Value
Streams and SAFe® are almost synonymous.
Without the former, the latter would struggle to deliver business
value. But, since the inception of SAFe
way back in 2008, we have learned a great deal about how to view these value
streams, and how to organize around them to promote true lean flow of value to
the enterprise.
SAFe ® Value Stream Alignment
Before
diving into this new learning, let’s review what a ‘value stream’ really
is. We start with understanding our Operational value streams, which are the
set of interconnected steps that we go through to deliver value to our
customers. These value streams start
with the concept, or the trigger or
reason for delivering the value. For
example, when a potential or existing bank customer learns they are going to
have their first child they may start thinking about purchasing a new
house. The trigger is the need for the
value that the enterprise wants to provide.
The steps the enterprise goes through to deliver that value successfully
to the customer are the operational value stream steps, such as marketing the
mortgage offering, accepting the application, processing the customer’s credit
and information, and providing and servicing the mortgage. As the customer pays off the mortgage, we get
to the other side of the operational value stream, the Cash. This term is often
used a bit ambiguously, but essentially means the fulfillment of the value
stream to the satisfaction of the customer and the enterprise, resulting in
both the customer and enterprise receiving benefit for the value. Very often the actual money is transferred
from customer to enterprise during the value stream (not always at the end),
such as when the customer continues to pay the mortgage payments and the bank
receives the mortgage principle and interest, but the operational value stream
continues to flow as it services and eventually closes the mortgage.
While
SAFe ® can
be used to assist operational value streams to deliver, the sweet spot is
really in supporting the Development
value streams. Development value streams
are the set of steps we go through to support operational value stream
steps. They consist of the people,
systems, and processes we use to support these operational steps. For our mortgage example, there is most
likely a credit review system for the credit approval step, and a set of
systems that support the mortgage servicing steps.
A Different Way of Thinking
SAFe
® was originally
designed to organize Agile Release
Trains around these systems to allow lean flow of value to increment
and improve these systems. E.g. If we
want to improve the Credit Review System, we would organize an Agile Release
Train around the development of this system.
However,
as we learn about the application of the virtual organization of an ART to
deliver value, we have discovered that very often this does not promote lean
flow of value. There are many reasons
behind this issue, but the most prevalent is that very seldom does a single system
alone support the Operational value stream step. There are almost always other aspects, such
as Compliance, Regulatory, Marketing, Sales, Legal, Research, etc. To promote true lean flow, we need to rethink
this paradigm and focus on all of the steps needed to improve these operational
value stream steps.
The
new way of thinking starts with a new way of identifying value streams. Traditional SAFe guidance helps us find the
Operational value streams, then discover the Systems that support these steps,
and then to find the people that support these systems. Dr Alan Ward defined Development value
streams as the set of steps we go through to Create, Update or Deprecate
Operational value stream steps, and he included all steps in this process. Applying
his work and this new way of thinking we look at all steps we go through to
positively impact these Operational steps, such as Business, Infrastructure, Research,
Marketing, Legal, Sales, etc.
Lean Flow
Let’s
discuss a simple example from manufacturing.
If a car maker is building cars, they are using an operational value
stream to handle orders, bring in raw materials, create and assemble the parts,
and ship and sell the car. In
manufacturing the steps to create a part are typically called a recipe, which includes all the specific
steps to heat, form, stamp, etc the material to create a part, such as a hood. The operational value stream step already is
capable of producing this hood (via the recipe), but lets say we want to
improve this hood. What are the steps we
would go through to improve the strength of the hood? To improve the aerodynamic properties? To reduce the amount of metal used in the
production? These steps are probably
fairly similar, and would require the same people: designers, metallurgy
specialists, marketing (for shape), compliance/legal (for safety), etc. These people would go through a somewhat
generic set of steps to improve the recipe to create the hood. As they design, test, review, validate and
confirm this new hood design, they update the Recipe, hence they are updating
the Operational value stream step. We
then repeat these same steps for the next improvement we want to make to this
Operational step, such as reduce the cost of the hood, make it lighter, etc.
Software
and Hardware development is no different.
The end result is still that we want to improve the operational step,
and we need a variety of people to do so.
In software we typically need the people in the SDLC process, but we also
need people from Legal, Compliance, Marketing, Sales, Design, Infrastructure,
etc to improve this Operational step.
Hardware/Firmware is similar in that we also need the people that
actually create the product, but also all the other players that are needed to
actually update the operational step.
These are the people we include in our virtual organization in the ART.
The Island
While
coaching this method to a past client, I had the pleasure to work with a true
Change Agent, Phil Purrington. As Phil
came to understand this method, he explained it this way. “Imagine we have a deserted island, and we
need to bring all the people needed to solve similar business problems to this
island. This has to include all the
skills needed because, well, we’re on an island!” This is a great visual as we understand the
importance of having all the skills and experience needed on the ART to deliver
value, and not just update a system.
Having this island mentality will definitely promote lean flow!
The Tradeoff’s
While
this method creates true lean flow, it does not come without it’s cost as we
have to make some tradeoff’s. When we
focus an ART on a specific system we can create a high level of architectural
integrity and consistency, as the same people are always updating the same
system. Using this lean flow method we
lose some of that singular focus on a system, but this can be easily overcome
and compensated with good architectural design (loosely coupled, micro service
based systems are great ways to relieve this issue), Community’s of Practice to
distribute knowledge and proper usage, and clear strategic direction from
leadership for a common vision to build upon.
In reality, less focus on organizing around the systems leads to better architectural development out of
necessity.
A Different Focus
The
result in focusing on this wider scope is that we reduce all the handoff’s and
delays created when we have to wait for legal, compliance, marketing, or other
inputs. And, after all, that’s what we
really want to focus on, Lean Flow. If there’s anything that the Toyota
Production System, Don Rienertsen’s work, or any other lean expert will teach
us, focusing on true lean flow of value will provide significant increases in
value delivery. And, after all, isn’t
that what SAFe ®
is all about?
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