# Software Development Waste

DevFeed: [Software Development Waste](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/software-development-waste-38690.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com/p/software-development-waste>)

Author: Dr Milan Milanović

Published: 2026-01-15T16:01:54Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tech-world-with-milan-newsletter.md>)

Topics: [software-development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-development.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [Agile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/agile.md>), [code productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code-productivity.md>)

Tags: [agile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agile.md>), [best-practices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/best-practices.md>), [cognitive-load](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cognitive-load.md>), [cross-functional-teams](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cross-functional-teams.md>), [development-process](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development-process.md>), [productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/productivity.md>), [quality](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/quality.md>), [software-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-development.md>), [switching](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/switching.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains software development waste through lean thinking. It reviews the traditional seven wastes, discusses an expanded taxonomy that includes issues such as wrong features, backlog mismanagement, over-engineering, cognitive load, communication problems, and waste from AI-generated code, and presents practices for reducing waste.

## Source excerpt

Many of us can look back at a completed software project and think, "If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have done much faster." This familiar feeling reveals just how much waste creeps into the software development process.