ABSTRACT
Information Technology (IT) organizations have traditionally been seen largely as cost centers. Flow has a very useful characteristic. As increase the rate of flow, the chance of making mistakes increases and their perceived severity is higher. In a traditional IT organization this is something aim to avoid at all costs, so do things “slowly” because it gives a chance to cover up or recover from mistakes before the customer notices. Flow within an IT organization is a mark of how use time. Time is an absolutely vital part of the equation of delivering value to customers because most of the value is created by people spending their time on creating new capabilities for customers. The flow gemba walk is a real eye-opener for most leaders. Investigating the lead times and process times of a variety of units of work in different teams provides, sometimes shocking, insights.
