Success is a characteristic of the entire value stream

The pace of technological advance means that product development and service delivery form one integrated value stream. Success depends on all the steps in the value stream, both those that add value and those that don’t. Planning for successful delivery requires an understanding of process performance and the threats to that performance.

Quantifying performance

Quantifying the performance of the whole value stream in terms of the outputs as well as the inputs facilitates effective management control directed towards enhancing delivery of value. The wrong measures will incentivise local optimisation and other dysfunctional behaviour.

Delivering "the right thing" and delivering "the thing right"

Software projects deliver software The customer or business user must define outputs and desired outcomes (delivering ‘the right thing’). The software developer’s main concern is the delivery process (delivering the ‘thing right’).

However, the professional software developer seeks out and takes into account the business drivers for the project and plans to meet the business need. High standards of performance should be maintained in:

• Predictability (time & cost)
• Project delivery rate (wh/fp)
• Productivity (cost per fp)
• Velocity (fp/elapsed month)
• Rework cf. ‘1st pass yield’
• Staff skills and experience

Measurement The measures of size, effort, duration, staffing, defects, etc. are not complicated, but data collection must be regular and accurate.

Efficiency is improved by a focus on the ‘single useful next step’ and managing resources to meet agreed deadlines.

Management strategy must be communicated to all parties, and activities must be purposefully aligned with goals. Senior management (and in an outsourcing context, the customer’s senior management) need continuing assurance that the delivery process will deliver the desired outcome. This is best achieved by appointing a Value Stream Manager who is responsible for delivering value to the customer, and is an internal customer of Heads of Function who are accountable for departmental efficiency and effectiveness and for growing knowledge and staff capability. The Value Stream Manager owns the whole life design, delivery and profitability of a product or product line.

Incremental delivery (Agility). As customer needs, goals and requirements age over time, incremental delivery is less prone to ‘failure’ than traditional ‘batch & queue’ delivery. Delaying commitment to a specific solution option until as late as possible helps reduce the demand-to-deployment time.