The document discusses using the Flow Framework to measure digital transformation by assessing software delivery flow. It provides examples of companies that improved their key results by identifying bottlenecks, reducing technical debt, and decreasing risk mitigation time. Measuring flow metrics helps organizations set better plans by accounting for bottlenecks and capacity. The Flow Framework focuses on continuously improving daily work and flow.

1. Project to Product:
Measuring Digital
Transformation with
the Flow Framework®
Dr. @mik_kersten (Tasktop, Founder & CEO)
© Tasktop 2022
Amazon Bestseller

2. © 2021 Tasktop
@mik_kersten
Master Software at Scale
© 2020 Tasktop
Every enterprise is a software company…
But most struggle to perform like one
Heavy planning and funding processes
Starting and stopping from frequent
cancellation, replanning and
reprioritization
IDEATE RELEASE
CREATE
8% 44%
48%
Waiting for
Approval
Waiting for
Capacity
Waiting for
Analysis Backlog
On hold/
Blocked In progress
Waiting for
Test
Waiting for
Acceptance
Waiting for
Release Done
Idea
Waiting
for Biz
Case
“Agile” but not nimble
Relative acceleration
during development
DevOps but not at scale
Delivery slowed down by
dependencies,
tech debt and manual processes
OPERATE
Poor quality creates
unplanned work
Incidents and war rooms
throw off plans

3. Where is your bottleneck?

4. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
of features are cancelled
after code has been written
20%
of products have zero capacity
for new work for 12+ months
35%
95%
of value streams do not know
what their flow efficiency is
85%
of products under-invest in
security and debt
8%
of what’s planned by Agile
teams gets delivered
Findings from value streams data collected via Tasktop Viz®
The key constraints are unknown and unmeasured

5. Project to Product Catalyzes Change
Architecture: decoupling for fast
flow
Automation: removing bottlenecks
Budgeting: funding of value streams
Reporting: flow metrics & outcomes
Org Design: autonomy & alignment

6. Aligned
Autonomous
Cross-functional
Customer-centric
Functions
Hierarchies
Geographies
Sourcing partners
Value Streams
The Messy Matrix

7. Role of Leadership
Configure
Run
Design
organization
Assess
organization
Pattern language
Flow Framework®
Structure
Dynamics
Job Toolkit Principles

8. Design
Team Topologies
SAFe®, Scrum, Spotify, STO,
…
Flow Framework®
Assess

9. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten
What flows in software delivery?
Features
Defects
Risks
Debts
New business value, pulled by customer
Quality improvements, pulled by customer
Security, availability, compliance, pulled by risk officers
Technical debt improvements, pulled by teams
Flow Items are MECE*
*Mutually Exclusive and Comprehensively Exhaustive

10. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

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@mik_kersten

17. Master Software at Scale
© 2022 Tasktop
Paying Down Technical Debt
Unlocking capacity and accelerating growth
In a highly competitive market, Flow Metrics exposed that
time-to-market for digital channel value streams had nearly doubled,
up from 22 days to 40 days, with a Flow Efficiency of only 20%.
Tasktop Viz identified the bottleneck in a legacy core backend
component, where self-service testing was not possible due to
technical debt. The huge investment the firm was making in digital
channels would have no ROI until this debt was paid down.
Rebalancing investments to modernize the backend services will
accelerate capabilities in revenue-generating digital channels.
45%
Feature acceleration capacity
after tech debt reduction
+$150M
Top line growth potential from
revenue pull forward
Securities $3.15B Revenue (2020)
Success story

18. Master Software at Scale
© 2022 Tasktop
Risk cost mitigation
Avoiding breaches and fines
When Flow Metrics were baselined, Risk (security and compliance)
work was not visible at the value stream level.
First, to make work visible and assign vulnerability patching faster, an
integration was introduced to auto-create Jira issues from scans and
route them to the right value stream’s backlog.
Next, after baselining Risk Flow Time at approx. 5 weeks, process
improvements were put in place to address vulnerabilities in a timely
manner. The result was a 60% improvement from identification to
mitigation.
60%
Improvement in risk mitigation
time for security vulnerabilities
15%
Reduced risk of breach by
patching vulnerabilities <30 days
Healthcare $38B Revenue (2020)
Success story

19. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Why Flow?
#1 job is improving flow
• To increase flow, we must
know the bottleneck
• “Any improvements made anywhere
besides the bottleneck is an illusion”
– Gene Kim, Phoenix Project

20. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Bad plans
• Micromanage teams & deliverables & dates
• Do not account for flow & bottlenecks
• Ignore capacity, increase WIP
Good plans
• Cascade business goals to value streams
• Measure flow of value, surface bottlenecks
• Prioritize learning and improvement

21. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Become the most innovative insurer in our industry
Example
30% Market share growth
50% Reduction in time to provision policy
10% Flow Efficiency improvement

22. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Customers love our mobile experience
Example: Policy Value Stream
◦ Flow Efficiency experiments with process improvement
◦ Verification turned out to be the bottleneck
◦ Team targeted “0 days wait state on business input”
◦ Flow Time reduced by 70%, NPS started climbing
◦ Helped company KR of 50% less time to provision policy
20% Mobile customer NPS improvement
30% Flow Time reduction for features

23. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Example: Platform Value Stream
Market share growth KR limited by cloud hosting cost
◦ Platform team focused on reducing tech debt from initial launch
◦ Better of use of storage services cost bubble by 75%

25. © 2021 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
© 2021 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Measuring Flow
Improving daily work is even more
important than doing daily work
(Gene Kim, The Phoenix Project)
To improve flow, we need an effective
way of measuring flow

26. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
Start Learning with
Flow Institute
Discover more around the concepts
of flow, Flow Metrics and value
stream management (VSM) with:
• On-demand courses
• Interactive workshops
• Executive roundtables
• Slack community
flowframework.org/flow-institute

27. © 2022 Tasktop
@mik_kersten projecttoproduct.org
@mik_kersten
tasktop.com/mik
flowframework.org
projecttoproduct.org
Amazon Best Seller
eBook, audiobook available
All author proceeds go to charitable programs
supporting women & minorities in technology.
Project to Product