XenonStack Recommends

DevOps

Value Stream Management Platform | The Ultimate Guide

Gursimran Singh | 04 January 2023

Value Stream Management Platform

Introduction to Value Stream Management Platform

Value Stream Management is a good idea for going around the DevOps community. We'll understand what it is all about and how to implement it. We know that in software delivery, we're always trying to get the best innovative ideas from the business delivered to the customer. Value Stream Management believes everything that happens, from ideas to customers, is essential and needs to be managed holistically.

Rather than managing the developers, testers, and business analysts separately, we optimize the flow of information across all these groups.

Value Stream Management makes the software delivery efficient by connecting the people, processes, and technology. Click to explore about our, Value Stream Management and its Tools

Let's look at an example:

We have an idea for a particular module and prioritize it before we go to the design /development team for implementation. Because we deliver to the client, there's a testing team, and we run a whole group of tests on them. Once the test team has verified the expected functionality, then we go for a release.

Now we want to start optimizing the above process to save the release times so that we can see the scope of improvement is likely to go every step, and that will mean certain time needs to be dedicated to every step of the way. There's likely to be waiting for time / unused resources that can be taken care off by amplifying their processes. They were able to remove the underlying inefficiencies.

What is Value Stream Management?

Value Stream Management (VSM) is a method used to visualize and optimize the flow of value in an organization. It is a systematic approach to identifying, analyzing, and improving the series of activities a product or service goes through from conception to delivery to the customer.

A methodology or an operating model that establish an Agile relationship between growth and IT operations. Click to explore about our, DevOps on Google Cloud Platform

What is the Role of ValueOps in VSM?

Value Stream Management is a method used to visualize and optimize the flow of value in an organization. It is a systematic approach to identifying, analyzing, and improving the series of activities a product or service goes through from conception to delivery to the customer.

ValueOps puts "value" into it by providing a single, integrated platform that unifies the business and IT.

While with DevOps, teams can speed delivery and reduce risk, and they align with strategic business outcomes. This is where Value Stream Management (VSM) has become a critical requirement for enterprise-wide success.

With an effective VSM, teams can continuously add value to customers and eliminate wasted investment. Companies must stop focusing on optimizing separate tools, teams, and departments and start optimizing the flow of products and services across the entire value stream. For many organizations, this practice poses significant challenges.

ValueOps can provide solutions to address these challenges. With this solution, companies can effectively and efficiently deploy and manage VSM strategies, allowing teams to establish the necessary internal horizontal alignment. ValueOps seamlessly combines clarity planning features with advanced Agile management, all in an integrated, easy-to-use, and flexible platform.

A document that describes what the end-users want the system to do and not how the system works. Click to explore about our, Functional Specification Document

What does a VSM Platform do?

A Value Stream Management Platform is a software tool that helps organizations to implement and manage their VSM process. It typically provides a visual representation of the value stream and enables users to track and analyze the flow of work through the various stages of the value stream. The platform may also provide features for managing and optimizing work flow, such as scheduling, capacity planning, and performance measurement.

VSM platforms can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's operations by reducing waste, improving flow, and increasing customer satisfaction. They can be applied to various industries, including manufacturing, software development, healthcare, and finance.

Steps for adopting the VSM Platform

To adopt the VSM platform in your organization, you can follow these steps:
  1. Identify the process or value stream that you want to analyze and improve. This could be a process within a department, a cross-functional process, or the entire value stream from raw materials to delivering a product or service to the customer.
  2. Identify the team responsible for conducting the VSM analysis and implementing improvements. This team should include representatives from all functions involved in the process and be led by a trained VSM facilitator.
  3. Gather data on the current state of the process. This may include information on process flow, cycle times, defects, and other metrics. You can also gather data on customer requirements and expectations.
  4. Create a current state map of the process. This visual represents the flow of materials and information through the process, including all steps, handoffs, and decision points.
  5. Identify waste and inefficiencies in the process. Look for activities that add no value to the product or service, delays or bottlenecks, and unnecessary steps or handoffs.
    Develop a future state map that shows how the process could be improved. This may include eliminating waste, streamlining steps, reducing handoffs, and improving communication and decision-making.
  6. Implement the improvements identified in the future state map. This may involve changes to the physical layout of the process, how work is organized and performed, or changes to the tools and equipment used.
  7. Monitor the process to ensure that the improvements are effective and identify any additional improvement opportunities.
  8. It's important to note that VSM is an iterative process, and it may take multiple rounds of analysis and improvement to optimize a value stream fully.
Empower an Enterprise to achieve more excellent business value, innovate faster, and shorten feedback loops. Click to explore about our, Enterprise DevOps Transformation Assessment

Reasons to adopt the VSM Platform

There are several reasons why organizations may want to adopt the VSM platform:

  • Increase efficiency and reduce waste: By identifying and eliminating waste and inefficiencies in a process, organizations can increase the speed and efficiency of the process, resulting in cost savings and improved customer satisfaction.
  • Improve communication and collaboration: VSM helps bring representatives from different organizational functions and levels to work together towards a common goal. This can improve communication and collaboration, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving.
  • Increase agility and responsiveness: By streamlining processes and reducing waste, organizations can become more agile and responsive to changing customer needs and market conditions.
  • Improve quality: Organizations can improve the quality of their products and services by identifying and eliminating defects and other sources of variability in a process.
  • Foster continuous improvement: VSM encourages a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging teams to identify and eliminate waste and inefficiencies on an ongoing basis.

Which industries would benefit from VSM Platform adoption?

VSM can be applied to any industry or organization that has a process that it wants to analyze and improve. It is particularly well-suited to manufacturing and service industries, where there is a need to optimize the flow of materials and information to deliver products or services to customers. Some specific industries that may benefit from adopting the VSM platform include:

  • Manufacturing: VSM can be used to analyze and improve the flow of materials and information through manufacturing processes, resulting in improved efficiency, quality, and responsiveness to changing customer needs.
  • Healthcare: VSM can be used to analyze and improve the flow of patients and information through healthcare systems, resulting in improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.
  • Finance: VSM can be used to analyze and improve the flow of financial transactions and information within financial organizations, resulting in improved efficiency and accuracy.
  • Government: VSM can be used to analyze and improve the flow of information and services within government agencies, resulting in improved efficiency and customer satisfaction.
  • Retail: VSM can be used to analyze and improve the flow of goods and information through retail organizations' supply chain and distribution networks, resulting in improved efficiency and responsiveness to changing customer needs.
Identify user needs and the problems that need to be solved. It is the first step toward designing and developing a solution. Click to explore about our, Requirements Elicitation Processes

What is Value Stream Delivery Platform (VSDP)?

  • Integrate or provide out-of-the-box functionality for DevOps engine functionality (to build, test, analyze, integrate, provision, configure, secure, deploy, observe, recover, etc.) ) and reduce manual tool coordination.
  • Enables business analysts and product owners to identify features with information gained from progress.
  • Navigate and stay secure with audit logs, even with distributed teams, workloads, and infrastructure.
  • Leverage multi-channel alerts on user-defined events to speed up processes and correct errors.
  • Improve time to market and app availability.
  • Collaborate effectively to review code, share, and streamline delivery.
  •  Provides transparency at all stages of CI/CD for better tracking, governance, and compliance.

What are the benefits of adopting Value Stream Delivery Platform (VSDP)?

  • Businesses need a way to scale DevOps to deliver innovation securely and quickly, and VSDP is evolving rapidly to meet the demands of increasingly complex DevOps workflows.
  • The collision between the DIY toolchain and remote working has exposed the problems faced by companies in managing software development. When the job goes silent, visibility of the progress of the work in progress fades.
  • Not integrating all the different development tools and environments reduce the ability to detect security issues before new features are released.
  • Non-integrated tools and non-standard DevOps environments prevent collaboration. Different Agile and DevOps tools limit process improvements.
  • Adopting VSDP eliminates these problems and allows you to scale. Gartner's market report shows that early adopters of VSDP are seeing exponential gains in continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) and the ability to drive business value.
Java vs Kotlin
The fusion of digital technology into all industry sides, changing how you use and convey it to customers. Download to explore the potential of Digital Transformation

What are the future trends of VSDP?

The need for lean development and visibility in the software value stream is deeply rooted in digital transformation and the growing pressure to deliver innovation (and value) faster:

  • Mass adoption of cloud computing
  • Container-based architecture
  • Increase use fast development

Companies need scalable solutions to remove waste from their processes to ensure a steady stream of value to customers. To achieve this, organizations need visibility into shipping processes. When they can assess work quality and process quality, they can continuously improve delivery, helping to get higher quality features into the hands of business users faster pressure for DevOps to create business value.

Conclusion

Overall, the VSM platform can help organizations to deliver better products and services to their customers more efficiently and effectively, leading to improved business performance and customer satisfaction.