Flow Engineering

“I view Flow Engineering as an ‘actionable textbook’ for product teams seeking to define value, build clarity, and enable flow. I regularly speak to organizations that have the best software engineering teams, adopt the right platform engineering principles, and implement site reliability engineering practices, and yet struggle to improve flow of value to their customers. I believe Flow Engineering holds the key to resolving this predicament—it serves as the glue to interconnect target outcomes, current and future value streams, and a set of actions to go from a sub-optimal current state to a desirable future state. With this book, you not only get a map but also a compass!”

“As a CTO grappling with the challenges of managing diverse teams in a fast-paced tech environment, Flow Engineering provides a refreshing perspective on leadership in the modern workplace. It’s not just about theoretical ideas; the book offers practical tools and frameworks to unlock hidden value within teams and drive innovation. I highly recommend this book to any leader seeking to inspire their teams and deliver greater value to their customers and organization.”

“Flow Engineering stands as an exemplary, insightful, and hands-on guide for those seeking an in-depth grasp of flow principles and their application to engineering challenges in the real world. Having utilized value stream maps to scrutinize value streams across system engineering, business, and consulting endeavors for numerous years, I can attest to the book’s effectiveness. It succinctly defines the essence of Flow Engineering as the identification and eradication of waste within processes, aiming to enhance overall productivity. This work is an indispensable resource for professionals and enthusiasts alike, offering clarity, precision, and practical strategies to master flow concepts and optimize process efficiency.”

“In a world of SAFe, Six Sigma, RACI charts, and more, why can’t there be a scalable way of approaching these problems where there are clear rules to use in a simple way? Enter Flow Engineering. Pereira and Davis take you through the steps necessary, and the things to know, to quickly bring your entire organization into a nearly harmonious state of flow.”

“As organizations seek to move away from slow, project-centric approaches with complex dependencies towards operating models based on an internal marketplace of flow-centric service providers, it is vital to have a set of techniques to find and enable flow at scale. I love the collaborative mapping techniques in Flow Engineering because they really help to make change happen and results real. Embedding awareness inside humans in the organization using collaborative workshops is a highly effective, enduring way to shift towards business agility at speed and scale. Essential reading.”

“Finally, someone has taken the complexity out of value stream mapping and left us with a method that anyone can use to move our workflow closer to our ideal vision.”

“Organizations are messy; they’re endlessly complex; and worst of all, they’re always changing. So thank the heavens for books like this. Flow Engineering is a landmark work! A practical and thoughtful guide to helping teams and organizations align on outcomes, iteratively deliver a flow of value, and continuously improve. It combines insights from both physical and digital engineering disciplines and synthesizes decades of learning, both practical and academic, into one accessible volume. Read this book. Practice these techniques. Let the value flow.”

“Pereira and Davis bring a pragmatic and effective approach to think about value streams at scale. Rather than a step-by-step fixed path, they offer a set of tools that can be used and recombined to achieve a state of flow, while respecting our human nature.”

“Pereira and Davis have identified a real sweet spot for creating actionable change with minimum friction. I hope more people will be inspired to follow these practices not only start thinking clearly, collaboratively, and practically, but to actually build the muscle of continuous improvement. It's something I know my clients have struggled with even when they have great data showing them where the problems are. Going from seeing the data to acting on the data is always the hard step, and I love the way this book has articulated a very simple, repeatable process for doing this.”

"The shift towards Agile, Lean, DevOps, and Value Stream Management has revolutionized software delivery practices, but a focus on flow is crucial to success. Flow Engineering is a critical resource in this effort, offering a practical framework with visual mapping techniques and step-by-step guidance. It brings readers accessible methods for identifying constraints, streamlining processes, and achieving measurable outcomes. This book is indispensable for technology leaders spearheading team engagement and efficiency, and driving transformative change."

“Scaling Agile + DevOps within the enterprise remains a persistent and thorny problem. Flow Engineering does an excellent job outlining the issues of scale and provides an effective framework for focusing on delivering more value.”

"Despite the promise of constraints-focused improvement, accessible practical guidance, visibility, and alignment to stakeholders are persistent gaps to overcome. Flow Engineering represents a distinct opportunity to practically enact improvement, while building alignment, clarity, and competence. It meets leaders where they are, and quickly guides them to flow improvement along with their organization, not against it."

“Pereira and Davis lovingly remind us of the human costs of scale-turned-sprawl that plagues all but the best of today’s organizations. They also make clear the business costs. Most importantly, they have synthesized the best thinking from DevOps, Lean, and workplace psychology to provide a clear, specific set of instructions to help organizations flow. To read Flow Engineering is to experience flow itself.”

“I have been passionate about the flow of value ever since I was exposed to value stream mapping over a decade ago, and I’ve been attempting to make it accessible to the large organizations I’ve worked at ever since. This book has now made the concept of flow accessible and practical for everyone. I wish I had this guidance for the past decade and can’t wait for this to be shared with the industry.”

“The authors’ conviction in the inherent greatness of teams resonates, compelling readers to embark on their own journey of unlocking the untapped potential within their organizations."

“Flow Engineering will guide you through complexity and help you create value in situations where processes and people are more challenging than any specific tool. This is wisdom.”

“Scaling agile remains an unsolved problem. There are numerous theoretical discussions and even more frameworks that claim to provide convenient recipes. This book is unique in bringing together practical approaches with the understanding necessary to make them actually work in the real world.”

“Flow Engineering…offers a clear path to transforming not just workflows but organizational culture itself.”

“Steve and Andrew have crafted a brilliant combination of theory and principles, allied with clean language, clear visuals, and practical examples. Flow Engineering leverages mapping in ways that are immediately useful, collaborative, and visceral—bringing collective clarity and engagement through simple-to-learn process steps. For all of us on missions to improve colleague engagement and organisational performance, this excellent content provides the meaning and impetus to pursue greater flow.”

“Flow Engineering is an indispensable guide for building value, clarity, and flow in your organisation.…[with]valuable tools, tips, and hints to help you visualise and optimise the flow of value in your organisation."

“The case studies, examples, and exercises in this book will provide education to the organization and build muscle for high-performance collaboration. The authors advocate for the right balance between prescriptive and generative approaches recognizing that both approaches are required to enable meaningful, long-lasting change. They will skillfully step you through the change process for your organization meeting you where you are. Take your organization on the journey with them—you will come out delivering value continuously and collaboratively.”