas W. Stone (Contact Author)

Penn State Abington ( email )

1600 Woodland Road
Abington, PA 19001
United States
215 421 0030 (Phone)

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