Software development can be very tricky as it requires a lot of hard work and patience. The constant change of trends and technologies are pushing businesses and software development companies to adapt to these changes and ascertain their development accordingly. These sudden and quick alterations often slow down the development and impact of the planning and development of the software application.

However, to cater to these volatile demands, there are various frameworks available for software developers that helps them with the volatile market and user expectations. These software development frameworks are a big help and support to the developers as it quickens the development process and takes measure to cater to changes too. While we already know of the traditional waterfall model, others have been a constant partner in the software development process.

In this blog, we shall shed some light on the lean and agile framework in software development. Let’s begin with the introduction.

Lean Framework/Methodology

The word lean comes from a manufacturing brand and is referred to achieve quality, speed & customer alignment. This is a sub-framework of agile methodology. The main idea of including lean methodology in software development is to eliminate any unnecessary extra things in the pipeline and focus only on the priority and important tasks. By eliminating unimportant things, it saves a lot of time of developers’ ad they can focus solely on the most important task assigned to them to complete the development.

Agile Framework/Methodology

Agile is the most favored framework by almost all software development companies and developers. It is based on the iterative approach where any changes, modifications required at the previous stage can be done immediately and the procedure on with next stage. This saves a lot of time of developers as they don't have to wait to finish the project and then run the application to detect errors. Each stage is precisely monitored and then bugs, errors are taken care of instantly without any delay.

How is Lean related to Agile?

Both lean and agile methodologies have been doing a similar task. These were developed and launched due to the shortfalls of the waterfall model. Development companies and developers have been facing the shortcoming of the waterfall methodology and thus decided to bring something new that is focused on the customer-centric approach.

Since the market trend was changing, users were now more curious of what’s coming up, waterfall model was not able to keep up with the pace and thus was of no use or the developers who were looking for an advanced methodology. Both agile and lean framework offers a quick response to market demands, varying technology, and deliver bug-free software on a steady basis.

Common Paradigms

Both agile and lean methodologies are based on customer-centric methods. Both frameworks are focused on delivering the best to customers. While lean works on working on all the important task, agile is more towards involving the customers in getting their reviews at each stage and proceed as per their expectations and needs.
Both lean and agile is based on early testing approach. As explicated in the blog above, agile never waits for the entire project to be completed. It tests the finished stage and makes the changes as needed to improve it. This also includes the involvement of the stakeholders and clients at every possible place so that they are aware of the changes and is discussed well in advance before making any amendments.
Both agile and lean framework follows the method of cooperation that they maintain inside the software development company and outside with stakeholders as well. Lean methodology is all about giving least importance to unnecessary tasks. But who decides which tasks can be neglected? This requires cooperation and transparent communication amongst team members so that tasks can be prioritized and taken care of.

In the case of an agile framework, stakeholders are continuously communicated, and they take part in almost all meetings so that all communication happens without any challenges. This brings a lot open on the table which can be worked and discussed on.

Both lean and agile have their common share of paradigms as lean methodology is a sub-framework of agile. While lean focuses on delivering quality to the business, agile is more towards following an iterative approach that eliminates any chances of bugs and errors at each respective stage. Both have been defined to develop software applications concerning the dynamic market and organizational changes.

Conclusion

Wrapping up, there's always more to learn about the framework of software development. Due to the shortcomings of the waterfall model, agile was proposed. While agile has been the most favored framework by the development companies and developers, lean is one such sub-framework of agile that delivers quality output in the estimated timelines by eliminating unwanted tasks defined in the development process. Both methodologies have been giving some outstanding results and the coming time will continue to see the flavor of success in adopting these frameworks

Understanding Lean and Agile in Software Development