Describing Agile as a Set of Process Patterns

A couple of us are Thinkimg about how to visualize our approach to project delivery within the Deloitte LEAN crew (yes people at big consulting forms document their methodologies amd tools, even the guys with a more agile bent).

One universal truth for us is that we have never use the same set of techniques twice. Sure we reuse select practices, but they we always being tweaked, amd something else is always getting mixed in. Experience ranges from RUP, to all mainstream flavours of agile, to Kanban amd Lean, with us just beginning to play with Lean Startup methods.

With that in mind I came up with the following illustration, loosely based on the original GOF patterns diagram at the beginning of the book. All the diagram may seem overwhelming, the beauty of it is that you can start anywhere you want, and likewise stop, depending on your context.

A Map of Lean Agile Accelerators I Use

When ever the Deloitte LEAN crew helps our clients delivery business applications we typically reach out for a familiar set of practices, principles and thinking tools.

As a first step towards explaining how Deloitte LEAN approaches delivery I mapped out some of the concepts we tend to fall back on.