Agile Philosophy: Is Lean the Missing Link? (Part 1)

You’ve likely read the Agile Manifesto, the values which were developed by representatives from Extreme Programming, Scrum, DSDM, Feature Driven Development, Crystal, and other alternatives to the heavy, document-driven Waterfall methodology.

Agile Minds, Lean Thoughts

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

The Manifesto statements offer traceability to many of the Agile management practices. If we use Scrum management practices for our examples, we can make the following connections:

• The daily 15-minute Scrum meeting with the team standing around the low tech task board supports the value of individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• The Sprint Planning meeting, where the light-weight User Stories are transformed into a shared understanding of the features to be implemented, supports the value of working software over comprehensive documentation
• The application of “good” versus “good enough” in order to deliver on time supports the value of customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• The re-prioritization of the Product Backlog before each Sprint Planning Meeting supports the value of responding to change over following a plan

Agile Values vs. Business Value

Though the Manifesto articulates the values that provide the foundation for the “what” and “how” of Agile, it doesn’t answer the question “why.”

Why are individuals and interactions more valuable than processes and tools? Many people could argue that individuals are inconsistent, their memories are fallible, and their interactions are unpredictable. Shouldn’t defined processes bring consistency and tools record decisions which may otherwise be lost or reinterpreted?

How do we move from Agile values to business value?

Finding the “why” in Lean

When the Agile Manifesto was developed in 2001 at the Snowbird Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, Mary and Tom Poppendieck had not yet released their book on Lean Software Development.

Lean Software Development draws heavily from the rules of the Toyota Product System, later called Lean Manufacturing. Simply put, it is a time-tested method which focuses on providing more value with less work.

More value with less work. Now that’s something which any CEO could support.

In Part 2, we’ll map the value-driven rules of Lean Manufacturing to Agile management practices.