WeAreDevelopers LIVE • May 12, 2021

Charting the Journey to Continuous Deployment with a Value Stream Map

Josh Armitage

Are manual QA and complex branching stalling your release cycles? Discover how value stream mapping can help you eliminate bottlenecks and achieve zero-touch continuous deployment.

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#1 about 3 min

Key takeaways for adopting continuous deployment architectures

Implementing continuous deployment relies on mapping the delivery process and removing manual barriers to build delivery confidence.

#2 about 2 min

Defining automated continuous deployment in software pipelines

Continuous deployment requires taking code from a shared branch to production entirely without human intervention.

#3 about 2 min

Applying lean principles to software delivery activities

Categorizing efforts into value-generating activities and necessary or unnecessary waste identifies clear areas for workflow optimization.

#4 about 3 min

Evaluating delivery performance using core software delivery metrics

Elite engineering teams balance lead time, deployment frequency, restoration time, and change failure rate using continuous deployment practices.

#5 about 3 min

Optimizing software batch sizes for predictable releases

Reducing transaction costs in deployment workflows allows engineering teams to ship smaller updates with minimized holding costs and deployment risk.

#6 about 2 min

Adapting gemba walks to analyze software engineering processes

Observing the actual state of delivery workflows provides an objective foundation for accurately mapping technical value streams.

#7 about 4 min

Mapping a basic value stream for software delivery

Visualizing a feature's journey from an initial idea to production value reveals structural inefficiencies in deployment branching strategies.

#8 about 2 min

Analyzing typical delivery bottlenecks and long lead times

Traditional sprint-based schedules often enforce large batch deployments that fall significantly behind elite automation performance benchmarks.

#9 about 4 min

Building release confidence by managing testing wait times

Evaluating the delays incurred by peer reviews and manual quality assurance reveals the primary constraints obstructing fast delivery speeds.

#10 about 3 min

Converting manual regression testing into automated necessary waste

Automating repetitive test suites eliminates manual wait times and refocuses human quality evaluation exclusively on critical exploratory testing.

#11 about 4 min

Transitioning to trunk-based development and production testing

Eliminating intermediate development branches in favor of direct releases opens opportunities for progressive deployment techniques like feature flagging.

#12 about 5 min

Identifying practical exceptions for continuous deployment adoption

Extremely high structural change costs or critical infrastructure risks occasionally justify maintaining manual release gates over fully automated delivery channels.

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