Survey says…here's what the market really thinks of Value Stream Management

Value Stream Management is the hot topic for every DevOps thought leader, trade show, and publication, but what do software development professionals really think about VSM? That’s what we wanted to find out when we partnered with SD Times on the Value Stream Management Market Study.

SD Times surveyed hundreds of their readers with questions like, “What is your current understanding of the benefits of Value Stream Management?” and “What value stream maturity level is your organization or team at in its DevOps journey?” The results show that VSM awareness and adoption is slow and steady, but those who are using it are already reaping benefits.

Recently, SD Times Editor-in-Chief Dave Rubinstein chatted about this survey with HCLSoftware DevOps Head of Product Management Steve Boone during a podcast. Boone says he thinks that Value Stream Management is at a “crossing the chasm” point with VSM early adopters on one side and those who have never heard of VSM on the other. The data lines up with this. A third of survey respondents say they’ve never heard of Value Stream Management, but 39% say they plan to implement VSM or are already practicing VSM.

So how do we get the industry across that chasm? With education and training. “There’s clearly value in the solution and I don’t think it’s going to be long until we’re crossing that chasm and seeing more adoption in general,” said Boone. “As an industry, educating people on best practices and teaching them how to do something meaningful with the data VSM brings up is key.”

That data, often hidden in disjointed DevOps tools, is the highlight of VSM success. “There are still certain aspects of software development that are siloed that other people from other parts of the organization can’t necessarily see or get insight into or act on,” said Rubinstein. It’s no surprise, then, that the majority of survey respondents said “better visibility into work in progress across the software delivery pipeline” was the most valuable aspect of VSM.

Despite all the benefits of Value Stream Management, organizational and educational challenges are holding people back from diving into VSM. Lack of experience tops the challenges cited by survey respondents, along with funding and executive buy in.

But Boone says that the best first step to getting started with VSM is a conversation with your team. “You need a long, honest retrospective where you talk about your current process,” said Boone. “How does an idea get into a backlog? When does it eventually move from a backlog to a design or planning stage? How does it get into a sprint? The data is hidden in our tools but we also have to understand our working relationships with each other.”

Dive deeper into the SD Times VSM survey results during our panel webinar on Thursday, September 24 at 3pm EDT. During the webinar, SD Times’ Dave Rubinstein will discuss the Value Stream Management market with HCLSoftware DevOps experts Steve Boone, Chris Nowak, and Bryant Schuck. Click here to register.