13 October 2024

Agile and the value stream analysis

Value stream analysis

  • Value stream analysis is described in :
    • Value stream mapping
    • Waste and WIDETOM
    • Business value delivered chart

Value stream mapping

  • The value stream map is a Lean tool that practitioners use to analyse the value stream.
    • Value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing analysis technique adopted by agile.
    • A value stream map may be used to analyze the flow of information or materials from origin to destination to identify areas of waste.
  • The identified areas of waste are opportunities for process improvement.
  • A value stream map is typically mapped or charted collaboratively with a team so it may define and view the entire process together, pinpointing areas of waste within the process.
    • Processes that add value (processing of a part or feature) are generally referred to as « value-added » and processes that do not (e.g., waiting for a part to arrive) are generally referred to as « non value-added. ».
    • Generally speaking, one wants to reduce, to the largest extent possible, the non value-added time (i.e., areas of waste).
    • [Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility. Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott.]

Value Stream Mapping practice

  • This technique illustrates the flow of information (or materials) required to complete a process
  • It uses following reflections :
    • Identify the product or service that you are analyzing
    • Create a value stream map of the current process, identifying steps, queues, delays & information flows
    • Review the map to find delays, waste, and constraints
    • Create a new value stream map of desired future state of the process, optimized on delays, waste and constraints
    • Develop a roadmap for creating the optimized state
    • Plan to revisit the process in the future to continually tune and optimize

Waste

  • Waste can take many forms and can be remembered using the pneumonic device WIDETOM :
    • W – waiting;
    • I – inventory;
    • D – defects;
    • E – extra processing;
    • T – transportation;
    • O – overproduction;
    • M – motion.

Value stream analysis Steps

  • 1.Identify product / service to improve
  • 2.Create as-is value stream map
  • Create a value stream map of the current process, identifying steps, queues, delays, and information flows.
  • 3.Identify delays, waste, and constraints
  • 4.Create to-be value stream map
  • 5.Develop roadmap to optimized state
  • 6.Revisit the process in the future

Business value delivered chart

  • The entire enterprise (business, management, and development teams) needs the line of sight to velocity (points/time) dashboard-type view of work management which in other terms is a business value delivered chart.

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