1 Improving ITIL processes using a Lean Methodology André Lino 1 , Miguel Mira da Silva 2 andre.m.lino@ist.utl.pt , mms@ist.utl.pt 1 Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal 2 Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal Abstract: Many companies around the world have already implemented ITIL as a way to manage and control their IT Departments more effectively. These companies are now willing to improve their ITIL processes in order to become even more efficient. Lean is a methodology that can be used to conduct these improvements and its application in the IT Services area is becoming increasingly popular. The initiatives taken to improve ITIL processes using Lean have some limitations as they do not address all Lean’s principles and goals. In this paper we propose a framework that addresses all the principles and goals and that can be used to improve ITIL processes. The framework is being applied in a Portuguese Public Organization and the results are presented and discussed in this paper. Keywords: Lean; ITIL; IT Services; improvement; framework; costumer; value; waste; quality; quickness 1. Introduction ITIL is a framework of best practices for delivering IT Services. It was developed by the British Government during the 1980s trying to increase efficiency, value and success in the delivery of programs and projects in the public sector. Over the years, ITIL became popular and, nowadays, its credibility is highly recognized. Its practices are aligned and have contributed to the ISO 20000 Service Management standard, the first international standard for IT service management (Reiner, 2007). In order to guarantee a better quality of service, lower costs or to achieve a better alignment between business and IT, organizations have been implementing ITIL processes in their IT Departments (Greenever Systems, 2006). When the implementations are successful, the results are usually positive, but that must not be the end of the road. As ITIL v3 states, after implementing the processes, they must be continuously improved to steadily increase efficiency. Furthermore, business itself is not static, and IT processes must evolve at the same pace in order to effectively support it and remain aligned with it. However, conducting improvements isn’t easy (Van Bon & Pieper & Veen, 2006) and ITIL literature just suggests some methodologies that can be used to do so. In this paper we suggest and evaluate a framework, based on the Lean methodology, which can be used to guide ITIL processes optimization. Lean is a methodology to organize, manage, develop and improve business processes with the aim of doing more with fewer resources. It emerged after the World War II in Toyota’s manufacturing environment, however, in the last few years, it has been applied in the services industry (Fillingham, 2008).