VSM Foundation flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Value stream
- The sequence of activities required to design, produce, and deliver a product or service to a customer, including information and material flows.
- Lean VSM origin
- Value Stream Mapping originated in the Toyota Production System and was formalized by Rother and Shook in 1999 as a material and information flow mapping technique.
- Flow Framework
- A management model by Mik Kersten (2018) that defines flow items, flow metrics, and value stream networks to measure and optimize software delivery.
- Operational value stream
- A value stream that delivers direct value to external customers, such as order fulfillment or customer onboarding.
- Development value stream
- A value stream that creates and maintains operational value streams, typically involving software development and delivery activities.
- Value stream trigger
- The defined event that starts a value stream, such as a customer request, feature idea, or incident.
- Value stream boundaries
- The explicit entry (trigger) and exit (customer outcome) points that define the scope of a value stream.
- Current-state map
- A value stream map that documents the as-is process, including steps, handoffs, queues, and wait times.
- Future-state map
- A value stream map that designs the to-be process with improvement actions and target metrics.
- Flow efficiency
- The ratio of value-added time to total lead time, expressed as a percentage: value-added time / lead time × 100%.
- Percent complete and accurate
- The percentage of work items that arrive at a step complete and accurate, used to expose rework loops at handoffs.
- Kaizen burst
- A marked improvement action on a future-state value stream map, with an owner and target date.
- Toolchain integration
- Connecting DevOps tools across planning, code, build, test, deploy, and operate stages to enable automated flow of work items and events.
- Traceability link
- A connection between artifacts such as commits to work items, builds to commits, and incidents to deployments, enabling end-to-end visibility.
- Webhook
- An automated HTTP callback triggered by an event in one tool to notify another tool, commonly used to sync status across the DevOps toolchain.
- Lead time
- The total time from when a work item is created or committed to when it is delivered to the customer.
- Cycle time
- The time from when work starts on a single item to when that item is completed.
- Throughput
- The number of work items completed per unit of time, such as features per week.
- Little's Law
- A formula stating that average lead time equals average work in progress divided by average throughput.
- Flow load
- The number of work items in progress at a given time; high flow load typically increases lead time.
- Flow distribution
- The percentage of work allocated to each flow item type: features, defects, risks, and technical debt.
- Cumulative flow diagram
- A chart showing the number of work items in each state over time, used to spot WIP accumulation and flow blockage.
- Bottleneck identification
- Finding the step with the highest wait time or lowest percent complete and accurate, which limits overall throughput.
- Theory of constraints
- A management approach stating that throughput is limited by the bottleneck, so improvement efforts should focus on the bottleneck first.
- Value stream review
- A recurring cross-functional meeting to inspect value stream metrics, identify blockers, and agree on improvement actions.
- Stream-aligned team
- A team organized around a single value stream, empowered to deliver end-to-end with minimal handoffs.
- Platform team
- A team that provides self-service internal services to reduce cognitive load on stream-aligned teams.
- Enabling team
- A team that helps stream-aligned teams acquire capabilities temporarily, then steps back.
- Complicated-subsystem team
- A team responsible for a component that requires deep specialist knowledge and significant cognitive load.
- Value stream funding
- Allocating budget to value streams rather than projects, enabling continuous flow and long-term ownership.
- Improvement kata
- A structured routine for continuous improvement: define target condition, current condition, obstacles, and next experiments.
- WIP limit
- A cap on the number of work items allowed in progress at a stage, used to reduce flow load and improve throughput.