Creating an IT value stream map
VSM has become a critical capability to implement and improve Lean practices across IT-related value streams. Commonly, organizations that employ VSM methods and tools may have already established Agile practices and perhaps implemented CI/CD toolchains. But now, their goal is to move to implement CI/CD practices as Lean pipelines. The VSM team’s primary goals are improving collaborations and synchronizing information and workflows across development-oriented value streams.
None of those activities guarantees the IT department has taken the effort to eliminate waste from the customer-centric perspective of Lean. However, VSM helps us do just that. Also, for this mapping exercise, assume executive management working with the VSM team has selected a software development program as its targeted value stream for improvement.
More precisely, in our examples of using the standardized eight-step VSM methodology for this book, we assume the organization...