What is Lean IT?
Lean is considered a philosophy of continuous improvement. A lean organization focuses on increasing customer value, the elimination of waste and optimizing operations. The key components of Lean can be applied to all types of business and processes. Lean IT is the extension of lean principles to the development and management of information technology (IT) products and services.
In addition to reducing wastes and improving a specific process, Lean IT is also about building a culture, one that respects all employees and enables them to pursue opportunities to improve their work and share ideas for continuous improvement.
Benefits of Lean
A Lean approach to continuous improvement provides us with a concrete method to examine work processes. The tools we use are tested and the cross-functional teams often bring new perspectives to the table.
Lean thinking can provide improved value for the customer by:
- Improving the quality of work processes
- Reducing errors or defects in work processes
- Reducing costs
- Improving flow of the process
- Simplifying complex processes
- Reducing lead time
- Improving employee morale