Value Stream Mapping

Summary

In this episode of The Value Stream Show, hosts Andrew Davis and Steve Pereira discuss what value stream mapping is and its function. They talk about the act of drawing out a value stream and how it helps with visualization, generates necessary conversations, and brings clarity to the work process. They share their personal experiences with the practice of value stream mapping, and how it can bring visibility to performance, and generate movement toward improving collective consciousness. 

Host Bios

Andrew Davis is a DevOps and Salesforce specialist and author of the book Mastering Salesforce DevOps. As Senior Director of Research and Innovation for Copado, he leads methodology and training for Copado's customers and partners. He's spent his life working at the intersection of technology, psychology, and culture change, including 15 years as a Buddhist monk. He's working towards a world in which we can all be at peace amidst constant change, and bring energy, creativity, and care to every part of our work.

Steve Pereira is a veteran of software delivery and operations. He founded Visible Value Stream Consulting in 2018, and serves as a board advisor for the Value Stream Management Consortium, a contributor to the Value Stream Management Interoperability Technical Committee, and as a Value Stream Management strategist for Copado. He’s always looking for ways to bring business and technology together by facilitating visual collaboration.

What You’ll Learn

• Using value stream mapping as a tool for clarity and communication
• Time and Motion
• How the process of mapping generates necessary conversation
• Moving from an unmapped space to a mapped space to create collective consciousness  

Quotes

• “Value stream mapping is a technique for visualizing and measuring a value stream in an on demand way. The act of mapping a value stream is drawing out the activities that occur across a value stream. Traditionally it goes from raw materials or suppliers to customers.” -Steve [01:40]
• “Value stream mapping gives you the opportunity to step out of your current state and look at what you can actually do to achieve a higher level of performance. I’ve never seen a method that is as effective as value stream mapping for the purpose of stepping back and looking at what is happening, so we can break out of the status quo and get ourselves to a future state of higher performance.” -Steve [22:46]
• “Everything that we are working on is invisible. Value stream mapping is the activity of moving from an unmapped space to a mapped space, a space that is invisible until you take the time to record what is going on. It is a kind of reflection, of looking back and contemplating what is this process and how are we working together to move what is unconscious to being collectively conscious.” -Andrew [11:27]
• “When we talk about “knowledge work”, value stream mapping is a very powerful and focused kind of knowledge work. You bring a group of people together, pull their collective understanding and go see what is actually happening in the work space. You are generating new and valuable knowledge. You can take that knowledge and go back to making all these various process improvements.” -Andrew [20:35]

Resources

• Inside Out: The Power of Value Stream Clarity
• Book: Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
• Vuvuzelas!
• Bain