{"id":2924,"date":"2026-01-18T22:28:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdrefocus.com\/?page_id=2924"},"modified":"2026-01-20T22:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:24:32","slug":"vsm-pulsemeter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sdrefocus.com\/index.php\/vsm-pulsemeter\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights from the VSM PulseMeter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tInsights from the VSM PulseMeter\t<\/h2>\n\tThis article was originally written in May 2023 for the VSM consortium blog.<\/strong>
\nThe Value Stream Management Consortium became Flowtopia<\/strong> in October 2025. If you are not yet a member, we invite you to visit\u00a0flowtopia.io<\/a>\u00a0and join us<\/strong><\/a>.\n\t

The purpose of this article is to present the main findings of the recent PulseMeter poll on VSM conducted by\u00a0TechStrong Research<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Atlassian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also watch on-demand the webinar with\u00a0Helen Beal<\/a>,\u00a0Jeff Keyes<\/a>, and\u00a0Mitch Ashley<\/a>:\u00a0Webinar “Accelerate Software Development Flow with Value Stream Management”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of this article, you will find a link to access the full PulseMeter report.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVSM is at an Early Adoption Stage in the Digital World\t<\/h4>\n\tWhile VSM approaches have been around for decades, their application in IT services is still in its infancy.
\n<\/strong>
\nThe PulseMeter results confirm the findings of our last\u00a0State of VSM Report 2022<\/a>: VSM is at an early adoption stage for digital products and services with only 15% already seeing significant benefits.\n
\n

The reasons for adopting a VSM approach<\/a> are multiple, and aim both to do things better (flow efficiency) <\/em><\/strong>and to deliver more outcomes to customers (value realization, effectiveness).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The PulseMeter results confirm this duality inherited from the\u00a0principles of Lean thinking<\/a>\u00a0with expected benefits of improving the flow of a\u00a0value stream<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as a whole (23%), increasing customer\u00a0value<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and outcomes (19%) while removing bottlenecks (17%) and waste (14%).<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLead and Align the Organization around Value Streams\t<\/h4>\n\t

Leaders of a\u00a0VSM initiative<\/strong>\u00a0must develop and share a long-term vision and foster continuous improvement of ways of working (see\u00a0The VSM implementation roadmap).<\/p>\n

To this end, the VSM journey is confronted with all kinds of challenges, starting with organizational and cultural issues. PulseMeter reports that the most important challenge is “Misaligned organizational responsibilities or structure” for 20% of the poll participants.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, the success of any VSM initiative depends on the organization’s willingness to change and break down the silos between product management, application development, data management, operations, and infrastructure groups.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we want a digital value stream<\/a><\/strong> that delivers a continuous flow of value to its customers and users, it is no longer possible to maintain the project mode that must struggle to coordinate contributions and dependencies between functional groups.<\/p>\n

Optimizing the value stream requires cross-functional\u00a0product teams\u00a0aligned with the\u00a0organization’s strategy,\u00a0objectives, and key results.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIntegrate Tools and their Data all along Value Streams\t<\/h4>\n\t

DevOps<\/a> toolchains<\/strong>\u00a0are often considered exclusively from the perspective of\u00a0CICD pipelines<\/strong>, which can already represent multiple tools to be integrated to automate the activities of development, testing, deployment, provisioning, security, etc.<\/p>\n

\nThe notion of a\u00a0value stream\u00a0is even broader than that of CICD pipelines and must cover the end-to-end chain,<\/em><\/strong>
\nfrom the emergence of the idea to the delivery of value to its customers.<\/em><\/strong>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a result, the wider range of\u00a0tools to be connected as part of a VSM implementation\u00a0accentuates the integration and data management issues, which are further discussed in the PulseMeter report to explain the second most important challenge: data integrity and consistency (18%).<\/p>\n

Organizations can leverage a\u00a0VSMP platform<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0implementation to overcome silos, data challenges, and opinion-driven conversations, and gradually adopt a\u00a0data-driven initiative.<\/p>\n

The good news is that work is underway to address these issues with, for example, the creation of the\u00a0OASIS Value Stream Management Interoperability (VSMI) Technical Committee<\/a>\u00a0or the emergence of\u00a0Value Stream Architect<\/strong>\u00a0roles within our companies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeasure what Matters Most in each Situation\t<\/h4>\n\t

PulseMeter results show that organizations rely on different sources to determine which\u00a0metrics\u00a0<\/strong>to track.<\/p>\n

Questions during the webinar also illustrated a need for more guidance in identifying and defining which ones really matter in each context.<\/p>\n

The challenges mentioned above regarding integration and data management issues should not block the initiative. Instead, it is crucial to start by\u00a0measuring the baseline, the starting point from which to measure progress and communicate with leaders about the accomplishments, successes, or failures of our VSM initiative.<\/p>\n

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The first step is to align metrics with the objectives to be achieved or the problems to be solved. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal and must be the focus of our activities, such as\u00a0Time To Value\u00a0measurements rather than Time To Market.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This can be done by using homegrown metrics or standard metrics while ensuring that the achievement of internal indicators does not become a goal in itself.\u00a0Bryan Finster<\/a>\u00a0points out this exact pitfall in his article “How to Misuse & Abuse DORA Metrics<\/a>” where he examines how DORA metrics – which represent a level of operational efficiency – can be abused.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tResources\t<\/h4>\n\t