The Agile Enterprise: Return of the Lean - Does it Mean the Death of Agile?

Agile at the Enterprise level or the Agile Enterprise was the result of a 1970s request to find a way to overcome the 'near perfect' processes introduced by Lean Six Sigma. In the quest for perfect quality, enterprises defined and implemented standardised processes that eliminated unnecessary steps and reduced or even eliminated loss of material. In Lean Six Sigma that was waste, and something that the customer was not willing to pay for. However, perfecting processes takes time, resources, knowledge and skill. In a very dynamic market, with continuous change in customer preferences, time to market and flexibility are also critical success factors.

Agile, by definition, embraces change. With constant and sometimes significant change comes risk and waste. Agile is not a silver bullet, and many project failed to deliver, a good example being the first XP project that delivered only 30% of the intended outcome. Attempts to scale-up practices that were successful for software development teams to large projects, departments or the organisational level are challenging from the cost/benefit point of view. Return to Lean practices is seen by many as an evolution of Agile despite basically going back in time 50 or more years,

This webinar is a review of the resurgence of Lean principles describing why and how Lean evolved and why it failed to adapt to the modern market. Practices like Kanban, Kaizen, Theory of Constraints, Servant Leader, to name just a few, are not new. The second part of the webinar is an analysis of Lean vs Agile using DevOps, RPA and AI - three of the 'new' practices seen as Agile evolution. As usual, the webinar will conclude with a comprehensive Q&A session.