Value Stream Mapping is not a new thing by any stretch having a history steeped in improving manufacturing processes that dates way back to the hay day of ship building. It was recently rediscovered and applied to software. With software Value Steam Mapping shines as a low-cost / high value place to start getting serious about continuous process improvement. This is true even if you don’t go deeper with a Value Stream Management platform.
Value Stream Mapping is a means to reveal the reality of how work is done and measured regardless of business you are in or the process type that you aim to improve. Once you can see and appreciate this reality then you can go deeper with the related framework, metrics and maturity. Armed with the right metrics you can begin to explore the data driven options to make lasting improvements. Individual or collective improvements increase the flow of value to customers AND enhances the competitive advantage of the business.
Flow Engineering takes this to another level and relies heavily on Value Stream Maps to drive improvements with greater awareness and collaborative inclusion.
These are important elements of Value Stream Mapping:
Flow Metrics are needed to capture the current reality
Flow Framework shows how to leverage the metrics to increase maturity
Value Steam Maturity Model (Broadcom) along with metrics can show progression through the levels of maturity
Value Stream Consortium a happy place to interact with the community involving Value Streams
FlowBuddy (Value Stream Consortium)
Simple in concept, but more difficult to implement and establish as a part of the business culture. Once in place though your teams will thrive and become even more amazing than they are now. It all starts with mapping the current flow of work from concept to cash. That is from idea to when a customer pays for that thing that they value. The more optimized that stream of value is the better for all, especially your business.
It starts with getting to know the current reality of how work is done which can be accomplished several ways. One is a “Gemba walk” where you have Value Stream Mapping experts follow along & observe the work in progress from beginning to end. In doing so they document the steps involved and capture several metrics along the way that help to reveal what is going on.
Once you have the Value Stream mapped it becomes a power resource for revealing the best opportunities to improve. At this point crafting and then playing through experiments against target opportunities will make the magic happen for you.
It is fair to say that if you cannot produce a Value Stream Map of a workflow then you probably don’t really know what you are doing and/or are not doing it as well as you could. No offense intended…
Comments:
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very interesting
Some external links for additional information:
- Value Stream Consortium
- Value Stream Maturity Model (Broadcom)
- FlowBuddy (Value Stream Consortium)
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