{"id":3267,"date":"2026-10-22T09:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdrefocus.com\/?page_id=3267"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:18:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T09:18:45","slug":"value-driven-2026-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sdrefocus.com\/index.php\/value-driven-2026-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Value-Driven – October 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tValue-Driven – October 2026\t<\/h2>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Hare and the Tortoises\t<\/h3>\n\t

“The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze. The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoises.” – Taiichi Ohno<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis famous quote by Taiichi Ohno-or the “slower-is-faster” effect, which is also featured in this edition-is a valuable reminder that peak local speed isn’t the only thing that matters.<\/strong>\nThe adoption of AI continues to disrupt the way teams operate. The chase for bottlenecks continues, while questions are arising about the actual organizational value in return for its non-zero and rising costs.\nIf the assumption were true that developing new software or features has never been easier, then it would be even more crucial to remember that there is nothing more costly than efficiently producing unnecessary things.\nAccelerating the flow must be geared toward maximizing value. <\/strong>The case studies and resources in this edition provide valuable examples and recommendations for avoiding the “build trap” of a mega AI feature factory. Instead, they illustrate that it is entirely possible to align and focus teams on customer outcomes and strategic impacts for the enterprise.<\/strong>\nDon’t have time to go through all these resources? No problem-<\/strong>schedule a discovery call with me<\/strong><\/a> or send me a message \ud83d\ude09<\/strong>\n

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; rather, we need to understand, adapt and cleverly combine the ones that already exist. By adopting a Value Stream Management (VSM) approach that seamlessly integrates other existing areas of expertise, it becomes possible to connect the dots and create a value-driven, continuous learning loop.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about we try to find some wheels that suit your journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVSM Adoption\t<\/h3>\n\t

“At the end of the day we are all trying to achieve the same thing: The perfect value stream.” – James P. Womack<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPost<\/strong><\/a> By <\/strong>Toyota Production System & Lean Hub<\/a> – <\/strong>“James P. Womack’s insight reminds us that Lean is not a collection of disconnected tools. The shared objective is to create a value stream that delivers what the customer needs with less waste, fewer delays, and smoother flow.”\nCase story: “<\/strong>From whiteboard to value, how we achieved value from AI.<\/strong><\/a>” and “<\/strong>Applied principles of<\/a> <\/strong>Team Topologies<\/a> and <\/strong>Flow Engineering<\/a>” By <\/strong>Jack Ridge<\/a>. <\/strong>“This year I’ve been focusing on delivering AI within the enterprise: and driving the notion to focus on\u00a0the flow of value from idea to customer. We mapped the whole path, separated the time spent working from the time spent waiting, and removed the wait we actually controlled. Only then did we introduce AI into a system that could carry the extra pace.”\n“<\/strong>From idea to customer outcome: Why Value Stream Management is the next evolution in organizational improvement<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Helen Beal<\/a>. <\/strong>“VSM extends visibility beyond technology teams, following work from the initial idea through product management, technology delivery, and ultimately to the customer. Providing a view of the end-to-end value stream helps organizations understand how work flows from one function to another, rather than focusing on individual stages in isolation.”\n==> Check out the <\/strong>second version of the VSM Foundation course<\/strong><\/a>\nEvent by <\/strong>Flowtopia<\/a> on Dec 2: “<\/strong>Holy Bottlenecks, Batman: Practical Value Stream Mapping<\/strong><\/a>“. <\/strong>“How Value Stream Mapping became an essential component in the DevOps adoption toolkit. Join Helen Beal and <\/strong>Daniel Breston<\/a> for an exclusive, 30-minute interactive Flow Session. ”\n“<\/strong>A map without implementation is expensive wallpaper<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Ivan Carillo<\/a>. <\/strong>“We spent 3 days mapping our value stream. The map was beautiful. But nothing changed for 6 months. 6 things that separate teams who get outcomes from teams who get posters…”\n“<\/strong>AI Changes the Tooling. The Engineering Question Hasn’t Changed<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Siddharth Pareek<\/a>. <\/strong>“Today, much of the attention has moved towards AI, but after spending the last few months working on an AI-enabled capability around Flow Engineering and value-stream thinking, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: the tooling has changed much faster than the underlying engineering question.”\n“<\/strong>Value Stream Alignment Check – Do Your Teams see the whole picture?<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Patrick Adams<\/a> . <\/strong>“A value stream mindset helps teams understand how work moves from beginning to end and where opportunities for improvement exist.”\n

\ud83d\udd17 SD ReFocus – Learning to See Digital Value Streams<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\"\ud83d\udd17\"<\/a><\/strong> SD ReFocus – Leveraging Lightweight Value Stream Mapping Workshops (<\/strong><\/a>fr)<\/a><\/strong>\n

\n\t\t\tImpacts of AI\t<\/h3>\n\t“<\/strong>The New Bottleneck Is Ideation<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>John Willis<\/a> . <\/strong>“AI is making code faster and cheaper, but it’s not eliminating the bottleneck. Instead, it’s pushing it upstream, to the idea phase. The new bottleneck is becoming ideation.”\n“<\/strong>AI Is Making Software Creation Faster. That May Also Be Making It More Fragile<\/strong><\/a>.” By <\/strong>IT Revolution<\/a> , based on the guidance in <\/strong>Signals & Levers<\/a>, the new book from Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi. <\/strong>“The code came faster. The ability to understand, vet, and safely deploy that code did not keep pace. This is the central tension with AI in software delivery right now, and it’s worth mapping clearly-not to dismiss the technology, but because understanding the system is the only way to actually benefit from it.”\n“<\/strong>When Building Gets Faster, Understanding Matters More<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Rich Allen<\/a> .<\/strong> “As AI changes what smaller teams can accomplish, what might it mean for how we design organisations, distribute responsibilities and enable the flow of work and value creation?”\n“<\/strong>Is the goal really to ship as much code as possible?<\/strong><\/a>“. <\/strong>A story shared by Olivier De Schutter<\/strong> to make room for rethinking things\nGuide: “<\/strong>When Coding Is Free, Where Is the Bottleneck?<\/strong><\/a>” (41 pages). A Guide for Leaders Building Agent-Ready Delivery Systems By Timothy Cochran, <\/strong>Bryan Finster<\/a> , Tim Ottersburg, <\/strong>Scott Prugh<\/a>, Amy Willard. <\/strong>“Licenses are bought, training has begun, and developers are shipping more code than ever. Yet in most brownfield enterprises the business outcomes have not moved. Coding has become cheap, in some contexts functionally free, and that has exposed the real constraint: the work around the work. Features still wait for clarification, designs still queue behind a few experts, approvals still arrive on a calendar built for a slower world.”\n

“The bottleneck was never typing code. Code was simply where the limit was easiest to see and cheapest to attack. What limits an enterprise is the whole system’s ability to safely absorb speed, and an organization that accelerates one function without widening the rest of the pipe has purchased congestion, not velocity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGuide: “<\/strong>AI-Driven Organizational Value<\/strong><\/a>” (36 pages) and talk at “<\/strong>the AI Summit Fall 2026<\/strong><\/a>” (25′) – A Portfolio of Measures for Turning AI Adoption into Business Results. By Rodo Abad, Jason Cox, Jeff Gallimore, Betty Junod, Dr. Tapabrata “Topo” Pal, Brian Scott, Max Reele. <\/strong>“The AI age is everywhere except in the P&L. Adoption curves climb, pull requests multiply, copilots draft the memos, and the numbers a board governs by sit still. Study after study finds most enterprise AI investment delivering no measurable return, and executives describe the condition precisely: they can see the value and feel the value, they just do not have the number.”\n

\n\t\t\tValue Realization\t<\/h3>\n\t

Case Study: “<\/strong>Shifting Governance to Deliver Better Outcomes<\/strong><\/a>” (30′), <\/strong>Sooner Safer Happier (BVSSH)<\/a> APAC Meet-up. <\/strong>“When governance conversations are dominated by project status, activity and keeping work on track, it can be difficult to keep the focus on the outcomes the work was intended to create. In this session, Narmada Natarajaperumal<\/strong> from Standard Chartered Bank<\/strong> will share their practical journey towards shifting portfolio governance from controlling activity to stewarding value.”<\/p>\n“<\/strong>The Customer Should Experience The Journey. Not The Organisation Chart.<\/strong><\/a>” By Phillip Larsen. <\/strong>“A frictionless journey does not necessarily mean that everything behind it is simple. It means the organisation absorbs that complexity instead of passing it on to the customer. Context follows them, ownership remains clear and internal boundaries remain internal.”\n“<\/strong>From Output to Impact: Value stream management in the outcome economy<\/strong><\/a>” By Helen Beal. <\/strong>“In an outcome economy, success is determined not by how much code an enterprise writes, but by how reliably it translates strategy into customer value. Value stream management is the connective tissue that makes this possible. It bridges engineering efficiency with leadership decision quality, and technical flow with genuine customer realization.”\n“<\/strong>Predictability vs. Outcomes: What Are We Actually Predicting?<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Phil Clark<\/a> . <\/strong>“We’ve invested considerable effort in improving the predictability of software delivery, but are we applying the same rigor to the business outcomes that determine what we build in the first place?”\n

\ud83d\udd17 Link to join our Flowtopia community<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/strong>Moving towards Value-Driven Software Delivery – Connect the Dots of Software Value Realization<\/strong><\/a>” By Patrice Corbard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We can draw on the expertise we have built up in the field of social and environmental programmes to demonstrate (with figures to back it up) the return on our investments, thereby gaining a better understanding of the pathways to software value realization.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\nDelivery Managers: Show Me the Impact! What I learned from reviewing 317 Delivery Manager applications…<\/strong><\/a> By Nick Brown. <\/strong>“As a Delivery Manager, there are always ways you can measure your impact. Encouraging your team to automate parts of their delivery process is an activity; showing that doing so reduced deployment time from 30 minutes to five is evidence of impact. Introducing WIP limits is an activity; demonstrating that cycle time subsequently reduced is evidence of impact. Facilitating retrospectives, removing blockers or introducing new ways of working may all be valuable things to do, but simply telling me that you did them tells me very little about whether they actually made things better. In a market where literally hundreds can point to doing the same or similar things, differentiating yourself with evidence of their impact is essential.”\n“<\/strong>More Output, More Waste?<\/strong><\/a>” By Toyota Production System & Lean Hub. <\/strong>“True efficiency means meeting demand with the minimum necessary resources-without creating more waste.”\n“<\/strong>Is your platform a platform? Path to outcome explained<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Luca Galante<\/a> . <\/strong>“A single well-designed capability is still just a capability. Outcome only shows up once you map your paths against a value stream, the actual end-to-end flow of someone’s work. How does providing a runnable test environment faster and more on-demand create real value? That’s something your team needs to know, otherwise, how can you decide whether that capability should be built or maintained?”\nBook: “<\/strong>SRE 2nd edition<\/strong><\/a>“. Chapter 2, “The Value of Reliability”. <\/strong>“We then examine the business case for SRE in Chapter\u00a02, “The Value of Reliability”. By treating operational management as a software problem rather than a human one, SRE enables sublinear staff scaling and balances feature velocity with system stability. This chapter explores how SRE practices deliver strategic financial value, align product and infrastructure teams, and mitigate the massive direct and opportunity costs of unreliable systems across organizations of all sizes.”\n\ud83d\udd17 Book list<\/strong><\/a>\n

\n\t\t\tFlow Optimization\t<\/h3>\n\tFlow Session: “<\/strong>Optimizing the Outcome: Bridging Flow and Outcome Engineering<\/strong><\/a>“<\/strong>. “Join host Helen Beal and <\/strong>Colleen Johnson<\/a> , CEO and Co-Founder of ProKanban.org<\/a>, for a fast-paced, 30-minute interactive Flow Session on how intentional work design and outcome engineering come together to remove friction and accelerate value delivery.”\nThe “slower-is-faster” effect (faster-is-slower effect)<\/strong><\/a> By Joss Colchester. <\/strong>“The “slower-is-faster” effect happens when a system performs worse because its parts try to rush or run at maximum speed. Instead of increasing output, high individual speed causes bottlenecks, clogs, and chaos that slow down the entire system. ”\n“<\/strong>AI made shipping faster. Deciding is the new bottleneck<\/strong><\/a>.” By Aakash Gupta. <\/strong>“Atlassian’s State of Product 2027 report is out, and one finding explains most of what I’ve been hearing from product leaders this year. 80% of product teams say they’re shipping faster with AI. Customers aren’t getting value any sooner.”\nReport: <\/strong>State of Product 2027<\/strong><\/a> by Atlassian. <\/strong>“Driving measurable business results tops this year’s list of rewarding work. Driving measurable business results received the highest selection rate this year, with 45% choosing it among the most rewarding aspects of their work.”\n\ud83d\udd17<\/a><\/strong>Industry reports<\/strong><\/a>\n“<\/strong>The bottleneck moved upstream<\/strong><\/a>” By Felipe Nathan Welter. <\/strong>“Goldratt’s answer is to subordinate: everything else should work at the speed of the constraint, never faster. It’s the third of his five steps for managing a constraint (identify, exploit, subordinate, elevate, repeat), and AI makes it the hardest one. With agents, starting work costs almost nothing, so it’s tempting to open ten things at once. If decisions are the constraint, the team should only start what can actually be decided, reviewed and shipped.”\n“<\/strong>How to Leverage Flow Metrics To Accelerate Your Agentic Development Lifecycle<\/strong><\/a>” By Yuval Yeret. <\/strong>“AI is making some steps in the workflow such as specifying and coding and testing much faster and cheaper. But humans are still very much involved in the lifecycle. And the overall throughput isn’t dramatically different and far from the 10x promises everyone is in FOMO on.”\n“<\/strong>Is your Platform Teams broken? FOUR Technical Signs Your Platform Team Is Becoming a Bottleneck<\/strong><\/a>” By <\/strong>Dolphy Fernandes<\/a> .<\/strong> “Sometimes the platform team becomes a bottleneck without anyone noticing. It’s usually because the platform has quietly drifted away from being a predictable, self\u2011service product.”\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThis newsletter is part of my continuous learning process and forces me to keep an active eye on new developments in our fields. Thanks once again to all the authors mentioned in this issue, who share their know-how and experience, hoping that this newsletter will also be of use to them in one way or another.\nPatrice\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Value-Driven – October 2026 The Hare and the Tortoises “The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze. The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoises.” – Taiichi Ohno This famous quote by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"unboxed","site-sidebar-style":"unboxed","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"enabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3267","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t