Here's how Value Stream Management can give you answers faster

Have you ever been working and thought, “I wonder where that high priority bug for Customer XYZ is?” As a Product Manager for a large team, this happens to me multiple times a day. What did my process look like at other companies before having HCL Accelerate with filtering and search on the value stream?

1. I get a request from support or a stakeholder asking for an update.
2. I then have to figure out which team is working on it.
3. I reach out to the team lead to see if their group is working on the item.
4. The team lead confirms their team might be working on that item or something like it.
5. I then need to go to the team’s Jira board, which tells me that it is “In-Progress” and is assigned to developer X. Being a developer for a long time, I know that status is probably out of date.
6. I then need to reach out to that developer to ask some specifics, like “hey, where is this ticket?” only for the developer to respond with something like, “Oh, sorry, that is in the latest build. I need to update that card.”

If you have been on a large or even small software team, this should not be unfamiliar. It almost seems like the normal flow of work. Let’s look at the impact of an interaction like the one above. There have been many studies showing developers need to have long periods of uninterrupted time. Long periods of non-context switching allows them to get deep into problems and not lose their train of thought. The happy path of the above steps could take 30 minutes to get my answer, during which I made my team lead and developer stop their train of thought to get me just a status. This tiny distraction unblocks me but could cost them valuable cycles or maybe derail them for the rest of the day.

Distractions have always been a problem but are increasingly getting worse with the new normal for most of us all being remote. Gone are the days of shoulder taps. Now are the days of 100 unread messages. STOP! The future is now with HCL Accelerate, which allows you to find the answers you need when you need them without a meeting or “quick” message to a team member. With Value Stream Management, we now have complex relationships to allow any user to find the answers they are seeking, whether that be where an item is, who is working on an item, how long until that item might be done, and so much more!

From the image above, you can see how complicated a simple SDLC value stream may resemble. Working with our customers and our teams (yes! we drink our champagne!) we found that being able to zoom into the data and answering these questions have improved collaboration and reduced distractions. How did we accomplish this? HCL Accelerate now supports quick searching and drop-down filters. Simple, yet so, so powerful. Take work from multiple teams, different stages, different types, and be able to walk away with an answer for your boss or a customer in a matter of seconds. Also, since HCL Accelerate is built upon data and not manual changes, you can ensure that the status you give is going to be the most accurate. Don’t worry, we have not changed our DQL searching for those who want to get awesome views of complex data. This update will allow you to also filter with more advanced queries.

Let’s take the above example I started off within this post. Instead of reaching out to a developer to check the status of a bug fix (fight the urge!) let’s use HCL Accelerate’s new quick search and filtering!

1. I get a request from support or a stakeholder asking for an update.
2. I gather some context and use filters to find the item.
3. Since I know it’s for a customer, it’s probably high or highest priority so I use the priority dropdown.
4. I also know it has something to do with reports so I will search that to narrow it down.
5. Found it, and with all the information I would need!

Notice something different in these steps? I was able to do all of this on my time! Now, if I need more information or need this item further along, we can skip the pre-requisites and jump into valuable conversations. Being able to extract this type of information changes everything from stand-ups to just general questions about the software. My favorite part of all this is, because we are a global team, I no longer have to wait for time zones to line up or for a team member to sign on to get some common answers about the work. Visibility may seem like a no-brainer, but software has never been easier to track! Reduce distractions to your team, increase the accuracy of responses, change from status updates to value-driven conversations, and find answers on your own time. This makes HCL Accelerate a must-have for all software teams for this feature alone!

HCL Accelerate 2.2 comes out this month with the new quick search and filtering features mentioned above, plus more enhancements to make your life easier. Find out what’s new in HCL Accelerate 2.2 and how value stream management supports the “new normal” of development during our webinar on December 16th at 2pm EST. Register here.