Mark McDonald

Process means different things to different people.  For some it is a four-letter word.  Something to be avoided.  Something that is bad.  Every organization is taking a fresh look at their processes as they look for new ways to raise performance.  This is transitioning views on process, its importance and its role in companies that [...]

[Read more →]

Prioritizing and managing the demands on IT resources is complex and fraught with risk. IT executives balance across multiple factors making IT planning complex and time consuming. The plan, also known as demand management seeks to address the imbalance between fixed IT resources and an apparent infinite demand for IT solutions.
Business executives can find [...]

[Read more →]

There are seven sources of waste or muda in lean thinking. One of these sources of waste is unnecessary or excess motion.  In manufacturing, workers having to engage in overly strenuous or damaging movements create waste.
In IT there are few overly strenuous motions – even in extreme programming.  Think about Unnecessary/Excess Motion as the ‘hero’ [...]

[Read more →]

There are seven sources of waste identified in lean thinking.  Unnecessary Inventory is one of them and found in any company.  There are many forms of inventory:  finished goods sitting in a warehouse unsold, work in progress tied up in your process, and raw materials awaiting production.  In manufacturing a major concern of unnecessary inventory [...]

[Read more →]

There are seven sources of waste or muda according to lean thinking.  One source, inappropriate processing, revolves around doing more than is necessary.  In manufacturing it involves subjecting work to additional and unnecessary steps in the process.  Implementing lean thinking involves looking at every process involved in the company’s work streams and asking is this [...]

[Read more →]

Waiting is one of the seven sources of Muda or waste. Waiting wastes time and wasted time consumes resources, management attention and organizationally energy.  In Lean Thinking waiting is defined in terms of the time and resources consumed in between major steps in a process.  In IT waiting happens in areas like user signoff, requirements [...]

[Read more →]

Transporting is one of the forms of waste or Muda. Lean thinking evolved in manufacturing where raw materials and work in process move around the shop floor from station to station.  Every movement takes time, increases the risk of damage and requires non-value added activities.  The more transporting activity the greater the opportunity for [...]

[Read more →]

Lean principles are all the rage.  Cutting the fat and reducing waste are leading people to affixing ‘lean’ to everything: lean manufacturing, lean process management and recently lean-IT.
Lean principles were originally applied to manufacturing processes and since IT is a process many of these practices apply.
Eliminating waste, what lean calls ‘muda’, is the essence of [...]

[Read more →]