Software makers woke up one day to find ourselves living in the software factory. The work is repetitive and tightly constrained by specs and management. The floor is hard, it gets cold at night, and they say the factory is going to close and move somewhere else.

Lean methods are, in part, a response to the software factory. Small teams, fast starts, relentless simplicity, and real business models that gain traction and revenue in a hurry.

What can we achieve, though, over the long haul? Can lean methodologies be reconciled with care, commitment, and complexity? Can they make ambitious software for demanding audiences -- specialized audiences for whom relentless simplicity may not be the best choice?

http://markBernstein.org/NeoVictorian.html
http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/