The document discusses the importance of a value stream architecture in software organizations, highlighting the need for real-time visibility and integration across all tools and processes to enhance business value flow. It critiques traditional org charts and linear models in software development, advocating for agile practices and a focus on optimizing flow and reducing bottlenecks. The document emphasizes the necessity of an infrastructure for innovation to support agile transformations and improve delivery outcomes.

1. © Tasktop 2016
Value Stream Architecture
ersten (TaskTop CEO) Carmen DeArdo (Nationwide Technology Director)

2. © Tasktop 2016
of the
Fortune
100 43 of the top 25
world banks 11
of the top 10
US insurers 4
of the top 6
health plans 6

3. © Tasktop 2016
We are a strong mutual
company built to serve
our members.#68 ON THE
FORTUNE
500 LIST

4. © Tasktop 2016
NATIONWIDE ONE IT ORGANIZATION
200+ AGILE / LEAN
STANDING TEAMS 800+ BUILD PROJECTS
EXECUTED ANNUALLY
ANNUAL INCREASE
IN NUMBER OF
AGILE TEAMS
75%
OF ALL PROJECT
WORK DONE BY
AGILE TEAMS
CI CT CD
ESTABLISHED
PRACTICES
NEXT PHASE: APPLICATION OF LEAN
ACROSS THE DELIVERY LIFE CYCLE
OF
AND
BALANCE
INNOVATION
DISCIPLINE
FIRST PHASE: AGILE DEVELOPMENT
25%

5. © Tasktop 2016
Problem
Org charts and software architecture are the best representation of value
creation we have. They are failing us and we know it.
Software investment and staffing decisions are made anecdotally, using static
and stale slivers of data.
What if we could take an fMRI of the organization?
What if we could see the flow of business value in real-time?
See evidence of bottlenecks use them to prioritize IT investment?
Re-architect our software and organization around maximizing flow?
Hypothesis test based on real-time data from every team?
Overview

6. What if we could take an fMRI of the
organization?

7. © Tasktop 2017
Innovation & disruption

8. © Tasktop 2016

9. © Tasktop 2016
Types of disruption
Infrastructure model: product is now a connected car
Operating model: Tesla’s disruption of dealerships
Business model: Autonomous fleets
What it means
Software innovation will determine which organizations decline, which thrive
We need to provide our organizations with an infrastructure for innovation
Easy for a startup
Tech startups are engines for software innovation
But things change at scale scale…
Types of disruption

10. Fragmented Value StreamBusinessValue
Best-of-breed tool chain
RevenueResults

11. We need a new layer of infrastructure
for the software Value Stream

12. © Tasktop 2016

13. © Tasktop 2016
Value Stream Architecture
Software architecture follows value stream, not vice versa (eg, APIs, Microservices
added to minimize a team’s wait times)
Team structure follows value stream (eg, Spotify/squad embedding vs. functional
orientation)
Created and maintained by Value Stream Architect, “IT for IT team”
Value Stream Integration
Every tool and process is connected for end-to-end flow
Single standard tool chain, can be specialized for countries, LOBs, investment
horizons
The tool chain becomes modular, supports change and specialization
Value Stream Visibility
Real-time view of all business value flows and bottlenecks
Metrics are connected to business results
Risk and compliance certification is built into the framework
Framework

14. © Tasktop 2016

15. © Tasktop 2016
Feature Team Architecture Team
Security Team
Ops Team

16. © Tasktop 2016
Product UX / UI
Security
Ops
Cross Functional Feature Team
Development

17. © Tasktop 2016
Feature Teams
Product UX / UI
Security
Ops
Development
Feature Team 1 Feature Team 2 Feature Team 3

18. © Tasktop 2016

19. © Tasktop 2017
We need to think about software development differently
Linear and batch-oriented models are over-simplified and
wrong
Not a linear manufacturing process
Agile 2011 SXSW 2012 ALM Forum 2015

20. New York
Vancouver
Greenland
Paris
Moscow
Beijing
Sydney
Cairo
Rio

21. New York
Vancouver
Greenland
Paris
Moscow
Beijing
Sydney
Cairo
Rio

22. Flow units
Features added, defects fixed, vulnerabilities fixed
Optimizing for linear flow
Optimize for repeatability
Remove all creative and non-deterministic steps
De-couple planning and design from production
This model doesn’t work for software
Waterfall and RUP were an attempt to make software linear
Overly narrow DevOps transformations running into the same issue
What flows in a software value stream?

23. © Tasktop 2016
Creates visibility
Designs and implements end-to-end flow, working with functional heads and LOB
leaders
Provides visualization of all value streams and identifies constraints
Connects value stream metrics to business metrics
Head or key part of IT for IT team
Influences
Supports the DevOps transformation by driving change and future state of value
stream
Drives value stream improvement work across team backlogs
Mentors and trains
Continually identify training and skill deficiency bottlenecks
Work with IT leaders to close knowledge/skill gaps
Value Stream Architect

24. © Tasktop 2016
Flow Units
Work Items Aka Pulled by Description
Feature Story Requirements,
User Stories
User/Customers New business value added to the
application, visible to the customer
Defect Story Bug User/Customers Fixes for quality problems that
affect customer experience
Security Story Vulnerability Security Officers/
Auditors
Fixes for weaknesses, flaws and
vectors for exploits
Tech Debt Story
Software Architects,
Teams
Improvement to the software
architecture, invisible to the
customer
Value Stream Story
Value Stream
Architects
Improvement to the value stream
architecture, invisible to the
customer

25. © Tasktop 2016
Flow Measures
Flow Measures Description Example
Backlog Size Number of artifacts in the queue at a
particular stage of the value stream
The number of Security Stories on an
Agile team’s backlog.
Lead Time Time from request to delivered artifact
running in production
Hours from customer requesting a
feature to using the requested feature.
Cycle Time Time from work start to completion Days from developer accepting a
Feature Story to merging the finished
implementation to master.
Process time Time an artifact is actively worked on Cumulative days a Feature Story is
actively worked on.
Wait time Time from work request to work start Time zone delay in hours for an offshore
team to start work on a Feature Story.
Utilization Sum of process times of lead time (%) Low utilization for a Dev team with an
external dependency

26. © Tasktop 2016
Flow Metrics
Flow Metrics Type Description
End-to-end Lead
Time
Velocity Time from customer request to improvement running in production
Cost per Work Item Cost Work items shipped per FTE.
Mean Time To
Repair (MTTR)
Responsiven
ess
Round-trip time from support ticket, through Defect Story creation,
diagnosis, fix through to delivery.
Productivity Throughput Number of Work Items delivered per team per release.
New Business
Value Ratio
Value Proportion of Artifacts of type Feature Story delivered per release.

27. © Tasktop 2016
SPEED
TIME
High Acceleration
during Design,
Develop and
Acceptance Testing
0
Teams waiting for work
due to “discrete”
planning processes
Delivery slowed down
by manual and high
ceremony processes
Water-SCRUM-Fall
ACCELERATE DELIVERY THROUGHOUT VALUE STREAM
27

28. © Tasktop 2016
DEVOPS MODEL
True North:
Reduced lead time for changes
Business enabling responsiveness 28

29. © Tasktop 2016
INTEGRATED DELIVERY VALUE STREAM
29

30. © Tasktop 2016
VISABILITY VIA REAL TIME INFORMATION
30
Release
Scheduling
Automate
Readiness
Automate
Deployment
PRODUCT
MANAGER
Product Backlog
QA✔
CONTINUOUS FLOW
PRODUCT AND SYSTEM VIEWS
IMPACT ANALYSIS
QUALITY, SECURITY & TEST STATUS
AUTOMATION
DEPLOYMENT STATUS
MORE AUTOMATION LESS VARIANCE
RTC UCR UCD
Automate
RFC

31. © Tasktop 2016
MEASURING LEAD TIME
31
STORY
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
INITIATIVE A
SYSTEM RELEASE
AC AC
SCM CI
IT / ST /
PT / UAT
CODE
STATION
TEST RESULTS / PT /
SECURITY
READY FOR
PRODUCTION
WORK
INTAKE
RELEASE
PLANNING
DESIGN /
DEVELOP
QUALITY
CERTIFIED
DEPLOY
INITIATIVE BUILDS
FEEDBACK
BUSINESS VALUE
DEPLOY
FEEDBACK
BUSINESS VALUE
BUSINESS
TASKTOP
INITIATIVE
BACKLOG WIP DONE
MULTIPLE
DEPLOYS
QUALITY
CERTIFIED
READY FOR
PRODUCTION
LEAD TIME
PPM
RTC
URBANCODE
RELEASE
URBANCODE
DEPLOY
VALUE STREAM
PROCESS STREAM
TOOL STREAM
DEPLOY

32. © Tasktop 2016
MEASURING LEAD TIME
32
STORY
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
INITIATIVE A
SYSTEM RELEASE
AC AC
SCM CI
IT / ST /
PT / UAT
CODE
STATION
TEST RESULTS / PT /
SECURITY
READY FOR
PRODUCTION
WORK
INTAKE
RELEASE
PLANNING
DESIGN /
DEVELOP
QUALITY
CERTIFIED
DEPLOY
INITIATIVE BUILDS
FEEDBACK
BUSINESS VALUE
DEPLOY
FEEDBACK
BUSINESS VALUE
BUSINESS
TASKTOP
INITIATIVE
BACKLOG WIP DONE
MULTIPLE
DEPLOYS
QUALITY
CERTIFIED
READY FOR
PRODUCTION
CLARITY
RTC
URBANCODE
RELEASE
URBANCODE
DEPLOY
VALUE STREAM
PROCESS STREAM
TOOL STREAM
DEPLOY
6/1 6/10 6/24 6/26 6/24-6/26 6/30 7/5 7/15
LEAD TIME (45 DAYS)

33. © Tasktop 2016 33
DELIVERY PIPELINE
MONITORING
& FEEDBACK
VERSION
CONTROL
PULL REQUESTS
INTEGRATION
SYSTEM
REGRESSION
PERFORMANCE
ZERO DOWN TIME
DEPLOYMENTS
DEPLOY
INTO TEST
STATIC ANALYSIS
SECURITY SCANS
AUTOMATED UNIT
& ACCEPTANCE
TESTS
DEPLOY
INTO PROD
AUTOMATED
CERTIFICATIO
N
AUTO
PROVISION
SOURCE
CODE
BUILD
DESIGN /
DEVELOP
FEATURE
TOGGLING
TRUNK-BASED
DEVELOPMENT
UAT
™
TOOLS
BUSINESS
VALUE
DEFECTS
TECHICAL DEBT
DARK LAUNCHING
DELIVERY PIPELINE

34. © Tasktop 2016
VALUE STREAM INITIATIVE MAPPING
34
BUSINESS
MONITORING
& FEEDBACK
LEAD TIME METRIC
COMBINATION OF INITIATIVES TO REDUCE LEAD TIME
ACCELERATED
DELIVERY
DEPLOY
READINESS
CERTIFICATION
DESIGN / DEVELOPRELEASE PLANNING
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY (URBANCODE)
FEATURE TOGGLING
DARK LAUNCH
IMPROVED VERSION
CONTROL (GITHUB)
APIs /
MICROSERVICES
12 FACTOR APP
AUTOMATED PROVISIONING
CONTAINERS
AUTOMATED
TESTING
AUTOMATED
CERTIFICATION
RUN
ORCHESTRATION
SMALL BATCHES
LOG CONSOLIDATION
(SPLUNK)
APM
(NEW RELIC)

35. © Tasktop 2016
All revolutions require a new
infrastructure
Value Stream Networks
are the infrastructure for digital
transformation

36. © Tasktop 2016
Value Stream Visibility

37. © Tasktop 2016
Pitfalls of wrong model
Cyclomatic complexity v. lead time
Repeatability v. design thinking
No modeling of latency, throughput
Inability to see the bottleneck

38. © Tasktop 2016
...the most important question…
Where is the bottleneck?

39. © Tasktop 2016
VALUE STREAM INITIATIVE MAPPING
39
BUSINESS
MONITORING
& FEEDBACK
LEAD TIME METRIC
COMBINATION OF INITIATIVES TO REDUCE LEAD TIME
ACCELERATED
DELIVERY
DEPLOY
READINESS
CERTIFICATION
DESIGN / DEVELOPRELEASE PLANNING
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY (URBANCODE)
FEATURE TOGGLING
DARK LAUNCH
IMPROVED VERSION
CONTROL (GITHUB)
APIs /
MICROSERVICES
12 FACTOR APP
AUTOMATED PROVISIONING
CONTAINERS
AUTOMATED
TESTING
AUTOMATED
CERTIFICATION
RUN
ORCHESTRATION
SMALL BATCHES
LOG CONSOLIDATION
(SPLUNK)
APM
(NEW RELIC)

40. Value Stream Integration
Create a roadmap for end-to-end integration, dovetailed with CI/CD efforts
Deploy or pilot before finalizing tool selection
Goal is end-to-end flow
Value Stream Visibility
Define a few end-to-end flow metrics (eg, Lead Time)
Goal is end-to-end feedback
Value Stream Architecture
Assign and empower the role
Infrastructure for innovation

41. © Tasktop 2016
Here’s the help we are looking for

42. © Tasktop 2016© Tasktop 2016
Infrastructure for Innovation
Dr. @mik_kersten @carmendeardo