ABSTRACT
Vogels goes on to argue that a successful digital business model will use continuous improvement, experimentation, standard processes, and high-quality standards for the production of data. The digital elements—data and the corresponding technology required to process them—will continue to grow disproportionately to the others, but the purpose of the larger business system remains that of creating value for a customer. A caveat is needed, however: no matter how thoughtfully digital improvement creates continuity and flow, the value stream will become unbalanced, even if it was previously well-balanced. Lean thinking simply guides us to create more flow in value streams by compressing the process steps and creating more continuity between value-adding activities. Lean ideas, applied to software production, have already proven very successful in the Agile movement. Agile increases the speed and flexibility of software delivery, while also reducing the risks.
