LSD - Hallucination eller flödeseffektiv innovation

Sammanfattning: Increased competition in the IT industry has sparked a need for developing faster innovation processes with more predictable output. One of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a faster flow through the innovation process lies in managing its high degree of variation. Proposing a solution to this problem, Lean Software Development (LSD), was developed to provide a framework for how IT companies should organize its software development process to achieve increased speed and quality. This study examines to which extent LSD, as a set of values, principles, methods and tools, can be used to improve flow efficiency in the innovation process. A case study of a multinational IT company was made by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with current employees. By evaluating the empirical findings in the light of lean theory derived from the LSD framework, the study addresses the following research question: How does the implementation of Lean Software Development affect the flow efficiency of the innovation process? The study finds that the means the company currently employs in the innovation process to a large extent matches the means that the LSD framework provides, and that the majority of these means has a positive impact on the flow efficiency. However, possible negative consequences of too extensive implementation of two principles were found, in contradiction to theory. Furthermore, the study also finds inhibiting as well as facilitating factors, both organizational and human, affecting the possibility to improve the flow efficiency, providing the theory additional practical depth. The study concludes that a high degree of uncertainty and variation in the innovation process causes issues in defining value adding and non-value adding activities, resulting in a potential difficulty to reduce non-value adding activities in practice.