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Five Core Beliefs About VSM ConnectALL Swears By

In ConnectALL by Soumya Menon

The software industry is overwhelmed and is drowning in thousands of value stream management (VSM) definitions — some are broad and some are vague. In the last couple of years, the market is also flooding with new vendors who claim to provide VSM solutions to drive agility and velocity and accelerate software delivery — some of which are not even complete solutions.  Having worked in the B2B SaaS space and specifically practicing lean methodologies like VSM for over two decades, ConnectALL’s influencers and thought leaders have been advocating the correct understanding and adoption of VSM in the software industry. In …

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Recession and Value Stream Management — Is There a Connection?

In Agile Transformation, ConnectALL, Value Stream Management by Andrew Fuqua

At the 2022 agile conference in Nashville on July 18-22, someone asserted that Value Stream Management (VSM) is more important now that we’re in a recession because companies need to redouble their efforts on efficiency. Then the discussion turned to whether or not we are in a recession. I guess that’s what’s on the mind of many, for good reason. But I argued against the whole premise of the statement, both that it’s important because of the recession, and that the goal is efficiency. My position was, and is, that the recession is irrelevant when it comes to value stream …

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Address Your Company’s ‘Rock’ Or It Will Impede Forward Momentum

In Business Innovation, Business Value, ConnectALL, Tech Talk by Lance Knight

Note: Originally published on Forbes I recently was a guest on a podcast and discussed value stream management—the mechanisms of mapping the value stream, understanding flow and removing waste. I thoroughly enjoyed my session and felt that the moderator asked me some really great, thoughtful questions. I talked about one of my favorite quotes famously attributed to Peter Drucker, which is, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” While I agree wholeheartedly with this and have taken that approach throughout my professional career, another one of the quotes I shared was, “You are not managing something …

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The Surprising Reality About Software Process Bottlenecks (and How to Address Them More Effectively)

In ConnectALL, Value Stream Management, Value Stream Metrics by ConnectALL Marketing

Note: Originally published on LinkedIn Many people liken bottlenecks in software delivery to bottlenecks in manufacturing, and that isn’t an unreasonable comparison. Nevertheless, there are significant differences, not the least of which is that manufacturing bottlenecks tend to be easily identifiable. This is largely due to the measured nature of manufacturing where work flows through specific cells, and it’s pretty evident when one gets jammed up. Software bottlenecks are more complicated to diagnose and resolve because they aren’t always obvious. For example, one process might be two weeks behind, but if it’s at the end of the delivery cycle and …

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Not Everything That is Necessary Adds Value

In Business Value, ConnectALL, Value Stream Management by Lance Knight

Note: Originally published on DevOps.com Since the Lean production method for manufacturing arose in the 1930s, organizations everywhere have been seeking ways to apply it to reduce waste and increase productivity. This model has served thousands of companies well, from manufacturing and product design to software development. Yet, one difficulty that comes up when discussing or applying Lean in software development is the debate about what is and isn’t considered value-added work. Some people get defensive when certain activities are labeled non-value-add (NVA). Others argue that if a customer expects an activity and is willing to pay for it, it must be value-add …

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Every Truth You Need to Know About Value Stream Management

In ConnectALL, Value Stream Management by Soumya Menon

Every year, the software industry is pumped with 10-15 buzzwords. From Big Data, Distributed Cloud, and Artificial Intelligence to Machine Learning, DevOps and Everything as a Service, we have witnessed some of these buzzwords turning into full blown products and services. However, there are some actual practices that are not buzzwords and have been around for decades. One such is Value Stream Management. For several years, ConnectALL’s thought leaders have been talking about how Value Stream Management (VSM), a lean practice, is not new. In fact, every business is applying this at some level or the other while delivering software …

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3 Burning Answers to What are the Value Stream Metrics that Matter

In ConnectALL, Value Stream Management, Value Stream Metrics by Soumya Menon

Value Stream Metrics: There is no shortage of metrics related to software delivery. From Agile metrics, DevOps, DORA metrics, support, services and operational metrics to lean, value stream, flow metrics, product and predictability metrics, there’s so much hype.  Organizations are not confident in selecting metrics and there’s little acknowledgement that one set of metrics might not be all that an organization needs.  But, where do you start? How do you decide what measurements would help you analyze the health of your value stream and what changes you’d have to make to manage it? In a recent webinar hosted by DevOps.com, …