Value Stream Management (VSM) can revolutionise your business, driving customer value and removing unnecessary costs and investments. However, it does require a rethink of internal processes and culture, which can be a daunting prospect. Fortunately, ValueEdge from OpenText is an end-to-end suite of powerful, user-friendly, intuitive tools that make VSM easy!
Implementing VSM is like changing from waterfall to Agile—but on steroids.
Where Agile is purely concerned with software development, VSM extends this to the entire product/value stream lifecycle. It ensures your whole business prioritises customer value, ensures cross-functional collaboration, and lets you understand whether investments are worth it.
As with moving to Agile, switching to VSM is a serious undertaking that, but one that can yield even more impressive results.
It requires a rejig of internal processes and team structures, but there is a major payback for doing so; you optimise the flow of value through your organisation, reduce costs, understand where your investment makes sense, and produce exceptional, high-value customer experiences.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve looked at specific tools to help various stages within VSM landscapes, looking at:
- How VSM can help you reduce project costs the right way
- How to implement Agile & test management within VSM landscapes
- How software testing lets you unlock value within VSM projects
In this article, I look at how you can use all or some of the ValueEdge suite of tools together to make VSM easy.
The Modules That Make Up the ValueEdge Suite
ValueEdge is a modular solution designed to make VSM easy. It is made up of the following modules and submodules:
- ValueEdge Insights
- Dashboard
- ValueEdge Strategy
- Corporate Strategy
- Portfolio Management
- ValueEdge Agile
- Backlog
- Team Backlog
- Requirements
- ValueEdge Quality
- Quality
- Pipelines
- Issues
- ValueEdge Functional Test
- Functional Test Design
- Model-Based Testing
- Digital Lab
- ValueEdge Performance
- LoadRunner Enterprise or LoadRunner Cloud
- ValueEdge Release
- Release Management
There is also an integration hub where you can synchronise data from over 100 external sources.
You Can Implement ValueEdge in Whichever Way Works Best For You
One of the key ways that ValueEdge makes VSM easy is that you don’t have to implement the full ValueEdge suite of tools in one single big-bang project. The tools are class-leading in their own right and can be used in non-VSM projects.
Of course, you can implement all of these at once if needed, but a piecemeal implementation means you can get used to these tools in non-VSM landscapes and get them all in place, ready to go if/when you eventually move to VSM.
For example, let’s say you’re not moving to VSM but are looking for a test management tool for Agile and DevOps projects. Maybe you’ll move to VSM one day, but you don’t really know, and you just want the best tool available. Well, ValueEdge Quality is an exceptional test management tool built on OpenText ALM Octane.
It provides powerful test management for DevOps and Agile projects, with fantastic reporting and dashboards. However, it becomes even more powerful when used in conjunction with other ValueEdge projects.
Out of the Box Visibility
VSM relies on easy access to information, and ValueEdge provides this in spades.
Each individual module provides easy-to-interpret information, whether through dashboards, reports, analysis, or a combination of these.
Crucially, though, all modules also feed directly into the ValueEdge Insights module to give you a complete view of your entire value stream—or a partial but nevertheless useful view if you’re not using all the solutions yet.
ValueEdge is Cloud-Based and Easy to Use
One of ValueEdge’s standout features is its SaaS architecture.
I know that most (if not all) of you will already use cloud-based tools, but it’s worth going over the benefits for those who might be less familiar or need a refresher.
SaaS just makes everything easy. It ensures seamless updates and zero maintenance, allowing easy scalability and flexibility. It is ideal for modern businesses that want to drive value with VSM.
- Seamless Updates and Maintenance: With ValueEdge, you’re always up to date and never have to worry about manual updates or lengthy maintenance downtime.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, ValueEdge scales with you; add more users, expand storage, or integrate additional modules as your needs grow.
- Access from Anywhere: Remote work and global collaboration are more important than ever. ValueEdge allows your team to access the tools from anywhere, whether they are working from home, on the go, or in different parts of the world.
- Enhanced Security: Being constantly up to date means you always have the latest security patches. ValueEdge includes robust security measures, such as data encryption, secure access controls, and regular security audits.
- Cost-Effective: There are no upfront costs for hardware or infrastructure, and you can benefit from a subscription-based pricing model that allows you to pay only for what you use.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Your data is stored in secure, geographically dispersed data centres.
ValueEdge Integrates with Your Existing Systems
As you can see in the diagram above, ValueEdge integrates seamlessly with most major business and development solutions. With more integrations being added regularly.
These integrations cover OpenText and third-party applications such as:
- Functional test tools (e.g. UFT)
- Performance test tools (e.g. JMeter)
- Security test tools (e.g. Fortify)
- Development environments (e.g. Visual Studio)
- Agile management tools (e.g. Jira)
- SCM solutions (e.g. GitLab)
- CI Server (e.g. Jenkins)
- Containers (e.g. Docker)
- Asset Management (e.g. ServiceNow)
- Messaging tools (e.g. Slack)
These integration capabilities ensure a smooth workflow and better data synchronisation across your organisation.
Why Use ValueEdge for VSM?
ValueEdge makes Value Stream Management easy in so many ways: It’s user-friendly, integrates with virtually every other solution, and allows you to deploy the modules when you need them.
Here are some of the specific features and benefits that make the ValueEdge modules so powerful when implanting VSM:
ValueEdge Strategy:
- Understand your investments based on Value and Risk
- Track and expose your investments’ strategic alignment and value
- Prioritise initiatives that implement your business strategy
This will give your business owners and IT senior team the power to plan and monitor IT projects and understand where investment should be directed.
ValueEdge Agile:
- Access a central hub for developers, testers and PMOs
- Normalise data across digital value streams, programs, projects and instances
- Identify sensitive areas of code that are risky to change
ValueEdge Quality:
- Centralise all testing and integrate with the DevOps toolchain
- View of all quality activities and status via dedicated dashboards
- Analyse quality by application modules to focus testing and reduce risk
ValueEdge Functional Test:
- Test anything on any platform from anywhere
- Ensures the quality of critical business applications and end-to-end business processes
- Execute tests on various mobile devices and browsers
ValueEdge Performance:
- Monitor performance throughout the development life cycle
- Scale from 10’s to millions of virtual users from on-premises and cloud locations
- Easy deployment and no maintenance with cloud-hosted infrastructure
ValueEdge Release:
- Ensure the smooth flow of code from development to production
- Define release flows, timelines, and action ownership
- Establish quality gates to ensure a project is planned and can be supported
ValueEdge Insights:
Bringing all the information together and providing insights.
- View information across business and digital value streams
- Improve customer experience with value stream insights
- Make effective decisions and improvements that balance value, quality and risk
In Conclusion, VSM is Easy with OpenText ValueEdge
Value Stream Management (VSM) can drive customer value and eliminate unnecessary costs. With its comprehensive suite of user-friendly tools, ValueEdge makes VSM easy.
As we’ve shown, ValueEdge helps you extend Agile principles across the entire product lifecycle, ensuring that every part of your business focuses on customer value. It promotes cross-functional collaboration and helps evaluate the worth of investments.
ValueEdge is modular, with class-leading tools throughout the suite. You can implement the tools you need when you need them and prepare your business to move to VSM at the right time.
Each module—ranging from strategy and quality management to performance testing and release management—provides vital insights and streamlined processes. Moreover, you’ve seen how ValueEdge’s SaaS architecture ensures ease of use, seamless updates, and robust security, facilitating remote access and scalable solutions.
With extensive integration capabilities, ValueEdge supports a wide range of existing systems, ensuring smooth workflow and data synchronisation.
By making VSM accessible and effective, ValueEdge empowers your business to deliver exceptional value efficiently.
