What is a value stream in SAFe?
SAFe identifies two value streams within the organization.
- The operational value stream
- Development value stream
Operational Value Stream
This focuses primarily on how the organization earns money.
This value stream will identify how customers connect with the organization, how the team or team of agile teams create and capture value for that customer, and everything that needs to happen for a customer need to be satisfied.
A map of how we create a product or feature for the customer and how we deliver and service that product or feature in the customer environment.
Development Value Stream
The operational value stream is supported by systems and solutions and infrastructure.
It could be something as simple as a website or it could be as complex as an integrated, interconnected information systems infrastructure.
These are all kinds of systems that support the customer journey and operational value stream.
All the systems, solutions, and infrastructure that support the organization in creating and capturing value for customers is known as the Development Value Stream.
So, a development value stream is a team, or team of agile streams, that support and enable the operational value stream.
Focus of the development value stream
Their primary focus is the development of systems and solutions that ensure that the operational value stream delivers the best, smoothest customer experience possible but they will also keep an eye on the end-to-end value stream.
Things like a value stream mapping workshop allow the teams to identify:
- Bottlenecks in the system.
- Sticking points where things tend to fall over.
- Decision-making problem areas that need executives to decentralize decision-making.
- Cross-over areas where things come unstuck.
- Opportunities for continuous improvement.
We might need to make changes in how we work to optimize the value stream. We may need to remove certain steps or decision-making committees in favor of a more agile solution.
As the teams and leadership teams move through each element of the value stream, they look for opportunities to improve the entire system and optimize for continuous delivery of value to customers.
So, it isn’t development for the sake of development, it is a focused effort on improving the customer journey and enabling operational value streams to produce the most valuable product or feature to customers.
About Value Glide
Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.
As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.
In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.
If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.
If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.
If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.
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