Lean IT Course Description
We believe that “Lean Thinking” should be an integral part of every Enterprise IT organization and also every IT professional’s toolkit.
Lean thinking is about understanding how to assess business processes, to identify and eliminate waste. Today, many IT professionals stakeholders from cross-functional areas -operational, tactical and strategic — have or are planning to get certified in Lean IT with the objective of reducing waste and improving efficiency.
Lean IT Foundation
Lean IT Foundation helps IT organizations to ensure that they provide their customers with the best possible services. Through understanding customer value, the processes that deliver this value, the way to manage performance, the way to organize and the required attitude and behaviour, IT organizations are helped to develop a continuous improvement mind-set. Lean IT is complementary to all other best practice methods.
Target Group
Any manager or specialist working in an IT organization can benefit from the insights provided by the qualification.
The principles underlying the Lean philosophy
The importance of understanding and delivering customer value
The way Lean looks at processes and the waste within them
How to measure performance and the key determinants of performance
What the organizational requirements are when implementing Lean, including the use of visual management tools
Which behavior and attitude is necessary for Lean to be successful within an IT organization
The DMAIC problem-solving model
How these Lean principles can be applied within an IT organization
Lean IT Kaizen
Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement using small incremental changes. It translates as change for the better. Kai means change, Zen means for the better. Kaizen is an approach for solving problems and forms the basis of incremental continual improvement in organizations. A problem is a difficulty that has to be resolved or dealt with. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen means continuous improvement involving everyone, managers and workers alike, every day and everywhere, providing structure to process improvement.
Target Group
The Lean IT Kaizen is someone who is involved with a Lean improvement project that could be at any level of the IT organization, in any ‘department’.
Main Subjects
The course learning objectives are focused on building on the learning objectives from the Lean IT Foundations to provide specific skills based training to IT professionals responsible for facilitating Kaizen improvement events.
The course uses the Six Sigma DMAIC improvement model leveraging the Lean A3 tool as the basis for progressively completing a full improvement proposal.
Practical skills and application of learning outcomes will be demonstrated by each student developing through the completion of an A3. Participants can choose to either use a common case study or use one from their own experience.
Lean IT Leadership
Lean IT Leadership builds on the basic knowledge acquired through the Lean IT Foundation. Lean IT Leadership focuses on ensuring that people fulfilling a leadership role within a Lean IT organization know what they need to do to help to develop it to a Lean IT organization. The role may be carried out in a formal or informal capacity. People following the Lean IT Leadership curriculum can benefit substantially from first understanding the Lean IT Kaizen role. One of the core tasks of Lean IT Leadership is driving and teaching continuous improvement, and the tools for this task are discussed in detail in the Lean IT Kaizen.
Target Group
The Lean IT Leader is someone who is committed to ensuring that the IT organization embraces Lean principles and operational excellence as its way of operating, and can be at any level of the organization in any ‘department’.
Main Subjects
The course learning objectives are focused on building on the learning objectives from the Lean IT Foundation to provide a specific Lean leadership development training for IT professionals in a leadership role, both formal (i.e. managerial) and informal.
The course will make use of the Lean A3 tool as the basis for progressively investigating all aspects of Lean IT Leadership. The aim is to ensure that each participant gains a detailed view of their personal Lean IT Leadership development by the end of the course.
Application of learning outcomes will be demonstrated by each student through the completion of an A3. Validate the creation of the A3 as part of the class outcomes.