Project to Product Shift

In the bestselling book Project to Product, Planview CTO Dr. Mik Kersten introduces leaders to the missing framework needed to create a Value Stream Network — the technology equivalent of an advanced manufacturing line that comprises thousands of IT professionals.

How Tasktop dramatically improved its Flow Velocity in one day

In the latest release of Tasktop Integration Hub (19.3), the Product Development team tried out an experiment to deliver even more business value out of our flagship product. In my last blog, I described how Tasktop has made few cultural and process-oriented changes to be more customer-obsessed and ship features faster. Galvanized by the new...

The Flow Framework™ – Treating risk items as a security cost

In the Flow Framework™ there are four flow items that provide value to the end-user of your product: Features (new business value) Defects (quality) Technical debt (removal of impediments to future delivery) Risk (security, governance, compliance) A software organization must devote time to each flow item as they are all crucial to a strong product....

How to drive customer obsessed Product Development

At Tasktop our Product, Engineering and UX teams operate under a single umbrella called ‘Product Development’ to make all our value streams “customer-obsessed”. Our teams do not work in silos or a single project, rather they are focused on optimizing the value stream for a single product – such as Tasktop Integration Hub – to...

The Four Flow items as explained by my car

We have a long drive ahead, 12 hours in fact, and it will only take us a short way along the Eastern coastline of Australia. Having just arrived back from Tasktop HQ in Vancouver, BC where we have been discussing the Flow Framework™, I’m excited to tell my passengers (my wife and family) about the...

Why Your Organization needs a Value Stream Architect … TODAY!

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets” – W. Edwards Deming Technology in business allows organizations to improve both the performance and overall effectiveness of products, systems and services, which, in turn, enables businesses to meet anticipated goals more quickly and efficiently. Tech, coupled with the right minds and culture, is also the linchpin of innovation, enabling traditional...

What Software Needs to Learn from Physical Product Delivery

In the Age of Mass Production, which began at the turn of the 20th century, we witnessed engineering organizations master complex product delivery.  Since that time, product complexity has continued to grow, fueled recently by an ever-growing number of electronic and software components. For example, in the 2000s, approximately 40 percent of a car’s cost...

How the Flow Framework® Maximizes Your Wins from Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)

Many organizations have invested heavily or are considering investing in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) to improve their enterprise software delivery, where complex product work spans dozens of Agile development teams. Enterprises that have made strong strides down the SAFe path have trained and certified their teams, hired internal coaches, adopted new tools and implemented new...

Project to Product – Value Stream Networks

My review of the Project to Product book continues from Value Stream Metrics, with a tour of the Value Stream Network based on a study of no less than 308 toolchains and three more epiphanies. To avoid the spoiler, you will have to read the book for the context and the profound impact of the latter :-). The last part...