At the 2024 Project to Product Summit, Sue Schweitzer, Senior Flow Advisor at The Vanguard Group, shared how Vanguard scaled flow across 750+ IT teams, transforming their way of working. What began as a small pilot to improve developer experience grew into an enterprise-wide program, tackling work-in-progress (WIP) overload, fragmented workflows, and alignment challenges.
By standardizing processes, embedding flow expertise, and leveraging data-driven insights, Vanguard improved efficiency and fostered a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Here’s how they did it—and the key lessons for scaling flow successfully.
Step 1: Start With a Small-Scale Pilot
The journey began in 2022 when Vanguard initiated a pilot within their Chief Technology Office and IT department, focusing on improving the software developer experience. The teams struggled with excessive context switching and too much WIP, prompting them to optimize flow as a solution.
To test the waters, they selected ten volunteer teams and introduced Planview Viz as their flow visualization tool. Scrum leads became the key change agents, supported by internal flow coaches and an external expert from Planview.
Early findings revealed inconsistencies in how teams managed work in Jira, their primary tool for daily work management. Each team had a unique workflow, requiring a tailored mapping to measure flow effectively. As the teams visualized their flow metrics, they identified key areas for improvement, particularly in data consistency and accuracy.
Lessons from the Pilot:
- The teams lacked shared goals, leading to alignment issues.
- There was initial resistance to measuring the full software development lifecycle beyond engineering cycle time.
- Inconsistent Jira workflows made it challenging to derive actionable insights.
- High levels of incoming work from outside teams contributed to elongated cycle times.
- Early adopters played a crucial role in championing flow practices and continuous improvement.
Step 2: Expand the Pilot – Focus on Collaboration
With key lessons in hand, Vanguard shifted its approach. Instead of disparate teams, they grouped teams into clusters—referred to as subfamilies—who worked on adjacent products. This allowed for more shared goals and better alignment.
They also expanded their coaching model to include product owners from the business side, marking their first direct engagement with business partners. As the pilot grew from 10 to 25 teams, they implemented significant changes:
- Standardized Jira workflows across participating teams.
- Introduced explicit classification for work types to improve tracking.
- Encouraged teams to signal blockages and impediments in their workflow.
- Developed training programs to reinforce agile and flow principles.
- Launched flow reviews, where teams presented their flow analytics and improvement experiments to leadership.
Key Learnings:
- Standardized Jira workflows were essential for scaling flow adoption.
- Manually configuring teams’ flow metrics was time-consuming and needed automation.
- WIP management became a major focus, as 90% of work originated externally.
- Leadership engagement varied, with some leaders embracing flow insights while others hesitated due to uncomfortable truths about inefficiencies.
Step 3: Scale to an Enterprise-Wide Program
In 2023, Vanguard made a bold move—transitioning from a pilot to a full-scale program. With executive sponsorship from the Chief Technology Office and IT leadership, they committed to implementing flow across all 750+ software development teams. Planview Viz was officially adopted as the enterprise-wide tool, and a new Flow Program was born.
Major Transformations:
- Jira workflows were standardized, reducing 1,700 disparate workflows to just 200, ensuring consistency across teams.
- A network of Flow Advisors was created to embed flow expertise within each IT subdivision.
- Vanguard hired additional flow coaches, introduced weekly office hours, and developed written guidance materials for teams.
- The organization invested in data analytics and automation, integrating APIs to provide real-time insights and visibility into flow performance.
- Vanguard launched Flow Achievement Badges and a Trailblazing Teams Program to celebrate teams that demonstrated exceptional flow improvements.
One of the most significant milestones was setting a 2024 Flow OKR: achieving three consecutive months of faster feature cycle times. As of today, eight out of nine IT subdivisions have met this goal, demonstrating tangible benefits from the program.
Key Lessons from Enterprise Scaling:
- Flow at scale required a centralized, automated approach to configuration and analytics to ensure efficiency and consistency across all teams.
- Leadership support was crucial, but grassroots adoption by teams made the real impact. Change was most successful when teams felt ownership and accountability for their flow metrics.
- Despite major improvements, “Wicked WIP” remained a challenge, with work arrival rates exceeding departure rates. Teams continued to struggle with backlog management and prioritization.
- Standardized workflows improved transparency but also required shifting the organizational mindset beyond traditional Jira structures. Many teams had to rethink their entire workflow strategy to better align with flow principles.
- Flow isn’t just about visibility. It’s also about behavioral change and long-term cultural transformation. Continuous education, reinforcement of agile principles, and leadership alignment were key to making flow an integral part of the organization’s way of working.
- The introduction of new metrics and reporting tools helped provide greater clarity into bottlenecks and inefficiencies, allowing teams to take data-driven actions to improve performance.
- The need for cross-functional collaboration became increasingly apparent, as flow optimization required not just IT alignment but also stronger business engagement.
Looking Ahead: The Next Chapter of Flow at Vanguard
As Vanguard looks to the future, the next major initiative is to elevate flow from the team level to the product level. This shift aligns with a broader corporate transformation toward Digital Product Management (DPM), an enterprise-wide effort involving business and IT leadership.
Future Focus Areas:
- Defining the Ideation Phase: Currently, discovery and ideation work remain inconsistent in measurement. Vanguard plans to integrate business processes into flow tracking.
- Expanding Data Sources: While the current flow program primarily relies on Jira, new data sources will be incorporated to provide a more holistic view.
- Refining Flow Vocabulary: Moving from a backlog-driven mindset (epics and stories) to a value-driven approach (features, risks, debt, and defects).
- Enhancing Flow Stability & Predictability: The next evolution in maturity is moving beyond transparency to creating a stable, predictable flow of work, allowing teams to commit to reliable value delivery timelines.
Conclusion: A Journey of Continuous Improvement
Sue Schweitzer closed her presentation with a powerful reminder: the journey to flow maturity is never complete. Vanguard has transformed from a small pilot to an enterprise-wide program, but continuous learning and adaptation remain key.
By embedding flow into the organizational DNA, Vanguard is not only improving developer experiences but also accelerating value delivery for customers. With a steadfast commitment to transparency, alignment, and data-driven decision-making, their journey offers a blueprint for other enterprises looking to scale flow effectively.
Ready to accelerate delivery? Learn from Vanguard’s success and see how Planview Viz helps you uncover bottlenecks, reduce inefficiencies, and deliver 3x faster. Watch the demo to take the next step toward scalable, efficient software delivery.
