The Wisdom of Deming

I came across a list of Deming's 14 points and couldn't help but notice the similarity with some of the principles of agile project management. Here are some examples;

• Don't depending on inspection to find defects, build quality in. A good agile project will include testing in each iteration and not let any defects escape the iteration. Using test driven development is a good way to build the quality in.
• Work continually to improve the system. As an example of how this works, I conduct a retrospective at the end of each iteration to see how we can improve for the next iteration. There has to be more than just collecting "lessons learned" at the end of the project to be put on a shelf and forgotten.
  
• Break down barriers between departments. There should be daily interactions between the users and the developers. The development team should include all aspects of the development process including design, build & test.
  

Of course not everything has a direct correlation because Deming was more focused on the manufacturing arena. One of his key themes was the problems were the fault of the system, not people. Management was responsible for the system. It was up to them to fix the problems so people could be successful.