Value Line

During a presentation on Cloud Foundry by James Watters, I was introduced to the concept of "The Value Line." This framework, along with Geoffery Moore's "Core vs Context" from his book Dealing with Darwin., provides a valuable thinking tool to help businesses focus on innovation and business value.

"The Value Line" and "Core vs Context" combine to create a thinking framework.

The Value Line Framework is divided into two sections: the Core and the Context. The Core represents a business’s reason for being and where it needs to focus its time, investments, and innovation. This is what customers pay for and where differentiated value lies. On the other hand, the Context is where a business spends time and money just because it’s in business. This includes activities that are necessary but don’t contribute to a company’s unique value proposition, such as IT infrastructure, administrative tasks, and other non-core functions.

This is things you have to do just because your in business. For example, unless your business is a lawncare company, your business doesn’t make any money because you have the best cared for lawn. Spending precious assets, People and Focus, on this would be a waste. Lawncare is a perfect example of something you should be outsource to some other company. A company where lawncare is their Core.

The Value Line Framework can be applied to the IT industry, where developers and engineers are makers and creators. Developers have a natural inclination to solve problems, but they need to be directed to focus on the Core of the business and deliver innovative business value. Activities that distract from this focus, such as custom building and deploying systems or writing frameworks for testing, should be centralized in shared service teams. These teams can address Context problems such as DevSecOps, Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Engineering, APIs, and Security, while the solution delivery teams focus on the Core.

The Value Line Framework, along with the Core vs. Context concept, provides a valuable thinking tool for businesses to focus on innovation and business value. By directing creativity and focus to the Core, businesses can deliver unique value propositions that differentiate them from their competitors. By addressing Context problems through centralized shared service teams, businesses can maximize investments in time, money, and focus, while minimizing investment in non-core functions.