A global survey of 600 senior executives conducted by CloudBees suggested a high correlation between investments made in value stream management (VSM) and digital business transformation success.
The survey found 90% of respondents agreed that organizations that committed to VSM are likely to be further ahead in terms of achieving their digital business transformation goals, with 92% noting VSM also creates more time to focus on innovation.
Hope Lynch, senior director for platform at CloudBees, said the challenge is that too many executives equate VSM with legacy Six Sigma processes rather than application development and deployment processes that advance digital business transformation initiatives. The survey found that while 90% of senior executives claimed they were familiar with the VSM concept, only half could select the correct answer when asked. In fact, two in five respondents confused the concepts of value stream management and value stream mapping. Nearly two-thirds (72%) of respondents admitted there is still confusion about what VSM is.
VSM traces its lineage back to lean manufacturing methods, which called for each step of a manufacturing process to be continuously measured. As software development has evolved and organizations realize how dependent they are on software, there is a growing appreciation for the value of monitoring things such as the impact of missed software development deadlines on the business. At their core, VSM platforms aggregate DevOps metrics and then match them to a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) defined by business leaders. Once those metrics are gathered and correlated, organizations can apply advanced analytics.
Eventually, the goal is to apply algorithms and other forms of predictive analytics that will enable organizations to more easily identify the precise impact software development processes have on the business, noted Lynch.
In the meantime, the CloudBees survey identified manager commitment as the main roadblock to VSM adoption, with 35% of respondents saying getting mid-level employees committed and 31% saying getting senior leadership committed are the biggest roadblocks. That’s a significant issue because more than half of respondents (56%) said C-level executives make VSM investment decisions.
Survey respondents also reported that scaling VSM efforts throughout the organization is a significant issue for a third (33%) of respondents.
In general, many VSM initiatives were sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, noted Lynch. However, organizations will now be looking to evaluate the results of those efforts, she added. Digital transformation plans are in place and going well, according to 96% of survey respondents, with only 18% reporting that they are moving, but not fast enough.
However, all software development processes could be improved by surfacing real-time insights, added Lynch. Most senior executives today don’t have a lot of visibility into the software development processes that are driving multiple digital transformation initiatives, she added.
In theory, VSM platforms should one day help narrow the divide that has long existed between IT and the rest of the business, as dashboards make it simpler for everyone involved to appreciate the cascading impact a software development decision has across the entire business.
