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“Lean thinking is a proven system that applies to product development and production, as evidenced by Toyota and others. And although most often applied to products, it is also used in service areas—both within Toyota and in domains such as health care” (taken from “Lean Primer” by Craig Larman and Bass Vodde).

This experience report shares framework and lessons learned of Lean Process Improvement Implementation in global software development outsourcing company.

Lean process improvement framework highlights:

• Define the goals of the improvement
• Identify the sponsors and all potential stakeholders
• Define qualitative and quantitative targets to be used for success measurement
• Measure current quantitative target values
• Develop ROI model. Make proposal for expected quantitative parameters.
• Develop project roadmap and calculate project budget
• Calculate expected ROI.
• Make “Go” decision
• Arrange “Ice Breaker” party and kick-off
• Provide trainings and form Kaizen groups
• Develop value stream map and analyze it. Specify expected quantitative parameters values if needed.
• Brainstorm improvement experiments and action items
• Prioritize them according to value stream map analysis results and quantitative parameters expectations
• Run process experiments:
  • synchronize everyone via daily stand-ups
  • foster collaboration
  • facilitate communication
  • remove impediments
• Forster sustainable process improvement via Kaizen group activities. Provide specific trainings and workshops if necessary
• Keep track of qualitative and quantitative targets
• Visualize and share results with every stakeholders
• Conduct regular retrospectives:
  • celebrate and promote success
  • make pivots if necessary
• Update value stream map after project completed and get latest quantitative target values
• Analyze project results and recalculate ROI
• Report results to sponsors and stakeholders
• Celebrate the success
• Support Kaizen groups for sustainable process improvement

After brief framework introduction practical case study of Lean Process Improvement implementation for recruitment process improvement will be elaborated with real qualitative and quantitative data and ROI calculation.