The Flow Framework

Learn about the Flow Framework®, a structured, prescriptive approach to Value Stream Management in software delivery organizations. It identifies where work slows down so that bottlenecks can be addressed and equips technology leaders to effectively communicate with business stakeholders when setting priorities and measuring outcomes.

4 Ways to Optimize OKRs

While OKRs are a popular framework for organizations trying to accelerate their digital transformations, traditional enterprises often face challenges when they try to translate their strategic high-level objectives into key results. Last week, Dr. Mik Kersten and Felipe Castro addressed these challenges head-on during a webinar on Transformative OKRs: Translating Business Strategy into Measurable Outcomes....

You say tomato, I say tomahto: The common language of value streams 

At the root of the discipline of value stream management is a common language that brings business and technology leaders together.  After all, the only way to deliver value to customers is to make sure everyone involved understands what value is and how it’s measured. Keeping teams on the same page requires everyone to understand...

Symbiosis: The Flow Framework® meets Team Topologies

In Episode 42 of the Mik + One Podcast, Dr. Mik Kertsen sat down with Manuel Pais, renowned IT consultant and co-author of Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology for Fast Flow, to discuss the relationship between Team Topologies and the Flow Framework®. They highlight three areas of symbiosis in the shift from project to...

Flow = Joy

A few years ago, I embarked on a mission. At the company I was working for, my plan was to build high performing product teams. In the middle of that journey, just as we started to make progress, life threw us a curveball – COVID. Much to our surprise, in our pursuit of remote flow...

Flow Metrics: Three Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Value stream management is a growing practice in software delivery organizations of large scale enterprises and government agencies. Flow Metrics are a major pillar of how we measure improvement in value streams.  As organizations begin to adopt Flow Metrics, our natural tendencies emerge to massage the newfound visibility to make the metrics “look good”. This...

3 Reasons Your SAFe® Journey Has Lost Its Way 

With the 2021 Global SAFe® Summit only a week away (September 27 – October 1), the software delivery community will come together once again to tackle that ever-pressing question: just how do you marry technical agility with business agility to support customers more effectively?  The most popular framework for scaling software development, SAFe continues to...

2 Things You Can Start Doing Today to Improve Team Engagement and Get Better Business Results

Organizations often struggle to balance top-down direction vs. team autonomy. Too much top-down directive and teams can quickly feel micromanaged, becoming discouraged and disengaged. Leaders, meanwhile, struggle to allow complete autonomy, fearing the sheer increase in variation between tools, processes and practices will make it impossible to collaborate and manage products across the organization. There...

Reignite Your SAFe® Journey with Flow Metrics and Program Predictability Measures

“Business agility is the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally-enabled business solutions” – Scaled Agile  Kate Chajka has been working on the frontline of Agile transformations for over 15 years. To say she has seen it all is an understatement....