Requirement to Deploy Value Stream

• Make service delivery predictable, even across globally dispersed teams, multiple suppliers, and multiple development methodologies

Services today are sourced or developed in cooperation with many different parties or configurations. All parties are working with their own processes and tooling. IT must be able to provide a good overview of the planned activities, should speak a common language with all parties involved, and should provide a methodology for how to achieve the best quality.

Cloud sourcing, agile development, and other innovations have created the need for IT to be able to manage development and delivery of services in a hybrid environment. IT needs an R2D Value Stream framework that can accommodate everything including:

• Contracts for Software as a Service (SaaS)/Subscription services
• Fast, lightweight application releases such as mobile applications or those built using agile methodologies (for example, SCRUM , extreme programming)
• Traditional applications that utilize more structured project-driven release cycles
• Everything in between
  

• Ensure that each Service Release is high quality, fit-for-purpose, and meets customer expectations

IT still experiences too many incidents immediately after release of a service into production. IT must establish control over the quality of a service regardless of the number of vendors that are part of the delivery.

• Understand the evolving relationship between planning and building

Historically, estimation has been framed as a trade-off, balancing a prior “planning” phase versus a later “building” phase. However, it is increasingly understood that planning in complex domains requires information only available through iterative attempts to fulfill requirements. In a sense, both planning and building must take place simultaneously in many cases.

• Standardize service development and delivery to the point where re-use of service components is the norm

IT operations and development must ensure increased quality and speed of service delivery while also lowering costs. In support of these efficiency and quality goals, IT must have a framework in which to drive the re-use of existing service components at multiple stages of the development lifecycle across multiple services. IT must work successfully with multiple internal and external contributors and be able to integrate the data process and tools required to work with globally dispersed teams, outsourcers, traditional and cloud-based suppliers. Furthermore, IT must maintain control of the governance of this service delivery value stream and be able to track and measure internal and vendor performance, costs, quality, and on-time delivery. The ability to re-use requirements, source code, documentation, test scripts, service monitors, and other artifacts of the service development lifecycle is a key contributor to managing cost, increasing quality and predictability, and accelerating release cycles.

• Build a culture of collaboration between IT operations and IT development to support Service Release success

IT operations and development must improve collaboration between IT departments. Development organizations build and test services in a silo and “surprise” IT operations by “throwing Release Packages over the fence” for immediate delivery. IT operations may not manage the IT infrastructure to adapt for new standards and environments fast enough to meet the requirements of new developments from the service design and development team. Inefficient manual processes are typical, and in high maturity shops are increasingly replaced by fully automated continuous delivery pipelines.

• Put rigorous structure in place to lessen the impact of the IT reality – high staff turnover

High turnover in IT means knowledge is lost and schedules are impacted--Particularly in low-cost labor markets where employers are suffering high employee turnover rates. The R2D Value Stream helps capture the knowledge that would otherwise be lost and cause schedules to be delayed.

• Drive predictable outcomes without driving out innovation

Innovation and process efficiency are two pillars of competitive advantage that IT departments bring to the business, yet these two pillars often have trouble co-existing. The emphasis on on-time project delivery tends to stifle innovation, creating a conflict between these two priorities. IT must continuously improve its ability to execute in such a way that on-time innovation is the norm. The R2D Value Stream identifies the core automation enablers and the key data exchanges required to accomplish this goal. For example, focusing efforts on automation of test, release, and deployment provides more time and resource for innovation in service design and development.