Although you often hear about Lean and Agile, are you often confused about the relationship between Agile and Lean? Although these two approaches are often used together, they are two very different approaches to project management.

So what are they? What is the difference between Lean and Agile? What’s the connection?

I. Lean and Agile: A brief history

We will first see how these two approaches come about, after all, the difference between Lean and Agile exists right from the beginning.

1.1 the agile

In the 1980s, computer programmers used traditional development methods, such as waterfall, to manage their software development projects. The process is time-consuming and expensive.

But the world of software development is evolving rapidly, and growing often means adapting to change. In waterfall, a product can take months, sometimes even years, to develop. As a result, by the time the software or product is released, it is likely to be obsolete in terms of current requirements.

To overcome this problem, the Agile Manifesto was created. Agile methodology is based on the four values and 12 principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto. Agile helps teams better adapt to change by involving stakeholders throughout the process. In this way, working software can be better planned, developed, and deployed.

Agile is a fast iterative approach to software development. Unlike traditional project management approaches, a large project is broken down into a shorter development cycle known as sprint. Each sprint usually lasts 2-4 weeks. Here is an example to illustrate agile principles.

Suppose you’re building a robot. In traditional project management methods like Waterfall, you might need to spend a few months or a year planning and developing the robot before you can finally deploy it. This can lead to situations where an AI feature you thought was cool becomes useless. What customers really want is a perfectly balanced robot.

With agile methods, this can be avoided. In agile methods, the customer is actively involved in the development process. At the end of each sprint, they provide feedback, and the agile team implements the necessary changes in the next cycle. This constant improvement leaves less room for error and is more conducive to building a robot that perfectly meets the customer’s needs.

1.2 lean

In the 1970s, Taiichi Ohno developed what is known as the Toyota-style production system (TPS). Its goal is to reduce inventory costs and improve the efficiency of the automotive supply chain by eliminating any type of waste.

TPS is inspired by grocery store inventory management systems that use visual signals to accurately indicate inventory requirements when items are needed. This reduces overall waste and optimizes the entire production process. The system then informs the principles of lean manufacturing.

But how does lean software development work?

Mary and Tom Poppendiek have written a comprehensive software development guide inspired by Lean Manufacturing principles. Lean software development is based on the principles of lean methodology. The seven principles are as follows:

  • Eliminate waste
  • Built-in quality
  • To create knowledge
  • Postpone decisions
  • Fast delivery
  • Respect people
  • Whole optimization

Each Lean principle aims to optimize the production process by eliminating waste. It also tries to minimize risk while maximizing customer value. Elimination of waste refers to the removal of everything that does not add value to the process. This can be anything from unnecessary meetings and documentation to an inefficient approach.

Six key differences between Agile and Lean

Now that you know what agile and lean methods involve, you can already sense that they are different, right? To make things clear, here are six key differences between Agile and Lean.

2.1 Methodological differences

This is the most striking difference between agile and lean thinking.

Agile development focuses on continuous improvement and customer satisfaction, focusing on the optimization of the project development process. Its goal is to make the process flexible, transparent and adaptable. To do this, agile projects go through an iterative development cycle (sprint), in which agile teams actively engage customers from start to finish.

The core of lean approach is to optimize the production process. It’s all about minimizing risk and eliminating waste (lean manufacturing). In fact, “eliminating waste” is one of the first principles of the lean approach. When you eliminate everything that isn’t relevant to the final outcome of the project, the production process automatically shortens and becomes more efficient. This will save you a lot of valuable money and time in the long run.

2.2 Differences in methods

Although both lean and agile methods are excellent software development methods, their development methods are slightly different:

In agile practices, projects are developed in small increments, short cycles, or sprints. The iterative and incremental approach refers to breaking a project down into different phases, each consisting of planning, implementation, testing, and evaluation. This process is repeated until you get the result you want.

The lean approach aims to introduce small incremental changes in the production process to improve efficiency. While this leads to shorter development cycles, it is not the core focus of Lean.

2.3 Differences in project timelines

Although the goal of both lean and agile approaches is to deliver the product as early as possible, their project schedules are different.

Agile or Scrum teams have short work cycles to deliver quickly. Each cycle or sprint usually lasts 2-4 weeks, with a fixed iteration period.

Lean teams reduce project time by optimizing processes, often limiting work within the process, which reduces the overall project schedule. However, unlike Agile, there is no specific time frame.

2.4 Differences in Teams Lean and Agile methods follow different team structures.

Agile teams are small teams of self-organizing, cross-functional individuals.

  • Self-organization: The team decides how to accomplish the work itself.
  • Cross-functional: Team members have different areas of expertise, but all work towards a common goal.

Team members include product managers (product owners), agile coaches or scrummasters, developers, business analysts, and so on. In lean project management, you organize multiple lean teams, made up of members from related departments. Each team is led by a team leader who manages their respective team and individual projects. While your lean team members should be competent, they don’t necessarily have to be self-organizing and cross-functional.

2.5 Differences in overall objectives

Agile lean development methodologies strive to achieve different goals.

In agile development, the goal is to create something that meets the needs of the end user or stakeholder.

For lean development, the goal is to eliminate any process that does not add value to product development.

2.6 Differences in areas of concern

Agile development focuses on project scope and customer value. In agile software development, the scope of a software product refers to its features and functions. Prioritizing customer value is that at the end of each sprint, you receive feedback and implement changes in the next cycle. Lean software development is about improving process flow and quality, with a focus on process improvement and quality (with the goal of zero defects), which is usually achieved using an approach called Value Stream Mapping.

What is Value Stream Mapping? Value stream mapping is a method used to visualize the sequence of events between product creation and delivery to the customer.

3. What are the similarities between Agile and Lean?

Do you know why people often group agile frameworks and lean production?

That’s because both approaches have common values, such as the ability to quickly adapt to change. Here are the similarities between Lean and Agile.

  • Continuous improvement: Both approaches focus on periodically reviewing the working method for possible improvements.
  • Customer Value First: Whether Agile actively participates in customer feedback or Lean focuses on delivery quality, both aim to provide more value to customers.
  • Efficient schedules: Agile methods deploy products in frequent releases, whereas in lean project management, the development process consists of as few steps as possible. Both approaches focus on staying efficient.
  • Continuous flow of results: Agile continually delivers value incrementally by breaking down the development process, while Lean continually creates value by eliminating waste.

Source: Software Quality Report


By Test Ninja

On April 8 PM every Thursday, skilled and magical craftsmanship of the conversation, winter elder brother to say 】 【 dismantling the conversation and specific tool of actual combat. Public message “solution cattle” can obtain the address

  • 0401 “Database Continuous Delivery Pipeline Sharing and Demo (Azure DevOps+Flyway)”
  • 0408 “Version management in continuous delivery and plug-in development based on the Azure DevOps extension framework”
  • This Thursday, we will be suspending an issue of “PACT Contract Testing for Microservices and Multi-Teamwork API Testing”.
  • 0422 “Boathouse End-to-End Pipeline Display”