Summary

In this chapter, you've learned why the concept of value is critical when implementing Agile, Lean, VSM, and DevOps practices to get their full advantages. You've also learned that value is an expression of desired customer experiences and that an organization as a whole needs to work in lockstep to deliver those experiences.

Current IT methodologies often use the term Lean-Agile as their primary differentiator. However, both Lean and Agile are complementary concepts, and the amalgamation of both types of practices helps IT organizations deliver VA products rapidly, efficiently, and with higher quality.

You've also learned that VSM instantiates Lean practices across IT by integrating and automating value stream identification, mapping, analysis, measurements, and monitoring capabilities to support E2E product life cycle delivery of value. Finally, DevOps helps accelerate the delivery of value.

Later chapters in Section 1, Focusing IT on the Delivery of Value, of this book provide instruction on using value stream mapping to assess current and desired future state changes to improve your value streams. Then, you will learn how to use VSM capabilities to support, analyze, and monitor your value stream improvement activities. Finally, you will learn why DevOps is a critical enabler to rapidly, efficiently, and cost-effectively implement digital applications supporting your value stream improvements.

Before we get to those chapters, we need to explore how organizations link Agile, Lean, and Systems Thinking practices as an integrated set of practices. That is the topic of the next chapter.