Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit

In Lean Software Development, Mary and Tom Poppendieck identify seven fundamental "lean" principles, adapt them for the world of software development, and show how they can serve as the foundation for agile development approaches that work. Along the way, they introduce 22 "thinking tools" that can help you customize the right agile practices for any environment.
Better, cheaper, faster software development. You can have all three - if you adopt the same lean principles that have already revolutionized manufacturing, logistics, and product development: Iterating toward excellence: software development as an exercise in discovery; managing uncertainty: "decide as late as possible" by building change into the system; compressing the value stream: rapid development, feedback, and improvement; empowering teams and individuals without compromising coordination; software with integrity, promoting coherence, usability, fitness, maintainability, and adaptability; and how to "see the whole" - even when your developers are scattered across multiple locations and contractors.
Simply put, Lean Software Development helps you refocus development on value, flow, and people - so you can achieve breakthrough quality, savings, speed, and business alignment.