This five-day course leads to the Lean IT Association Foundation and Lean IT Leadership exams. Candidates will be taken from foundational understanding through to getting a practical appreciation of how to apply Lean IT Principles to specific business problems, pain points, trigger events, and waste scenarios within the organization. They will learn how to implement and apply Kaizen improvement activities into their enterprise and how to efficiently use it for client initiatives, and how to effectively use Lean IT for different organizational scenarios.

The leadership 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.

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’.

The course material is supported by practical case-based exercises. Candidates will learn how to apply the Lean IT approach to address customer value requirements and establish and maintain a sustainable approach to long term improvement of value delivery from IT.

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This five-day course leads to the Lean IT Association Foundation and Lean IT Leadership exams. During the course delegates, will get the opportunity to prepare for the exam and utilize our extensive database of practice questions. This course will enable delegates to gain both a foundational understanding of all the key parts of the Lean It approach and a more in-depth focus in IT Lean Leadership, this includes:

• Introduction to Lean
• Lean IT Dimensions: Customer
• Lean IT Dimensions: Process
• Lean IT Dimensions: Performance
• Lean IT Dimensions: Organization
• Lean IT Dimensions: Behavior & Attitude
• Kaizen Continuous Improvement
• Lean IT Foundation Exam Preparation
• Develop yourself toward becoming a Lean IT leader
• Understand Cascading Communication
• Establish vision, mission and improvement prioritization with all levels of stakeholders
• Use the Lean IT Leadership development model
• Apply Walking the process (Gemba)
• Use Lean Visual Management and Meeting Structure
• Apply Employee Performance dialogue and review processes
• Plan and organize for a Lean IT Organization
• Develop a holistic measurement framework
• Plan and design Lean organization transformational strategies

Module 1 – Introduction to Lean

• History of Lean
• Key Principles of Lean
• Aspects of Lean
• Customer Defined Activities
• 8 types of waste
• Primary drivers of Lean
• Lean and Six Sigma
• Characteristics of Lean IT

Module 2 – Lean IT Dimensions: Customer

• What is value
• The customers
• Critical to Quality
• Voice of the customer

Module 3 – Lean IT Dimensions: Process

• Value streams and processes
• Process elements
• Basic processes
• Push vs pull systems
• SIPOC
• Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
• Lean IT Time
• Process metrics
• The 5 s concept
• Heijunka

Module 4 – Lean IT Dimensions: Performance

• Defining performance
• Performance indicators
• Defining KPI’s
• Time usage
• Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE)
• Skills and Knowledge

Module 5 – Lean IT Dimensions: Organization

• Organization structures
• Key behavior
• Organizing Lean IT
• Communications cascade
• Objectives, feedback and performance
• Performance dialogue
• Visual management
• Work boards

Module 6 – Lean IT Dimensions: Behavior & Attitude

• The Lean mind-set
• The Lean attitude
• Lean Behaviors
• Lean transformation
• Lean leadership
• Jidoka

Module 7 – Kaizen Continual Improvement

• Continuous improvement
• Kaizen events
• Business benefits criteria
• Feasibility criteria
• Selecting a subject for a Kaizen event
• Roles in a Kaizen event
• A3 Method
• Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control
• Common Kaizen tools
• Common Kaizen Pitfalls

Module 8 – Introduction to Lean Leadership

• Shingo Model: four key guiding principles
• Key components to systems thinking
• Definition of a True Value north
• Lean style of leadership
• Four aspects of the lean leadership development model
• Five flows of IT value as defined by bell
• Organizational context of the IT leader
• Leadership aspects applied to the IT organizational context

Module 9 – Committing to Self-Development

• Self-development principles and requirements
• Leaders standard work
• Resources efficiency vs Flow efficiency
• Kaizen mindset: always seek improvement
• Accountability: role of taking responsibility in a lean IT setting
• Kata of leadership
• PDCA cycle for practicing lean leadership to the Gemba

Module 10 – Helping Others to Develop

• Definition of Genchi Genbutsu/Nemawashi
• T-type leadership
• 5 Whys: method for finding the route cause
• Questioning techniques
• Importance of Lean IT leadership in eliminating Mura and Muri
• Gemba walk contrasted with a gallery walk

Module 11 – Continuous Improvement

• Definition of continuous improvement
• Daily Kaizen and Kaizen events
• Definition and key characteristics of a team (Katzenbach & Smith)
• The core elements of the Kaizen mind-set
• Importance of standard reference models as the basis of improvement
• The five levels of team development (Lencioni)
• Characteristics of IT teams – technically-oriented, project-based, customer-oriented

Module 12 – Vision, Goals and Communication

• Performing dialogue: Leading meetings and listening skills
• Nemawashi for ensuring adoption strategy and policy and execution of projects
• Noshin Kanri: method for translating strategy to operations
• The key aspects of performance dialogue
• Visual management – for development, IT operations, service desk
• Cascade and catch ball mechanism
• The aim of the Pyramid principle
• MECE and its use
• The goal of a change story

Module 13 – Lean IT Transformation

• Business case for a Lean IT transformation
• Eight mistakes when carrying out a transformation, and their mitigation
• Key phases in accepting change
• The importance of a change story
• 5 lean IT dimensions for structuring Lean IT transformation
• 7 phases of the transition curve
• 3 key phases of the organizational level of a Lean IT transformation
• Role of the Lean IT Leader in relation to the Lean IT Coach
• The top-down and bottom-up aspects of a Lean IT transformation

Module – 14 The A3 Method

• Goals of the A3 method
• Sections of the A3 report
• Advance-Prepare-Do-Check cycle
• Organize information into the A3 format
• Communicate the key message and create involvement
• Define personal Lean IT Leadership goals

Although there is no mandatory requirement, ideally candidates should have at least two years of professional experience working in a process environment. The Lean IT Leadership qualification would suit candidates working in the following professions or areas:

• CxO’s
• IT Managers/ Directors
• Senior Project Officers
• Project & Program Coordinator/Managers
• Operations Managers
• Quality Managers
• Business Analysts
• Engineering Managers
• IT Infrastructure Managers
• Internal Consultants
• Professional Consultants

This qualification is aimed at anyone working within a quality improvement environment that has responsibilities for identifying, assessing, planning, or managing improvement activities, or reporting on continual improvement activities across the organization.

The above list is a suggestion only; individuals may wish to attend based on their own career aspirations, personal goals, or objectives.

The Lean IT Foundation certificate is required to take the Lean IT Leadership exam.

Whilst the Lean IT Kaizen level is not a pre-requisite, candidates who complete the Lean IT Leadership scheme 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 covered in detail in the Kaizen course.