Lean thinking is an organizational approach, based on the view that non-value-added activities (waste) in products and services impedes customer value creation. It focuses on ways to organize human activities to effectively deliver value while reducing muda (waste), mura (unevenness) and muri (overburden). Lean Thinking ideas emerged from studying Toyota Production System (TPS). It was found that if every employee is trained to identify wasted effort, steps and time in their own work and to work together as a team to improve processes by eliminating such waste, the resulting culture (basic thinking, mindset & assumptions) will deliver more value effectively while improving team work, their capability, and motivation. Also see: Lean Waste , Lean Product Development , Kaizen , PDCA

Lean waste is a type of waste that relates to non-value added activities in processes, communication, information sharing, product features etc. Any non-value add activities that a team undertakes, is a lean waste and such waste is detrimental to any organizaiton, as it creates delays in value creation and increases cost. 8 Types of Lean Wastes are: Work-In-Progress, Inventory, Partially Done Work Over Production, Extra Features Extra Processing, Relearning Transportation, Handoffs Delays Task Switching, Motion Defects Unused Talent Also see: Lean Thinking

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a goal-setting framwork to establish focus towards delivering results that truely matter and to direct all initiatives toward measurable strategic outcomes. OKRs are goal-setting metrics that are meant to be measurable, time-bound, achievable, relevant, and specific. OKRs are expressed in a format that employees can easily understand. The use of OKRs allows all employees to focus on what’s most important to the company as a whole.

One-piece flow is a lean (manufacturing) practice, in which customers receive a valuable product that is produced from start to finish, per the customer's needs. Such a process limits work-in-progress, eliminates waste, excess processing, and over-production, which increases efficiency and lowers costs. Due to reduced work in progress, the flow of the value increases, overhead costs go down, the inventory carrying costs signifiacntly reduces, the throughput increases.

Open Space is a democratic way to facilitate and organize meetings, conferences, and organizational work involving a large number of people with diverse backgrounds and interest. Participants opt in to create and manage the agenda of discussions as it emerges to achieve strategic and complex objectives. Harrison Owen an Open Space Evangelist describes the Four Principles and One Law which guide behavior of participants in Open space. **The principles are: ** Whoever comes is the right people , which reminds people in the small groups that getting something done is not a matter of having 100,000 people and the chairman of the board. The fundamental requirement is people who care to do something. And by showing up, that essential care is demonstrated. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have , keeps people focused on the here and now, and eliminates all of the could-have-beens, should-have-beens or might-have-beens. What is is the only thing there is at the moment. Whenever it starts is the right time , alerts people to the fact that inspired performance and genuine creativity rarely, if ever, pay attention to the clock. They happen (or not) when they happen. Lastly When it’s over it’s over . In a word, don’t waste time. Do what you have to do, and when its done, move on to something more useful. The Law of Two Feet , which states simply, if at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing – use you two feet and move to some place more to you liking. Such a place might be another group, or even outside into the sunshine. No matter what, don’t sit there feeling miserable

The Pareto Principle states, for many events, roughly 80% of results (effects) come from 20% of the inputs (causes). Hence also knowns as 80/20 rule. While the actual % would change based on situation and context, it is almost always true that: a small proportion of the efforts (inputs) towards certain areas generate a larger proportion of results (outputs). The Pareto Principle provides a useful framework for understanding complex systems and identifying key areas for focus / improvement. When correctly used by the Scrum Teams, it can help order Product Backlog Items (PBIs) that would yield most value, identify which retrospective improvement idea to pursue among many, optimize resources, and improve overall ROI. Image source: Interaction Design Foundation This 80-20 rule can be applied to many areas such as business, learning, finance, sales, marketing, customer service etc. The Pareto Principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923).

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is an iterative problem solving framework developed around 1950s by Edward Deming. PDCA is used to improve processes, products, and services, by improving upon quality, reliability, productivity, and effectiveness. PDCA is an improvement cycle, and is also known as dynamic improvement. Plan: Involves gathering data, defining the issue, and identifying potential solutions. Do: Involves the execution of plans and action steps. Check: Involves reviewing results and analyzing the outcomes. Act: involves taking Action on improvement ideas. The PDCA cycle is repeated until the desired improvement is achieved.

Release Planning is the process of planning a product release, identifying the capabilities that need to be released, stakeholders and team members involved, budget and timelines. In Scrum, every Sprint enables inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal. Every Sprint begins with Sprint Planning and results in at least one increment that is usable to customers. Some teams release increments multiple times a sprint, other teams group features from more than a sprint before releasing to the customers. Those releasing at least once a sprint, do not need seperate release planning besides the Sprint Planning that already exists.

Visualizing the work of the Scrum Team via a board (either virtual or physical) is a common practice used by Scrum Teams. The purpose of creating such a board is to create transparency of information. While the Scrum Guide doesn't prescribe any specific practice or a board, it's valuable tool to enhance shared understanding and empiricism. The Scrum Board may contain the list of everything that's needed in the product (a Product Backlog) and the work of the current sprint (Sprint Backlog).

When a team is empowered to decide who does what, when, and how - it can be termed as a Self-Managing Team. The self-managing team is responsible and accountable for all or most aspects / decisions of planning, producing and delivering value. To enable people or teams in an organization to self-manage, the structure of the organization /and the team must be relatively flat. The team must be shielded from hierarchy. People must have the needed empowerement to make necessary decisions related to their work. Some of the well known large-scale Organizations that are successfully operating and growing based on the principles of Self-Management: Morning Star (Tomato Processor, USA) Buurtzorg (Healthcare, The Netherlands, Worldwide) Semco Group (Manufacturing, Brazil) Patagonia (Outdoor Apparel, USA) Haier Group (Consumer Durables, Appliances, China) See also: Self-Managing Teams

User Story Mapping is a holistic visual representation of how all the user stories fit into the overall user experience. A 2-Dimensional story map can help understand the sequence of activities of a system, identify gaps in the product backlog, and plan releases that deliver customer value. The goal is not to create a raodmap, rather, change people’s mindset from gathering and writing detailed requirements to building shared understanding. A sample User Story Map: (Source: Jeff Patton)

Swarming is a simple way where as many team members as possible work simultaneously on one highest value item. All team members focus on completing this one item before picking the next highest value item. Working on many items / initiatives at a time increases work in progress, that causes delays and eventually waste of time.

Complimentary Practices - Agile and Scrum Glossary

Lean Product Development

Lean Thinking

Lean Waste

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

OKRs

One-Piece Flow

Open Space

Organizational Topologies

Pareto Principle

PDCA

Release Planning

Return on Investment (ROI)

Scrum Board

Scrum of Scrums (SoS)

Self-Management

Splitting User Stories

Spotify Engineering Culture

Story Mapping

Story Points Estimation

Swarming