Increased customer focus thanks to value streams. The evolution of #NewWork at Swisscom – Part 2

My second article in relation to #NewWork deals in greater detail with the topic "Value Streams" - I chose this topic as my first article received so many interesting comments as well as feedback. And I am of course looking forward to your reactions and suggestions this time as well.

When I started my job as CTIO at Swisscom in February 2019, I noticed something that puzzled me. Time and again in meetings within in the "IT, Network & Infrastructure" technology area, for which I was responsible, there was a lot of talk of customers, however, something was not quite right. We were not always talking about our paying customers in the external market, but often about internal organisations that use systems that we provide or which offer products via our networks. This kind of attitude is understandable when there is no direct customer contact - after all, the "IT, Network & Infrastructure" unit often produces preliminary services or internal applications, which are then used by the business units at Swisscom to offer services to the market.

However, I am truly convinced: There are no internal customers within the company! No matter where I stand as an employee or within a team in the value chain, customers are always people and companies, which use our services and are willing to pay for them. Even if we provide a preliminary service internally and do not have any direct contact with the customer, everything we do requires us to know the customer and keep their needs in mind. It's obvious that this is easier during a project, such as the network expansion in a particular Swiss community, than it is for example when building a business support system for our customer advisors in the call center or Swisscom Shop. But even with this second example, it is possible to have the customers in mind when designing the system: Ultimately, the company's goal must be to advise customers as quickly as possible and in a way that creates value for them. For a DevOps engineer, this means they will do everything they can to ensure the system enables the customer care agents to do this accordingly.

?There's no such thing as internal customers within the Company!"

To implement such a mindset in parts of the Swisscom unit "IT, Network & Infrastructure", we have focused on the following topics:

1. Culture & communication: The topic of customer orientation was intensified during internal events, meetings and communication measures.
2. Consistent alignment of the organisation and processes with Lean Agile and BizDevOps principles - because in my opinion, there is no better form of cooperation, which is so intensively focused on customer orientation.
3. Clear objectives: Development of customer-oriented objectives and key results (OKR) for each value stream.

"The topics of culture and communication are just as important as organisation and processes when it comes to customer orientation"

Value streams transform companies into customer-oriented organisations

A value stream ensures that a topic such as service development is driven forward across all corporate units together and with the customer's needs in mind. If classic and traditional product development according to the waterfall process can be compared to a relay race, then the value stream is a football team. Instead of simply passing the baton (development step or delivery object), the ball is repeatedly passed to different positions and finally shot into the goal. The most important aspects of a value stream include:

• Create clear separation between "Operational Value Streams (OVS)", which deal with people and work such as sales or support and deliver value to the customer by using technical solutions that are designed, developed and operated in the "Development Value Streams (DVS)". At Swisscom, the OVS are organised differently, but often use lean-agile principles, whereas the DVS's work is executed according to the SAFe methodology without exception . Furthermore, DVS strictly follows the BizDevOps model and therefore lets product/service representatives and DevOps engineers work together - regardless of their affiliation within the organisational structure.
• End-to-end perspective: A DVS has overall responsibility for a service or a product, from the customer requirements to the added value created for them. This means, in particular, that there is not only responsibility for the new products/services, but also for the phase-out of old things - which, in my opinion, is one of the most important points of all. The two must go hand in hand so that companies can offer their customers the best product with the best and also simplest experience - and this also offers a benefit for the company itself in terms of cost efficiency. End-to-end responsibility in a value stream ensures this: A value stream must create a balance between the new and the old, and between development and operation, using the available budget and resources!
• A transparent and comprehensible view of the customer experience: The customer experience is made visible to all members of a value stream while taking into account relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) or market research results. At Swisscom, for example, we use KPIs in the mobile phone area, such as the number of unintentionally dropped calls or how often a customer had to wait when loading a video (video buffering rate).
• The right amount: One of the biggest challenges in defining value streams is the scope or size and the number of employees. Basically, you should always strive for as much simplicity and agility as possible: as small as possible, as large as necessary. Ultimately, size is of course directly related to the product/service and the underlying processes and architectural dependencies. At Swisscom a value stream is formed by a team of fewer than 10 people ideally - but in the event of very complex products/services and many architectural dependencies, it can also result in a setup with a Solution Train of up to 500 people.
• Ongoing optimisation: A value stream is continuously optimised and can therefore react quickly and agile to new circumstances and requirements. This enables it, for example, to continuously correct the workflow and alignment with customer values and make this more efficient, or balance out the weighting between different aspects such as stability, quality, security and new features.

"A value stream ensures a project is driven forward across all corporate divisions while taking customer needs into consideration"

The Swisscom "IT Clouds" value stream

For Swisscom, the cloud is one of the most important growth areas in the business customer segment. In order to drive forward the projects in this area in a customer-oriented and efficient manner, Swisscom had already established the "IT Clouds" development value stream in 2017. Today, it is organised according to the SAFe model and includes around 200 employees from the "Business Customers" and "IT, Network & Infrastructure" units. This ensures a BizDevOps approach is consistently pursued. The "IT Clouds" value stream is responsible not only for the timely development of new services and features in line with customer needs, but also for the phase-out of old systems - something that is extremely important, especially in the cloud segment with its short innovation and renewal cycles. In order to ensure the development of new products really does live up to the philosophy of customer orientation, "real" end customers are regularly involved within the scope of PI planning, and their feedback is taken into account directly during development.

Patience and perseverance are the most important requirements

I am convinced that value streams can help every company in some way or another to cope with digitisation and to increase customer orientation and efficiency - see my first article as well regarding #NewWork. However, to ensure that a corresponding transformation step is not doomed to failure from the very beginning, it is important to think long-term and to support the decision fundamentally. My experience from the past few years has shown me that it takes at least one year for a new setup to reach the desired functional state, and for all employees to understand their roles and align them with the processes - for companies that have not yet gained experience with agile forms of collaboration, this might take even longer.

Broad-based acceptance across the entire company

The commitment of all relevant corporate units is just as important as patience and perseverance. The area within Swisscom that I am responsible for, "IT, Network & Infrastructure", is predestined for agile forms of cooperation, as these have actually emerged from the software development area. However, we would be fighting a losing battle if not all of the company is behind these agile forms of cooperation. The product and service units, in particular, must support the new structures and processes and get involved accordingly - this includes making their best employees available for value streams and allowing them enough freedom. An inter-organisational value stream initially gives the impression of losing control; however - if supported correctly - this is not the case at all. And it actually offers even more transparency. To meet this need, we at Swisscom have introduced lean "Portfolio Area Syncs" for complex topics and prioritisation situations, in which stakeholders from all relevant business units are represented, prioritisations are weighted and conflicts are resolved quickly. If you would like to know more about this, please contact me via the comments section and I will be happy to discuss the topic in more detail in one of the next articles.

"It is important to think long-term and to support the transformation decision throughout the entire company"

Here's a summary of the most important findings:

• A value stream is a great tool to achieve greater customer focus - especially in technical areas, which in many cases have no direct customer contact.
• Value streams help to balance out different company goals with regard to their weighting - for example, the relationship between new projects and the removal of old systems, or between development and operation.
• Value streams can be adjusted quickly to new requirements, and companies can do without expensive and unpopular reorganisations.
• Cooperation is strengthened and workflows are continuously improved and optimised, which in turn improves efficiency significantly over time.
• Perseverance, patience and the commitment of all corporate units are decisive for success. Decision-makers should not expect any quick wins.

The transformation continues

In my next report, you can find out which organisational adjustments have been made at Swisscom to satisfy the requirements regarding agility and, above all, the value stream setup.

Want to carve out a career with Swisscom? Are you looking for a new challenge with the freedom to shape it as you wish? We are looking for DevOps Engineers, Product Owners & Managers, Solution Managers, Release Train Engineers and other talents. Are you interested in the ICT and telecommunications industry? Do you value an agile way of working, which allows you to help shape the future of a company? You can find out more about working at Swisscom here: www.swisscom.ch/jobs. We are also looking for DevOps experts in Rotterdam. Find out more here.

What are your experiences with "New Work" and value streams? What is your challenge with new forms of collaboration? I look forward to receiving your comments. Thank you.

Digital greetings, Christoph

#christophaeschlimann #Agile #NewWork #Homeoffice #Coworking #Swisscom #ICT #digitaleTransformation #ValueStreams

Christoph Aeschlimann, CTO and CIO Swisscom. My passions include the latest technologies such as 5G, Cloud, AI and everything to do with software - modern forms of collaboration such as agility and DevOps also fascinate me, which employees can use to become more involved and autonomous when working towards achieving a common goal.