Today, most people in the tech market already know something about Lean and Agile. These approaches have long been adopted by organizations that, due to the circumstances of the markets in the context of today’s digital transformation, need to innovate processes and become more efficient.
The Agile and Lean philosophies can transform the work of organizations and bring very positive results when combined. Optimizing processes, reducing costs, increasing productivity and integrating the work of a company’s areas are enhanced by the combination of these philosophies. However, these philosophies are not always used together.
This text covers the fundamentals, principles and characteristics of Lean and Agile and shows how to apply both approaches at the same time.
Agile
Software developers have created Agile philosophy to increase the value delivery of this activity.
In general, Agile is an iterative software development approach based on frequent deliveries divided into short periods. In each period, a functional software is delivered, and new functionalities are added over time.
The client together with the development team makes a new planning between cycles to prioritize new features, in addition to adjustments to improve the work process.
The Agile Manifesto values are:
1) individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
2) working software over comprehensive documentation;
3) customer collaboration over contract negotiation and;
4) responding to change over following a plan.
The main advantages of Agile for the development team are flexibility, responsiveness and customer focus, which ensures that the software development activity delivers value in advance to the customer.
Lean
Lean was created in the 1980s to optimize industrial production. Inspired by the Toyota production model, the approach aims to reduce costs and risks and solve problems in a systematic way.
The concept of Lean is related to Just-in-Time, that is, production driven by demand, while reducing waste. The team must do only what is necessary, at the right time and in the exact quantities in relation to demand.
To make this possible, the team must focus entirely on added value and see the work systematically. Each member of the teams that use Lean should be responsible for deliveries and have greater autonomy to make decisions.
It is possible to reduce business costs and risks with Lean. Moreover, the focus on added value combined with autonomy allows the team to accelerate learning and quickly react to changes.
Agile and Lean
The values and principles of Agile and Lean have a lot in common and can complement each other. The focus on creating added value is fundamental for both philosophies, and when it comes to software it means value for the customer/ end-user.
Many development teams use Agile on projects; however, the work that precedes software development is not always organized in small cycles. Thus, the product team, for instance, can take a long time to discover that a particular feature is not so valuable to the user. Efforts that involve prototyping and testing can mitigate this type of risk, thus allowing the team to learn quickly and cheaply.
The combination of Lean and Agile also allows marketing, product and engineering teams to work in a more integrated way. By sharing responsibility for the result of the project, those involved have more autonomy to make decisions, which increases agility.
Incorporating Lean and Agile into a company or a project certainly brings many benefits; however, this requires a cultural change, as many professionals are used to working in other ways. It is necessary to be patient until the adoption takes place and to be persistent in adopting the principles of Lean and Agile to the several scenarios of market organizations.
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