When most people think of software development, they immediately think of Scrum. However, did you know that the 5S Lean principles are also essential for writing maintainable and reliable code?

Of course, a tidy workplace will not lead to good software. No, essential for good software quality is clean code. And as James Coplien remarks somewhat surprisingly but oh so rightly in the book Clean Code: the 5S principles are perfectly applicable to “clean” code.

Good example is good to follow: when it is already a mess, little attention will be paid to make an addition neat. Extra mess on a mess does not stand out. This applies to every workplace, but certainly also to code. When developing new code, surrounding code is consciously or unconsciously used as inspiration for the new one.

Another very important principle of the 5S methodology is the well-known floor marking in factories or the shadow board to tidy up tools. People like to tidy up things, but it must be clear to everyone where something needs to be tidy up. When tidying up, it is very important that everyone uses the same layout. And nothing could be further from the truth in software development. Clearly structured code should not only be easy to understand, but should also lead to it being obvious where new functionality needs to be added.