Lean IT is not about IT subject matters. It is a generic
improvement approach with a strong focus on behavior and attitude. Lean IT is
applied on the entire IT domain, from requirements to maintenance, and involves
the entire management and all the employees
Moving further, one might be tempted to ask, so what is the
difference between the traditional Lean we have in manufacturing, and this new “Lean
IT”? If we carefully look at IT and IT services we would notice
that there major differences. They are as follows:
- IT Services are intangible. Manufacturing is about physical shape and size. A product with “touch and feel”.
- IT Services are Un-predictable. IT is more about impact. You can predict at each stage in the manufacturing process where you are. The same is not applicable in IT. The impact happens only in the end. One small change, one server out, one bad cable which can’t be predicted and “boom”.
- IT Services are not measured as a whole. IT invariably is put together as Hardware, Software and services. The measurement points are different.
- People are the main focus and not just Hardware. Manufacturing is about products hence the focus on hardware. Since IT has to rely on the human element, people running the systems, designing them, working on coding and designing systems which could be unique to their own requirements, people become the main focus in IT.
- Definition of Waste is not restricted to productivity. It is easy to enumerate loss in manufacturing by the number of pieces accepted or lost. The same does not apply in software development for example. One day of coding, a missed line, may have an impact much later, so while the waste could be quantitatively just a few minutes the impact could be much worse. The loss could be from time, to end outcomes
Applying Lean to IT is thus a far different task. In its
essence it means applying Lean to people which means raising the level of
professionalism of the people involved. This means improving their ability to
solve problems, their ability to work autonomously and in a team, and improving
their mastery of the subject matter. Aside of skills training, this means creating
a new mind-set focused on value, value streams, flow, pull and perfection.
Dimensions
The Lean principles have far‐reaching consequences for all
organisations that wish to integrate the principles into their daily work. The dimensions of Lean are:
- Customer: Deals with all aspects of understanding the customer and the value they are seeking. It includes tools such as “Voice of the Customer” and “Critical to Quality”
- Process : Looks at how value is delivered through Value Streams, integrating the principles of flow, pull and perfection. The tools used are SIPOC (Supplier‐Input‐Process‐Output‐Customer) and Value Stream Mapping (VSM). This is to ensure that a process is correctly scoped and detailed.
- Performance: This is about defining Key Performance Indicators, understanding and measuring the use of time within an IT organization and determining the skills and knowledge of the workforce.
- Organisation: It is about determining how to organize people for maximum value delivery to customers.
- Behavior and Attitude: Setting expectations and understanding the key characteristics of Lean behavior for everybody within the organization and for the people from top down.
