“DevOps is the next step in creating flow across and beyond the IT value stream.” ~ Mike Orzen, coauthor of the award-winning book Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Enterprise and primary author of this Value Stream Mapping for DevOps.

What is the value stream? All of the steps that are currently performed to deliver products and services to end-users and customers – whether they add value or not. Value stream mapping has been identified as a critical skill for organizations adopting a DevOps approach. 

Value Stream Mapping

This Value Steam Mapping (VSM) Interactive Session provides a practical understanding and hands-on experience with Value Stream Mapping.  It was built in partnership with Mike Orzen, a recognized and prominent Lean thought leader and author.  To better understand DevOps, you need to first understand Lean. Lean helps organizations manage and improve how we create and flow customer value with the least amount of effort.

This is a non-certification “drill-down” workshop accredited by the DevOps Institute.   Drill-downs provider deeper knowledge about a specific practice within the DevOps spectrum. 

From the Author, Mike Orzen:
“As DevOps has taken off, I have seen many organizations embark on a journey to transform IT from a collection of silos focused on distinct and often conflicting goals to a single value stream connecting the customer, ideation, development, infrastructure, security, operations, and ongoing cycles of improvement. The essence of lean thinking is using a structured logical approach towards incremental improvement (Kaizen). A common mistake is to jump into activity without a clear grasp of the current state and solid understanding of the problems you are trying to address.

Fortunately, Lean methods provide a wonderful approach towards understanding your current state, identifying pain points and bottlenecks, identifying waste and non-value added work in the system, prioritizing potential improvements, and organizing for sustained growth. Without such shared a vision and road map, many DevOps initiatives go off the rails, losing focus and momentum. That’s why I created the new workshop, Value Stream Mapping for DevOps.

Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” Value stream mapping does just that: providing a structured way for a cross-functional team to collectively see where we are today (long release cycles, silos, waterfall, large deploys, damage control afterwards, etc.) and where we want to go (short release cycles, infrastructure as code, iterative development, continuous delivery, etc.).”

At the end of this session, the learner will;

• Learn about value stream mapping methods
• Understand how value stream mapping applies to DevOps
• Learn to value stream map by doing
• Be aware of common mistakes when using value stream mapping 
• Be equipped with a tool they can apply now

Class also includes GAME ON! An Interactive Learning Experience^® and facilitated discussions and exercises that produce deliverables you can put to use immediately.

Student Material:

• Sixteen (16) hours of instructor led training and exercise facilitation
• Learner Manual (excellent post-training reference)
• Sample documents, templates, tools and techniques
• Participation in exercises designed to apply and practice value stream mapping
• Participation in our in-session GAME ON! An Interactive Learning Experience® 
• Learner Personal Action Plan
• Access to additional sources of information and communities

Project Management Institute (PMI®) Professional Development Units:  This course will earn 16 contact hours or PDUs upon completion of this training.

Day 1

• Course Introduction
  • Course goals
  • Course agenda
• Introduction to Lean
  • What is Lean?
  • 5 core Lean principles
  • Exercise: Important terms
• Introduction to Value Stream Mapping
  • What is a value stream?
  • Elements of a value stream map
  • The value stream mapping process (high-level overview)
  • Value stream mapping measurements
• Current State Mapping
  • Tips and techniques
  • Exercise: Create a current state value stream map
• Identifying Barriers to Flow
  • Non-value-added work (waste)
  • Variation
  • Overburden
  • Exercise: Where’s the waste?
• Future State Mapping
  • Identifying improvements
  • Achieving the future state

Day 2

• Value Stream Mapping Roles
  • The Facilitator Role
  • Facilitator Do’s and Don’ts
• Planning a Workshop
  • Defining the workshop scope
  • Identifying and inviting stakeholders
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Setting up the space
• Facilitating a Workshop
  • Kicking off the session
  • Mapping the current state
  • Brainstorming the future state
  • Identifying and prioritizing improvement opportunities
  • Assigning owners
  • Briefing management
• Producing Workshop Deliverables
• Taking Action
  • Common mistakes
  • Creating an action plan
• Summary and Reflection
• Taking Action
• Additional Sources of Information

• Complete pre-class reading assignment
• General knowledge of software quality assurance testing concepts 

The main target candidates for this session are:

• Anyone interested in leveraging value stream mapping to drive DevOps
• Developers and operational staff
• IT coaches, managers and team leaders
• DevOps Leaders
• Continuous Delivery Architects
• DevOps Test Engineers
• Security professionals
• Quality assurance professionals
• IT professionals working within, or about to enter, an DevOps or Lean environment
• Business stakeholders interested in learning about Value Stream Mapping and Lean - in the context of DevOps