Zacharias Beckman’s Post

Value stream engineering is all about building a clear “line of sight” directly from what your customer prioritizes to every single action you take on a project. A well-informed team will always know precisely what their customer prizes most, how much impact a feature actually delivers, and if that feature represents a sustainable business proposition. This is a practical guide, a method with step-by-step instructions, for applying value stream engineering. In this two-part article, I want to break down any barriers to understanding VSE. I’ll show how value stream engineering makes a difference in your day-to-day work. A difference that will ultimately mean better software, faster time to market, less rework, and a delighted customer. #VSE #ValueStreamEngineering #DSO #DesignThinking #SoftwareArchitecture

Did you miss the latest on COE...? A deep dive into Value Stream Engineering... FOR THE ENGINEER. Value stream engineering is all about building a clear “line of sight” directly from what your customer prioritizes to every single action you take on a project. It's also about preventing delivery problems before they happen. A well-informed team will always know precisely what their customer prizes most, how much impact a feature actually delivers, and if that feature represents a sustainable business proposition. This is a practical guide, a method with step-by-step instructions, for applying value stream engineering. In this two-part article, I want to break down any barriers to understanding VSE. I’ll show how value stream engineering makes a difference in your day-to-day work. A difference that will ultimately mean better software, faster time to market, less rework, and a delighted customer. #VSE #ValueStreamEngineering #DSO #DesignThinking

Did you miss the latest on COE...? A deep dive into Value Stream Engineering... FOR THE ENGINEER. Value stream engineering is all about building a clear “line of sight” directly from what your customer prioritizes to every single action you take on a project. It's also about preventing delivery problems before they happen. A well-informed team will always know precisely what their customer prizes most, how much impact a feature actually delivers, and if that feature represents a sustainable business proposition. This is a practical guide, a method with step-by-step instructions, for applying value stream engineering. In this two-part article, I want to break down any barriers to understanding VSE. I’ll show how value stream engineering makes a difference in your day-to-day work. A difference that will ultimately mean better software, faster time to market, less rework, and a delighted customer. #VSE #ValueStreamEngineering #DSO #DesignThinking

Value stream engineering is all about building a clear “line of sight” directly from what your customer prioritizes to every single action you take on a project. A well-informed team will always know precisely what their customer prizes most, how much impact a feature actually delivers, and if that feature represents a sustainable business proposition. This is a practical guide, a method with step-by-step instructions, for applying value stream engineering. In this two-part article, I want to break down any barriers to understanding VSE. I’ll show how value stream engineering makes a difference in your day-to-day work. A difference that will ultimately mean better software, faster time to market, less rework, and a delighted customer.

Are you translating R&D costs into business outcomes? Prove your impact on the bottom line by: – Aligning resource allocation to business needs  – Translating engineering output into effort and cost – Focusing on new value creation and revenue-generating activities Here’s how you can leverage LinearB to achieve profitable engineering: 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: Communicate the impact of new requests by connecting them to budget, resourcing and projects. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: Gain a holistic understanding of where effort is being invested and where you can reallocate resources to increase new value creation. 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲: Gain insight into every step of your SDLC. Find friction points and build an improvement strategy for your team. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦’𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐮𝐭: Use data and insights to increase the velocity of your code throughput. Unblock the workflow bottlenecks that slow your team down. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: Improve the health of your engineering organization. Set goals with full visibility into the leading indicators of team performance. 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐥: Eliminate tedious tasks with one-click workflows and automated pull request routing. 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: Find the right reviewer, auto approve safe changes, and minimize the cognitive load of the merge process to build smooth delivery paths. The result? Shorter cycles and more value delivered faster. 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠: Keep priority projects on track with visibility into planning and capacity metrics, delivery cadences and progress against deadlines. 𝐌𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲: Identify project risks before they become a problem using automated insights into delivery risk, resource management issues and project best practices Learn more about profitable engineering on the page linked below 👇 #ROI #SoftwareEngineeringIntelligence #Automation

Whether or not you can measure the cost of delay, you will still pay the cost of delay. Your best bet to deal with cost of delay is to run your product development org so that the cost of delays in your product value streams are *aligned* to where they need to be in their respective product lifecycle. If a product value stream can continue to increase sales, usage etc and retain customers without incremental output from product and engineering (ie it is a viable *product*) then you don’t need to obsess about the cost of delay. Your value flywheel is turning as it should, and it should insulate your product and engineering functions from the day to day impacts of cost of delay. Product development is not the constraint for these value streams. If you don’t have a viable product value stream on the other hand, and product/engineering are the constraint to growing sales and retaining customers, you need to be very attuned to the cost of delay for those value streams. But in my opinion, you won’t get much mileage out of trying to guess what the cost of delay is on any given thing you try to build with planning and scheduling policies like CD3 etc. here. Focusing on reducing the *number* of non-viable product value streams you are investing in, and reducing flow time across those *value streams* you prioritize to deliver with tight market feedback loops is your best strategy to reducing the impacts of the cost of delay. Design your system to minimize the cost of delay across the board in those non viable product value streams by optimizing end to end flow time and reducing the time it takes to get market feedback on everything you build. The goal should be to get down to the business of making the value flywheel turn (again) for those value streams, when product/engineering is no longer the constraint. #valuestreammanagement #productdevelopment #software #flowengineering #toc

Help more customers faster by taking a "Fix the most important thing" instead of "Fix everything" approach. A few years ago I helped set up a project team tasked with improving a corporate website so customers could more easily find information they needed. Research confirmed that most customers would avoid making a phone call and would try self-help options first. If that failed, easy access to a human support agent was critical. Key insight: improve online resources to save on unnecessary calls. There were 4 or 5 top issues, and Do It Yourself software updates emerged as the predominant concern, constituting 40% of online help requests. Instructions were confusing and time consuming, leading to negative Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and a mere 20% task completion rate. Rather than tackling all issues at once, the team adopted a focused strategy: prioritizing the software update problem. They rapidly iterated solutions on a beta site, consistently improving instructions based on real customer feedback. Within a few cycles, NPS turned positive and task completion rates soared to 60%. We were already helping hundreds of customers with just the beta product. This agile approach continued, swiftly addressing subsequent challenges. Each iterative cycle brought substantial enhancements, significantly elevating user experience without the delays typical of large-scale projects. By focusing on real-time customer impact during experimentation phases, the team achieved continuous improvement, efficiently resolving issues while advancing to the next challenge. Instead of stretching your resources trying to fix everything. Focus on fixing the most significant issue first, then move to the next issue. Chances are you will help more customers more quickly.

A "digital thread" is a term that emerged in the late 2010s as concept within product lifecycle management, but it's not magic. Various tools and techniques contribute behind the scenes and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is one of them. How does MBSE contribute to the digital thread? - Shared Language: Imagine everyone involved in the product lifecycle speaking the same language. An MBSE approach that establishes a standardised schema early in the lifecycle is the perfect starting point for information throughout the digital thread. The schema works like a common dictionary for representing requirements, design details, and interfaces. This ensures everyone interprets data consistently. - From Design to Reality: MBSE acts as a bridge between the initial concept and the final designed product. The system model can be used to generate specialist design artefacts and models. This strengthens the digital thread by ensuring consistency between the business vision and the finished product. - A Foundation for the Future: The rich data within the MBSE model lays the groundwork for a digital twin, a virtual representation of the physical product. This digital twin evolves alongside the physical product, and the MBSE model provides the initial data for this continuous data exchange. While we think MBSE plays a significant role, it's just one piece of the puzzle. By working together, various tools and techniques can create a robust digital thread, ultimately leading to successful product development. How do you see MBSE as part of a digital thread?

I have been talking about different strategies we can implement to improve a product's health, maintenance, performance and even how to rethink some features that need refactoring or decoupling. One topic is Feature Flagging. Feature Flagging—a term often misunderstood and underutilized in site reliability engineering (SRE). Too frequently, its adoption is hindered by misconceptions, with teams fixating on the perceived complexity of implementation rather than recognizing its true value: mitigating risks and enhancing site reliability. I have been advocating and training its usage widely to help products that are struggling to be reliable, generating recurrent post-mortem meetings and leveraging customer dissatisfaction. **One common misstep in adopting feature flags is the fixation on the number of lines of code to be changed, rather than assessing the impact of those changes on product functionality**. It's not about the quantity of code but the quality of control it offers. Feature flags enable precise control over feature rollout and behaviour, regardless of the code volume. Contrary to popular belief, **feature flags are not a burden but a boon in navigating complexity**. Software systems are anything but simplistic. Feature flags provide a robust mechanism to tame this complexity, offering granular control over feature deployment and activation. By compartmentalizing changes and selectively exposing features, teams can safeguard site reliability amidst evolving codebases and dynamic user demands. A good and alive software has constant iteration and refinement. Feature flags serve as the compass, confidently guiding teams through this iterative process. By enabling controlled rollouts and phased feature releases, teams can iterate rapidly without compromising site stability. **Feature flags facilitate an agile approach to development, allowing teams to pivot, experiment, and adapt with minimal disruption**. By decoupling deployment from release, feature flags pave the path to innovating fearlessly. It is a safety net to control rollbacks and dynamic configuration at their disposal. Feature flags liberate teams from the shackles of traditional release cycles, empowering them to experiment, iterate, and innovate.

𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗰𝘁 ⚖️ Ever tried aligning stakeholder requirements, features, and development tasks? It’s like juggling blindfolded! 😅 Feature-based scheduling can be a game-changer, but it comes with its own set of challenges. How do YOU handle it? 💡 🔍 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 into manageable features? 🎯 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 with the product’s overall goals? 🛠️ 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 through a ticket-tracking system? One big challenge: tracking progress across releases. How do you ensure that all stakeholder requirements are properly implemented and tested for every software release? 🚀 Every feature release demands careful coordination: ✔️ 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Mapping stakeholder needs to product features. ✔️ 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 & 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: Keeping everything in sync with ASPICE SYS.2 & SYS.3. ✔️ 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: Scheduling precise implementations via ASPICE SWE.1. ✔️ 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 & 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: Aligning with ASPICE SWE.2 & SWE.3. ✔️ 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Ensuring everything meets ASPICE SWE.4-SYS.5. It’s a balancing act of precision and timing! 🕰️ How do YOU ensure a smooth feature-based implementation? Let’s share insights! 👇 #SoftwareDevelopment #ASPICE #SoftwareArchitecture #ProjectManagement #Agile #TaskTracking #SystemEngineering #AUTOSAR #EmbeddedSystems