Forrester’s Value Stream Management Landscape, Q3 2022 gathered data from 22 value stream management (VSM) vendors. Together, we estimate that these vendors account for over 95% of the VSM market. As part of our research, we asked vendors to identify their top five go-to-market use cases. We have divided these use cases into two categories: core and emerging.

Core Use Cases

Twenty-one of the 22 vendors in our report selected these two use cases among their top five go-to-market. Based on this data, it is clear that almost every VSM platform can be used to:

  1. Capture basic DORA metrics for dev dashboards. Application development and operations leaders use VSM solutions to capture the four basic DORA metrics — deployment frequency (DF), mean lead time (MLT) for changes, mean-time-to-recovery (MTTR), and change failure rate (CFR) — to determine app dev team performance metrics. This was the most common use case selected by the vendors in our research.
  2. Optimize end-to-end software development processes. Application development and operations leaders use VSM to map app dev processes, identify waste from manual steps and handoffs, and apply automation to improve efficiency.

Emerging Use Cases

These three use cases were selected by 50 to 70% of participating vendors. If your organization considers any of these three use cases to be mission critical, consider focusing on vendors that tailor their products to these use cases.

  1. Capture business value metrics for PPM/business platforms. VSM platforms can enable business leaders to assign target value metrics (e.g., OKRs) to value streams, and they enable DevOps leaders to better prioritize work based on value, measure value delivered, and compare expected and actual value.
  2. Enforce best practices and governance across heterogenous tools and processes. Product, development, and operations managers and compliance leads can use VSM platforms to automate best practices, enforce quality and security standards, and build rules into the value stream to minimize risk. These platforms also speed software delivery by automating manual oversight where possible and connecting proof of validation with line-of-business systems such as IT service management.
  3. Monitor flow of artifacts through the application development value stream. Product, application development, and operational leads need real-time insights into the work that flows through application delivery pipelines. Half of the VSM platforms featured in our report prioritize capturing these insights.

Next Steps

Our research is unambiguous: VSM offers real value. Maximize your results by selecting the right product for your needs. To learn more about the VSM landscape and which vendors focus on the use cases you value most, read The Value Stream Management Landscape, Q3 2022.

Written with Zachary Stone