Understanding Lean IT
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The Lean IT Bootcamp discusses the principles of lean management and its application in the IT sector, emphasizing waste elimination to enhance value delivery to customers. The agenda includes understanding lean concepts, the importance of IT's evolving role, and methods to improve process efficiency. Key takeaways highlight the necessity of optimizing IT practices to foster innovation and reduce operational complexity.
Understanding Lean IT
- 1. Page 1 SnowdonConsulting Welcome to the Lean IT Bootcamp April 25, 2014
- 2. Page 2 SnowdonConsulting Getting to Know You…. Your Role? • IT Technical Resources • Developer, • Network/Systems/Database Administrator, • Enterprise/Technical/Solution Architect, • Network/Systems/QA/Test Engineer, • Etc... • IT Project Resources • PM/PMO • Business Analyst • Etc • IT Management Resources • IT Manager/Sr. Mgr • IT Leadership (Director or higher) • Etc.. • Other Roles Your Knowledge of Lean/Six Sigma • Heard of It; • Worked With It; • CertiYied GB or BB
- 3. Page 3 SnowdonConsulting What I want to get out of this seminar
- 4. Page 4 SnowdonConsulting Agenda • What is Lean? • Why Lean IT? • Learning to See Waste • Linking to ITIL • Q&A
- 5. Page 5 SnowdonConsulting Why does the IT Dept exist?
- 6. Page 6 SnowdonConsulting Lean Thinking • Based on the Toyota Production System, created by Taichi Ohno • A principle driven, tool based philosophy that focuses on eliminating waste so that all activities/steps add value from the customer’s perspective. • Popularized in North America and Europe by the book Lean Thinking Our Session today is about Learning to See waste… and recognizing how it affects IT Services
- 7. Page 7 SnowdonConsulting Goal of a Lean Organization Create the ability to: 1. Deliver the exact product / service 2. In the exact quantity 3. With the exact quality that the customer needs 4. Exactly when they need it
- 8. Page 8 SnowdonConsulting Lean Management Thinking 1. Base you management decisions on a long-‐term philosophy, even at the expense of short term Yinancial goals 2. Create continuous process Ylow to bring problems to the surface 3. Use ‘pull’ systems to avoid overproduction 4. Level out the workload 5. Build a culture of stopping to Yix problems, to get quality right the Yirst time
- 9. Page 9 SnowdonConsulting 6. Standardized tasks are the foundation of continuous improvement and employee empowerment 7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden 8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes 9. Grow your leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others Lean Management Thinking
- 10. Page 10 SnowdonConsulting 10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy 11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them to improve 12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation 13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly 14. Become a learning organization through relentless reYlection Lean Management Thinking
- 11. Page 11 SnowdonConsulting Five Lean Principles The continuous movement of products, services and information from end to end through the process 3 Establish Flow The complete elimination of waste so all activities create value for the customer 5 Work to Perfection DeAine value in from the customers perspective and express value in terms of a speciAic product 1 Specify Value 2 Map the Value Stream Map all of the steps…value added & non-‐value added… that bring a product of service to the customer Nothing is done by the upstream process until the downstream customer signals the need 4 Implement Pull
- 12. Page 12 SnowdonConsulting Why Lean IT? – The Role of IT is Changing! • Mobile, cloud and pervasive computing technologies will fundamentally shift the expectations and roles of IT in the enterprise • The role of IT will move from one of managing physical assets to that of being a broker of IT services from inside and outside to satisfy business needs
- 13. Page 13 SnowdonConsulting Why Lean IT? – To Streamline IT Service Delivery and Deliver Value to the Customer Faster
- 14. Page 14 SnowdonConsulting Why Lean IT? – Free Up Time to Focus More on Innovation • Application, server and storage silos and complexity have pushed most organizations into an IT spending pattern where the bulk of their budget is required to ‘keep the lights on’ • Innovation of services is being sacriYiced to keep current services operational • There is a gap between what IT can deliver and what the organization needs! New Innovations, 30% Ongoing IT Operations, 70% Typical Spending Pattern in an IT Dept IT Sprawl creates complexity which is expensive and slows the delivery of value to the customer
- 15. Page 15 SnowdonConsulting What does Lean IT really mean? Lean IT means: • Reduce Steps • Reduce Errors • Reduce Complexity • Increase IT Agility • Free Up the Capacity of IT to focus on Innovation Which leads to: • Increased Ratio of Planned to Unplanned Work • Increased Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) • Reduced Mean Time To Release (MTTR) • Reduced Mean Time To Resolve (MTTR) • Increased Availability • Increased % of Successful Changes • Increased Server to Sys Admin Ratio • Increased % Effort Deployed Early in Change-‐Release Cycle • Improved Ratio of Ongoing Support Costs to Innovation Costs • Improved employee engagement and productivity
- 16. Page 16 SnowdonConsulting What Lean IT is Not • A replacement for proven engineering, software design and related technical principles and practices • Bad code is still bad code • Poor engineering design is still poor engineering design • A substitute for leadership and people management activities • Leaders still need to lead, set vision and align people/resources around important goals • Management activities still need to be focused on efYicient use of resources/people to achieve goals • A substitute for a technology strategy and vision for the organization
- 17. Page 17 SnowdonConsulting Consider the following: You are a Green Belt touring a Service Desk. They had done a lot of work to ‘tune’ the process. The place is humming with activity as you tour the Service Desk, your guide proudly shows you the team in action. Turning to you he exclaims. “Six minutes to resolve a ticket. Can you believe it?!? How could you ever improve a process running as smoothly as this!” Scenario
- 18. Page 18 SnowdonConsulting How would you respond to the the guide?
- 19. Page 19 SnowdonConsulting Lean Definitions 1. Value Added • Value is a product or service that the customer is willing to pay for e.g.. Processing a loan, printing cheques etc. 2. Non Value Added • An activity that the customer would be unwilling to pay for in isolation eg. Waiting times, checking work, correcting errors 3. Value Enabling or Business Value Added • An activity that is required to operate the business but the customer is unwilling to pay for, eg., budget tracking, internal controls.
- 20. Page 20 SnowdonConsulting Value Added Ratio (VAR) • A key ratio that you should calculate is the Value Added Ratio (VAR) • Most processes can quickly achieve a 50% reduction in lead time by focusing on waste elimination VAR (%) = Total Time of VA Activity Total Process Cycle Time
- 21. Page 21 SnowdonConsulting Let’s revisit the scenario at the Service Desk. You observe the following: • There is a queue full of tickets ready to be worked on • It took the Service Desk Technical Support person 2 minutes to retrieve the ticket from the queue and get ready to work on it • The actual troubleshooting operation took 2 minutes • Once the ticket was completed it was moved be moved to another queue until it went to the next step in the process. This took 2 minutes. Scenario
- 22. Page 22 SnowdonConsulting Draw a simple picture of this process. Calculate the VAR Any insights?
- 23. Page 23 SnowdonConsulting You are looking at the improve the mean time to release. You have been told that it takes ‘way too long’. You have measured the following processes and collected the following times: Requirements Gathering: 4 weeks Development: 12 weeks ConYiguration: 1 week QA: 6 weeks Release: 1 day Scenario What will you Yix to make this process go faster?
- 24. Page 24 SnowdonConsulting Defining Value and Waste Time Value Added Work Non-‐Value Added Work Time Would you believe … Typical non-‐value to value-‐added ratio is of the order of 99:1 You need to consider the entire value stream After Before ReleaseQAConfigDevReq’s
- 25. Page 25 SnowdonConsulting Let’s Take 10! April 24, 2014
- 26. Page 26 SnowdonConsulting • Transport • Inventory • Motion • Waiting • Over-‐production • Over-‐processing • Defects/Inspection People’s Talents Defining Waste Do you know TIM WOOD?
- 27. Page 27 SnowdonConsulting Transportation and Conveyance • Unnecessary movement of materials, or information; only convey materials and information when and where they are needed • Consumes valuable resources and takes time • Safety concerns and increases damage • Capital expenditures
- 28. Page 28 SnowdonConsulting Transportation – Some IT Examples • Walking to/from printer, copier, fax machine, Yiling cabinet, archival storage • Providing a spreadsheet or report to more people than actually need it • Needing to split email attachments into smaller segments due to Yile size limitations • Unnecessary movements of electronic information • Sending attachments rather than links to documents • On-‐site visits to resolve system issues that could be resolved with remote monitoring and correction • Using multiple emails for dialogue when a conference call or face-‐to-‐face meeting is more effective
- 29. Page 29 SnowdonConsulting Excess Inventory • Inventory that is not needed, is wasted (includes raw materials, work in progress and Yinished products • Increases lead time, overhead and requires space • Masks poor processes, impacts cash Ylow • Moving inventory increases chance of damage
- 30. Page 30 SnowdonConsulting Excess Inventory – Some IT Examples • Any Backlog, anything in a Queue! • In Inboxes • Old/obsolete Yiles • Projects that are not being considered, but still on the project list • Partially completed development work • Uncoded documentation • Unsynchronized code • Untested code • Undocumented code • Undeployed code • Multiple software code objects that perform the same function • Unused software licenses
- 31. Page 31 SnowdonConsulting • Any motion that does not add value • Stretching, bending, picking up, moving can ultimately impact quality and productivity • Relates to the physical layout of the workspace and ergonomics. Unnecessary Motion
- 32. Page 32 SnowdonConsulting • Poor user interface or workYlow design that causes unnecessary keystrokes, mouse clicks or navigation steps • Searching for Yiles at your desk (electronic of physical) Unnecessary Motion – Some IT Examples
- 33. Page 33 SnowdonConsulting Waiting • Idle time between operations, is 100% waste and can be attacked simply and effectively by mapping out a process • Adds to cycle time • Consumes valuable resources • Increases work in process • Slows response to customer
- 34. Page 34 SnowdonConsulting Waiting – Some IT Examples • Slow application response • Delays between coding and testing • Overnight batch processing of data • Waiting for a specialist who is currently working on another task/project • Waiting for inputs from team members • Delays in receiving, transmitting and storing information
- 35. Page 35 SnowdonConsulting Over-Production • Performing any task without considering if it is needed • Producing more, earlier or faster than is needed by the next process or customer • Consumes valuable resources not immediately needed, builds unnecessary inventory or hides process problems (bad quality, scheduling & delivery)
- 36. Page 36 SnowdonConsulting Over-Production – Some IT Examples • Too many or ineffective meetings! • Unnecessary or early work performed due to unclear priorities • Running reports that no-‐one reads • Coding functionality that is not utilized • Unnecessary delivery of low-‐value applications and services • Running more tests than are required • Capturing/storing more data than is required
- 37. Page 37 SnowdonConsulting Over-Processing • Excessive levels of approval, over-‐engineering, adding too many unnecessary features • Consumes valuable resources • Creates delay • Opportunity for more defects
- 38. Page 38 SnowdonConsulting Over-Processing – Some IT Examples • Over design of Software apps • Over automation of processes • Premature technology intervention to improve a process • Developing complex solutions to simple or non-‐recurring problems • Overly complex governance, funding, prioritization and control processes
- 39. Page 39 SnowdonConsulting Defects • Any aspect of a product or service which does not meet the customer’s requirements, leads to rework, delayed output, unhappy customers, or even lost customers • Creating and correcting defects robs resources, “chokes” Ylow, and must be minimized or eliminated
- 40. Page 40 SnowdonConsulting Defects – Some IT Examples • Application bugs • Design Ylaws • Data inaccuracies/ inconsistencies • Unplanned downtime • Any hand-‐off between teams that fails to meet the deYined standard • Missing info, incomplete info, inaccurate info • Outside of SLA/OLA
- 41. Page 41 SnowdonConsulting Reflective Thinking What are some of the wastes in my process? How often do they occur? Do people realize they are waste? Which ones would be easy to Yix? What’s my guess as to the VAR in my process?
- 42. Page 42 SnowdonConsulting Final Thoughts on Waste • Waste is present in every process. Even processes that seem ‘efYicient’. • Waste is not ‘seen’ in a meeting room, or in your cubicle. It is observed, by going out into the workplace, to the places where the teams are actually doing work. The place we call the Gemba. • To Yind waste, you must look for it. Gemba walks are a critical part of improving your value stream. The Gemba walk is not a social visit, although there will be many social interactions. • Your Gemba walks are purposeful. It is to engage with the teams and to look for waste. Once you learn to see it, you will see it everywhere. • Prioritize your waste reduction efforts. Not all ‘waste’ contributes equally to the blockages in Ylow. Focus on the ‘big hitters’ and slowly but surely, work on improving them – PDCA!
- 43. Page 43 SnowdonConsulting ITIL Lifecycle Processes
- 44. Page 44 SnowdonConsulting IMHO …. Critical ITIL Processes Change Management • Purpose: Ensure that changes are recorded, evaluated, authorized, prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented in a controlled manner Incident Management • Purpose: Restore normal service as quickly as possible, and to minimize the adverse impact on business operations Problem Management • Purpose: to prevent problems and resulting incidents from happening, to eliminate recurring incidents and to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented How do these processes relate? Why are they vitally important to the CIO? How does Lean connect into all this?
- 45. Page 45 SnowdonConsulting Examples of Lean IT Projects • Reducing the lead time to create certain types of reports • Reducing the % of servers that go ‘dark’ on key asset management reports • Improving the Yirst call close rates at the Service Desk • Increasing the reliability and automation of test cases to reduce MTTR • Reducing the number of incidents that are requiring key resources to resolve Focus on your customers Yirst, then analyze how your people and processes deliver the service. Find the waste and eliminate it with technology.
- 46. Page 46 SnowdonConsulting Reflective Thinking In reYlecting on everything that we’ve covered, which one thing do I want to discuss with my manager tomorrow? Why did I choose this one thing?
- 47. Page 47 SnowdonConsulting Lean IT - Summary Lean IT is a way of thinking and doing that: • Is complimentary to existing IT methodologies and frameworks • Augments the skills of the technical teams to design, build, test and deploy IT Services with greater efYiciency and effectiveness • Builds upon the strengths of the leaders and managers • Offers a speciYic lens to guide strategy and management activities • Empowers teams and individuals to solve problems, and gives them the tools to do so
- 48. Page 48 SnowdonConsulting Looking Ahead Lean IT – Yellow Belt Training & CertiYication (3 Days) • September, 2014, Toronto • Winter 2015, Toronto April 24, 2014
- 49. Page 49 SnowdonConsulting Thank You!! Good luck with your Lean IT journey.
- 50. Page 50 SnowdonConsulting Paul Snowdon, BA, BASc, MBB Paul is a thought leader, a lecturer, a researcher and a master practitioner who specializes in making teams and processes more efYicient, effective and economical. Paul’s professional career includes engineering roles at General Electric, consulting roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and over the past seven years he has been working and consulting in the IT industry on a variety of topics including post merger integration, sales force enablement, marketing operations, NPI and GTM strategy and practices, Lean IT, PMO maturity and Lean Six Sigma implementation to name a few. Paul is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt who has led enterprise-‐wide initiatives in manufacturing, transactional and service industries. He is a recognized speaker, author and instructor of Lean Six Sigma process re-‐engineering principles and is the LSS Program Leader at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies. Paul has trained and coached thousands of ‘belts’ and is a Yirm believer in the power of people to solve problems. Paul holds undergraduate degrees in History and Chemical Engineering, and is currently pursuing an Doctorate in Business Administration, with a focus on Coaching and Leadership practices in IT Yirms.
- 51. Page 51 SnowdonConsulting April 24, 2014 SnowdonConsulting Paul Snowdon BA, BASc, Master Black Belt Email: [email protected] www.snowdonconsulting.ca Direct: 416.453.4079