Last responsible moment

Thu, 22 May 2025 20:00:00 +0000

The term last responsible moment has been bandied around in software development for some time. It appears to have come from TPS (the Toyota Production System) into Lean software development via Mary and Tom Poppendieck, then into XP (extreme Programming) and Agile.

As with so many ideas and stories that are passed down, the message gets mixed up along the way and the original intent gets lost. You can see Jim (Cope) Coplien bring this up in his GOTO 2017 talk, The Dehumanisation of Agile and Objects (timestamp 30:14)¹.

Jim Coplien on vellosa.com

Last responsible moment