In 2012, the IT division of a U.S. national research and development laboratory with over 4,500 staff began their Lean IT journey. After working with Mike Orzen, a pioneer in Lean IT, the organization is learning to embrace small incremental change, trial and discovery, and value the answer to the question "what did we learn?" There is an metaphor that says, "the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time," but our tendency is to bite off more than we can chew often leading to failed deployments, partially or improperly built solutions or unfunded grandiose multi-year projects. Jeromy Markwort, Lean IT coach at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory presents what the IT organization has learned so far on their Lean journey. More Lean IT presentations and videos on www.lean-it-summit.com

1. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
3 & 4 October, 2013
Paris, France
Leveraging Lean for IT and re-
search transformation: The art and
science of eating an elephant
Jeromy Markwort
Pacific Northern National Laboratory
Lean coach, Lean IT and Service Desk Service
Manager
@jmarkwort #LeanIT2013

2. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
The art and science of eating and
elephant
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
2
http://seangallo.com

3. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
3
PNNL at a glance
► $1.0B operating budget
► About 4,500 scientists, engineers and
non-technical staff
► 1,041 peer-reviewed papers
► 44 U.S. and foreign patents
► 3 R&D 100 and FLC Awards

4. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Culture
• PDCA
 Incremental change
 Trial and “Discovery”
 Value “what did we learn?”
 Estimates -> Measures -> Metrics
• Lean Leadership
• Recognitions/Goals
Outline
4
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

5. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
Culture
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
5
• “We are big on doing, but not so good at the
PDCA cycle”
• “There appears to be no shared problem
solving methodology
 Definition, Measure, Analyze
 Countermeasures, Test
 Check, Feedback”

6. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
Culture: Siloes of Excellence
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“Siloes of Excellence” (execution)
Project Server Setup Value Stream
DesktopServices
EmailandCalendaring
Wireless
RemoteAccess
ServerAdministration
VirtualInfrastructure
DatabaseAdministration
UserAccountManagement
ServiceDesk
CyberSecurity
Firewall
Network
Project Server Setup Value StreamProject Server Setup Value Stream
Lab Instrument Setup Value Stream
Policy Exemption Value Stream
Website Setup Value Stream
ServiceDesk
Information Management ServicesInformation Management Services Value Streams
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

7. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Three goals
 Improve the process on the workbench (Kaizen event)
 Train internal capability
 Infuse Lean principles into our culture by exposing staff
 Value Stream Thinking: Customer centric
 Quality at the source: Ownership
 Discovery: scientific method - PDCA, etc
Lean journey
• ~5 years until part of culture, 10 years before maturity.
Culture: Our year 1 Lean goals
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

8. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Much less threatening decision making
paradigm
 Don’t have to boil the ocean.
 Rolling or phased approach
 Focused experiment area – proof of concept
 Extended proof of viability, validation of requirements,
and scalability
PDCA: Embrace small
incremental change
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
8
Control
Influence
Concern
“Just do it”
and sponsor
supported
IT leadership and
lab leadership
sponsored
Sponsor and IT
leadership sponsored

9. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Much less threatening decision making
paradigm
 Don’t have to boil the ocean.
 Rolling or phased approach
 Focused experiment area – proof of concept
 Extended proof of viability, validation of requirements,
and scalability
 Smallest improvement you can make today?
 30 min/week
 15 min/day
 2 min/day
PDCA: Embrace small
incremental change
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
9
= 1hr 55min = ~5%

10. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Focusing on the scientific method causes staff to:
 Be problem solvers
 Think through the process
 Take ownership
 Be more engaged
PDCA: Trial and “Discovery”
10
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
Title
Plan
Do
Check Adjust
A3 thinking

11. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• It takes “awareness” to even ask the
question
• Rather than focus on “Who?”
• Finds value in “failure”
PDCA: Value the answer to the
question "what did we learn?”
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Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

12. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Not every process that needs to improve is able
to measure how bad it is. They just know it hurts.
 Get comfortable with estimates (~.5hr *~40 times/day)
 Start with manual measurements (e.g. tally sheets)
 Find ways to automate where possible
 Use the information to manage
Estimates -> Measurements ->
Metrics
12
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

13. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Reward firefighting, grow firefighters
• If improvement is not part of staff goals:
 Not a focus/priority
 Someone else’s job
Not authorized to do improvement
Recognitions/goals
13
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
Work
95%
Improve
5%*

14. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
Planned and unplanned work
Culture: Recognitions/Goals
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Work
95%
Improve
5%*
*Represents small, incremental change towards an improvement culture
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
Work
When “the tyranny of the urgent” is
the defacto prioritization model
improvement never happens;
firefighting prevails and is
rewarded.
When “management by fact”
prevails improvement is prioritized
and seen as an organization’s
burning platform; improvement
must be done!
Improve?

15. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
• Results
• Alignment
• Process improvement
• People (culture change)
 Values
 Behaviors
Lean leadership
15
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort

16. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
Leadership
Management
Staff
From this…
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
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P
D
C
A

17. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
To this!
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
17
Leadership
Management
Staff
Customer

18. Copyright © Institut Lean France 2012
”When I am not adding value I am adding
value to the value of value”
- Hugh Macleod
Leveraging Lean for IT and research transformation: The art and science of
eating an elephant – Jeromy Markwort
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Questions?