ABSTRACT
We ended the last chapter with a dose of reality that characterizes many IT environments. Specifically, it is hard to implement improvements when there is so much work to do just to keep up with demands. Let’s put aside for the moment the fact that the problem we just represented is an example of waste (backlog of work), and focus instead on the real dilemma of how an IT organization can start to work on Lean improvements with all the competing demands on time. The analogy that is sometimes used is that it’s like changing tires on a car when the car is in motion. While that is a graphic analogy, we don’t think it is the right one, or rather we would prefer to look at it this way: Race cars need to change tires all the time in the middle of a race, and they don’t change them while the car is in motion. What they do is streamline the process of changing tires so they can do it very quickly.
