Value Stream Mapping for Legacy Code

Seeing the Code: Value-Stream Mapping to Discover Purpose Buried Deep Within Legacy Code

Speaker - Ged Byrne

Value-Stream mapping is a well established tool used in Lean and Six Sigma. It involves identifying all the activities that contribute towards customer value, and all those who don't. This is achieved by walking the value stream and observing what is really happening, rather than what management think should be happening. Mapping the software development value stream is a key stage in adopting Kanban.

This session discusses how this tool can be applied to the software itself, especially Legacy code. For a code base, what exactly is a value stream? How can we walk it? How can the results be used to drive architectural renewal?

• For many companies Legacy Code is a serious problem. The organisation may depend upon it but it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain and extend.
• This is sad because it could represent great opportunity. Locked away in that code is the accumulated code of decades of operational experience.
• Value-Stream Mapping offers an approach that allows Legacy Code to be transformed from a problem to a source of opportunity and competitive advantage.