Value Stream Management (VSM) is quickly becoming the go-to approach as organizations look to fully unlock their software delivery life cycle. According to a recent report, 95% of enterprises either are interested, have plans to or already have adopted VSM. The report was commissioned by CollabNet VersionOne and conducted by Forrester. It looks at responses from more than 300 IT and business professionals to reveal VSM’s role in software development. 

“Connecting and measuring business value to software delivery pipelines is critical for success, however, it’s still a challenge for many organizations,” said Flint Brenton, CEO of CollabNet VersionOne. “This research reveals the positive impact that value stream management can have on an organization’s bottom line, and most importantly, how it helps create delighted customers. While there is still much the industry needs to learn about adopting a VSM strategy, it’s promising to see the growing awareness and eagerness to start the journey.”

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According to the report, the biggest challenges organizations face in their value delivery efforts include continuous improvement, automation, agility, visibility and collaboration. Less than 40% of respondents believe their organization excels in any one of those areas. Because of these challenges, organizations end up with poorly integrated toolchains, islands of automation, misalignment, and improper workstream. 

When adopting VSM, respondents reported better collaboration across teams, ability to scale Agile and DevOps, better visibility across teams, aligned software delivery with business goals, and ability to measure value. 

“VSM users are twice as likely than nonusers to have a complete picture of software development/delivery work status at the product portfolio, and enterprise levels,” the report stated. “VSM users outperform their peers in their ability to map and analyze, visualize and govern value streams across the entirety of the software lifecycle.” 

In order to unlock VSM’s full potential, CollabNet recommends a dedicated strategy and solution. For instance, they can assign a champion, align data from customers with strategic priorities and map data flow throughout the entire toolchain. Only 28% of respondents currently have the right KPIs necessary for measuring value. 

“Ultimately, the study recommends software organizations either start or grow a VSM initiative, use output and outcome metrics to measure progress and business value and to look for a holistic VSM solution. However, the study also heeds that VSM adopters should first implement a strategy before considering tooling,” CollabNet stated in the announcement of the report.