The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations

by Gene Kim

One of the fundamental concepts in Lean is the value stream. We will define it first in the context of manufacturing and then extrapolate how it applies to DevOps and the technology value stream. Karen Martin and Mike Osterling define value stream in their book Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation as “the sequence of activities an organization undertakes to deliver upon a customer request” or “the sequence of activities required to design, produce, and deliver a good or service to a customer, including the dual flows of information and material.” In manufacturing operations, the value stream is often easy to see and observe: it starts when a customer order is received and the raw materials are released onto the plant floor. To enable fast and predictable lead times in any value stream there is usually a relentless focus on creating a smooth and even flow of work, using techniques such as small batch sizes, reducing work in process (WIP), preventing rework to ensure we don’t pass defects to downstream work centers, and constantly optimizing our system toward our global goals.