As an Agile and Lean Practitioner, you deeply understand Agile and Lean frameworks and principles. This includes the practices, underlying principles, and values (mindset). Knowledge and mindset are not enough to be an Agile Leader. You must also be able to apply this knowledge and mindset and apply it with real teams, in real organizations, innovating practices consistent with the underlying principles and values, and apply it appropriately with the goal of helping organizations to deliver continuous and sustainable value to their customers.
Agile was originally coined as part of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and defined by 4 values and 12 guiding principles. The idea of agility has transcended the Manifesto and evolved beyond software to meet a wider organizational context. It still retains a core philosophy seen clearly in that Manifesto.
Lean originates from Lean Manufacturing and Lean Product Development, although the word Lean has been subsequently used in many contexts. Many ideas aligned with Agile and Lean concepts can be seen in many modern Frameworks, Methods and Practices for delivering value.
Agile and Lean Mindset
Being an Agile and Lean practitioner, you start with a deep understanding of its values and principles. This allows us to apply frameworks, methods and practices in the way they were intended and then to experiment with empirical evidence, to meet an ever-changing world. Remaining true to the underlying paradigm allows us to create a shared system where individuals, teams, and organizations can grow and flourish as self-managed entities. This allows for the continuous delivery of sustainable value to the customer.
The Agile and Lean values and principles guide our thinking and actions when working to solve complex or complicated situations and even to move from chaos to complex.
The foundations of Agile and Lean are found in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, Lean Manufacturing (including the Toyota Production System), Lean Product Development and other parallel practices and concepts of the late 20th century (see the resources section for specific references).
We broadly classify these many values and principles into the three categories listed below.
- Customer Satisfaction
Some examples are:
- Delighting customers by collaborating to deliver tangible value regularly.
- Build products that can adapt to the needs of the customer.
- Delivering high-quality products that improve the lives of the customer.
- Collaborative Interactions
Some examples of this are:
- Trusting and supporting people to work together in small self-managing teams.
- Everyone involved in the delivery of value working together daily.
- Fostering environments of mutual respect, openness and accountability.
- Continuous Improvement
Some examples of this are:
- Continuously improve the way we work.
- Optimizing our organizations for flow by eliminating waste.
- Challenging each other to grow through continuous learning.
These broad categories help to understand how your overall Agile and Lean mindset can be used to approach the Frameworks and Practices. You need a balance of values from all these categories to be a successful Agile leader.
Competency Level Definitions:
1 Beginner
- Describe the Agile Manifesto and its principles.
- Aware of Lean Thinking and its origins.
- Explain the core values and principles of at least one execution framework.
2 Advanced Beginner
- Discuss how your behaviors relate to Agile principles.
- Explain how the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto are present in how your team works.
- Recognize when decisions help or hinder the adoption of agile principles.
- Explain the core concepts of Lean Thinking and how they can be applied.
- Associate Lean principles and Agile approaches with each other.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how the principles of at least one execution framework are aligned with the values and principles of Agile and Lean.
3 Practitioner
- Contrast two examples where you applied an empirical mindset.
- Apply at least 3 lean principles, adapt them to a given context and describe the lasting benefit to the client.
- Contrast Lean Production/Process and Lean Thinking.
- Analyze your fulfilment of the Agile and Lean mindset and identify how you can improve.
- Illustrate at least two examples of how you have actively applied Agile and Lean Mindsets in your work.
- Create clear and simple explanations for how Agile and Lean principles can help your teams and organizations to continuously deliver sustainable value.
4 Guide
- Describe an experience in which there is no obvious resolution to an impediment, requiring you to leverage an Agile and Lean mindset to help a team or organization select possible solutions.
- Appraise practices adopted at a team and organization level and analyze how they do or do not support the continuous delivery of sustainable value.
- Apply at least two ways to provide growth to self, other coaches and practitioners in the Agile community.
- Apply at least 3 lean principles, adapt them to a given context and describe the lasting benefit to the client.
5 Catalyst
- Assess new principles related to the continuous delivery of sustainable value and evaluate how they might or might not fit within the current umbrella of Agile and Lean values and principles.
- Create and contribute new thinking to the community relating to the spirit and mindset of Agile and Lean.
- Sought out to speak at conferences and other community events on Agile and Lean related topics.
- Seen as a leader in the Agile and Lean community and beyond.
1 Beginner
2 Advanced Beginner
3 Practitioner
4 Guide
5 Catalyst
- Summarize the Agile values.
- Describe the Agile Manifesto and its principles.
- Aware of Lean Thinking.
- Discuss how your behaviors relate to Agile principles.
- Explain how the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto are present in how your team works.
- Recognize when decisions help or hinder the adoption of agile principles.
- Describe the origins of Lean Thinking.
- Explain the core concepts of Lean Thinking and how they can be applied.
- Contrast two examples where you applied an open experimental mindset.
- Analyze your personal fulfillment of the Agile mindset and identify how you can improve.
- Illustrate at least two examples of how you actively applied Agile value(s) in your work.
- Contrast Lean Process and Lean Thinking.
- Associate Lean principles and Agile approaches.
- Apply lean principles in your work.
Frameworks and Practices
Being an Agile and Lean Practitioner, you will have a deep understanding of many frameworks, methods and practices that support teams and the wider organization in the continuous delivery of value. Using these Frameworks and Practices creates healthy habits that lead to changes in behavior and eventually to a change in mindset and culture. These changes benefit the individual, the team, the organization, and even the world.
- Frameworks, Methods, and Approaches provide a minimal set of boundaries that allow a team and/or organization to learn to be Agile and sustainably deliver tangible value. Below is an example list of frameworks and methods you could use in your work with individuals, teams, and organizations.
Note: this is not a definitive list, and as you gain experience, you will experiment with many others and even adapt approaches from outside of the Agile and Lean family.
- Scrum, Kanban, Feature Driven Development, DevOps, eXtreme Programming, Lean Start-up, Lean Product Development, Theory of Constraints, Systems and Complexity thinking provide some of the core frameworks for execution.
- LeSS, Nexus, SAFe, and Scrum@Scale are some examples of scaling/descaling frameworks.
- Holacracy, Humanocracy, Sociocracy 3.0, and other approaches, are social structures that organizations can use to experiment with patterns that help engage individuals, teams and organizations with a goal of creating a diverse and inclusive collaborative environment.
- Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Profit Streams™ Canvas are examples of system modeling frameworks that enable creation of holistic solutions.
- Innovation Games and Gamestorming are examples of decision-making frameworks that allow groups to advance concretely to the next decision.
- Practices – Provide techniques and tools that enhance the use of Frameworks and Methods. There are many practices that support Agile and Lean ways of working. Depending on context and team maturity, the practices used will change over time. Some examples of common practices are:
- User Stories, User Story, Impact, and Empathy Mapping, Product Vision Generation, Collaborative Roadmapping
- Estimation, Agile and Lean Metrics, Information radiators
- Value stream mapping, Causal Loop Diagrams
- Kaizen events, Large-scale retrospectives
- Test-Driven Development, Pairing, Refactoring, Automation
- Communities of Practice, Learning Dojo’s
Your challenge is to discover and create new practices and to have fun experimenting with them.
Competency Level Definitions:
1 Beginner
Frameworks/Methods and Approaches
- Describe at least one Agile approach and how it relates to the Agile Manifesto.
- Outline the historical development of Agile.
Practices
- Explain at least three Agile practices commonly used by Agile teams.
- List one or two Lean practices that are helpful for individual Agile teams.
2 Advanced Beginner
Frameworks/Methods and Approaches
- Identify the knowledge and skills to maintain the distinctions between Agile and “alternative” ways of working.
- Apply an Agile or Lean framework or method, using all of its elements through a complete cycle.
- Describe at least three Lean/Agile development frameworks/methods and explain their value.
Practices
- Explain how at least three practices are aligned (or not) with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
- Demonstrate how an Agile practice could improve a current way of working for a team.
- Explain how you have helped a team increase the quality of delivery by continually improving its practices.
3 Practitioner
Frameworks/Methods
- Demonstrate how you have guided a team to an Agile or Lean Framework.
- Apply at least two frameworks or methods in multiple situations.
- Differentiate the various scaling frameworks and how they may or may not work in a given situation.
Practices
- Analyze new Agile or Lean practices methods and assess how they could or could not be applied within current frameworks.
- Integrate at least three Agile development practices with Lean practices.
- Apply Agile or Lean practices beyond the team (e.g. multi-team scaling, organizational design, etc.).
4 Guide
Frameworks/Methods
- Helps the team evaluate the process that is most suitable for them.
- Appraise a real situation in which they have advised a client to apply XP, Lean, or a non-Agile approach instead of Scrum. Can describe the reasoning behind their advice.
- Able to apply many frameworks and able to adapt to different situations.
Practices
- Evaluate different practices and evolve them to meet the organizational need and still be aligned with Agile and Lean values and principles.
- Facilitate experimentation and learning with practices across multiple systems.
- Design framework(s) that can help teams or organizations to resolve impediments in which there are no obvious solutions
5 Catalyst
- Creates and shares new approaches to the continuous delivery of sustainable value, that maintain the spirit of Agile / Lean values and principles.
- Assess and communicate emerging practices and frameworks for how they might contribute to organizations ability to deliver sustainable value.
- Sought out to speak at conferences and other community events on Agile and Lean related topics.
- Seen as a leader in the Agile and Lean community and beyond.
1 Beginner
2 Advanced Beginner
3 Practitioner
4 Guide
5 Catalyst
- Describe at least one Agile approach and how it relates to the Agile Manifesto.
- Outline the historical development of Agile.
- Explain at least three Agile practices commonly used by Agile teams.
- Identify the knowledge and skills to maintain the distinctions between agile and “alternative” ways of working.
- Apply a prescribed framework or method, using all of its elements in at least one situation.
- Describe at least three Lean/Agile development frameworks/methods and explain their value.
- Explain how at least three practices are aligned (or not) with the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
- Support teams to apply existing practices in a more Agile way.
- Explain how you have helped a team increase the quality of delivery through continually improving its practices.
- Demonstrate how you have moved a team to an agile way of working.
- Apply at least two frameworks or methods in multiple situations.
- Aware of changing Agile trends and newer methods in the industry.
- Analyze the benefits of a wide range of Agile practices and can help the team adopt them as appropriate.
- Integrate at least three Agile development practices with Lean practices.
- Apply Agile practices beyond the team.
- Explain at least three benefits of supporting strong technical practices when working with multiple teams.
Guide level guidance will be provided in a future update.
Catalyst level guidance will be provided in a future update.