The Lean-Agile Way

The Lean-Agile Way

by Cecil Rupp, Richard Knaster, Steve Pereira, Al Shalloway
Released August 2024
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781835461877

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Book description

Discover how mastering Lean, Agile, and VSM principles and practices can enhance your product delivery performance, mitigate risk, and foster business agility, giving you a competitive edge

Key Features

  • Learn how to apply Lean practices to eliminate waste and delays, ensuring value for your customers
  • Master Agile practices to address problems and create value-centric products and services
  • Explore VSM methods and tools to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities that maximize value addition
  • Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, efficiency is essential. Authored by industry experts Cecil ‘Gary’ Rupp, a Lean-Agile consultant with over three decades of executive experience; Richard Knaster, a SAFe® Fellow and transformation leader; Steve Pereira, a value stream consultant and board advisor; and Al Shalloway, creator of FLEX and PMI’s Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant workshop, the book offers proven strategies to streamline processes, enhance products, and improve service delivery.

You’ll start with an introduction to foundational Lean and Agile practices, recognizing the significance of digital enhancements in modernizing business processes. As you progress, you'll learn VSM techniques to identify and prioritize work and investments to provide maximum value to customers. Moreover, you'll grasp Lean-Agile practices aimed at promoting collaboration among teams and ensuring the continuous flow of product-oriented deliveries tailored to address customer needs. Finally, you'll gain executive-level insights on how organizations must access timely information for decision-making and foster a culture of continuous business transformation.

Armed with this knowledge and a robust toolkit, you'll be empowered to drive meaningful change, optimize resources, and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving marketplace.

What you will learn

  • Understand how to integrate the seemingly disparate practices of Lean and Agile
  • Integrate Lean, Agile, and VSM to accelerate value flow, enhance efficiency, and drive improvements
  • Drive product-oriented transformations with business increments, Lean-Agile teams, product lifecycles, VSM, and IT alignment
  • Leverage the VSM implementation roadmap to drive digital value stream enhancements
  • Investigate advanced VSM tools/platforms, AI insights, and VSMP selection criteria
  • Explore Lean-Agile/VSM success stories to gain implementation insights

Who this book is for

This Lean-Agile book is for business and technology professionals striving to optimize value delivery while minimizing costs. Whether you're a VSM manager, a member of a product delivery team, DevOps engineer, or an IT specialist, this book offers proven methods for effectively identifying and implementing improvement opportunities. Product owners looking to prioritize backlog items and corporate executives aiming to demonstrate positive returns on information technology investments will also find this book helpful.

Table of contents

  1. The Lean-Agile Way
  2. Foreword
  3. Contributors
  4. About the authors
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. Get in touch
    3. Share Your Thoughts
    4. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1:Building on Lean-Agile Foundations: Mastering the Basics
  7. Chapter 1: Navigating Lean-Agile Transformations
    1. Charting the digital frontier
      1. Understanding the digital economy’s landscape
      2. Embracing Lean-Agile and VSM in the digital economy
    2. Exploring the hallmarks of Lean Thinking
      1. Foundational principles
      2. Streamlining flows
      3. Customer value
      4. Optimized flows
      5. Prioritizing Lean methodologies – redefining operational excellence
    3. Embracing Agile methodologies
      1. Understanding the origins of Agile
      2. Expanding Agile – beyond software development
      3. Iterating to deliver incremental value
      4. Harnessing the power of small, collaborative teams
    4. Combining Lean with Agile
      1. Establishing a strong foundation
      2. Supporting pillars in our Lean-Agile house
      3. Finding shelter in our Lean-Agile goals
      4. Synthesizing modern management principles
      5. Integrated practices for enhanced effectiveness
      6. Introducing the BLAST and BASE frameworks for Lean-Agile transformation
      7. Avoiding local optimization with Value Stream Management (VSM)
      8. Creating a cadence of continuous value delivery
    5. Unlocking value with Value Stream Management (VSM)
      1. The evolving nature of VSM
      2. Describing the VSM methodology
      3. Unveiling the versatility of VSM
      4. Enhancing professional expertise with VSM
    6. Leveraging IT for Lean-Agile transformation
      1. Investing in IT value stream improvements
      2. Evaluating information requirements and flows
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Answers
    10. Further Reading
  8. Chapter 2: Solving Complex Business Problems with Agility
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Embodying organizational agility
      1. Understanding the foundations of business agility
      2. Applying Agile principles
      3. Responding with agility
      4. Managing COTS implementations: Agile versus Big-Bang
    3. Embracing Agile frameworks for collaboration
      1. Rediscovering the Agile Manifesto
      2. Moving beyond the Agile Manifesto
      3. Charting Scrum’s ascendancy in Agile practices
      4. Understanding the Scrum Sprint cycle
      5. Applying Scrum’s foundational principles
      6. Adapting to Scrum’s deliberate flexibility
    4. Amplifying team efficacy with Scrum
      1. Mastering the art of small teams
      2. Fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation
      3. Defining team roles and responsibilities
    5. Facilitating effective collaboration through Scrum
      1. Encouraging cross-team collaborations
      2. Exploring the three pillars of Scrum’s empiricism
    6. Embracing the team of teams (TOT) approach
      1. Adopting insights from the ToT philosophy
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Answers
    10. Further Reading
  9. Chapter 3: Establishing Lean Flows to Improve Productivity
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Unlocking Lean efficiency
      1. Orchestrating value streams
      2. Understanding the Lean philosophy
      3. Delivering value – the core of Lean
      4. Creating operational efficiency – the Lean way
      5. Meeting customer needs effectively
      6. Valuing the human element
      7. Embracing operational transformation
    3. Identifying waste and constraints
      1. Viewing the spectrum of waste
      2. Tweaking elements of waste by domain
      3. Constraints – the silent value blockers
      4. Mapping a value stream
      5. Amplifying IT’s impact – driving operational efficiency and strategic value
      6. Prioritizing efficiency – the Lean imperative for organizational success
    4. Streamlining value delivery
      1. Classifying value streams
      2. Balancing speed and cost
      3. Enhancing efficiency by minimizing inefficiencies
      4. Carving a niche in the professional world
    5. Installing Lean strategies for a competitive edge
      1. Prioritizing value flows
      2. Demystifying organizational value streams
      3. The Lean paradigm – where efficiency meets value
      4. Crafting competitive advantages with Lean
      5. Paving the way for market leadership
    6. Driving continuous improvement – fostering sustained enhancements through Lean principles
      1. An unwavering focus on impactful Lean improvements
      2. Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement
      3. Charting the course to sustained efficiency and profitability
      4. Championing the transformative power of continuous improvement
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Answers
    10. Further reading
  10. Part 2: Attending to our Value Streams: Prioritize Improvements by their Value-Added Impact
  11. Chapter 4: Driving Improvements with Value Stream Management
    1. Laying the groundwork for value stream mastery
      1. Adopting Lean-Agile concepts
      2. Understanding the taxonomy of value streams
      3. Applying VSM principles
      4. Optimizing value flow with VSM
      5. Avoiding the pitfalls of local optimization
    2. Defining the VSM process using the E9 methodology
      1. 1. Embark – beginning the journey
      2. 2. Educate – Training, communicating, and managing change for success
      3. 3. Envision – designing the ideal future state
      4. 4. Examine – assessing the current state and identifying inefficiencies
      5. 5. Evaluate – assessing inefficiencies and waste
      6. 6. Engineer – strategies and planning improvements
      7. 7. Execute – implementing changes and adjusting
      8. 8. Evolve – evolving through refinement of value stream activities
      9. 9. End – retiring a product
    3. Adopting a VSM platform
    4. Summary
    5. Questions
    6. Answers
    7. Further reading
  12. Chapter 5: Introducing the VSM Implementation Roadmap
    1. Unveiling the VSM implementation roadmap
      1. Learning from history
      2. Examining the need for a VSM roadmap
      3. Exploring the VSM Implementation Roadmap
    2. Implementing Value Stream Management
      1. 1. Start – initiating value stream management
      2. 2. Assess – evaluating and baselining current performance
      3. 3. Vision – creating a unified vision and goals
      4. 4. Identify – surfacing value streams
      5. 5. Organize – streamlining cross-functional collaboration
      6. 6. Map – visualizing process efficiency and opportunities
      7. 7. Connect – orchestrating people, processes, and tools
      8. 8. Inspect – using the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle to improve value streams
      9. 9. Adapt – communicate, scope, and plan interventions
    3. Comparing VSM methodology and the VSM implementation roadmap
    4. Summary
    5. Questions
    6. Answers
    7. Further reading
  13. Chapter 6: Navigating Value Stream Optimization
    1. Shifting from projects to products
      1. Evaluating project-centric behaviors
      2. Transitioning behaviors
      3. Contrasting product-centric behaviors
    2. Understanding flow at organizational and individual levels
      1. Identifying obstacles to streamlined workflows
      2. Seeing the organization in terms of flow
      3. Creating pathways to value – understanding and identifying value streams
      4. Charting pathways to value – identifying value streams
    3. Mapping flow
      1. Inspecting efficiency and effectiveness
      2. Refining the process – questions for progress
      3. Optimizing value streams
      4. Streamlining value delivery
    4. Managing value stream evolution
      1. Synchronizing core and supportive workflows
      2. Transitioning from functions to stream-aligned synergy
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
    8. Further reading
  14. Chapter 7: Connecting the Value Stream Network
    1. Managing and optimizing value stream networks
      1. Organizing value stream networks
      2. Defining customer journeys
      3. Visualizing value stream proximity to customers
      4. Visualizing organizational workflow
      5. Guiding value stream strategy and investments
    2. Evolving the value stream network
      1. Improving value streams by performance focus
      2. Envisioning value stream dynamics
      3. Evaluating value stream networks
      4. Value stream mapping reveals hidden constraints
      5. Streamlining product and platform value streams
      6. Cultivating a customer-centric approach
    3. Summary
    4. Questions
    5. Answers
    6. Further reading
  15. Part 3: Achieving Lean-Agile and VSM Mastery: For Product-Oriented Business Transformations
  16. Chapter 8: Implementing the Basic Lean-Agile Solution Team (BLAST)
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Harnessing BLAST
    3. Implementing Basic Lean-Agile Solutions Teams (BLAST)
      1. Categorizing BLAST work activities
      2. Defining BLAST increments
      3. Solution discovery (steps 1 and 2)
      4. MVI planning (steps 3 and 4)
      5. Workflow coordination (steps 5 to 11)
      6. Customer feedback (steps 12 to 17)
    4. Integrating Lean-Agile development concepts
      1. Aligning teams for collaborative excellence
      2. Combining Lean and Agile practices
      3. Defining BLAST roles
      4. Facilitating inter-team collaboration
      5. Balancing decision-making approaches
      6. Embracing Lean leadership
      7. Conducting Gemba walks for Lean leadership
      8. Managing multi-tiered reviews and communications
      9. Prioritizing value delivery in BLAST artifacts
    5. Optimizing Development Cadences and Value Deliveries
      1. Emphasizing customer centricity in Lean-Agile cadences
      2. Embracing Lean flows in modern software development
      3. Pursuing a new model for value delivery
      4. Mastering Lean-Agile Planning and Delivery Cadences
      5. Exploring planning horizons
      6. Facilitating collaboration at scale – the team-of-teams approach
      7. Understanding increments in life cycle management
    6. Embracing Lean-Agile management practices
      1. Championing Lean-Agile management
      2. Harnessing middle management for organizational agility
    7. Tracing BLAST’s history
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Answers
    11. Further reading
  17. Chapter 9: Defining a Business Agility System for the Enterprise (BASE)
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding the BASE conceptual model
      1. Defining the virtuous circle for continuous improvement
      2. Understanding the four tenets of the BASE
      3. Eight BASE business processes
    3. Establishing customer-centric foundations
    4. Delivering value across the product life cycle
      1. Leveraging customer centricity for strategic growth
      2. Continuously improving value delivery
    5. Summary
    6. Appendix 9.1 - Business Processes, Activities, and Tasks: Questions
    7. Answers
    8. Further reading
  18. Part 4: Driving Sustainable Transformation: Strategies to Achieve Lean-Agile Mastery
  19. Chapter 10: Enhancing Decision-Making in the Lean-Agile Organization
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding data’s true potential
      1. Addressing Data challenges and opportunities
      2. Charting a course for data utilization
      3. Transforming data into insights
    3. Organizing business objectives
      1. Creating intelligent businesses
    4. Facilitating informed decision-making
      1. Navigating the surge of modern data
      2. Managing data overload
      3. Crafting actionable intelligence
    5. Conducting BRIA workshops for strategic alignment
      1. Defining the BRIA/QIDA workshop sessions
      2. Preparing to conduct BRIA workshops
      3. Assembling the BRIA team
      4. Scheduling and conducting BRIA workshops
    6. Leveraging AI-based tools to support BRIA workshops
    7. Summary
    8. Appendices
      1. Appendix 10.1 – Value Stream Manager BRIDAI results
    9. Questions
    10. Answers
    11. Further reading
  20. Chapter 11: Implementing Strategies for Organizational Transformation
    1. Simplifying complexity – navigating Lean-Agile implementation challenges
      1. Applying Lean-Agile practices – streamlining processes and enhancing agility
      2. Customizing Lean-Agile practices for organizational transformation
    2. Lean and Agile – two sides of the coin
      1. Fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
    3. Building cross-functional teams and encouraging collaboration
      1. Debunking the myth that large teams are more productive
      2. Addressing collaboration and integration challenges in small team environments
    4. Leveraging data and analytics for decision-making
      1. Implementing VSM to align IT development activities
      2. Implementing VSM tools
      3. Enhancing software delivery through Flow Metrics
    5. Adopting a change management framework
      1. Kotter’s 8-step process for leading change
      2. The ADKAR® change model
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Answers
  21. Chapter 12: Building Lean-Agile and VSM Mastery
    1. Addressing labor’s declining share of GDP
      1. Promoting corporate responsibility through Lean-Agile practices
    2. Recapping the main concepts and essential takeaways
      1. Part 1: Summarizing Lean-Agile foundations
      2. Part 2: Insightful approaches to value stream improvement
      3. Part 3: Coordinating Lean-Agile teams for enterprise value delivery
      4. Part 4: Reflecting on Lean-Agile mastery
    3. Connecting cross-cutting themes and real-world examples
      1. Examining cross-cutting themes
    4. Reviewing real-world case studies
      1. Amadeus Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) case study
      2. Applying cross-cutting themes to Amadeus
      3. Leonardo Worldwide VSM case study
      4. BLAST case study
    5. Empowering change for operational excellence
      1. Reflecting on key messages
      2. Summarizing the main takeaways
      3. A call to action
    6. Questions
    7. Answers
    8. Further reading
  22. Index
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Product information

  • Title: The Lean-Agile Way
  • Author(s): Cecil Rupp, Richard Knaster, Steve Pereira, Al Shalloway
  • Release date: August 2024
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781835461877