Our article focuses on an interview with Serge Lucio, General Manager of the Agile Operations Division at Broadcom. Conducted amidst recent studies and our 4^th annual VSM Summit, this insightful conversation provides valuable insights into the world of Value Stream Management (VSM). We explore key takeaways from the interview, shedding light on the industry’s trajectory and how organizations can maximize the benefits of VSM.

The primary benefit of VSM: Digital transformation

In a recent VSM trends survey, 96% of respondents indicated they were already benefiting from VSM. What’s the top-rated benefit? That they were able to make progress in digital transformation.

Historically, as teams set out to pursue digital transformation initiatives, they were working from a traditional model, one in which IT functioned as a “service provider” for the business. Leaders started to realize that this operating model was one of the biggest impediments to transformation. Through VSM, organizations can fundamentally revamp this model, establishing an approach that fosters collaboration and alignment between business and IT. Consequently, by employing VSM, teams are much better positioned to excel in their transformation initiatives.

Organizing around value streams is essential

Employing VSM is a holistic, pervasive process in an organization. One of the first steps required is value stream mapping. Fundamentally, this is about charting the path to go from an initial idea to the customer deriving value from that idea, whether in the form of a new product, service, or capability.

Soon after this mapping is undertaken, teams quickly see all the interdependencies that exist between different functional areas. That’s why leaders start to create multi-functional groups that are aligned around value streams, rather than staying with the functionally siloed organizations of the past.

Visibility is lacking, impeding VSM progress

The VSM Trends report also revealed that 80% of respondents didn’t have good visibility across their value streams. Tool fragmentation is the key cause of these challenges. Our leadership recently met with executives at a large media company. Within a single line of business, they were using 13 different tool chains. This tool proliferation is the end result of different development teams opting to use the tools they prefer, not to mention mergers and acquisitions, changes in leadership, and more.

There was another case of leaders in a large financial services firm who recounted how they couldn’t account for hundreds of IT resources in their project management tool. While these IT resources were included in HR and payroll systems, leaders weren’t able to view or manage them from a project management standpoint.

These visibility limitations can be evidenced in other ways. Executives at a utility firm reported needing to use 220,000 smart sheets to manage their VSM efforts. From those spreadsheets, teams then routinely built hundreds of slides to track and report on progress.

Teams struggle to translate and align data that exists between different systems. With disparate, disconnected toolchains, it is very difficult to gain an understanding of fundamental aspects of performance. Are people focused on strategic efforts? Are teams delivering on time and on budget? Because different people are looking at different tools, answers vary. Further, because they lack unified visibility, the answers aren’t easy to come by or necessarily accurate. These issues all underscore the criticality of establishing integrated, normalized data that is drawn from all the systems of record that are currently in place.

Conclusion

VSM offers the potential for enterprises to make breakthrough gains in several areas, including visibility, alignment, and efficiency. However, many teams are hitting roadblocks that erode these potential benefits.

Watch the VSM Summit, which is now available on demand, to find out how your organization can overcome these obstacles. To learn more and register, be sure to visit our VSM Summit page.