The concept of a Value Stream is fundamental to SAFe and how to optimally organize your Teams, ARTs, and Solution trains. In fact, there’s a Value Stream Workshop that’s intended to help organizations identify their Value Streams, prioritize them, and ultimately decide where to start to launch your first ART. While determining the paths to value for your business may, on the surface, appear to be very easy, I can assure you that it’s an “”ART”” (pun intended)--not a science--to clearly identify and articulate them. In this presentation, Ken France, SAI SAFe Fellow, explores ways in which to prep for a successful Value Stream Workshop, as well as what you should expect when you try to run your first one. He provides examples from real workshops and provides some practical advice on how to make sure you come out with something concrete and actionable. Learning Objectives and Key Takeaways: **How to prep for a Value Stream Workshop **Tips/tricks for facilitating a Value Stream Workshop **Real examples of Value Streams from different contexts

2. The ‘ART’ of Value Streams: Best Practices for Running
a SAFe Value Stream Workshop
March 6, 2019

3. Intros
Ken France, SAFe Fellow
• VP of Scaled Agility @Cprime
• 25+ years’ experience
• Executive Enterprise Coach
• Helps Fortune 100 enterprises tackle large
complex scaled agile transformations in
various verticals (retail, healthcare,
insurance, finance. etc)
• Passionate about empowering all levels of
org in their journey to drive sustainable
improvements and meaningful change

4. Agenda
• The challenge
• When should you run workshop?
• How should you prepare for workshop?
• What to expect when you execute workshop?
• How do you get started following workshop?
• Q&A

5. Quick Intro to Value Streams

6. Where’s the Value?
• Generally not obvious what the
Value Stream(s) should be
• Hard to separate flow of value from
how you are organized (e.g. Development
Value Streams)
• There is no perfect answer
• Everyone will have an opinion

7. When Should You Run the Workshop

8. SAFe’s Guidance
When initially identifying Value Streams and
defining your Solution Trains and ARTs
Re-evaluating your ART
definitions due to initial
compromises, revised
Portfolio investments, or
new target optimizations
- Common Pattern:
Leading SAFe + VSW
- Prioritize Value Streams
- May need to
launch an ART
first
- May need to scale further before
getting the right people engaged

9. How Should You Prepare for the
Workshop

10. Value Streams
Value streams represent the series of steps that an
organization uses to build solutions that provide a continuous
flow of value to the customer.”
~Scaled Agile

11. Audience
Key leaders from Business & IT
• IT only workshops offer a tainted view of Value flow
• Use workshop to start bringing two sides together & creating awareness & empathy
between teams
Plan for potentially long cycles associated with getting the right people to buy in to the
session and get it scheduled

12. A little deeper in “the Business”
Leadership & Strategy
• Anchor conversation around desired business results
• Link to strategic business structure - future business model (business
architects)
• What investments are intended to achieve business results?
• Are there strong [emerging] lean portfolio management/ portfolio strategies at
play?
Operators – what groups actually operate the Value Stream?

13. Role of the Lean Agile Center of Excellence
Guiding Coalition of Executives, SPCs, etc.
LACE (Lean Agile Center of Excellence) personnel
• Facilitate workshop (with coaching support if needed)
• Provide objective insights & feedback
• Help drive concrete results
• Be aware that Value Stream ID may be key input to enterprise transformation
roadmap

14. Do Not Walk in Cold
• Presentations that explain the business
internally & externally
• External website: how does company position
itself to market?
• Put yourself in your external customer’s shoes; be careful
you aren’t just thinking of your boss as your customer
• Conduct pre-meetings to get people thinking about
value from systemic standpoint – key cultural shift in org

15. Do Not Walk in Cold (cont.)
• Have your pre-meetings with audience targets & ask them to describe their
views on how value flows – use that to set up additional meetings with potential
audience stakeholders
• Be prepared to conduct multiple iterations as people will ID other groups that
need to be involved to validate the work
• What does current portfolio structure look like? Does structure ‘fit’ value?
• Overall goal: Have some options in mind heading in BUT don’t overly influence
outcome

16. Business Value Stream
Card Capture Authorization Settlement
Ops Support Payment CardsContact
Center
Customer

17. Business Value Stream – Who we Didn’t Think to Involve!
Card Capture Authorization Settlement
Store
Employees
Ops Support/
Loss Prevention Payment Cards
Finance
Contact
Center
Customer

18. What to Expect when you Conduct
Workshop

19. VSW Process Summary
1 Identify an Operational Value Stream
2
Identify the systems which support the
Operational Value Stream
3 Identify the people who develop the systems
Identify Development Value Streams that build
these systems
Realize Value Streams into ARTs
4
5

20. What is Likely to Occur at First?

21. What is Likely to Happen?
Morning: Thrashing
• Disagreement on what value streams should be
• Larger voices dominating conversation
Tips
• Keep asking them who customer is (e.g. focus on Operational Value Stream)
• Keep asking them what is value customer is looking for
• Get them to write Value Stream description(s) – start somewhere

22. What is Likely to Happen (Cont.)?
Afternoon: Gradual Alignment
• Light bulbs start to go off after a lunch break and some time to reflect
• Consensus on candidate Value Streams start to emerge, starts to “feel right”
Tips
• Pick 1-3 Value Streams that seem to have the most consensus, move onto to the
subsequent steps of identifying the steps in the value stream, affected systems,
etc.
• Great is the enemy of good

23. What we Thought Trains Might Look Like
1. Investments
• Sales
• Professional Book of Record
• Client Configuration
• Adjudication
• Reimbursement Management
• Consumer Health
• Information Management
2. Customers
• Individuals & Families
• Employers
• Health Care Providers

24. What Value Streams Actually Were!
• Benefits
• Reimbursement
• Networks
• Consumer Engagement
• Market Enablement
• Infrastructure

25. How do you Get Started Following
Workshop

26. Potential Trap!
Work Payment Stores Digital
Remote Transaction X
Mobile Transaction X X
E2E Encryption X X
Debit Card X X
Online Fraud X X
Alternative Payments X X X
Org Silos

27. Deeper Dive with Value Stream Mapping

28. Future State

29. Build Roadmap, Pick Place to Start & Start Sprinting!

30. Takeaways
• Don't feel like you always have to do it upfront – you need to get some
experience.
• You cannot prepare too much for this – OVERPREPARE!
• Don't panic if it didn’t work out as you planned.
• Make sure you have candidate value streams, but don't pull them out until
you need them.

31. Next Steps
• Check out our upcoming webinars; read our blog, download whitepapers/case
studies & more:
• www.cprime.com/resources
• Share with us what topics you are interested in, ask us questions or give us
feedback!
• learn@cprime.com
• Follow us on Social Media and share in the conversation & keep updated on
thought leadership, events & more.
• www.linkedin.com/company/cprime-inc
• @CprimeInc on Twitter

32. Q&A