Business value. Customer-centricity. You've probably heard those terms enough lately, but don't put in your ear plugs just yet.

The days in which CIOs and senior IT decision makers would make technology decisions in a vacuum are gone. Those days have given way to a somewhat uncomfortable reality in which IT must partner with the business and is being held accountable for delivering business and customer value. The recent InformationWeek 500 Conference addressed that uncharted territory, aptly titling the event, "Navigating the Boardroom." This is a new world for most IT leaders and some guidance is needed. As Rob Preston wrote on the heels of the event, "Every CIO and business technology team must breathe the boardroom air."

One of the guiding strategies for this alliance will be Lean. At the heart of Business Technology is IT changing its mindset to focus on the business of the business rather than the technology of the business. When IT focuses solely on the technology of the business, the CIO behaves like or even becomes a CTO, and IT falls back into measuring its success in IT terms—not business terms.

Recently one CIO said to us, "My goal is not to be the best IT organization in the world. My goal is making my company the best retailer in the world. We are in the retailing business, not the IT business." That's progress, people, and it's also where Lean comes in. Lean puts the focus squarely on the customer: to eliminate waste from the customer's viewpoint and add value that the customer is willing to pay for. An IT organization can't support Lean initiatives and not be focused on Business Technology.

Many of Forrester's clients have told us they have an increased emphasis on Lean Thinking due to the recession. While waste elimination may be the impetus for the change, they don't want to just blindly cut costs in a way that can damage their ability to serve customers or that will damage their ability to gear the business back up once the economy starts to recover. Taking a Lean approach focuses on the waste, but also positions your organization to be much more effective in innovating and rapidly delivering new products or services to customers when demand rekindles.

Also stoking the popularity of Lean is the growing disillusionment with Six Sigma, another methodology that comes from Total Quality Management roots. Six Sigma has delivered enormous value in organizations, but can be too restrictive because the emphasis is on reducing defects by eliminating variance. An excessive focus on eliminating variation can reduce flexibility, with customers getting crammed through the same process even when they don't all really have the same needs. Companies that have used Six Sigma are now looking to Lean for ways to go beyond efficiency and achieve greater effectiveness through value creation and increased flexibility. While this is giving Lean a big boost, a lot of organizations misunderstand Lean and that can lead to trouble. Here's why: