DEVOPSdigest

For digital transformation leaders under pressure to drive measurable business outcomes, Value Stream Management has emerged as a proven framework to accelerate delivery, increase efficiency, and deliver greater customer value — all while reducing costs. According to a recent survey of IT and business leaders focused on digital transformation, 100% of respondents indicated they have implemented or are planning to implement VSM. This is representative of the larger trend of VSM adoption. 30% of respondents indicated their organizations are using VSM across multiple product lines, while 11% reported enterprise-wide adoption. Both figures are up 2% and 4%, respectively, from last year.

The survey results showed that the top priority for organizations is the customer lifecycle. This specifically targets attracting new customers and delivering more value to existing customers, increasing their satisfaction and ensuring they remain loyal. As a result, many organizations are turning towards VSM to achieve this goal.

VSM as a Catalyst for Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation addresses three key objectives: improving efficiency, speed, and accuracy. Through VSM, organizations accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and realize these business gains. Below, we’ll analyze some of the most significant benefits that organizations receive by combining their digital transformation initiatives with VSM.

Participants in the survey were asked what benefits they hope to gain from implementing or scaling VSM, or the benefits they have already received from its implementation. Their responses aligned with these four key focus areas.

1. Delivering Increasing Value Over Time: Year-over-year data from this annual survey illustrated that VSM delivers increased value over time. For example, 39% of respondents stated that it increased data-driven decision-making compared to 30% in the previous year. Similarly, 39% of respondents also stated that VSM enabled faster delivery of solutions to customers, up from last year’s 31%. Nine out of eleven key benefits measured in the survey showed year-over-year growth, indicating that the advantages of VSM compound over time.

2. The Role of AI in Enhancing VSM and Digital Transformation: One of this year’s most important revelations is the opportunity that AI presents for VSM. When asked about AI's impact on VSM, 90% of respondents stated that AI would bring either major transformation, or moderate change. When asked what areas their companies were focused on in terms of using AI for VSM, the top three responses were improving analytics (47%), automating workflows and processes (46%), and improving product quality (44%). All these gains that organizations hope to achieve through adopting AI are also benefits of VSM, and the two show promise of a great level of synergy between them.

3. Growing Team Participation: Given that one of the key objectives of VSM is maximizing delivered value, team involvement and collaboration are key factors in the success of VSM initiatives. Comparing the data between the surveys from 2024 and 2023, there is an overall increase in collaboration along value streams. The largest increase between the two years occurred with customer support teams, a difference of 15%, with 40% this year and 25% last year. R&D teams saw a 6% increase in collaboration, while marketing teams gained 9%. Most notably, "AI Teams" was added to the survey this year — being selected by 33%. This represents a strong opportunity for AI to improve business and VSM initiatives.

4. Alignment Between Business Objectives and Benefits: Participants were asked about their company’s respective business objectives for 2025. The three most essential objectives listed were gaining more customers (55%), reducing operating expenses (54%), and increasing customer value (51%). All these top objectives align with the primary benefits of VSM implementation, enabling organizations to enhance customer value, leading to an increase in customers, all while decreasing the cost of operation for the business.

These findings illustrate how implementing AI and VSM can aid organizations’ digital transformation initiatives and amplify their gains.

Driving Digital Transformation Through VSM

When VSM is paired with digital transformation initiatives, organizations can unlock many benefits, such as accelerated product delivery and increased customer value, more accurate data-driven decision-making, better product quality, and more.