### 2025.05.15 Λ 18:45 As part of my job, I occasionally have to take Agile training. My customer is very insistent about us attending these courses, as they help maintain core Agile knowledge within our development team. I don't complain—I just do it. Sometimes these training sessions can be repetitive—"fail fast, fail often, iterate and adapt"—and I typically expect boilerplate material, so I multitask during the course. Occasionally, however, a training session turns out to be more interesting than anticipated, prompting me to pay closer attention, as I might actually learn something valuable. This was the case with the recent SAFe Agile DevOps course I attended. While the entire course was quite good, there was a particular topic that piqued my curiosity. ## The Value Stream In short, we define an objective we want to achieve and outline the necessary steps to get there. Usually, the process concludes either at the deployment stage (in DevOps scenarios) or when a deliverable is produced. ![[Pasted image 20250515181611.png]] (Not an exact development workflow, but you get my point.) ## Wait Time So, what exactly is "Wait Time"? According to SAFe Agile terminology, "Wait Time is the time between steps toward achieving the desired outcome." ![[Pasted image 20250515181743.png]] Wait Time is also labeled "Waste Time," and it's everyone's responsibility to minimize this unavoidable part of the process—as long as it doesn't compromise any necessary steps. ## The Problem Naturally, logical people will notice wait time and strive to reduce it as much as possible. After all, we live in the "microwave era"—we want things done fast. However, issues arise when, in an attempt to speed up processes, we start cutting corners. For instance, skipping unit tests inevitably leads to issues surfacing unexpectedly in production. ## The Solution We need to commit ourselves and our customers to an optimal and accurate timeframe for deliverables. If we aren't vocal and clear about the realistic timelines required—and instead create false expectations—we become prone to cutting corners and shipping sloppy code, leading to problems in production. It's okay to optimize the value stream, but let's do it smartly. Seed planted. - Dan [[🌱 The Syntax Garden]]