Many organizations have recognized the wisdom behind the concept of ensuring that their workplace is safe for all of their employees. Anzen, a Japanese word for safety, has also come to be used as a term for giving workplace safety that level of elevated importance, in every aspect of human endeavor. Joshua Kerievsky, CEO of Industrial Logic, is among the first to use the term in this context, and he sees Anzen as a component of every Lean and Agile practice. He sums up Anzen as follows: “Protecting people is the most important thing we can do, because it frees people to take risks and unlocks their potential.” Taking that a step further, Kerievsky suggests that “Anzeneering” is the application of Anzen. Thus in software development, Anzeneers are on the lookout for common anti-patterns, such as poor working conditions often typified by “death marches,” signs of employee burnout, software riddled with technical debt (which is often introduced due to time pressure), and lack of sufficient instrumentation to enable early detection of potential problems in code and infrastructure.
Acknowledgements
Authored by Philip Rogers
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