When organizations connect and measure the impact of their IT investments on the business’ strategy, business and technology leaders are able to partner more effectively and accelerate the delivery of real business value. But to do so, these teams must be seamlessly aligned throughout the delivery pipeline, able to quickly identify and resolve bottlenecks, and work together to optimize their processes end-to-end. Flow Metrics enable organizations to measure what matters in software delivery, optimizing the flow of business value from ideation to operation and turning IT from a project-oriented cost center to a profit-generating product operating model. Key Takeaways: Discover how to align business and IT leaders to optimize value delivery using the Flow Framework™ Learn how to use Flow Metrics to expose bottlenecks and reveal opportunities to improve time-to-market, responsiveness to customers, and quality Understand how to create a seamless end-to-end flow of business value in large-scale application delivery using Blueprint Storyteller and Tasktop Hub

1. © 2019 Tasktop© 2020 Tasktop Technologies Incorporated.
How to Drive Maximum Business
Value from IT Investments with the
Flow Framework™
Tony Higgins – CTO Blueprint Software Systems
Carmen DeArdo – Tasktop Principal Flow Advisor

2. © 2019 Tasktop
Housekeeping
• All attendees are muted and in listen-only mode
• We will answer all questions at the end of the webinar
• Please submit your questions in the Q&A section (not under the Chat
functionality)
• We will be asking two poll questions during the webinar, please
participate by selecting your answer in the poll window
• We will share a copy of the recording with all participants after
the webinar is complete

3. © 2019 Tasktop
Carmen DeArdo
Carmen has experience both leading and consulting on Enterprise wide DevOps
Journeys over the last decade. His current focus is on utilizing this experience
and Value Stream Management principles to help companies move from a project
to a product model and accelerate their flow of business value work.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmendeardo/ @carmendeardo
Principal Flow Advisor @ Tasktop

4. © 2019 Tasktop
Tony Higgins
Tony Higgins is responsible for the vision and evolution of Storyteller, Blueprint's enterprise
SaaS platform for scaled agile development. Tony has a broad base of software delivery skills
and experience ranging from start-ups to global enterprises, and is passionate about building
technology that lets teams deliver high-value product releases faster, at reduced cost and risk.
CTO @ Blueprint

5. © 2019 Tasktop
Tasktop The Leader in Value Stream Integration
36 Strategic
Partners
58
Tools
Supported
300+
Tool
Versions
Supported
500k
API tests run
per day Founded 2007
Facilitating flow across the
end-to-end software
delivery toolchain
43 of the
Fortune 100
160+
staff committed
to your journey

6. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2020
Tasktop Confidential Information
Amazon Bestseller
25,000+ copies sold
“My newest favorite book. I
think I can see a bit more
of the future from here. ”
Every decade, there are a
couple of books that genuinely
change my worldview.”
Dean Leffingwell
Creator of SAFe®
Gene Kim
Author of Phoenix Project

7. © 2019 Tasktop
The Problem
We have implemented Agile!
We have implemented New Technologies!
We have certified Processes!
So why is the business still unhappy?

8. © 2019 Tasktop
Increase flow across the entire value stream
Time
BUT must also
connect to the
business
Agile is a
good place to
start
And ”Code To
Cloud” is
necessary
Agile Design /
Develop / Test
Stories
from Backlog
through
Iterations
Customer Concept (IDEA)
through Feature
Definition
Stories Done until
deployed into production

9. © 2019 Tasktop
True North
• Focus is on accelerating the delivery of Business Value
• Reduce Flow Time from Business Idea/Hypothesis to Delivery and
Feedback
• Business Success
• Higher Engagement
• Innovation

10. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2019
Tasktop Confidential Information
Value Stream Management
A new way to manage a software delivery organization from
strategy to delivery focusing on products and their value streams
Flow Framework™
Tasktop’s structured and prescriptive approach to
executing Value Stream Management
Value Stream Visibility
Tasktop Viz
Value Stream Integration
Tasktop Integration Hub

11. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2019
Tasktop Confidential Information
FlowFramework™
The Flow Framework ™ is a framework created by Mik Kersten, CEO of Tasktop Technologies Incorporated
(“Tasktop”). This diagram is licensed under the Attribution No Derivatives Creative Commons License, accessible at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode.

12. © 2019 Tasktop
What flows in software delivery?
Features
Defects
Risks
Debts
New business value, pulled by customer
Quality improvements, pulled by customer
Security, availability, compliance, pulled by risk officers
Technical debt improvements, pulled by architects
Flow Items are MECE*
*Mutually Exclusive and Comprehensively Exhaustive (credit: Dr. Mik Kersten – “Project to Product”)

13. © 2019 Tasktop
Debts
& Risks
Quality
Defect Work
Feature Work
Diagram: Adapted from Gene Kim
Push to Market

14. © 2019 Tasktop
Debts
& Risks
Quality
Feature Work
Defect Work
Debt Spiral

15. © 2019 Tasktop
Debts
& Risks
Quality
Debt WorkFeature Work
:)
Feature Work
Diagram: Adapted from Gene Kim
Debt & Risk Reduction

16. © 2019 Tasktop
IT is disconnected from
the business and vision
Leadership is tracking
activities not the results
Project funding is
fundamentally broken
Business feels IT is solving its own problems, not delivering
more (cost center view as opposed to profit center)
IT feels like a black box to
the business
A New Way of Thinking – Product Value Streams

17. © 2019 Tasktop
Project vs. Product Orientation
Budgeting Timeframes Success Teams
Prioritization RiskVisibility

18. © 2019 Tasktop
Types of Product Value Streams
Types Who Pulls Value? Examples
Business Products External customers • Services
• Products
• Mobile apps
• Websites
Platform Products Internal customers Shared business services
• HR
• CRM
• Reporting and analytics
• Content management and delivery
Shared IT services
• Performance
• Security
• Audit and Compliance
IT for IT Practitioners and
contributors
• Delivery pipeline – the software delivery toolchain
• Infrastructure as a Service
• Employee productivity suite

19. © 2019 Tasktop
Characteristics of a Product Value Stream
• End-to-end flow of work for an IT product
• Spans from ideation all the way to the delivery of value and operation
• Starts with a customer and ends with a benefit delivered to the customer
and receiving feedback (PDCA)
• Will have a notion of all the Flow Items: Features, Defects, Debt, Risk

20. © 2019 Tasktop
An emerging approach, done digitally, Value Stream
Management tracks and measures work artifacts continuously
to visualize the flow of business value and expose bottlenecks,
in an effort to optimize end-to-end business value.
A New Way of Measuring – Flow and Business Results

21. © 2019 Tasktop
How long did it take for
this feature to get through
the value stream?
How much wait time was
there for defects?
What is the distribution
between defects, features,
risk and technical debt?
01 02 03
Active
Waiting
Start End
Key Questions

22. © 2019 Tasktop
Flow Metrics
• Flow Distribution: A measure to see tradeoffs
• Flow Velocity: A measure of throughput/productivity
• Flow Load: Amount of Work-in-Progress (WIP across end to end VS)
• Flow Time: A measure of speed
• Flow Efficiency: Work vs. wait ratio

23. © 2019 Tasktop
Business Results
• Value
• Cost
• Quality
• Happiness (of the Product VS Team)

24. © 2019 Tasktop
What’s the Point?
• Flow metrics are tied to business value
• Flow metrics are based on outcomes
• Flow metrics provide a feedback loop to improve decisions

25. © 2019 Tasktop
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”
– W. Edwards Deming
A New Way of Architecting - Speed of Delivery

26. © 2019 Tasktop
Value Stream Architecture Principles
• Architect & Integrate for Flow and Speed of Delivery
• Implement Flow Metrics
• Utilize metrics in retrospectives and ask, “what’s
slowing us down, how can we go faster?”
• Replace request/response/SLAs with Self-Service
• Create continuous improvement initiatives which are
prioritized with other work and made visible

27. February 26,
2020
© Blueprint 2020 All Rights Reserved.27

28. © Blueprint 2020 All Rights Reserved. 28
Business Value Streams
Business Processes
User-System
Scenarios
Business Rules
Operational Nonfunctionals
UI Mockups
Customer Journeys
Personas
Customer
Segmentations
Regulations
Proposed
Rules
Notices
Enforcement Actions
Interpretations
Policies
Procedures
Controls
Revision Nonfunctionals
Information
Models
Legacy Systems
Reuse
Opportunities
Standards
Common ComponentsTransition
Nonfunctionals
SOLUTION
PROBLEM
/
NEEDS
Features
Epics
Themes
User Stories

29. Discovery-Design for the Enterprise
© Blueprint 2020 All Rights Reserved. 29
Dev Ops

30. Discovery-Design for the Enterprise
© Blueprint 2020 All Rights Reserved. 30
Sprint Planning
Problem Definition
Stakeholder & Persona
Analysis
Backlog Prioritize
Track Progress
Sprint Review
Task Decompose
Solution Ideation
Experiment & Prototyping
Business Value Stream Analysis
Customer Journey Mapping
Regulatory Obligations
Solution Definition
(User Stories, Gherkins)
Legacy Constraints
Business Rules &
Constraints
Persona Analysis
DISCOVERY-DESIGN BUILD
PI Planning
Risk Tracking
Work Dependencies
Progress Dashboards
Work Tracking
Roadmapping

31. Storyteller Demonstration
Product Orientation

32. Storyteller Demonstration
Simplify analysis and
communication
Improved productivity and
quality, faster delivery
IP saved and accessible
for visibility, reuse
•Discussions
•Breadth of Model Types
•Model Decomposition
•User-System Interaction
•Storyboarding
•Autogen Functional Tests
•Autogen User Stories
•Autogen Gherkins
•Work Management Integration
•Autogen Documentation
•Workflow and Review-Approve
•Dashboards
•Configurable Workspaces
•Organization & Editing
•Automated Versioning
•Precise Tracing
•Impact Analysis
•Intelligent Recommendations
•Reuse
•Collections & Baselines
Visual
Collaboration
Centralized
Data
Agile
Automation

33. Storyteller Demonstration
Simplify analysis and
communication
Improved productivity and
quality, faster delivery
IP saved and accessible
for visibility, reuse
•Discussions
•Breadth of Model Types
•Model Decomposition
•User-System Interaction
•Storyboarding
•Autogen Functional Tests
•Autogen User Stories
•Autogen Gherkins
•Work Management Integration
•Autogen Documentation
•Workflow and Review-Approve
•Dashboards
•Configurable Workspaces
•Organization & Editing
•Automated Versioning
•Precise Tracing
•Impact Analysis
•Intelligent Recommendations
•Reuse
•Collections & Baselines
Visual
Collaboration
Centralized
Data
Agile
Automation

46. Storyteller Demonstration
Simplify analysis and
communication
Improved productivity and
quality, faster delivery
IP saved and accessible
for visibility, reuse
•Discussions
•Breadth of Model Types
•Model Decomposition
•User-System Interaction
•Storyboarding
•Autogen Functional Tests
•Autogen User Stories
•Autogen Gherkins
•Work Management Integration
•Autogen Documentation
•Workflow and Review-Approve
•Dashboards
•Configurable Workspaces
•Organization & Editing
•Automated Versioning
•Precise Tracing
•Impact Analysis
•Intelligent Recommendations
•Reuse
•Collections & Baselines
Visual
Collaboration
Centralized
Data
Agile
Automation

62. Storyteller Demonstration
Simplify analysis and
communication
Improved productivity and
quality, faster delivery
IP saved and accessible
for visibility, reuse
•Discussions
•Breadth of Model Types
•Model Decomposition
•User-System Interaction
•Storyboarding
•Autogen Functional Tests
•Autogen User Stories
•Autogen Gherkins
•Work Management Integration
•Autogen Documentation
•Workflow and Review-Approve
•Dashboards
•Configurable Workspaces
•Organization & Editing
•Automated Versioning
•Precise Tracing
•Impact Analysis
•Intelligent Recommendations
•Reuse
•Collections & Baselines
Visual
Collaboration
Centralized
Data
Agile
Automation

77. © Tasktop 2020
Tasktop Confidential Information
Tasktop Hub:
Fix what is going on
Fix the bottlenecks
Tasktop Viz:
See what is going on
See where the
bottlenecks are

78. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2020
Tasktop Confidential Information
Viz
Prescriptive
Flow Metrics with no
coding
● Records how work is progressing from
the objective data captured from tools
across all contributing departments and
teams
● Projects the business view of products
and portfolios onto the data and highlights
value delivery, through AI-driven, layered
modeling
● Replays history to uncover the factors that
impact business outcomes to inform future
decisions
© Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2019
Tasktop Confidential Information

79. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2020
Tasktop Confidential Information
Viz
● Out-of-the-box Flow Metrics for a realistic
approach to digital transformation… but
how matters...
○ Connects to all of your tools
■ 60 connectors across ideate, create,
release and operate
○ Instant data access with no coding and
without making any premature changes to
your existing tools, processes, or
workflows
○ Point-and-click multi-layered modeling
■ No plug-ins or changes to existing tools
■ No ETL and custom data extraction
■ No expensive data lakes full of
uncorrelated data
■ Infinite flexibility of how to view your
products and activities
Key Product Highlights
© Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2019
Tasktop Confidential Information

80. © Tasktop Technologies Inc. 2020
Tasktop Confidential Information
FlowFramework
Project & Cost Centers
Siloes & proxy metrics
Fragmented value streams
Product Value Streams
Flow Metrics & Business Results
Integrated Value Stream Network
The Flow Framework™ was created by Mik Kersten, CEO of Tasktop. The Flow Framework diagram is protected by
copyright laws and may not be copied, modified or distributed without the express written permission of Tasktop.

81. © 2019 Tasktop
Resources

82. © 2019 Tasktop
• Free one-hour consulting session
• Identify the product value streams within your organization, visualize the flow of work, and
discover opportunities to make your value stream more tangible.
• www.tasktop.com/value-stream-architecture-consulting
• See Tasktop in action
• Schedule a demo to see how Viz can help you measure Flow Metrics.
• www.tasktop.com/demo-request
• Learn more
• Read more about the Flow Framework, Flow Metrics, and where to begin.
• www.tasktop.com/flow-framework
How do you get started with the Flow Framework™?

83. © 2019 Tasktop
• See Storyteller in action
• Schedule a demo to see how Storyteller can help you align your enterprise development
teams to delivery better products, faster.
• www.blueprintsys.com/get-started
• Learn more
• Read more about scaling agile enterprise-wide, improving efficiency and alignment, and
where to begin.
• www.blueprintsys.com/resources
How do you get started with Storyteller?

84. © 2019 Tasktop© 2019 Tasktop Technologies Incorporated.
Thank you for listening!