The Combination of Agile and Lean in Software Development: An Experience Report Analysis

Abstract

There has been a noticeable focus shift from agile methods such as extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum to lean software development in the last several years, which is indicated as “from agile to lean”. However, the reality may not be as simple or linear as the term implies. To provide a better understanding of the combined use of agile and lean approaches in software development, a set of experience reports were analysed. These reports were published in the past conferences dedicated to agile software development and report experiences of using both agile and lean. The results of the analysis show that agile and lean can be combined in different manners for different purposes in software development. Lean is often applied as guiding principles for agile development. When combined at practice level, flow-based lean processes tend to substitute time-boxed agile processes.