Lean in Service - Case Study on the Implementation of Lean Tools in IT

Q

QE

Dear Coves.

I am eager to see a case study on the implementation of lean tools in IT and service industry. can any one point me to the examples and case studies please ?

An example or a case study of kaizen in software development would be ideal....

QE.
 
T

terhex

Lean starts with where business wants to go & what is the problem in getting there?

First Lean is about management systems or structure & second it is about processes stability.

Restructure or systemise the business to eliminate systemic waste, reduce systemic variation & eliminate straining the resources.

Based on the real problems, select the tools. Take one software development stream & map value stream. Identify what has been missed (like late shipment, poor quality, extra manpower) & do analysis & select tools. Use A3 Thinking.

1. An simple tool like kanban (scrum as referred by IT practitioners) is useful to identify how resources are loaded & how well they are meeting the daily customer requirements.
2. Heijunka to evenly load all the resources, like there are 2 coders, one has to code 2000 lines & other has to code only 200 that has to be evenly balanced.
3. Now if there is hurdle in loading then evenly, do (kaizen) improvement so that these two are evenly loaded. Do improvement to split total 2200 lines to 1100. This is systemic improvement.
4. On process side, frequent checks, ie check after writing few lines of codes for errors than checking after writing few hundered lines, will reduce debugg time.
Start with value stream map. identify gaps & select lean tools.

For more you can refer Lean product development & A3 Thinking by Durward Sobek
 
Q

QE

Terhex

Thanks for your reply. - QE


Lean starts with where business wants to go & what is the problem in getting there?

First Lean is about management systems or structure & second it is about processes stability.

Restructure or systemise the business to eliminate systemic waste, reduce systemic variation & eliminate straining the resources.

Based on the real problems, select the tools. Take one software development stream & map value stream. Identify what has been missed (like late shipment, poor quality, extra manpower) & do analysis & select tools. Use A3 Thinking.

1. An simple tool like kanban (scrum as referred by IT practitioners) is useful to identify how resources are loaded & how well they are meeting the daily customer requirements.
2. Heijunka to evenly load all the resources, like there are 2 coders, one has to code 2000 lines & other has to code only 200 that has to be evenly balanced.
3. Now if there is hurdle in loading then evenly, do (kaizen) improvement so that these two are evenly loaded. Do improvement to split total 2200 lines to 1100. This is systemic improvement.
4. On process side, frequent checks, ie check after writing few lines of codes for errors than checking after writing few hundered lines, will reduce debugg time.
Start with value stream map. identify gaps & select lean tools.

For more you can refer Lean product development & A3 Thinking by Durward Sobek
 
A

AdamP

So this is not a 'case study' -yet, but we have begun working with our IT Service Delivery team to implement Lean techniques as it makes sense within a project based delivery environment as part of a much broader implementation.

Our primary focus is to have a long lasting culture shift rather than a simple, tool based, 'smash and grab' blitz sort of Lean, so it will be a journey.

I'll post here with progress updates with hopes that we build a useful case study for folks to use. And as always, if anyone has done this before, please share whatever you can - it's very much appreciated!

Cheers.
 
Q

QE

AdamP

Thats Great. Please share and make this thread a collaborative platform.

QE
 
C

Coverrace

Hello,
I am eager to see a case study on the implementation of lean tools in IT and service industry. Can anyone point me to the examples and case ...
 
B

BethP

Our IT development team uses a tool called Blossom (https://www.blossom.io/about.html). This tool applies kanban principles to track feature development. A month into using Blossom for a business intelligence project, I really love the flexibility, visual management, and collaborative aspects. Rather than building massive requirement documents that are difficult to maintain and nobody reads, I can instead focus on the features, providing the minimum level of detail required to start development, adding more as questions and exceptions come up.

As you are looking for case studies, you may want to check out Blossom's blog.

NOTE: I have no affiliation with Blossom except as a user of their product.
 
L

lokeky1

Hope this is useful.
 

Attachments

  • Lean IT case study. Harvard Business Review.pdf
    283.4 KB · Views: 188
Top Bottom