Lean vs Agile: Which Methodology Works Best for Your Team?

In the past, software teams knew nothing beyond the traditional waterfall method. However, this solution began to frustrate more and more people with its limited adaptation to the changing software market. Therefore, due to the irritation with the existing solution, strategies such as Agile and Lean were created. Discover the features of each management practice below.

In the beginning, there was a factory. The Lean approach originated in a Toyota production plan in the 1950s. Lean project management transformed the Toyota production system, focusing on eliminating waste and creating value most efficiently. Every minute of production line downtime, every extra part in inventory, and every redundant activity was a cost to cut.

Half a century later, Mary and Tom Poppendieck, inspired by Lean Manufacturing, began to wonder if code could also be produced without waste. Their book “Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit” in 2003 brought Lean from factories to offices.

Poppendiecks have shown that up to 70% of the functions in a typical application are never used. A second example is excessive documentation, which is essential, but not when it is created just to exist. According to Poppendiecks, the time spent waiting for the result of testers’ work, client response, or managers’ decisions is also a needless cost. Lean says clearly: shorten the flow, eliminate downtime.

Therefore, one of the core Lean practices is Value Stream Mapping. It involves analyzing the entire software development process and identifying bottlenecks. By seeing where downtime will appear, you can improve the process before you waste valuable resources.

Agile officially emerged in 2001, when 17 experienced programmers met at a ski resort in Snowbird, Utah, to create a more flexible and lighter work process. Their meeting resulted in the Agile Manifesto, a set of values and 12 principles intended as an alternative to cascading project management methods. Agile was supposed to focus more on people and results, rather than procedures and documents.

The crux of the Agile approach has become short iterations, frequent software releases, and constant adaptation to changing business requirements. Instead of planning, Agile assumes that change is part of the process. That’s why Agile teams present results every few weeks or more often.

Agile is a philosophy used in numerous project management frameworks. The clear leader is Scrum, chosen by 63% of Agile enthusiasts in 2023. Scrum organizes the work of development teams around sprints. These are one or two-week periods in which the team implements a specific product increment. Scrum structures the entire process, defining roles, events, and artifacts. As a result, Agile helps deliver value quickly, frequently, and in close contact with the client.

Optimized process or periodic results review? Preventing errors or allowing them? Learn how Lean and Agile handle the specific situations and choose the suitable strategy for your team.

Both Lean and Agile practices focus on delivering valuable software faster, but each approach reaches its goals distinctly. Lean focuses on optimizing the entire process, from the initial idea to its deployment in production.

The key premise of Lean management is a consistent workflow that is free of bottlenecks, downtime, and redundant activities. Code must be clean, simple, and free from repeated functions. For example, the team should identify time-consuming manual activities and replace them with automation or redesign the decision-making process, which can take longer than writing code.

The Agile approach is based on structured sprint cycles and incremental delivery of new features. One sprint usually lasts between one and four weeks. During this time, the team focuses on delivering a working piece of the product, even if the whole is not yet complete. Frequent sprints allow the team to quickly get feedback from the client and adjust the work direction on the fly.

The Agile team can focus on delivering working software and prioritizing features based on client value. In this approach, quality is controlled through unit testing or code review.

Tech debt is a problem no matter what project management methodology you choose. Fortunately, both Agile and Lean have their ways for cutting tech debt. Lean focuses on preventing debt by consistently building quality from the beginning. In Lean, technical debt is a symptom of a problem in the flow, which can reflect an underdeveloped process, a lack of automation, or pressure for speed.

To prevent technology debt from occurring, Lean teams can skip manual testing for complete automation, introduce code revision practices, or pair programming to catch errors while writing.

In contrast, Agile allows for the technological debt. However, this doesn’t mean the team that follows the Agile philosophy is expected to hand over a product with errors. In this case, they use careful error management. A team may decide to implement a feature faster, including the time for technical fixes later.

This is done through dedicated sprints or story points for refactoring. In this approach, the most important thing is identifying and planning to fix the bugs. Otherwise, their number will escalate quickly.

Many myths are growing fast around any practice. That’s why we’ll quickly address them to ensure that unproven opinions don’t cloud your choice of the best product development strategy for your business.

Some might argue that Lean principles can’t be applied to modern software development. However, Spotify is a prime example of how Lean thinking can optimize software-building processes. The most innovative technology companies are drawing on Lean to the fullest. Lean principles have found their place in CI/CD, trunk-based development, and feature toggles.

Lean is about maximizing value while minimizing waste, and this goal remains valid regardless of the field. It’s also timeless, so Google, Amazon, and Etsy still use it.

What if we told you that there is no need to choose between Agile and Lean? Using one method doesn’t preclude using the other. In practice, more and more organizations are combining the strengths of both approaches, creating hybrids that let you retain the flexibility of Agile while enjoying the efficiencies of Lean.

One of the most common combinations is Scrumban. It merges the structured Scrum framework with visual workflow management from Kanban (a Lean methodology). Together, Agile and Lean create a powerful approach to software development that balances speed with quality and flexibility with efficiency.

What’s the difference between implementing Lean and Agile principles? Maybe the two approaches are the same? Find out what to consider when using modern methods in your daily work.

The first step in implementing Lean is to analyze and optimize the team’s workflow. Start with value stream mapping, which identifies all stages of the software development process. Find and mark places of waste, then optimize or eliminate them.

In the next step, you can introduce Kanban boards that visualize the flow of tasks and provide better management of work in progress. JIRA, Azure Boards, or Trello will let your team track progress and quickly identify tasks blocking the overall process. Also, set work-in-progress (WIP) limits to avoid overloading the team and focus on completing tasks before starting new ones.

For Agile implementation, proper team organization and structure of work in sprints are fundamental. Start by defining roles so each person knows what they are responsible for. Key roles are:

• product owner,
• scrum master,
• development team.

In the next stage, configure sprint cycles. Set up their frequency and rituals related to sprints, such as sprint planning, daily standups, sprint review, and retrospectives. JIRA, YouTrack, or ClickUp can help you with it. Notion, Miro, and Linear are great for planning and visualizing work.

To assess the success of Agile and Lean implementation, you should monitor the key indicators. For Lean, the most important metrics are:

• cycle time – measures how long it takes to complete a task from start to finish,
• execution time – shows how much time elapses from submitting a task to its implementation in production,
• process efficiency – points to the number of tasks delivered in each period.

In Agile, vital benchmarks are the team’s velocity, which measures the number of story points completed during a sprint, and the burndown chart, which illustrates the progress of a sprint and shows how much work is left to complete. Another vital indicator is the sprint completion rate, which measures the percentage of scheduled tasks completed each period.

Do you already have your favorite? Or do you still have doubts and fear of failure? Start with the small steps method: introduce one of the Lean or Agile practices to your team and test its impact on work efficiency. Draw conclusions, measure the effects, and adjust the approach to the project specifics.

At Scalo, Lean and Agile philosophies have no secrets to us – talk with our expert and discover why clients worldwide trust our custom software development services.