EppsNet

I’m not wholeheartedly endorsing the Ultra Lean Planning approach but it does lead you to question how much of the overhead of traditional software development is really necessary. It may be important to know that the author is one of the top guys in the industry and not a random flake.

From the Lean Enterprise Institute:

• Are we all clear on what is really important for our organization in order to solve customer problems and succeed in the long term? (Or, stated another way, can we get past the merely urgent?)
• Are we agreed on what big problems we need to solve as a team?
• Are we sure what obstacles are in our way and their root causes?
• Have we — or will we now — assign responsibility for determining the best countermeasures and removing the obstacles?
• Critically important, do we have a way of surfacing and resolving all of the cross-function, cross-department conflicts that stand in the way of resolving all major problems in any multi-functional organization including ours?

From Alan Shalloway:

Essence of Lean for People Doing Scrum

• Lots of concurrent tasks cause waste
• Focusing on removing delays will remove waste
• Adding value and getting feedback quickly is important
• If you make a mistake and don’t attend to why you made the mistake, it will likely repeat itself
• Minimizing work in process (WIP) is a way of improving efficiency and minimizing risk

In the end it doesn’t matter what names you use for your processes, good people will do good work and continuously improve what they do. So much of the discussion around Lean versus Scrum (etc.) is about marketing hype, selling consulting and training services, and cornering the market with new name-brands. . . .

Scrum is not a methodology, it is not a process. It is a simple framework underpinned by some common sense principles. Scrum offers individuals and organizations the opportunity to continuously improve the way they work. It provides a space for people to behave like human beings, with trust, respect and passion. That’s about it. But that is huge.

— Tobias Mayer