How To Overcome the Top 4 Value Stream Management Obstacles

While the benefits of Value Stream Management (VSM) are significant, many organizations struggle to realize its full potential.

To examine why, we’ve collaborated with the VSM consortium on a new report, The State of Value Stream Management 2022. This report uses a comprehensive survey to show where companies are on their VSM journey and the hurdles they face. According to the report, two-thirds of the organizations were actively engaged in earlier stages of the journey, but only a third made it to the final stages of the process. What is holding her back? In the following sections, I take a look at some of the biggest obstacles teams face today and offer some strategies for overcoming those obstacles.

Obstacle 1: Resource limitations

When asked about barriers to VSM adoption, the top rated answer was “No resources for it,” receiving about 20% of the responses. Teams making this comment related to skills, budget and time.

Like any strategic initiative, VSM requires an investment of time and money. However, through these investments, the teams can achieve short-term gains and set the optimization that leads to increasing benefits over time.

Obstacle 2: Lack of concentration

Eighteen percent of respondents said their VSM barrier was that “we have too many other active change programs”. That is understandable. VSM follows other major changes, most notably the adoption of Lean, Agile, and DevOps.

The reality is that VSM should not be viewed as an additional initiative that needs to be supported and distracts from these other priorities. Instead, VSM must be viewed as a enabler, an approach that encourages more effective alignment with strategic endeavors and the achievement of better business outcomes.

Obstacle 3: Lack of leadership

When asked about the obstacles they faced, a significant percentage of respondents said “we have no leadership support” (15%) and “we have no one to lead the effort” (11%). This is a logical symptom of the lack of resources that many teams are struggling with.

The lack of leadership support leaves teams without the resources they need, and that includes leaders who can help direct VSM efforts.

To combat these roadblocks, leaders need to be engaged and educated about VSM and why it’s a must, including: opportunities, steps required, and payoffs. Only then can leadership come into play in terms of required investments and prioritization.

Obstacle 4: Tool proliferation

In the survey, 9% of respondents indicated that tool proliferation is a barrier to VSM adoption. Rather than being viewed as just another tool that exacerbates these existing problems, VSM platforms can be the integral solution that allows teams to optimize the investments they’ve already made. By effectively implementing VSM platforms, teams can create a common language and leverage trusted data to drive cross-team visibility and insights.

This is why there is such momentum behind the move to adopt VSM platforms. The survey found that between 2021 and 2022, the percentage of respondents testing, implementing or considering VSM platforms increased from 6% to 36%.

Conclusion

While there are undoubtedly obstacles, the reality is that many teams are making great strides. For example, the survey found that 70% of respondents now connect flow metrics to business outcomes, which is an essential part of aligning business and technology teams.

Visit ValueOps VSM to find out how you can start delivering more value to your customers and gain more visibility and alignment within your organization.