“We have achieved two things: on one hand, building systems that require much less maintenance and operations; on the other, actively striving to keep WIP at the bare minimum. The consequence is a higher delivery rhythm and, above all, much more steady.”
English edition
Less software,
Available now in English and Spanish
Less software,
more impact
How to keep your team from collapsing under the weight of its own code.
The book is available now on Amazon in English, in paperback and Kindle. The Spanish edition is also out.
The paperback has its own price in each country, so it's best to buy from your local Amazon store.
Buying from another country? Find it on your local Amazon by title (Less Software, More Impact) or ISBN 9798185032879. You can also read it in Spanish.
- 25+ Years building teams
- 20+ Talks and podcasts
- 11 Beta readers of the book
- 8 Voices interviewed
The thesis
The biggest problem in most teams is not that they write bad code. It is that they write more code than they need.
Existing software consumes capacity continuously, whether you use it or not, like the basal metabolism of a living organism. If nobody manages it actively, that Basal Cost grows until it collapses the team's capacity.
Three disciplines
Three disciplines to avoid collapse
Design for what you know today
Not for what you imagine tomorrow. The best architecture is the simplest one that solves the known problem and can evolve when the problem changes. Because it will change.
Maximize the work not done
Every decision not to build something is a decision to protect the team's future capacity. Your most valuable contribution may be the code you did not write.
Remove what no longer adds value
Pruning is a natural part of cultivation. If a feature costs more to maintain than what it delivers, removing it is not destruction. It is freeing up capacity for what matters.
What you take away
Three decisions you can apply in 30 days
The book promises no recipes. What it does give you is the language and the criteria to decide differently from the first week.
01 Week 1
Spot the hidden Basal Cost
List the features you maintain that almost nobody uses. Put a number on what keeping them alive costs. Start the conversation about pruning.
02 Weeks 2-3
Maximize the work not done
Question the next feature before planning it. Learn to say “not yet” on solid ground instead of “yes” by default.
03 Week 4
Lower the team's WIP
Bring work in progress down to a number you can actually sustain. Measure cycle time as a signal before touching processes.
Real teams
How this has been applied in teams I have worked with
Direct voices from people I have built with. No generic promises: concrete details in their own words.
Víctor's and Diego's words are quoted from the English edition of the book. Néstor's are translated from our conversation in Spanish.
“More than 13 years evolving with no need for big rewrites.”
On removing every backlog ticket older than six months without telling product:
“They didn't even notice, so they really weren't tasks that necessary.”
Who this book is for
It is for you if…
- You are an Engineering Manager and you answer for the team's technical capacity.
- You are a Tech Lead or a Staff Engineer and you see the degradation before anyone else.
- You are a Product Manager willing to accept that the separation between product and engineering is part of the problem.
- Your team works, but something feels off and you cannot name it.
It is not for you if…
- You are looking for a gentle introduction to the Agile world.
- You want confirmation of what you already do.
- You are looking for recipes instead of decisions.
Practices speak for themselves when you stop evangelizing and start embodying them.— Georgina Giannoukou , Software Engineer
From the book's prologue.
More voices
What early readers are saying
Quotes translated from the Spanish edition.
In an industry that rewards doing, Edu has spent years practicing and teaching the equally difficult art of not doing: not building what doesn't add value, not accumulating what isn't needed. This book is, among other things, a manual for that intelligent restraint.— Andoni Eguíluz Morán , Dean of the School of Engineering, University of Deusto
I had read many books and articles on Lean and Agile, but I had never seen such a radical and deep application of their principles.— Borja Cadenato , Director of Product
A book written from the wisdom of knowledge and experience that helps build awareness of the Basal Cost of software, a concept coined by the author himself. It is said that what has no name does not exist. And if it does not exist, nothing will be done to manage it.— Raquel M. Carmena , Software Engineer
This book captures something I've been seeing for years in what Edu writes: a constant pursuit of simplifying without falling into oversimplification. The result is a very solid guide, grounded in real experience with Lean, XP, and the original concept of Basal Cost, for anyone who wants to build software with more impact and less noise.— Julio César Pérez Arqués , Engineering Manager
An essential book for developers and teams that want to rethink the way they relate to code. Edu has written a book that shows, with real cases, that applying Lean, XP, and Basal Cost is a win-win.— Javier Vela , Software and Platform Engineer
Structure of the book
What you will find inside
Sixteen chapters organized in four parts, an epilogue on why I don't talk about AI, and appendices with cases and real voices from teams that have been through these transformations.
See the full table of contents 01 Part I
Foundations
What Lean Software Development is, why it matters, and what the Basal Cost of software is.
02 Part II
The Lean principles in practice
Five principles turned into concrete decisions: eliminate waste, amplify learning, decide as late as possible, deliver as fast as possible, empower the team.
03 Part III
Sustainable quality
Why quality is not the enemy of speed but its only foundation. Detect errors early, sustain quality over time, overcome resistance.
04 Part IV
Systems thinking
Optimize the whole instead of the individual. Bring Lean, XP, and the product mindset together.
The book on video
If you would rather listen before reading
Talks and interviews about the ideas in the book. You can start here and decide later whether the book is for you.
All the recordings available today are in Spanish: there are no talks about the book in English yet.
Interview · 40 min Recording in Spanish
Por qué menos software es más impacto
Canal de Emilio Carrión
If you only watch one, watch this. A relaxed conversation about the core ideas of the book: Basal Cost, why we build more than we need and what optimizing the whole means.
Talk + AMA · 1 h 44 min Recording in Spanish
Coste basal, código de más y equipos que entregan valor
Con Agile Sur y FullStack Sevilla
The long version, with questions from a live audience: how to explain Basal Cost to the business and to management, what changes with AI, juniors and university, and what to do when in your company “this is impossible”.
Complementary resources
Everything that doesn't fit in the book
The chapters of the book are self-contained. But there are videos, articles and books that shaped every chapter and are worth exploring. You will find them here, organized by chapter.
Explore the resources Where to get the book
Available on Amazon
Print
Paperback
Printed and shipped by Amazon. It has its own price in each country, so buy from your local Amazon store.
Buy on Amazon.comEvery channel and format, each with its own link, on Where to buy. You can also read it in Spanish.