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Frequently Asked Questions
Who should use Value Stream Maps?
#1 - Senior Leaders should use VSMs to measurably align resources with organizational value outcomes and values manifestations.
VSMs visual nature along with pertinent performance data enable observability. See, measure and directly communicate about our effectiveness and efficiency with available resources and our current environment using the language of what we care about.
Creating VSMs requires a lot of communication with, among, and between the folks who are creating and delivering our value. Senior leaders should use VSMs for numerous purposes including understanding current state (reality, not design) and identification of desired future state. VSMs demonstrate and document where value is created and delivered, enabling everyone to see where they add their value to our shared outcomes.
Value Vision - what does our ideal state look like, how do we define, qualify, and quantify what we hope for and aspire to deliver? Value visions are strategic, and include qualitative and quantitative components.
There are many value streams and value creation and delivery points, along with necessary supporting actions and activities. Collectively they are the fabric of our organization, and could be rightly called our operating system. Systematically and comprehensively aggregating value streams is an excellent way to build, diagnose, and validate Digital Twins.
#2 - Junior Leaders should use VSMs to understand and improve performance in delivery and direct support of organizational goals and key results.
Becoming intimately familiar with VSMs provides leaders with insights into where their most important activities are and how they are performing. Understanding where we are is the first step. Improvement is our starting point. Qualification and quantification of the processes, people, and technologies or tools enable a data based evaluation for application of prioritization, using an approach such as Theory of Constraints.
As with the improvement Kata we can then focus on the current state and consider what better looks like in alignment with our Value Vision and/or Value Target(s).
Value Target - an objective, goal, or aspiration for future value creation and delivery, whether defining new or updating goals due to attainment. The intent to to help people understand expectations and drive improvement as measured by cost, speed of delivery, satisfaction, innovation, key results, etc. Value Targets are tactical in nature, predominantly quantitative, and directly support the Value Vision.
Value Targets are very useful as intermediate objectives, supporting activities and services, administrative and other organizational tasks and their value streams will have many intersections, joins, diverges, shared dependences, etc. which should be represented and managed cohesively and comprehensively.
#3 - Engaged Teams & Associates should use VSMs to drive, or at least enable facilitation of meaningful contribution to delivery and support of shared Value Targets in alignment with their common Value Vision.
Teams and individuals that can contribute meaningfully to something they care about set the stage for engagement in almost any role or team. Teams that are already engaged tend to find this interesting and useful, especially in a collaborative team environment, such as cultures and practices based on Agile, DevOps, Lean, Six Sigma, and TOGAF to name a few.
Individual associates can be quickly and meaningfully onboarded with clarity and focus. Associates can also leverage VSMs to bring their ideas and innovations to the team with testable hypotheses based on results. This puts some teeth behind the DevOps Third Way of creating an environment of learning and experimentation. As we collect information and measure outcomes, or value delivery improvements realized help us drive the journey where the data and value realization take us on our journey.
Who should use Value Stream Maps? Only those who care, even just a little bit, about what we're doing and how we're doing it.
Who is Jack Maher?
Jack has been in the world of Lean since working for GE (back when Six Sigma was really getting going), through Kawasaki Steel, and into the digital age. As a recognized thought leader and practitioner in digital transformation, applying lean principles and practices have taken on new life.
His book "Standing On Shoulders: A Leader's Guide to Digital Transformation" was voted by the community and panel judged as
Best DevOps Book of the Year https://devopsdozen.com/
and was called a "must read" by Jayne Groll, CEO of the DevOps Institute on TechBeacon.com: http://bit.ly/MustRead7
His newest book "Value Stream Mapping: The Secret to Successful Digital Transformation" is available ot https://bookboon.com/en/value-stream-mapping-ebook
Why should I contact you?
You should only contact us if you want your organization to do a better job of creating and delivering value to your stakeholders. Instead of "better, faster, or cheaper - pick any two" we'll help you to get all three!