2023
The Value Stream Flow Report
Comparative Analysis and Industry Performance Benchmarking
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
Executive Summary
The Value Stream Flow Report presents the findings of a comprehensive study on the
performance of 214 different Value Streams across 11 industries and four continents. The
dataset, which includes over 130,000 data points, is a representative subset of aggregated
and de-identified data drawn from the Flomatika platform.
The study sheds light on several critical aspects of Value Stream performance, including the
time it takes to complete work items, the predictability of delivery, the variability of lead
time, flow efficiency, and capacity utilisation.
This report is the first of its kind to provide such detailed insights, representing a valuable
new contribution to the industry.
Our decision to share these findings more broadly was prompted by the growing demand
from our clients for a better understanding of what success looks like and what they can
expect as they embark on their continuous improvement journey.
We hope these insights will serve as a valuable benchmark for our clients and the industry
at large, and we look forward to building on these findings as trends emerge over the
coming years and our dataset continues to grow.
I hope it provides valuable insights to help you improve your own processes and Value
Streams and inspires you to continue your journey towards delivering greater value to your
customers.
Marcio Sete
Chief Product & Technology Officer, CEO
Flomatika
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
Methodology
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The Value Stream Flow Report
Sampling Dataset
The sampling dataset used in this report is a representative
subset of aggregated and de-identified data drawn from the
Flomatika platform.
The dataset includes 130,908 data points from 214 different
Value Streams across 11 industries and four continents.
The dataset is sufficiently large and diverse to enable
meaningful analysis and provide valuable insights into the
trends and patterns observed in the industry.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
Sampling Dataset
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
Defining the cohorts
The Elite, High, Medium, and Low Performers cohorts were
determined by splitting the data into quarters.
Low Performers exhibit performance metrics in the first quartile (25%
from smallest to largest of numbers)
Medium Performers display performance metrics in the second
quartile (between 25.1% and 50%—till median).
High Performers exhibit performance metrics in the third quartile (51%
to 75%—above the median), and finally,
Elite Performers exhibit performance metrics in the fourth quartile
(25% of largest numbers).
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
Key Findings
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The Value Stream Flow Report
1. How long does it take to complete work items?
Lead time for team-level work items
6 days or less 50% of the time
37 days or less 85% of the time
Lead time for portfolio-level work items
76 days or less 50% of the time
300 days or less 85% of the time
Lead Time: The elapsed time between commitment and departure points of each workflow.
Team-level work Items: Actionable pieces of work such as User Stories, Bugs and Tasks.
Portfolio-level work Items: Aggregators of work such as Epics and Features.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
1. How long does it take to complete team-level
work items?
Elite Performers: 1 to 13 days
High Performers: 14 to 22 days
Medium Performers: 23 to 56 days
Low Performers: 57 days or more
Elite and high performers are significantly faster when
completing work items.
Considering team-level work items at the 85th percentile of their lead time distribution.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
1. How long does it take to complete portfolio-level
work items?
Elite Performers: up to 85 days (3mo)
High Performers: 86 to 165 days (3mo - 5.5mo)
Medium Performers: 166 to 285 days (5.5mo - 9.5mo)
Low Performers: 286 days or more (9.5+mo)
Elite and high performers are significantly faster when
completing work items.
Considering portfolio-level work items at the 85th percentile of their lead time distribution.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
2. How often do Value Streams deliver work within
customers' service level expectations?
Elite Performers: 79% of the time or more
High Performers: 67 to 78% of the time
Medium Performers: 53 to 66% of the time
Low Performers: 52% of the time or less
That is how often Value Streams respect the lead time
considered appropriate by customers/stakeholders for
different types of demand.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
3. What percentage of Value Streams have low
variability of lead time, leading to a highly
predictable delivery system?
29% 71%
Low Variability High Variability
Whilst speed and variability represent two different aspects of Value
Streams, there's a clear correlation that lower process variability leads
to higher process speed.
Value Streams with low variability have a 73% chance of being Elite or
High performers, in contrast to 42% for Value Streams with high
variability.
Process Variability: Measured by the difference between the median and tail of a lead time distribution.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
4. What is the industry benchmark for
average Flow Efficiency?
Elite Performers: 44% or more
High Performers: 26 to 43%
Medium Performers: 6 to 25%
Low Performers: 5% or less
Flow efficiency is a measure of process efficiency that examines the percentage of time work items spend actively being worked on
versus the total time they spend in the Value Stream.
It helps to identify the time spent waiting for specialists or being blocked by internal and external dependencies, highlighting areas
where improvements can be made to increase predictability and flow.
The higher the flow efficiency, the faster work items move through the Value Stream without being delayed by bottlenecks or
inefficiencies.
© Flomatika Trading Co Pty. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Value Stream Flow Report
5. How Value Streams spend their capacity?
55%
32%
14%
Value Demand Failure Demand Non-Value Demand
Capacity dedicated to Value Demand
Elite and high performers dedicate significantly more capacity to
demands that can be directly correlated to customer or business value.
Elite Performers: 84% or more
High Performers: 64 to 83%
Medium Performers: 37 to 63%
Low Performers: 36% or less
Value Demand: Customer/Stakeholder requests that can be directly correlated to customer or business value.
Failure Demand: Demands to fix what wasn't executed properly the first time or demands that shouldn't be produced at all.
Non-Value Demand: Demands that do not directly correlate to customer or business value but are necessary to stay in business.
Overhead.
*** Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
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Take action!
Curious about how Flomatika can help you plan,
govern, report, and improve? Schedule a demo:
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visualise and understand your flow metrics?
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