Accelerate System Flow: Part 3 - Defining Future State Value Stream
Combining the power of Value Stream Mapping with Root Cause Analysis to accelerate system flow
Part 3 – Defining the Future State Value stream
In Part 2 of this blog series, Team Toaster Strudel identified the two major bottlenecks that are clogging up their system of value delivery, the Wait Time between the Test and Deploy states and the Wait Time between the Define and Refine states. See Figure 1 below.
Reducing the Wait Time Between the Test and Deploy States
Using the 5 Whys technique for root cause analysis in the prior step, the team determined that their workflow from Test to Deploy is completely manual and the only way to reduce or eliminate the Wait Time of 20 days between steps is through automation.
The team understands that most of the Wait Time is out of their control. Once they deploy and smoke test their code in the Staging environment, they are dependent upon the Operations team (Ops) to deploy the code into Production. The is in essence a “handoff” and any time there is a handoff between one person or team to another is a source of potential delay.
The Ops team follows a monthly deployment schedule that integrates code from multiple teams, tests it and deploys it to production to ensure stability and security. Although monthly deployments are light years ahead of where the organization was a few years ago with annual deployments, it still isn’t fast enough for some teams who require accelerated value delivery and faster feedback loops.
Dorothy encourages the team to focus their energy on what they can control first and then determine how they can influence the Ops team to accelerate their deployment schedule.
The team determines that 1 of the days in the 20 day Wait Period is the time it takes to deploy their code from the Test environment to the Staging environment. They believe they can significantly reduce that time from a day to minutes by automating that part of their deployment pipeline. This was already on their roadmap to do but they decided to address it now rather than later.
The biggest challenge is working with the Ops team to see if they can deploy the code sooner rather than having it sit. The SM believes there is a solution to this. There have been discussions within the Ops team to create an “Express Lane” to accelerate deployment of code outside of the defined monthly schedule. The Ops team has defined a set of criteria that must be met for the code to be accepted on the “Express Lane” to ensure stability and security.
The team reviews the “Express Lane” criteria and believes they can implement it, but it will take a few iterations to complete the work needed to meet the requirements. These include things like security scans, feature toggles, etc. They realize there will be a few manual steps remaining, but they should be able to reduce the Wait Time from 20 days to 2 days knowing that perfect is the enemy good and that continuous incremental improvements over time will get them to a fully automated deployment pipeline. They also realize that by incorporating the tests that are part of the “Express Lane” criteria as part of their Definition of Done, they will improve the Percent Complete & Accurate numbers from 50% in the Test and Deploy states to 90% or higher by reducing reworking.
The team updates Wait Time and Percent Complete & Accurate with the planned improvements. See Figure 2.
SAFe Advanced Facilitator: Master Value Stream Mapping with Our Micro-Credential
Introducing the SAFe Advanced Facilitator: Value Steam Mapping micro-credential Introduction In
Accelerate System Flow: Combining Value Stream Mapping with Root Cause Analysis
Combining the power of Value Stream Mapping with Root Cause Analysis to accelerate system flow
What’s Next
In the next installment of this series, we will explore Step 4 of the VSM process, Developing and Action Plan, where Team Toaster Strudel creates Features and Stories in their backlog to implement their Future State Value Stream. Check out part 4 here.
Additional References
To learn more about Value Stream Mapping, I highly recommend Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation by Karen Martin and Mike Osterling. This book is the de facto standard VSM.
To learn more about effectively facilitating a VSM workshop in your organization, I encourage you to check out SAFe’s Advanced Facilitator: Value Stream Mapping workshop. This micro-credential is a half day, virtual workshop that covers the VSM process soup to nuts. Learn more at Advanced Facilitator: Value Stream Mapping and please join Frameworx for our scheduled class on August 6th by registering on Eventbrite!
SAFe Advanced Facilitator: Master Value Stream Mapping with Our Micro-Credential
Introducing the SAFe Advanced Facilitator: Value Steam Mapping micro-credential Introduction In
Accelerate System Flow: Combining Value Stream Mapping with Root Cause Analysis
Combining the power of Value Stream Mapping with Root Cause Analysis to accelerate system flow
Tom Wessel brings over 30 years of experience in various industries in software development. His experience spans the entire end-to-end product life cycle from inception to delivery. With over 15 years of experience as a trainer and coach, Tom has worked with various organizations of all shapes and sizes to train, coach, and mature their agile mindset and transform how they deliver value.
View Tom's calendar here to schedule an introductory call.
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