Value Stream on Romano Roth

Cybernetic Enterprise: The New Operating System for Organizations

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Most companies that work in an agile way today while simultaneously trying to implement AI will not survive the next decade, in my opinion. The reason: their operating system is too old. The future is not agile. The future is not AI either. The future is cybernetic.

Cybernetic Enterprise Explained: AI, DevOps & Scalable Software Delivery

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How can we reduce costs, develop faster, and become more efficient? In this presentation, I walk through the core concepts of the Cybernetic Enterprise and show how organizations can continuously deliver value by combining value stream analysis, platform engineering, and AI.

Platform Engineering: How Continuous Value Flow Transforms Commerce

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What does “continuous value flow through platform engineering” actually mean? In this Zühlke Commerce Talk, I sat down with my colleague Dennis Kolmitz, Engagement Manager at Zühlke responsible for our commerce customers, to discuss exactly that. We explored why platform engineering is becoming essential for commerce organizations that want to innovate faster, reduce friction, and keep their best talent.

Building High-Impact DevOps: Expert Insights

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I recently joined Ben on the We Chat Tech podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about DevOps, leadership, career growth, and the future of AI in software engineering. Over 23 years at Zühlke, I have worked across industries helping organizations transform how they deliver software. In this episode, we covered everything from the fundamentals of DevOps to the skills that future engineers will need.

How to Architect for Continuous Delivery

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In September 2024, I had the privilege of delivering a keynote at the Roche DevOps Conference in Poland. The topic: how to architect for continuous delivery. This is a subject close to my heart, because after more than two decades of working in software delivery, I keep seeing the same fundamental patterns that separate high-performing organizations from those that struggle.

The Digital Factory: 90 Days of DevOps

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For the 90 Days of DevOps community, I presented the concept of the digital factory. After years of doing DevOps transformations across industries at Zühlke, I have developed a holistic approach to scaling DevOps that goes beyond just tools and pipelines. In this talk, I explain why we still struggle with walls of confusion, how platform engineering enables teams to do DevOps at scale, and how digital factories bring everything together.

The Business Case of DevOps: How to Convince Your Decision Makers

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 01:00:00 +0000

Every DevOps enthusiast faces the same challenge at some point: you know DevOps works, your team knows it works, but the decision makers want proof. They want a business case. In this talk at ContainerDays 2019, I break down a practical framework for convincing CIOs and managers to fund your DevOps transformation.

Back to the future of software development

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 23:00:00 +0000

By Pia Wiedermayer and Romano Roth

In many organizations and projects, software development involves numerous employees and machines performing tasks separately. This approach results in problems. Here’s how going back to the original way of developing software and building an organic digital factory can help.

The Future of DevOps: Top Trends to Watch in 2023

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Two years of trend predictions later, the DevOps conversation has shifted. In 2021 we talked about adoption. In 2022 we mapped trends onto the adoption lifecycle. In 2023 the most useful lens is the value stream: how products get built, run, quality-assured, monitored, organised, enabled and industrialised end-to-end. Most organisations still suffer from silos and project-based annual planning. The 2023 trends are about closing those gaps.

Baloise OpenX Day: Keynote on DevOps, Value Streams, and Platform Engineering

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I was invited to deliver the keynote at the Baloise OpenX Day, an internal conference where Baloise brings together their technology community. The session combined impulse presentations with interactive discussions, giving me the chance to share DevOps fundamentals and then hear directly from the teams about their real challenges. The conversations with the Baloise engineers were incredibly valuable, especially around topics like continuous deployment in regulated industries and the role of platform engineering.

DevOps: Thinking in Systems and Value Streams

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this conference talk, I discuss one of the most fundamental topics in DevOps: thinking in systems and value streams. When I work with companies on their DevOps transformations, I consistently see the same patterns. The business has bright ideas. They write them into Word documents and Jira tickets. They throw them over a wall of confusion to development. Development builds something and throws it to testing. Testing compares what was specified with what was built (never quite the same), tests something, and throws it to operations. Operations asks “How can we operate that?” and somehow, with great effort, they get it running. Then the customer sees it and says: “What is that? That is not what we ordered.”

What is SAFe® for DevOps Course?

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:58:51 +0000

The SAFe® for DevOps training is an assessment or a workshop that is ideally suited for teams. Why? Because the focus is on driving the value stream of these teams. Addressing questions, challenges, and any potential obstacles - we can work on the training to provide value to them. We will give them the theory input of what exactly DevOps is.

What is Learn? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Learn is the last step of the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar, and in many ways it is the most important one. This is where we make the hard decisions about where to invest, where to stop, and how to continuously improve everything we do. In this video, I walk through what the Learn step involves and why it is the key to building the right thing right.

DevOps: How can we improve value streams?

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 17:50:26 +0000

Value stream mapping is a lean management method for improving the flow of value from idea to production. It offers insight into the efficiency of an organisation and can help to identify bottlenecks and improve value flow. The primary goal is to eliminate any waste.

What is SAFe for DevOps?

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 18:56:06 +0000

In this video, I explain what the SAFe for DevOps training is all about. Unlike traditional classroom courses, this training is a hands-on workshop where real teams work on their own value streams and leave with a concrete, prioritized action plan.

What Is the First Way of DevOps? Optimise the Flow

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first way to introduce DevOps is to optimise the value flow from development, through operations, all the way to the customer. This is the First Way in Gene Kim’s Three Ways framework — and it is where every transformation should start.

Why to Create Value Faster

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The DevOps business case rarely fails because the technology does not work. It fails because nobody can explain, in money terms, why doing it faster matters. Here is the version that lands with a CFO: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, and a feature in production today earns money that a feature in next quarter’s release does not.

Where Value Is Created in Software Development

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you ask a development team where value is created, you will hear a dozen different answers. In the planning workshop. In the sprint. At the demo. At deployment. They are all wrong — and getting this wrong is what makes most DevOps business cases fall apart on contact with the CFO.