The Lean and Information Technology Toolkit provides guidance on pairing Lean process improvement with IT

Environmental agencies are always seeking opportunities to improve the performance of their programs. Techniques such as Lean can streamline processes, eliminate backlogs, improve product quality, provide more value to customers, and free staff time to work on other activities. Complementary IT solutions amplify these gains by automating processes, incorporating automated error checks to improve quality, enhancing the ability to share data across organizations, and providing better information for decision-makers.

Agencies can more easily apply these techniques with the aid of explanatory tools and guidance.

E-Enterprise supported the development of a Lean and IT Toolkit to help environmental agencies more efficiently and effectively protect human health and the environment. The toolkit outlines benefits of using Lean with IT and describes Lean Startup, Lean Process Improvement, and Agile Development processes.

This toolkit complements a series of Lean resources available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies, including the EPA’s Lean in Government Starter Kit.

Lean Startup and Agile methods allow agencies to design and develop new products and IT solutions to meet customer needs while minimizing the risks and costs of product development. This Lean and IT Toolkit explores how Lean and IT can be used to:

• Efficiently design new products and services to better meet customer needs (Lean Startup)
• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing processes (Lean Process Improvement), and
• Reduce the costs and risks of developing new IT products (Agile Development).