Using Value Stream Management to Accelerate Projects

Value stream management’s roots are in the dawn of lean, but the emergence of DevOps as a consequence of agile has triggered a renaissance in the practices. In this talk, Helen Beal, CEO of the Value Stream Management Consortium and Head of the Ambassador Program at PeopleCert (for PRINCE2, DevOps Institute, and ITIL), will show how value stream practices can be applied to projects to remove waste, avoid delays and mitigate risk. From her own experiences working with clients including Deutsche Telekom, Hiscox, LEGO, Lloyds Banking Group, RSPB, and Vanquis Bank, Helen will show how focusing on flow accelerates the delivery of projects, products and services, optimizing customer experience and business outcomes.

Key takeaways:

How project management practices align to value stream management and can lead to impactful implementation
How value stream orientation enhances transparency, making project bottlenecks, inefficiencies and dependencies visible
How to visualize projects as value streams to highlight waste and surface improvement opportunities for streamlining processes and optimizing resource allocation

Transcript

1. using VALUE STREAM MANAGEMENT to accelerate PROJECTS
2. Helen Beal Helen Beal is CEO and chair of the Value Stream Management Consortium and co-chair of the OASIS Value Stream Management Interoperability Technical Committee. She is head of the ambassador programme at PeopleCert (ITIL, PRINCE2 and DevOps Institute) and chair of the DevNetwork DevOps Advisory Board. She is an award -winning strategic advisor and industry analyst, the researcher behind the annual State of VSM Reports from the VSMC, the State of Availability Report from Moogsoft, amongst others. She is a co-author of the book about DevOps and governance, Investments Unlimited, published by IT Revolution. She is a DevOps editor for InfoQ, and also writes for a number of other online platforms. Helen hosts the Day-to-Day DevOps webinar series for TechTarget BrightTalk and serves on advisory and judging boards for many initiatives including Developer Week, DevOps World, JAX DevOps, and InterOp. Bringing joy to work
3. talk map OUR FLOW TODAY 3 How the two WOW align Why VSM, why now? See projects as value streams Why it’s all about the customer PMs using VSM
4. 4 comparing and contrasting project management and value stream management
5. 5 Focus on value delivery Process optimization Continuous improvement Visibility into work Dealing with dependencies Clarity over goals Risk management Getting stuff done in common
6. 6 Dimension Project Management Value Stream Management Perspective The successful delivery of a single project within defined constraints of time, cost, and scope. The entire flow of value from customer request to delivery, considering multiple projects/products and their interdependencies. Focus Planning, executing, and controlling tasks and resources to achieve project objectives. Identifying and eliminating waste, optimizing the flow of value, and continuously improving the end-to-end process. Metrics Schedule variance/cost variance, milestones, and earned value to track progress and success. Flow metrics such as lead time, cycle time, and throughput to measure the efficiency of the value stream and identify improvement opportunities. Timeframe Defined start and end date. An ongoing, continuous process of improvement aimed at optimizing the value stream over the long term. Organizational Impact Impacts specific teams or departments involved in a particular project. Can transform the entire organization by fostering a culture of continuous improvement, breaking down silos, and aligning teams around a common goal of delivering value to the customer
7. 7 why VSM, why now?
8. the challenge 8 Improvement initiatives Huge backlog of changes Do more with less Deliver more value Keep talent happy Improve quality Go faster How?
9. Lack of Clarity Bottlenecks & Queues ? Scope Creep And… Go? Dependencies Technical Debt Escalations and Interruptions Rework We’re different Large Batches things that get in the way
10. Value • We don’t know the outcome of our work • “We feel we are lacking purpose” • Demotivation and team unhappy • Cannot convince stakeholders • NPS stagnant or dropping • Cannot see P&L • Customers are leaving or complaining • Customer journey is slow • No data on customer experience • Sales are down things that trigger VSM Work • Acting like a “feature factory” • Tech debt accumulating • Too much WIP • Rework or delays • Link between feedback & planning missing • eNPS stagnant or dropping • Cannot see impact of improvements • Difficult to prioritize new activities • Organizational performance low • Do not have clear OKRs and KPIs
11. why does it matter? 11 Value Stream Management has two goals: 1. Optimizing the that delivers FLOW OF WORK VALUE 2. Measuring to make better OUTCOMES DECISIONS
12. THE TWO DIMENSIONS OF VSM 12 VALUE FLOW REALIZATION EFFICIENCY EFFECTIVENESS Outputs (value stream health) Outcomes (customer experience) Flow is the journey of work from idea to realization. Its travel should be friction-free. It’s a continuous steady stream of value for customers. Realization is the fulfillment of desired outcomes. It’s when a customer experiences the value intended. • Speed of flow • Frequency of delivery • Waste in the value stream • The work types underway • Customers actively using capability • Rate at which new customers arrive • Customers’ description of experience • Value stream finance health
13. 13 A value stream is an end-to-end set of activities which collectively creates value for a customer. James Martin, “The Great Transition’ Value The value-stream designers search for ways of achieving “outrageous” improvements in critical measures such as speed, cost, quality, and service. End-to-end The value stream team is concerned with all the activities, from start to delivery of results, and confirmation of satisfaction. Customer The value stream team is intensely focused on the customer (an external customer or an internal user) and is concerned with how to delight the customer.
14. 14 can a project look like a value stream?
15. is this a project or a value stream? Plan Design Develop Deliver Enable Test Learn & Adapt Business Hypothesis Customer Satisfaction 15
16. project? Plan Design Develop Deliver Enable Test Learn & Adapt Business Hypothesis Customer Satisfaction 16 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 5 Week 4 Week 6
17. value stream? Plan Design Develop Deliver Enable Test Learn & Adapt Business Hypothesis Customer Satisfaction 17 10 days 30 days 15 days 45 days 15 days 32 days 15 days 5 days 15 days 15 days 15 days
18. 18 value streams are made of processes Product Development Value Stream Define Design Develop Deploy Enable Test Portfolio planning Identify needs User story creation Wireframes & mockups User flows Visual design Set up environment Implement features Code reviews Develop test cases Perform testing Fix issues Configure infrastructure Deploy software Monitor performance Publish documentation Update users Gather feedback
19. Curiosity Discover Sale Use Purchase Customer Journey Review Recommend Need / Want journey or stream? Define Design Build Deploy Enable Test Marketing Value Stream Product Development Value Stream Define Design Build Deploy Enable Test 19
20. 20 how project managers can use VSM
21. THE VSM IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP 21
22. people think it’s hard to see value streams organization chart Siloed visibility 22
23. value streams typically traverse organizations Value Stream the path to value 23
24. seeing value streams makes constraints visible Web App stream Siloed visibility Constraint the flow of work 24
25. 25 Current State 20% better by seeing today Ideal State What could it look like someday? Future State What should it look like in 3-6 months? 80 days 10 days 40 days create current, ideal, & future states
26. Before After Total waste time => 50% Time for innovation, improvement, learning Faster delivery, feedback, pivots Less friction, toil, waiting, context switching waste removal = increased efficiency and effectiveness
27. 27 about being customer-centric
28. 28 We want new users to recommend our app after a week Look at the development & delivery workflow in question Work backwards from delivery End at initiation and retrace Identify contributors and stakeholders put the customer outcome first
29. measuring flow: metrics definition 29 Lead time: time from code commit to in production. Cycle time: idea registered to change is used by customer.
30. measuring value Leading • Value-added-time • Pre-orders • Social sentiment • Customer experience ◦ Journey time ◦ Session length ◦ Bounce rate ◦ Page views ◦ Conversions ◦ Basket size Lagging • Time-to-market • Production incidents • Revenue/sales • Profit margin • NPS • Customer churn/turnover • Customer adoption/retention • Customer lifetime value
32. VSM CAPABILITY MATRIX Dimension Emerging Learning Practicing Evolving Insights-Driven Data manually extracted Data is aggregated Tools have been integrated A single tool connects all parts and automates insights Dependencies Aware of dependencies Managing dependencies Breaking dependencies Loosely coupled/ autonomous teams and systems DevOps Toolchain Building continuous integration Using continuous delivery Architected from idea to value realization Work is traceable around entire cycle - automated value stream map Metrics Incident rate, change fail rate Deployment frequency, MTTR Lead time, cycle time Flow velocity, efficiency, value realized Organizational Starting to use value stream mapping Naming value streams, some roles Teams directed around value streams and customer journeys All teams organized around value streams, dedicated roles 32
33. the improvement outcomes Cost: Reduction in how much it costs to deliver value Value: Higher % of your time spent creating value Quality: Better consistency in your results Velocity: Accelerated speed at which you deliver work Capacity: Increased amount of work you can handle Complexity: Reduced cognitive load, dependency & risk
34. 34 use value stream management to: Gain a broader perspective Identify and eliminate waste Improve flow and delivery speed Enhance collaboration and communication Measure and improve performance Focus on customer value
35. THANK YOU 35