Why move from projects to value streams

Seven strong reasons to do it:

1. Assigning work to establish a team is much more effective than rearranging project teamwork.
2. Handover bigger.
3. Project team mobilization effort and demobilization after losing learnings.
4. The project Start/Stop approach is worse than continuous delivery value flow.
5. Focus on resource utilization rather than faster throughput of value.
6. Phase gates create delays.
7. Projects demand total funding before providing hypothesis benefits.

The transition from a project-centric model to a value stream approach represents a paradigm shift in how organizations deliver value to their customers. Here’s an elaborated text on why this move is beneficial:

Streamlined Team Dynamics: Assigning work to established teams enhances effectiveness and efficiency. Unlike project-based structures that require constant team reformation, value streams maintain stable teams, leading to better collaboration and a larger knowledge handover.

Preservation of Knowledge: The traditional project model often involves significant effort in mobilizing and demobilizing teams, which can result in the loss of valuable insights and learnings. Value streams, on the other hand, promote continuous learning and improvement, as teams remain intact and evolve over time.

Continuous Delivery Over Start/Stop: Projects typically follow a start/stop approach, which can be less effective than a continuous delivery model. Value streams enable a steady flow of value to the customer, reducing downtime and increasing responsiveness to market changes.

Throughput Over Resource Utilization: Projects often focus on maximizing resource utilization, which can lead to inefficiencies. Value streams prioritize the faster throughput of value, ensuring that resources are allocated to deliver the most value to the customer in the shortest possible time.

Reduced Delays: Phase gates, a common feature in project management, can introduce unnecessary delays. Value streams aim to minimize these bottlenecks, allowing for a smoother and more rapid delivery process.

Funding Flexibility: Traditional projects require full funding upfront, often before the benefits can be hypothesized or realized. Value streams allow for more incremental funding, aligning investment with the delivery of tangible benefits and reducing financial risk.

In summary, moving from projects to value streams offers a more dynamic, efficient, and customer-centric approach to work, fostering an environment where value delivery is continuous and adaptive to the needs of the market.