Why You Need Lean Beyond a Team

This blog was inspired by a good blog by Luis Gon?alves called, 5 Crazy Reasons Why Agile Does Not Work in Germany. Good blog, although I think this blog is more about the limits of Agile than it is about the culture of Germany. Back in 2005 I started getting in trouble with the Scrum/Agile community for saying that effective Agile required Lean - the result being that I ultimately got thrown off the Scrum Development group for talking about the limits of Scrum and trying to "sell Lean." Actually, I was trying to demonstrate why one should not get attached to one's approach but rather focus on the customer's needs.

Agile is a team based mindset (see Agile Manifesto: Incredible Success and Time to Move On). Most organizations do not have team oriented challenges as their main issue. Attempting to solve challenges such as Luis mentions (hierarchy, silos, over-planning, perfection and traditionalism) requires a mindset that can be appreciated by the culture you are working in. Attempting to solve these challenges with traditional Agile, for example, Scrum, is ineffective (see How Successful Pilots Often Actually Hurt an Organization).

The target for improvement should be achieving faster realization of business value (which, of course, is primarily based on customer value), predictably, sustainably, and with high quality. Agile is as much of a mindset as a set of principles but is too often expressed and adopted at the team level. This is like trying to improve a car's performance by tuning the engine when the tires are flat. The irony is one thing the Agile Manifesto got right is achieving customer value is very important. This means we need to focus on value - not methods.

Net Objectives has been leading with Lean-Thinking in the software development world for over a decade. We've had a very high success rate in transitioning organizations to more effective methods and even transforming a few. We also incorporate Scrum, Kanban, eXtreme Programming, ATDD, TDD and more to fill the client's needs. BTW - I am not trying to "sell" you on us - I am telling you that you must do something similar to get effective results. 

OK, so here's the sales pitch - if you _do_ want to do Agile better, send me a note at [email protected]. We provide free consults for people serious about improving their organizations.