[lojack]

If the team considers automated testing waste then they truly are missing the point of Lean. I disagree with you on the fact that having a QA step could be considered waste. Note that this isn't the same as calling QA waste.

IMO QA is something that should be included throughout the task lifecycle. Sure, after a task is marked as complete there should be some sort of usability testing, but that isn't the sole job of QA. They should be working before tasks are even started by defining the exit criteria and writing integration tests. Giving QA its own step is wasteful because its effectively pigeonholing the job.