Making IT Lean

1

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is based on the simple, but powerful, idea that a set of process

and quality improvement practices that have historically been associated

with advanced manufacturing operations can be usefully applied to the

operational work of IT. It is, in short, about the application of Lean practices

to the work of IT.

We will introduce these topics, Lean and IT, in a somewhat deliberate

manner, but it’s possible to quickly identify the critical intersect between

them by way of the following example.

Consider an IT project that’s behind schedule. What else is new, you

might say! There is a lot of pressure on the team to me