The ideal batch size is one

The Lean Software Engineering blog has a concise historical perspective on the development of SDLCs over the past 30 years. Worth a read. In particular:

Back when the software development world was first trying to recreate the obsolescent mass-production culture of its day, the Japanese had already provided us with the answer. The ideal batch size is one.

When I apply this concept to my situation two things pop into my head 1) We'd better be practicing continuous integration 2) we'd better have full test automation. Otherwise, we can't do one piece flow (or even few piece flow).