As an executive your focus is always on delivering the most value from every investment. Value for your customers, and of course value for yourself. Yet there are so many places in the value delivery process where things can – and do – go wrong.
The term “value stream” describes the end- to-end process of developing and delivering software to your clients. The value stream starts with your investment selection and prioritization, which is itself driven by feedback from clients.
It continues through the resourcing and scheduling processes and then enters the delivery cycle, taking any number of different paths to ultimately reach the point where a solution is ready for deployment. That solution must be released effectively and efficiently and must be managed and supported in the production environment while generating more feedback that starts the cycle over.
Historically that end-to-end value stream has not been managed as a continuous flow, but rather as a series of points, each with its own working methods, software tools and resources. Each of these variables can cause problems and make it harder for you to identify bottlenecks and adjust work mid-stream in response to emerging threats and opportunities.
Enter Value Stream Management. VSM is a process designed to integrate your value stream. It’s a common data platform that covers the entire value stream from initial ideation and investment management, through agile and continuous planning, development and testing, release management and all the way through to production with IT operations and service management.
VSM gives all value stream stakeholders a view into what’s happening at every step of the process. That view is tailored to each stakeholder’s needs. It combines high level overviews with the power to drill down to the deepest detail. Most importantly, it enables action. When something changes, or when you need to adjust work, you can do it in one place without disrupting teams or derailing the process.
Not all VSM solutions are created equal. Your platform should support the entire value stream from client feedback loops to operations and service management. It should allow you to make an impact by focusing on specific areas like test automation and change management, while still maturing your organization, processes and technology.
You also need the ability to easily connect to common tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, GitLab and many more. In short you need a solution like ServiceNow, a Leader in The Forrester Wave Value Stream Management Solutions, Q3 2020. Download the report.
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