Transformation interrupted. That is what the post-COVID-19 world looks like to many businesses, as the pandemic has extracted its toll on discretionary spend. This hurts, because prioritized change budgets were released just three to four months ago. Revisiting those portfolio prioritizations amid the changed business environment is good business discipline. Slashing change budgets and de-prioritizing valuable initiatives is not.
Change delivery can be significantly inefficient, and the scale of productivity loss due to wasteful activities is not appreciated. Yet using the right model, companies can improve their change productivity by 50% or more. In fact, our experience shows businesses achieving a median improvement of more than 30%. It starts with an exercise called value stream mapping.
Businesses recognize the value of value-stream mapping when performed in-person. Unfortunately, companies don’t always have the luxury of assembling all required stakeholders in a single location. This is certainly the case in the current work-from-home environment, but it’s also relevant in “non-pandemic” times for companies with a geographically dispersed workforce or travel-reduction policies.
For the past several years, we have conducted value-stream mapping exercises through remote workshops that leverage our Agile + DevSecOps consultants, as well as collaboration tools that make remote work engaging and outcome-focused. At a high level, here’s what a one-day value-stream mapping exercise looks like:
This exercise is typically followed by a Digital Fitness Assessment diagnostic, which helps create a self-funded roadmap for change. We prioritize interventions that enable companies to deliver change faster, as well as interventions with long-term benefits that exceed the cost of implementation.
In almost all cases, we underwrite this benefit by directly aligning our commercial model to the achievement of KPIs such as cycle-time reduction and cost of change reduction / productivity improvement.
At a time when COVID-19 requires companies to conduct business in a socially distanced manner, these remote value-stream mapping capabilities are more important than ever. To enable leaders to experience how it works while gaining visibility into their productivity improvement potential, we are offering a free one-day value-stream mapping exercise with function leads / SMEs across the SDLC lifecycle. Simply contact us to learn more.
