I Love Lucy Proves That Agile Without Lean = Fail

I’m a simple guy, so I’m always looking for simple ways to convey the powerful truth of an idea or concept. This clip from I Love Lucy is a classic and it’s a sobering reminder of how incredibly important it is for larger organizations to decide carefully if Agile is really worth the hassle.

Did I say hassle?  Yep, because that’s exactly what Agile will be to those companies who focus only on Agile development without re-synchronizing the up and downstream workflows to match the cadence and speed of a development team producing  work at 2, 3 and sometimes 4x their old rate…. and just like this video illustrates, huge unintended consequences lurk as a result. Lean in software and product development is partly about limiting work-in-process and keeping the rate of flow synchronized - Clearly something Lucy and Ethel learned the hard way.

My counsel to those Agile and Lean idealists working at larger companies - Make sure you have friends in high places and never attempt broad Agile adoption without an executive on-board prepared to orchestrate the flow  and fight the political battles across sacred functional silo’s.

Consider this - who are Lucy and Ethel in the video?  Can you appreciate why your QA and Release Teams might be just a wee bit worried about Agile?

Posted by:  Brad Murphy, Founder/ CEO of Gear Stream.  You can reach Brad via LinkedIn.