Had a discussion with my supervisor and the concept of mini-thesis is coming together. The objective for the mini-thesis is to come up with a questionnaire, which will then be used in the actual thesis to learn about the KM and lean barriers in the target organization. It will need to cover following topics in some level: KM, barriers of KM, lean thinking, barriers for lean (or success factors). The title could be something in the lines of “Barriers of lean KM on a global context”. Besides the literature review, we discussed a possibility to arrange a workshop for the key stakeholders. They would be introduced to the barriers framework and based on that, scope the most relevant barriers or barrier categories for the questionnaire. Based on this information for the actual questionnaire is then drafted. Sounds good doesn’t it?

Finished the first version of the research plan.

I still have one week to tweak it, before I present it, and now I’m waiting for some feedback from my colleagues. I’m quite satisfied with it, though there are couple of things that bother me. The schedule for example, is basically just random set of dates at the moment. And I would like to find more research combining KM and lean.

I’m looking forward to proceed on my research. The next step, required by my university, is something called mini-thesis. Mini-thesis is an individual study, that supports the actual thesis. Usually it’s a small scale study focusing on the theory part of the actual thesis. I’m planning to write it about lean. I’m also considering to write it about KM barriers, but considering the importance related to my work, lean is probably the one I choose.

I have recently been reminded that everything we do, we do by choice. We choose to do things, because …

I am great of thinking in terms of “have to do” and “need to do”. I need to go to a meeting, I have to drive my child to a kindergarten in the morning, I have to take out the trash. It’s easy to not to think why we are doing these things.

I am currently writing my master’s thesis. Why am I doing this? Is it because I need to finish my studies? Is it because I need my master’s degree? I could have written my thesis 5 years ago, why am I doing it now? I don’t see any direct impact it might have, regarding my work for example, but yet I have started to work on it.

So let me try to put it in terms of “choose to”. I choose to write my master’s thesis, because … Not so easy. From nonviolent communication I have learnt to try to make observations (without judgement), but identifying feelings and the needs behind them is very difficult for me. What need I aim to satisfy by doing this? How do I feel about writing the thesis or by not writing it? I instantly start to think about shame, guilt, and other “violent” terms. I think they are not helping me to identifying my needs.

Could it be that I’m not doing this to satisfy any internal need? If this is the case, I should not be doing it all. But I feel excited and happy, so I need to dig deeper. I want to learn. I value knowledge. I also need security. Even though finishing my studies might not have direct impact, I think having a MSc might help in the future, opposed to not having it. However, I think the strongest need in this case for me is the need to achieve something. To create something of value and to learn.

I still don’t know if I was able to identify the most important needs what it comes to writing my thesis. But just thinking about these things makes me feel more empowered and encouraged. That alone is valuable.

Time to find some Lean references for my thesis.

As far as I understand, the term lean was coined by Womack in this book:

Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T., & Roos, D. (1990). The machine that changed the world. New York: MacMillan Press.

Another commonly referenced book is:

Liker, J. (2004). The Toyota Way. New York: McGraw-Hill.

I plan to use these books to define what is Lean. Both are very commonly referenced in any book / article / research, regarding Lean. I have them as Kindle ebooks.

Then I need to have some references to Lean in service (and preferably on IT R&D) industry. Even though Ikonen’s doctoral thesis is not completely aligned with my research subject, as I’m not focusing on actual software development, but software development organizations, I still think it’s very good source of information:

Ikonen, M. (2011). Lean thinking in software development: Impacts of kanban on projects. Computer science doctoral dissertation. University of Helsinki.

I also managed to get a book from amazon.com which in some level deals with KM and lean, which is currently my only reference to dealing this intersection (Thanks Jan for the tip):

Dahlke, F. (2008). Eliminating waste in software projects: Effective knowledge management by using web based collaboration technology: The enterprise 2.0 concept applied to lean software development. Hamburg: Diplomica verlag.

I also found few interesting articles called “Lean Knowledge Work”, “The Toyota Way in Services: The Case of Lean Product Development” and “Lean consumption” through Google scholar, just by searching for lean and “knowledge”.

Liker, J. K., Morgan, J. M. (2006). The Toyota Way in Services: The Case of Lean Product Development. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2), 5-20.

Staats, B. R., Upton, D. M. (2011). Lean Knowledge work. Harvard Business Review.

Womack, James P. and Jones, Daniel T. (2005). Lean Consumption. Harvard Business Review.

I think I can get things started with these.

So far I have done some research regarding the literature, drawn concept mind maps, and written a “A4″ -size miniature research plan covering the topic and research methods (see master’s thesis part 2). Now it’s time to start writing the actual research plan.

The first thing I did was that I copied the thesis template from the university, and changed the table of contents to this:

1         Background

2         Research objectives and methods

3         Preliminary content

4         Schedule

The structure is given to us, but the headings can of course be changed. I have a rough idea, based on the A4, of each topic. The main task for now is to write the background chapter with actual references. Schedule is also something I need to think about more. My personal goal is that the thesis should be done done by the end of July. But scheduling the empirical part is a bit more challenging. I also need to clarify my research objective. As the method is quite clear, based on design science methodology, I need to actually produce something. I have some ideas, but whether I’m able to formulate it clearly, in time, to this research plan is still not sure.