The biggest myth of agile development — faster, cheaper and better outcome

The good news is everyone is onto agile these days. The bad news is people are onto agile without knowing what it entails.

One of my biggest bugbears is the myth of faster, cheaper and deliver better outcome with agile, and here is why …

Origin (本)

The story of the agile manifesto is well-known in the agile community. Unfortunately, not many have heard of lean manufacturing which predates agile development and has a strong influence on agile development.

Many practices in agile development are heavily influenced by lean manufacturing and both methods have a similar philosophy, which emphasizes waste reduction. These two approaches differ in execution primarily because lean manufactures physical goods while agile develops digital products.

By reducing waste, lean manufacturing produces higher-quality goods at a lower cost.

Which begs the question, “Isn’t agile development faster, cheaper and deliver better outcome through waste reduction?”