The document discusses the evolution of the Agile Manifesto and its impact on the software industry, highlighting successes and challenges faced in scaling agile practices within large organizations. It introduces the Lean Tech Manifesto, which updates core principles to better suit tech organizations, emphasizing customer value, networked teams, high-quality production practices, and continuous learning. The authors advocate for a tech-enabled approach to foster collaboration and adapt agile methodologies to complex organizational structures.

1. The Lean Tech Manifesto
Fabrice Bernhard
09/10/2024
1

2. Agenda
2
1. The Agile Manifesto was a revolution in the software industry
3. What do the large agile organisations have in common?
2. But what is Agile?
4. The Lean Tech Manifesto

3. Agenda
3
1. The Agile Manifesto was a revolution in the software industry
3. What do the large agile organisations have in common?
2. But what is Agile?
4. The Lean Tech Manifesto

4. 4
With computers becoming mainstream in the 1980s, software engineering
soon evolved from a pioneering science…

5. 5
… to a booming industry that became highly processed to support the scale

6. 6
But while the pioneers had managed wonders with early technology, the new
processed approaches became better known for their spectacular failures
1
7
0
m
$
l
o
s
t
8
0
0
m
£
l
o
s
t
2
9
0
m
€
l
o
s
t

7. 7
In February 2001, a group of visionaries looking for better alternatives, met to
find the values they shared. The outcome was the Agile Manifesto

8. 8
In February 2001, a group of visionaries looking for better alternatives, met to
find the values they shared. The outcome was the Agile Manifesto

9. 9
The Agile Manifesto helped spark a huge adoption of Agile over the following
20 years, with fast-growing tech companies demonstrating how impactful it
could be
94%
of HR and business
leaders reported in
2017 that “agility and
collaboration” was critical
to their organization’s
success
2017 Deloitte survey of 10,000 professionals

10. 10
The Agile Manifesto helped spark a huge adoption of Agile over the following
20 years, with fast-growing tech companies demonstrating how impactful it
could be
94%
of HR and business
leaders reported in
2017 that “agility and
collaboration” was critical
to their organization’s
success
2017 Deloitte survey of 10,000 professionals

11. Agenda
11
1. The Agile Manifesto was a revolution in the software industry
3. What do the large agile organisations have in common?
2. But what is Agile?
4. The Lean Tech Manifesto

12. 12
The Agile Manifesto captured two key visions

13. 13
The Agile Manifesto captured two key visions
The humanist vision of teams with a
lot of autonomy

14. 14
The Agile Manifesto captured two key visions
The business vision of innovating more
rapidly to outperform competitors
The humanist vision of teams with a
lot of autonomy

15. Which of course most organisations strive for
15
2017 Deloitte survey of more than 10,000 HR
and business leaders across 140 countries
94%
said that “agility and
collaboration” was critical
to their organization’s
success

16. 16
However, not every organisation was able to reproduce what the most
successful tech companies had achieved
2017 Deloitte survey of more than 10,000 HR
and business leaders across 140 countries
94%
said that “agility and
collaboration” was critical
to their organization’s
success
6%
said that they were actually
“highly agile”
But only

17. 17
We faced the same at Theodo: Agile had been magical for small software
teams, but it wasn’t clear how to apply it to complex projects or to the whole
company
8 weeks
to rewrite a flight data
monitoring platform in
2012
6 weeks
to release the MVP
of a serious game in 2013,
with adoption beating
expectations

18. 18
We faced the same at Theodo: Agile had been magical for small software
teams, but it wasn’t clear how to apply it to complex projects or to the whole
company
8 weeks
to rewrite a flight data
monitoring platform in
2012
6 weeks
to release the MVP
of a serious game in 2013,
with adoption beating
expectations
18 months
to release a mobile app
connected to internal
banking data and approved
by security

19. 19
2012
Some frameworks to scale Agile appeared, SAFe becoming the most popular.
But the approach and results of SAFe did not convince any Agile leader

20. 20
2012
Some frameworks to scale Agile appeared, SAFe becoming the most popular.
But the approach and results of SAFe did not convince any Agile leader
unSAFe
and suffocating
It isn’t really Agile
in its heart
SAFe violates the values
of the Agile manifesto.
Shitty Agile
for Enterprise

21. 21
Going back to the Agile Manifesto did not help: it had been designed for
software development teams, not for large organisations
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

22. 22
Individuals and interactions: when the number of individuals grows, the
number of possible connections grows too fast to coordinate primarily
through interactions

23. 23
Individuals and interactions: when the number of individuals grows, the
number of possible connections grows too fast to coordinate primarily
through interactions
The number of possible
interactions grows
too fast

24. 24
24
24
24
24
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

25. 25
25
25
25
25
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

26. 26
26
26
26
26
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

27. 27
27
27
27
27
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

28. 28
28
28
28
28
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

29. 29
29
29
29
29
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

30. 30
Working software: in larger systems, delivering small iterations is not enough
to tackle the complexity of quality and flow

31. 31
31
31
31
Customer collaboration: in a growing organisation, teams move further and
further away from the customer, losing clarity on the desired value

32. 32
32
32
Customer collaboration: in a growing organisation, teams move further and
further away from the customer, losing clarity on the desired value
At scale
not everyone
can collaborate
directly with the
customer

33. 33
33
33
Customer collaboration: in a growing organisation, teams move further and
further away from the customer, losing clarity on the desired value
At scale there
is not just one
customer but
multiple
stakeholders

34. 34
34
34
34
34
34
Responding to change: in a large organisation, allowing anyone to propagate
change is not desirable, while leadership lacks context to make good
decisions quickly

35. 35
Responding to change: in a large organisation, allowing anyone to propagate
change is not desirable, while leadership lacks context to make good
decisions quickly
35
35
35
35

36. Agenda
36
1. The Agile Manifesto was a revolution in the software industry
3. What do the large agile organisations have in common?
2. But what is Agile?
4. The Lean Tech Manifesto

37. 37
What gave us hope, was the organizations that had achieved incredible
growth, while retaining their Agile culture of innovation and speed
Linux market share among Top 500
supercomputers

38. 38
Looking for the shared principles behind these successes, we found Lean
Thinking

39. 39
Looking for the shared principles behind these successes, we found Lean
Thinking
In the early 1990s at Next, Steve Jobs
was coached by Dr Juran, one of the
major post-war contributor to Lean
Thinking in Japan, alongside Dr
Deming
People are very smart and, if
given the opportunity to
change and improve, they will
improve the processes

40. 40
Looking for the shared principles behind these successes, we found Lean
Thinking
In the early 2000s, Jeff Bezos studied
the Toyota Way. And in 2006, Lean expert
Marc Onetto was hired as SVP Worldwide
Operations and Customer Service
In the early 1990s at Next, Steve Jobs
was coached by Dr Juran, one of the
major post-war contributor to Lean
Thinking in Japan, alongside Dr
Deming
People are very smart and, if
given the opportunity to
change and improve, they will
improve the processes
Recently, one of our Kaizen
experts asked me, “why are
you cleaning? Why don’t you
eliminate the source of dirt?”
I felt like the Karate Kid.

41. 41
We also found that technology had played a crucial role in enabling teams to
stay empowered while scaling their collaboration as a network

42. 42
We also found that technology had played a crucial role in enabling teams to
stay empowered while scaling their collaboration as a network
The way to make these
things scale out more is
[...] by making it more
of a _network_, not a
star-topology around me.

43. 43
We also found that technology had played a crucial role in enabling teams to
stay empowered while scaling their collaboration as a network
If we want Amazon to be a place
where builders can build, we need
to eliminate communication,
not encourage it.
This is why software teams should
build and clearly document a set of
APIs for all their systems/services.
The way to make these
things scale out more is
[...] by making it more
of a _network_, not a
star-topology around me.

44. Agenda
44
1. The Agile Manifesto was a revolution in the software industry
3. What do the large agile organisations have in common?
2. But what is Agile?
4. The Lean Tech Manifesto

45. 45
We decided to build on the genius of the Agile Manifesto
THE MANIFESTO FOR AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
over processes and tools
WORKING SOFTWARE
over comprehensive documentation
CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
over contract negotiation
RESPONDING TO CHANGE
over following a plan

46. 46
And by combining our expertise in Lean Thinking and Tech…
THE MANIFESTO FOR AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
over contract negotiation
INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
over processes and tools
WORKING SOFTWARE
over comprehensive documentation
RESPONDING TO CHANGE
over following a plan

47. 47
We updated the Agile Manifesto with principles that scale
THE LEAN TECH MANIFESTO
We are uncovering better ways to scale tech organizations by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”

48. 48
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
“Customer
collaboration”
does not
scale

49. 49
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
But we can lead with
“Value for the Customer”
as the organisational North
Star to:
• agree on the shared goal of
delivering more value to our
customers
• constantly strive to better
understand how it can be done
• and help every team see how
they can contribute to it
“Customer
collaboration”
does not
scale

50. 50
50
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”

51. 51
Go on the gemba
to understand value
51
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”

52. 52
Go on the gemba Use a product architecture
to understand value to clarify value and empower
teams on the value trade-offs
52
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”

53. 53
Go on the gemba Use a product architecture
to understand value to clarify value and empower
teams on the value trade-offs
53
VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER
over “customer collaboration over contract negotiation”
Leverage visual management
to communicate the shared
understanding of value across
the organisation

54. 54
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
“Individuals and interactions” does not scale…

55. But we can empower people
with a “tech-enabled network
of teams” to
• reduce direct dependencies
• and help teams contribute
more autonomously to the
bigger picture
55
APIs
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
“Individuals and interactions” does not scale…

56. 56
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”

57. Design modular and
loosely-coupled architectures
To assign teams to modules
and give them full ownership
57
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”

58. Build data products
and API products
Design modular and
loosely-coupled architectures
To let teams leverage other
teams’ services autonomously
To assign teams to modules
and give them full ownership
58
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”

59. Build data products
and API products
Design modular and
loosely-coupled architectures
To let teams leverage other
teams’ services autonomously
To assign teams to modules
and give them full ownership
59
A TECH-ENABLED NETWORK OF TEAMS
over “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”
Invest in a self-service
data platform
To empower any team on
analysing data relevant to
their work

60. 60
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”
Working software does not scale…

61. 61
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”
But with “Right-first-time
and Just-in-time”, we can leverage
the decades of experience of the
Toyota Production System on
very-large-scale production to
• produce higher quality
• while delivering more continuously
Working software does not scale…

62. 62
62
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”

63. Jidoka: implement automated
quality checks at every step
To detect defects as early
as possible and reduce
the cost of quality
63
63
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”

64. Jidoka: implement automated
quality checks at every step
Dantotsu: analyse defects
systematically
To detect defects as early
as possible and reduce
the cost of quality
To progressively learn how
to address the root causes
64
64
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”

65. Jidoka: implement automated
quality checks at every step
Dantotsu: analyse defects
systematically
Adopt a “real” kanban to visualise
lead time and inventory
To detect defects as early
as possible and reduce
the cost of quality
To progressively learn how
to address the root causes
To accelerate the flow
of work
65
65
RIGHT-FIRST-TIME and JUST-IN-TIME
over “working software over comprehensive documentation”

66. 66
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”
Responding to change does not scale…

67. 67
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”
But we can continue innovating
at scale by “Building a learning
organisation” to:
• learn what customers need;
• build on existing and new
learnings;
• and spread those learnings
throughout the organisation
Responding to change does not scale…

68. 68
68
68
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”

69. Cultivate a problem-solving
culture
To detect the changes in the
market that require learning
and adaptation
69
69
69
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”

70. Cultivate a problem-solving
culture
Write standards and keep
them fresh with Kaizen
To detect the changes in the
market that require learning
and adaptation
To transform learnings into
shareable knowledge
70
70
70
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”

71. Cultivate a problem-solving
culture
Write standards and keep
them fresh with Kaizen
Deploy skills matrix
in teams
To detect the changes in the
market that require learning
and adaptation
To transform learnings into
shareable knowledge
To support continuous
on-the-job training
71
71
71
BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
over “responding to change over following a plan”

72. 72
We hope you will enjoy reading the book as much as we have enjoyed living
this incredible adventure.

73. 73
We hope you will enjoy reading the book as much as we have enjoyed living
this incredible adventure.
Thank
you!
Benoît
CHARLES-LAVAUZELLE
@benoitchl
Fabrice
BERNHARD
@fabriceb
You can find us on X/Twitter
and Linkedin