IT and training firms launch Lean IT Association
A consortium of IT training and certification companies have launched a global association and performance standard for Lean IT. The new standard consists of several knowledge- and competency levels in the field of Lean IT, and will according to the initiators serve as an important reference for global IT professionals.
Lean is about making the organisation more efficient and to effectively respond to external demand. The method, which has its roots in the manufacturing industry but nowadays is applied across all industries, has in recent years gained in popularity. According to advocates, Lean can largely boost the process efficiency of organisations, as well as increase the quality of services and level of customer service.
Also the IT industry has embraced the principles of Lean, using the term Lean IT. Despite the growing attention for the domain, the market for training and certifications is however fragmented. There are several fragmented initiatives in countries/regions, yet no universally accepted programme, comparable to for instance ITIL for IT-service management or Prince 2 for project management.
Lean IT Association
To remedy the current ‘gap’ in the market, six companies – APMG, EXIN, PEOPLECERT, Pink Elephant, Quint Wellington Redwood and ITpreneurs – have decided to join forces and launch the ‘Lean IT Association’ (LITA). In the process, Quint Wellington Redwood, an expert in the area of outsourcing* and IT consulting, played a pioneering role. Quint CEO Maurice Boon explains: “Last year Quint reached out to some partners and competitors to start this global initiative on Lean IT. Instead of protecting the IP of each individual organisation, we agreed to join forces and to build one global platform for sharing and building the best practice on Lean IT.”
The non-profit organisation has the objective to lead the further professionalisation of the Lean IT domain through the development of standards, conducting research and managing a certification scheme. The board consists of senior executives from the founding partners, including Nick Houlton (APMG), Bernd Taselaar (EXIN), Byron Nicolaides (PEOPLECERT), David Ratcliffe (Pink Elephant), Maurice Boon (Quint Wellington Redwood) and Sukhbir Jasuja (ITpreneurs).
Lean IT Certification Scheme
The certification programme of LITA, known as the Lean IT Certification Scheme, consists of four distinct certifications for various levels. Starting at entry level with the Lean IT Foundation and moving on to Lean IT Kaizen Lead, climbing further up the ladder to Lean IT Leader or Coach. Each level introduces more knowledge and skills, eventually leading up to competences that enable a professional to support corporate introduction or further development of Lean IT initiatives.
“We invite all thought leaders on Lean IT to challenge our ideas and to enrich the existing practices so we are able to build one true global set of best practices all together”, concludes Boon.
* Recently Quint was named a top 20 global outsourcing advisor by the IAOP.
