Purpose – The purpose of this study is to capture the perception of the IT support service practitioners regarding the applicability of the lean practices and prioritize them after analyzing the gaps with respect to current usage and importance from practitioners’ perspective. Design/methodology/approach – It involved development of an instrument to capture the perceptions of the IT support service practitioners. The data collected was quantitatively analyzed by using statistical techniques and it involved testing of the hypotheses. Findings – The study conducted a gap analysis on the perceived current usage of the lean practices versus the perceived ideal usages of the lean practices from practitioners’ perspective. The gap analysis report revealed that gaps of all practices are not same from the practitioners’ viewpoint. This gap analysis was useful for prioritizing of the practices and resource allocation. Originality/value – This study was conducted in a relatively new domain, where mature empirically based studies are scarce. This study set out to determine the practitioners’ perception of the applicability of lean practices in IT support service organizations. It provides a sound basis for further research on lean implementation in IT support service area. © 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.