On Ramp to Lean IT

This book is for IT practitioners who are looking for a basic and fundamental introduction to use of Lean concepts and practices. It provides practical guidance on how these challenges and issues can be addressed using Lean and how, in application of Lean practices, you can help to make positive improvements within your organization. To that end, the book is written to be an easy-to-understand introduction to Lean for IT, with practices, tools and techniques that are easy-to-apply in everyday IT operational environments. Specifically, it applies Lean Thinking to problems and challenges frequently encountered in typical IT operations. It is a practical guide that requires no prior understanding of Lean. The authors discuss the use of relatively simple tools and techniques that embrace the principles of Lean Thinking that can be readily comprehended and applied in everyday IT environments. This book helps you understand how Lean practices can improve the work that you do in IT. It is this focus on work, and how to do work, that will help you understand the power of Lean in the service of improving how work gets done. The focus is on work is because it is in the work itself where we create value for customers and, quite often, waste and inefficiency in its performance. In addition, the authors emphasize the importance of identifying, understanding and solving problems you encounter in your IT organizations. Concepts and practices are presented in such a way that you can leverage basic skills and then, through application of Lean Thinking concepts, develop greater confidence in the use of these and other tools to apply in your work environment. In addition , the book addresses how to deal with failure, specifically failure in the attempt to improve work or to implement solutions to problems we encounter. This might also include failure in implementing Lean solutions. By looking at 'how we fail' and 'why we fail,' ill help you to recognize and explain failure, explore how to deal with failure and, most importantly, how to learn from failure. Failure in this sense is a classic learning tool. When a solution fails, it may be that it was a poor solution. But more likely, the solution was solving the wrong problem!