Is Lean an easier sell than Agile or Extreme?

Last Thursday (7/14/2005), Mary Poppendieck was hosted by a local consulting company (Sphere of Influence) and spoke on Lean Software Development.  The session was fascinating and presented a new spin on many of the familiar Agile topics.

Tom (Mary's husband) mentioned that Lean can often be an easier sell than Extreme or even Agile in general to clients or management.  For many of us either marketing TDD/Extreme/Agile to potential clients or upper management within your company, it can be an uphill battle.  Most people are not extreme, don't want to "embrace change" and are just put off by the whole thing through first impressions.  Lean on the other hand, sounds easier ... let's cut costs, make savings where we can, only do what is really needed.  All of those things are probably to stomach without knowing a lot of the details.  A positive initial reaction is important otherwise you won't get them to the details.  If you want to know more about Lean and how better to market your approach to Agile then read Mary's book (I haven't ... but now intend to!).

I was particularly impressed by Mary's use of past projects (Polaris) combined with present day corporations (Dell, Zara) to illustrate how Lean thinking can result in phenomenal success.  I am a big believer in reusing ideas from other industries, countries and disciplines to improve processes and Mary certainly teaches from example.

My cribsheet of other "take aways" from the presentation included

• Delay commitment - a decision made at the last possible moment has the most possible information
• Think in terms of benefits and value rather than features
• Build your software quicker than people can change their minds! :-)
• Speed of delivery changes the playing field and can reduce many other costs