Abstract
Value streams are sets of actions designed to provide added value to a customer, from initial request through to the realization of value by the customer. A typical value stream begins with an initial concept, moves through various stages of development, through delivery, and finally to support. Astute business leaders are beginning to understand the vital importance of harnessing value throughout their organization, but knowing where to start in a complex business can be tricky.
Read on to discover some of the essentials of Value Stream Management (VSM), and obtain a comprehensive guide to help you to get it right, first time.
What exactly does value mean for today’s businesses?
At its core, value signifies strength. It compels and drives us. Value gives us purpose and it is what drives knowledge workers today. Considering this purely from an economic perspective, it is essential to focus on value – specifically how it flows in streams from concept to cash – and to organize our ways of working around it. This is where Value Stream Management comes into play and enables the fittest companies to survive and thrive in an increasingly complex world.
Effective Value Stream Management, high on any discerning CEO’s agenda, improves team productivity and product quality. It is fundamentally a management technique or practice that focuses on increasing the flow of business value from customer requests to customer delivery, and enables teams to be truly data-driven and interconnected. It also encourages “value stream thinking”, aimed at optimizing the flow of work, from idea to value realization, and accelerating the time to value. In today’s most successful organisations, value stream thinking puts valuable improvements into customers’ hands as fast as possible.
While all that sounds straightforward, it pays to dive a little deeper to fully understand what business leaders can do, to implement VSM efficiently in their organizations.
Value streams – from theory to practice
Understanding the principles of the SAFe® framework is the first step to business agility, and value streams are a pivotal concept in the SAFe® framework. They are a critical underpinning of Lean thinking.
SAFe® considers three different value streams, complementing each other:
- The Operational Value Stream (OVS) – arguably the foundation. The sequence of activities needed to deliver a product or service to a customer.
- Development Value Streams (DVS) – complementary value streams necessary to build solutions, and used by teams in the OVS.
and, - The Business Agility Value Stream (BAVS) – focused on reducing time to market, from sensing an opportunity to delivering a product to the market.
The latest ebook from Valiantys, “On the CEO’s agenda: organizing around value“, explores what each of these entails, and walks you through some of the key underlying SAFe® principles.
With numerous examples and a handy checklist for self-assessment, find out how you can take VSM further within your organization. Learn how to generate value for your customers and your people, and discover the key to unlocking the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers while decentralizing decision-making for better results.
Conclusion
Value flows through the organization and connects everything that matters in the complex system we call a “company”. It is key on many CEO’s agendas to learn how value can flow more efficiently when the values of the different stakeholders (your customers and your people) are well understood and cared for. Discover more here.
