• Agile & Scrum Basics

What is Lean and Agile: 4 differences and 5 similarities

Until recently, Agile, unlike Lean, was mostly a buzzword for many companies. If you are looking for competitive advantage, you have to be agile and thus work Agile. Meanwhile, there are all different tools and methods for becoming Agile. Think, for example, of Scrum, Lean Startup and Scaled Agile. Just to name a few. Is Agile Lean? Or are they both different ideas, process or methods? These methods are better described as flip sides of the same coin. Or as Yin and Yang!

In this article, we discuss the following topics:

• Lean and Agile: similarities and differences
• What exactly is Lean?
• Can Agile be called Lean?
• About the Lean startup method

Lean and Agile: similarities and differences

Agreements

• Focusing on the end customer and delivering what the customer wants
• Being able to deliver quickly and on time
• Importance of empowering and placing responsibilities in the workplace
• Importance of human interaction
• No unnecessary tasks, meeting and documentation and eliminate waste

Differences

• Lean was developed in Japan and Agile in America;
• Lean can be applied well in a predictable process. In complex environments and processes, Agile fits better;
• Lean has an analytical nature. Agile also involves more creativity.
• Lean works with Yellow, Orange, Green, Lean and (Master) Black Belt. Agile has roles such as Product Owner and Scrum Master.

What exactly is Lean?

Lean is a business philosophy or management style focused on creating value for the customer and/or client. Within business processes, team members must ask themselves whether they add customer value and whether their actions affect margins or revenue. Are they adding nothing? Then this is considered “waste” and the process is stopped. Removing this waste leads to short lead times and improved customer satisfaction.

In the Netherlands, many companies have started working with Lean. Some examples of sectors where Lean works successfully:

• Energy;
• Trade, Transportation & Logistics;
• Government;
• Business services;

but of course also…

• Education;
• Care;
• Banks and insurers;
• Telecom & Utilities.

The basis of Lean lies with Toyota. Toyota’s Workshop Chief figured out that only business processes that the customer is willing to pay for, or steps that a customer is willing to wait for, are useful. All other activities fall under waste, and thus are redundant. Et voilà, the seed for Lean!

Can Agile be called Lean?

Agile and Lean are two different things but similar. There are many similarities between Agile and Lean. Both focus on the end result and continuous improvement. That is why it is so difficult to distinguish between Agile and Lean.

Lean stands for improvement: ever better alignment of production steps with each other. Agile stands for change: constantly adapting products and services to market conditions and feedback from customers.

The difference between Lean and Agile through a few keywords:

About the Lean startup method

The essence of lean startup is that you quickly learn what works, but also what doesn’t work. We in the Netherlands are used to working out the idea completely first. Only when it’s ready do we go to market. And then it goes right or wrong. And that includes all the costs and time spent on it.

Lean startup turns that completely around. You go to market already with a simple prototype instead of a completely thought out and developed idea. With that, you’re going to test to see if it’s to your liking. You do this with a measurement. You test this directly with customers. They provide you with feedback and help you further develop your product. This falls into the building-measuring-learning circle. This is how you innovate without the risk of failure. The Lean startup method is based on the idea that making mistakes is allowed, maybe even required.

The creator of the Lean startup method is named Eric Ries, and he has four distinctive lessons about Lean startup for us:

• Fail, because that’s how you learn the most;
• It’s not about what you can do, but whether there is a demand for it;
• Put the focus on the growth engine (the talent that typifies your business or idea);
• Dare to choose change.