Lean Transformation in Information Technology: The Case of IT Services in Financial Firms

Authors

  • Zamzam H. Alhammadi Dubai Culture and Arts Authority
  • Khaled Shaalan The British University in Dubai

Abstract

In today’s competitive market, organizations have realized that high quality contributes to long-term success. Lean transformation framework can be described as a set of tools and principles that positively impact quality by focusing on both eliminating waste and adding value to certain processes in the organization. This study argues the success of implementing Lean principles in IT. Since there is no such research has been conducted in the Arab world in implementing Lean in IT, this research paper is considered as a pioneer research in the field of IT quality management. The objective of this paper is to use a case-based approach to demonstrate how Lean principles and tools can help IT to enhance IT services quality, reduce cost, and improve productivity. A case study at a leading financial institution in the Arab Gulf region is examined. The study focuses on analyzing the Lean transformation stages, including current state assessment, target state design, and implementation; as well as describing the set of tools that guide the actions taken in each stage. The findings of this case study show that Lean principles can help in maintaining a high quality of IT services with lower cost by reducing 10% of none-valued activities and other benefits.

Author Biography

Khaled Shaalan, The British University in Dubai

Khaled Shaalan is a full professor of Computer and Information Sciences at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). He is also a tenure professor at Cairo University. Prof Khaled is an Honorary Fellow at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh (UoE). He is currently the Head of PhD in Computer Science, MSc in Informatics, and MSc in IT Management programs. His main area of interest includes computational linguistics. He is an authority in the field of Arabic Natural Language Processing, and commands a great respect among the research community in the Arab world. He is the Head of Natural Language Research Group at BUiD. Prof Khaled has several research publications in his name in highly reputed journals such as IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Computational Linguistics, Journal of Natural Language Engineering, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Expert Systems with Applications, Software-Practice & Experience, Journal of Information Science, and Computer Assisted Language Learning to name a few. He has guided several Doctoral and Master Students in the area of Arabic Natural Language Processing and Knowledge Management. He has done extensive research in the field of Arabic Named Entity Recognition and currently working on Arabic Question Answering.

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Published

2018-08-08

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2018)

Section

Articles

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