Process

Jidoka, continuously modernise at scale


Jidoka is a software development methodology that aims to increase the automation and quality of a software project through the use of models and pipelines


Overview

Organisations often find themselves trapped in a costly cycle where aging legacy systems, nearing the end of their life, require replacing. Unfortunately, these new systems inevitably face the same fate, negatively impacting business agility. Jidoka is a forward-thinking software development methodology that harnesses the power of modern tools and incorporates valuable lessons learned from the software engineering domain.

The ultimate goal of Jidoka is to break the cycle of legacy systems and for organisations too mature into a mode of continuous modernisation. At this maturity level, organisations no longer replace legacy systems but have a greater level of control and momentum whereby they can update the legacy system to meet changing business conditions.

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Key Components

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE)

Models are the enabler that builds bridges across the organisation and systems.

DevOps

Pipelines are the enabler that breaks down the walls between development and operations.

Two gears, one labeled MDE and the other DevOps. The photo is used to give a comparison of the two.

History

The software development industry has taken much inspiration from lean manufacturing. It is worth knowing as Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, and others have roots in this history. For example, TPS is a well-known implementation in lean manufacturing.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: "Jidoka" (which can be loosely translated as “automation with a human touch”), as when a problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from being produced; and the “Just-in-Time” concept, in which each process produces only what is needed for the next process in a continuous flow.

Most developers that read this interpret Jidoka as a mechanism to stop production to help ensure quality. While this has merit our interpretation focuses on bringing human and machine skills together to produce a result that neither could reach alone.

In other words, by implementing Jidoka, developers can meticulously build software by hand to their standards, then, through incremental improvements, automate the process to scale and ensure quality.

A drawing representing thr JIDOKA model. The words CODEBOTS goes into the machine. It goes through the secctions discoverl, modrnise, and optimise. then it goes out of the machine and is made into continuous improvement

Benefits

Our hypothesis is that Jidoka is well-suited for large-scale modernisation projects where the benefits of automation are most acutely felt.

Benefits of Jidoka include: 

  • Lower-risk legacy modernisation projects
  • Any target architecture and technologies
  • Lower organisational change with coarse grained milestones
  • Consistent architecture with low technical debt
  • Decreased costs over the entire project lifecycle
  • Up-to-date user and developer documentation
  • Decreased knowledge loss and turnover
  • Healthier team culture and momentum
  • Increased crossed-team collaboration
  • Increasing ROI for modernisation portfolios
  • Better business agility with continuous modernisation

Jidoka Investment in Automation

A graph showing the Return on Investment. Tickets completed over Time is shown in the image. It shows the investment in automation, manual development, time saving and automated development.

Jidoka Principles

The Jidoka mantra breathes life into its values through ten guiding principles. Inspired from our lessons learned, the ten principles are:

  • Empowered software teams augmented with AI and the best tools.
  • Treat everything as a model and build bridges across the organisation and systems.
  • Knowledge is understanding and must be recorded in its simplest form within a code repository.
  • Pipelines lead to quality, increased automation, and so many other benefits.
  • Address high risk issues early and take on the most challenging first.
  • The admin associated with something should be proportional to its risk.
  • Ignore non-functional requirements at your peril.
  • Avoid changes to the organisations business processes while modernising, leave it to optimising later.
  • Start with the end in mind and continuously modernise.
  • Find balance and only use these principles where practical.

Discover more on our process

The cover of the Jidoka download. It shows two gears with MDE and DevOPs. The cover is green and black. The text of the cover is: Jidoka, A software development methodology the enhances automation and quality.

Jidoka: A software development methodology that enhances automation and quality

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The cover of the business agility and insanity of legacy systems download. The cover is blue and black with an arrow pointing upwards.

Business Agility and the Insanity of Legacy Systems


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The platform engineerinng download. THe cover is black and the text is magenta. The title is: Platform engineering, where models drive business moomentum. At the bottom of the image is the codebots logo.

Platform Engineering: Where Models Drive Business Momentum 


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Jidoka, a software methodology that increased project quality and momentum through the use of models and pipelines.

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