In the digital era, IT is no longer just a support function; it is the engine of the business. To keep that engine running at peak efficiency, organizations must relentlessly focus on optimizing how they deliver services.

What is a Value Stream?

A Value Stream is a specific set of sequential and interconnected steps that an organization takes to co-create value with a customer. It begins with a demand (e.g., a new feature request, a reported incident) and ends with the delivery of value (e.g., a deployed service, a resolved incident).

The power of VSM lies in its focus on the actual entire journey, which often cuts across multiple practices (like Incident Management, Change Enablement, and Software Development) and multiple teams.

The Problem: The Hidden Waste in IT

Without VSM, most organizations only see the final outcome or have an aspirational view of how work is done. Without documenting the actual work done, they miss the “black holes” of time where work stalls, gets blocked, or is otherwise inefficient. This is considered as non-value-adding time, or waste, and is the primary target of VSM. In IT, this waste often manifests as:

• Waiting: Tickets sitting in queues, waiting for approvals, or waiting for an environment.
• Handoffs: Excessive transfers of work between teams, often resulting in loss of context.
• Rework: Errors, bugs, or defects that force work to cycle back through previous steps.
• Over-processing: Using tools or processes that are more complex than the task requires.

VSM makes this hidden waste visible and quantifiable.

The 5 Steps to Create a Value Stream Map

A VSM exercise is a collaborative, cross-functional endeavor. Follow these steps for an effective mapping session:

1. Define the Scope (The ‘Why’ and ‘What’)

• Select a Stream: Choose a high-impact value stream that is critical to customer value (e.g., “Request-to-Fulfill” for a standard laptop order, or “Detect-to-Resolve” for a P1 Incident).
• Define Boundaries: Specify the clear Demand that starts the stream and the specific Value (outcome) that ends it.

2. Map the “Current State” (Go and See!)

• Gather the people who do the work (not just the managers).
• Map the flow as it actually happens, walking the process rather than relying on documented procedures.
• For every step, capture vital metrics in a data box:

• Process Time (PT): Actual time spent working on the task.
• Lead Time (LT): Total time the work is at that step (including waiting).
• First Pass Yield (FPY): The percentage of times the work passes correctly to the next step without rework.

3. Analyze and Identify Waste

• Calculate the Process Efficiency Ratio (). A low ratio (e.g., 5%) indicates huge amounts of waiting.
• Circle all the bottlenecks, handoffs, manual steps, and low FPY rates. These are the immediate targets for improvement.

4. Design the “Future State”

• Forget the limitations of the current organization and design an ideal, efficient flow.
• Use the ITIL Guiding Principles: Start where you are (but don’t be constrained by it), Optimize and automate (to eliminate manual handoffs), and Think and work holistically (by promoting collaboration).
• The Future State map is the target vision, with greatly reduced Lead Time and eliminated waste.

5. Plan and Execute the Transformation

• Develop an action plan to move from the Current State to the Future State.
• Implement changes iteratively, using practices like Continual Improvement to track progress and validate results against the new Future State metrics.

VSM and the ITIL 4 Service Value Chain (SVC)

Using the example of ITIL 4, where a value stream is essentially a path through the six activities of the SVC: Plan, Engage, Design & Transition, Obtain/Build, Deliver & Support, and Improve.

A common value stream like “Resolve an Incident” will weave through these activities:

• Engage: User logs the incident (Demand).
• Deliver & Support: Service Desk triages and investigates (PT/LT captured here).
• Obtain/Build: If a fix requires a patch, this activity is engaged.
• Deliver & Support: Incident is resolved and closed (Value).

By mapping this path, you clearly see how different ITIL practices contribute to the final value, ensuring Focus on Value is maintained at every step.

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Conclusion

Value Stream Mapping is the lens through which IT organizations can achieve true operational excellence. It is a powerful tool for visual clarity, shared understanding, and focused action. By making the flow of value visible, you empower your teams to tackle bottlenecks, eliminate waste, and ultimately, deliver better, faster, and more reliable services to the business. Start mapping your most critical value streams today and watch your IT efficiency soar!

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Sources

• AXELOS. (2019). ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 Edition. (The official ITIL 4 core guidance emphasizes the concept of value streams as paths through the Service Value Chain).
• AXELOS. ITIL 4: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS). (This publication provides detailed guidance on value stream mapping within the context of the Service Value Chain).
• Womack, J. P., & Jones, D. T. (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. (While manufacturing-focused, this foundational text outlines the principles of Lean and VSM that are adapted for IT).
• Atlassian. What Is Value Stream Mapping? (A key industry resource discussing VSM best practices and its application in IT/DevOps).
• Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). (VSM originates from this core Lean methodology).

A major problem with the decision making meeting centric approach is “groupthink.” This phenomenon, as psychologist Irving Janis first described, occurs when a team prioritizes harmony and consensus over critical evaluation. The loudest voices, or those with the highest authority, can dominate the conversation, causing individuals to suppress their own doubts and ideas. As a result, the group moves forward with a decision that no one truly believes in, but everyone accepts to avoid conflict. This stifles innovation and prevents teams from exploring creative, and potentially better, alternatives.

Meetings also rely heavily on intuition and anecdote, not on objective data. People often base their suggestions on personal experiences or feelings, not on a comprehensive analysis of the situation. This approach introduces significant risks. You may miss crucial trends, misinterpret customer needs, or simply choose the wrong path without empirical evidence. Data-driven organizations, by contrast, use analytics dashboards, customer feedback, and performance metrics to guide their decisions. They identify problems and opportunities through a systematic, evidence-based process. This method allows for a more informed and reliable conclusion, reducing the chance of a costly mistake.

Data Informed Decision Making

So, what’s the alternative? Instead of a meeting-centric approach, organizations should embrace a more data-informed and asynchronous decision-making process. This could involve leveraging internal analytics dashboards to identify pain points and opportunities. Project management tools can be used to track and prioritize the initiatives for each team, based on their potential impact and feasibility. Furthermore, asynchronous communication tools can be used to gather feedback and ideas from all teams and team members, giving everyone a voice without the pressure of a live meeting. This approach allows for more thoughtful consideration, as individuals have time to research and reflect before contributing.

Sources:

• Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes.
• Atlassian. (n.d.). How to avoid groupthink on your team. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/groupthink
• Tableau. (n.d.). A Guide To Data-Driven Decision Making. https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/data-driven-decision-making

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Common Problems that Impact Compliance Audits

The High Cost of After-the-Fact Data Collection

When compliance audits aren’t supported by data collected during normal operations, the cost can skyrocket. Teams have to stop their regular work to manually gather evidence, interview employees, and piece together a historical record of activities. This process is not only inefficient but also highly prone to errors and omissions. The time spent on these “fire drills” is time not spent on innovation or core business functions, leading to significant opportunity costs.

The Problem with “Doing Your Work You Are Following the Process”

The phrase “doing your work you are following the process” suggests that compliance is an inherent part of the job. However, if there’s no system to automatically capture evidence of this, the claim is almost impossible to verify during an audit. This puts immense pressure on individuals to remember and document every single action, which is an unrealistic expectation. Without automated, integrated data collection, this approach makes compliance a burden rather than a seamless part of the workflow.

Lack of Real-Time Visibility

A system that relies on manual, or retrospective, data collection for audits lacks real-time visibility into an organization’s compliance posture. You don’t know you’re non-compliant until the audit, at which point it’s too late to fix issues proactively. This can lead to serious consequences, including fines, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust.

Stifled Productivity and Innovation

When compliance is a separate, intrusive process, it can stifle productivity and innovation. Employees view compliance as an obstacle to getting their work done, leading to shortcuts or resistance. This creates a culture where security and compliance are seen as roadblocks rather than enablers of business success.

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The Solution: Integrate Compliance into Day-to-Day Operations

The solution is to embed compliance data collection directly into the daily work of IT teams and employees. Here’s how:

Automate Evidence Collection

Use tools that automatically log and track actions. For example, automation that logs code changes, process steps, actions, approvals, and deployments, providing a clear audit trail. Network monitoring tools can automatically track access attempts and changes to configurations. This “always-on” approach to data collection makes audits significantly easier and cheaper.

Shift to a “Compliance-as-Code” Mindset

This approach treats compliance rules as code that can be tested and enforced continuously. As the rules changes, the testing changes to match. By defining security policies in a machine-readable format, you can automatically check for compliance with every new change or deployment. This proactive approach ensures that the “doing your work you are following the process” phrase is not just a claim but a verifiable reality.

Empower Employees with the Right Tools

Provide employees with intuitive tools that make it easy to follow compliant processes without extra effort. For example, a system that automatically prompts for a ticket number before a code commit ensures that all changes are tied to a formal request. This makes compliance a natural part of the workflow, not a separate task.

By shifting from retrospective, manual audits to an automated, integrated system, organizations can dramatically reduce the cost and friction of compliance. The data needed for an audit becomes a byproduct of daily work, not a separate project, turning compliance from a burden into a business enabler.

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Sources

• NIST SP 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations.
• ISO/IEC 27001, Information security management.
• The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford.
• State of DevOps Report by DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment).

The business landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies, market demands, and competitive pressures emerging regularly. What worked yesterday is unlikely to work today or tomorrow. Locking into a best practice can prevent a company from adapting to these changes, leaving it vulnerable to more agile competitors.

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The Pitfalls of a “Best Practice”

Stagnation and Lack of Innovation

A major risk of getting locked into a best practice is that it can create a culture of comfortable complacency. If a team believes they are already using the “best” method, there’s little motivation to explore new, potentially more effective ways of working. This can lead to a lack of innovation, where teams simply repeat the same processes, as this is something that they are comfortable with. Without questioning their efficiency or relevance can lead to Stagnation for a business that needs to stay ahead of the curve.

Inflexibility and Inability to Adapt

Best practices are often designed for a specific context. When that context changes, the practice become obsolete. For example, a “best practice” for marketing a product has been based on traditional media like print or television. In today’s digital world, sticking to that old practice would be a huge mistake. By being too rigid, an organization can miss out on new opportunities and fail to respond to threats.

Overlooking Unique Circumstances

Every organization is unique, with its own culture, goals, and challenges. A best practice that works for one company is not a good fit for another. Simply copying a process without considering your own specific needs can lead to inefficiencies and frustration. It can also cause a loss of competitive advantage if you’re doing the same thing as everyone else.

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How to avoid the Pitfalls of a “Best Practice”

Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Instead of viewing practices as “best,” think of them as “current best.” This subtle but important shift in mindset encourages a culture of continuous improvement. Regularly review and challenge existing processes. Ask questions like:

• “Is this still the most effective way to do this?”
• “What new tools or technologies improve this process?”
• “What can we learn from our failures?”
• “What would happen if we tried something completely different?”

Encourage Experimentation

Create a safe environment for teams to experiment and try new things, even if they fail. Allocate time and resources for pilot projects and new initiatives. Celebrate learning from failures rather than punishing them. This approach helps to discover new, more effective methods and fosters a dynamic, innovative environment.

Stay Informed and Connected

Keep up with the latest trends and developments in your industry. Attend conferences, read industry publications, and network with peers. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing, but also look for inspiration from other industries. Staying informed helps you identify when a “best practice” is becoming outdated and what new approaches are emerging.

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Sources

• Drucker, P. F. (2007). Innovation and Entrepreneurship. HarperBusiness.
• Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. HarperBusiness.
• Christensen, C. M. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business Review Press.

Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement

A Continuous Improvement culture is one where everyone, at every level, is empowered to identify and implement improvements. Senior leaders are instrumental in fostering this culture by:

• Encouraging psychological safety: Employees must feel safe to suggest ideas and even fail without fear of retribution. Senior leaders create this environment by celebrating the suggestions and learning from mistakes, rather than punishing or ignoring them.
• Identify and remove any organizational barriers: This includes bureaucratic red tape, allocation of resources (time, money, or people), interdepartmental silos, or a culture of resistance to change.
• Leading by example: When senior leaders actively participate in Continuous Improvement events and show genuine curiosity about the process, it encourages others to do the same.
• Recognizing and rewarding efforts: Acknowledging and rewarding employees’ contributions to Continuous Improvement, and the resulting impact, reinforces positive behavior and motivates others to get involved. This doesn’t always have to be a monetary reward; public recognition and praise can be just as effective.

By championing a culture of Continuous Improvement, senior leadership ensures that improvement is not just a one-off project but an ongoing, embedded part of the company’s DNA.

Sources

• Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T., & Roos, D. (1990). The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production.
• Imai, M. (1986). Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.
• Rother, M. (2009). Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results.

The Paradox of a Full Set of Features

This is a common problem in applications that try to be everything to everyone. Using Constructive Disruption creates Consistent Delight.

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What is Constructive Disruption

Constructive disruption is a powerful way to create products and services that deliver consistent delight. Instead of viewing disruption as a chaotic force that destroys existing systems, it’s about intentionally challenging the status quo to build something better. This approach focuses on strategic limitations and purposeful innovation, which in turn leads to a more focused and effective user experience.

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The Power of Constraints

Constructive disruption flips the Full Feature model on its head by embracing constraints. By intentionally limiting features or resources, we force ourselves to be more creative and strategic. Think of it like a puzzle: a few well-chosen pieces can create a beautiful image, while too many irrelevant pieces just create noise. This approach helps IT teams focus on a few key areas that provide the most value to the user.

• Microservices: This architectural pattern is a prime example of constructive disruption in action. Instead of one large, complex application, the system is broken into small, independent services, each with a single, well-defined purpose. The limitation of scope for each service forces teams to create elegant and scalable solutions. This results in systems that are easier to maintain, deploy, and update, leading to a more reliable and delightful experience for end-users.
• Minimalist UI/UX: The best user interfaces don’t have a hundred features on a single screen. They guide the user to their goal with the fewest possible clicks. This intentional restriction of options removes friction and delivers a clean, intuitive, and highly satisfying experience. The delight comes not from the number of things the software can do, but from how effortlessly it helps you do what you need.

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The Consistent Delight Loop

When IT teams embrace constructive disruption, they enter a value add cycle:

1. Define the Core Value: By focusing on what truly matters, the team can build a more robust and reliable core product.
2. Strategic Innovation: Instead of adding random features, innovation is directed toward enhancing the core value within the existing constraints.
3. User Satisfaction: Users experience a product that “works for them”. The consistent high quality of the experience builds trust and loyalty.

This kind of delight isn’t a one-time “wow” moment from a new feature. It’s the persistent satisfaction that comes from using a product that consistently works as expected, and makes their life easier. It’s the kind of delight that makes a product indispensable.