Case Study: FLL Software Solutions The “Glacial” Release Cy…

Read Chapter 5, Team Kaizen, from the Medinilla’s Book (PDF opens in new tab), then read the case study below and answer the questions. Submit as a word document. You are highly encouraged to do your own additional research on Value Stream Mapping and “Concept to Cash.”

Case Study: FLL Software Solutions The “Glacial” Release Cycle

Background

FLL Software Solutions is a mid-sized firm specializing in custom Inventory Management Systems (IMS). While they have transitioned from Waterfall to Agile (Scrum), the leadership team is frustrated. Despite the developers completing “User Stories” every two weeks, customers are waiting an average of 6 months from the moment they request a feature to the moment it is live in their system.

The CEO has tasked you, the Project Manager, to create a Value Stream Map (VSM) to identify the “waste” in their “Concept to Cash” pipeline.

The Current Workflow

Your investigation reveals the following sequence of events for a standard feature request:

1. Intake & Approval (4 weeks): A customer submits a “Problem Statement.” It sits in a backlog until the monthly Steering Committee meets to approve the budget.
2. Requirements Refinement (3 weeks): Business Analysts (BAs) write detailed specs. There is often a 1-week delay waiting for a BA to become available.
3. Development Sprint (2 weeks): The Agile team pulls the story into a Sprint. The actual “hands-on” coding time is only 4 days, but the Sprint cycle is fixed.
4. Quality Assurance & Regression (6 weeks): Once the Sprint ends, the code is moved to a “Testing Queue.” Because the QA team is shared across five projects, the code sits idle for 4 weeks before a 2-week manual testing cycle begins.
5. Security Audit (2 weeks): A mandatory security review is required. This is a “hand-off” to an external vendor.
6. Deployment Prep & Launch (3 weeks): The “Operations” team only deploys on the third Sunday of every month. If you miss the window, you wait another 30 days.

The Data Summary

• Total Lead Time: ~20 weeks
• Actual Value-Add Time (Work time): ~4 weeks
• Process Efficiency: ~20%

Assignment: Optimizing the Stream

Based on the case study above, answer the following five questions. Ensure your answers reflect Agile principles and Value Stream logic.

1. Identify the “Non-Value-Added” Time

Consider the total lead time versus the actual work time. Pinpoint the three largest “waits” or “bottlenecks” in FLLs current sequence. Why are these considered waste in a “Concept to Cash” model?

2. The Agile Paradox

FLL Software Solutions claims to be “Agile” because they use Sprints. However, looking at the entire Value Stream, why is their “Agility” failing to reach the customer?

3. Proposed Future State

Suggest two specific process changes to reduce the “Deployment Prep & Launch” and “QA & Regression” phases. How would moving toward a DevOps mindset (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) change the shape of this Value Stream?

4. Shifting “Left”

In the current model, the Security Audit happens at the very end (Step 5). Explain the potential impact of “shifting security left” (integrating it into the Development Sprint) on the total lead time and project risk.

5. Defining the “Cash” in “Concept to Cash”

If FLL Software Solutions reduces their total lead time from 20 weeks to 6 weeks, describe the financial and competitive advantages this provides the company. How does “Value” change when it is delivered incrementally rather than in one large semi-annual release?

You do not need a cover page, but please write your name at the top of the page. Please answer each question individually and number your answers (do not convert this into an essay/paper).