Most people working in professional IT-driven companies, have heard about Agile, most people in professional companies have heard about Lean. Those who are interested in the subject, have found out that these two very popular phrases are actually closely related. So what is the relation between lean and agile? I'll try to briefly answer this question and will start with a little history.

Contrary to popular belief, the origins of Lean aren't in Japan, but derive from the Ford company in America and the work of the American statistician W. Edwards Deming. The following excerpt states the heart of his philosophy:

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One of the questions that Project Managers always pop up during projects is: "how many days will it take to finish this work?". This is a very natural and sensible question. You want to know when a project will be finished, so people can have an expectancy of the needed budget, what functionality is in it and when it will be finished. However, answering the question is more difficult than traditionally is assumed.

Imagine you're expecting a friend from a distant city, to come over to your house for a visit. The city is 150 miles away. He's been traveling for a while and you want to know how long it will take to arrive to your house. You expected him to make the trip in three hours. You give him a call and pop him the question. "How long will it take for you to get here?". Imagine him answering "I've been traveling for two hours" What kind of conclusion can you get from this?

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