Value Stream Management
Mapping and Optimizing Flow
Value Stream Management (VSM) is used to chart and understand the critical steps in a specific process, quantifying the time and volume taken at each stage, to identify key constraints like slow hand-off interactions.
Mapping DevOps value streams enables the development team to understand how work flows through the different functions, right from idea inception through to deployment.
DevOps emphasizes collaboration between development and operations, but silos can still form. VSM identifies where constrictions occur that slow the overall system throughput, identifying key constraints like slow hand-off interactions.
The VSM Consortium offers a centre of excellence and reference architecture documentation for organizations to understand and implement VSM best practices.
Best Practices
Workflow Mapping
Software development teams often face challenges such as delays, inefficiencies, and quality issues. As Wikipedia describes Value Stream Mapping offers a systematic approach to analyzing, optimizing, and visualizing the flow of work in the software lifecycle.
Optimizing Process Flow
A value stream map is a visual tool that displays all critical steps in a process and easily quantifies the time and volume taken at each stage. By implementing VSM practices, teams can streamline their processes, identify bottlenecks, and optimize workflows.
Whole System Design
By mapping the flow of processes teams can develop an understanding of their end-to-end organizational flows, and from this identify and eliminate system-level bottlenecks, an approach central to the Theory of Constraints.
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