ITIL-4-CDS · Question #12
An organization has received complaints from customers regarding incident resolution times. The organization is using value stream mapping to visualize the activities involved in restoring service…
The correct answer is C. Compare the map to actual activities. Comparing the map to actual activities (C) is correct because the team built an "optimized flow" - an idealized, theoretical map - rather than documenting what genuinely happens during incidents. Value stream mapping only reveals meaningful insights when it reflects reality; a…
Question
An organization has received complaints from customers regarding incident resolution times. The organization is using value stream mapping to visualize the activities involved in restoring service following an outage. The team has designed an optimized flow that begins with the incident being generated by a monitoring tool, and ends when service is restored. Leadership is concerned that this approach has failed to provide the insight needed to reduce delays. Which is the BEST action this team can take to address leadership's concern?
Options
- ADetermine where work is sitting in queues
- BIntroduce additional sources of demand
- CCompare the map to actual activities
- DAutomate repeatable work activities
How the community answered
(21 responses)- A5% (1)
- B14% (3)
- C76% (16)
- D5% (1)
Explanation
Comparing the map to actual activities (C) is correct because the team built an "optimized flow" - an idealized, theoretical map - rather than documenting what genuinely happens during incidents. Value stream mapping only reveals meaningful insights when it reflects reality; a gap between the designed map and real activities is precisely where hidden delays, workarounds, and bottlenecks live. Without validating the map against what actually occurs, leadership is analyzing a fiction.
Why the distractors fail:
- A (queues): Identifying queue wait times is a valid VSM technique, but it's only useful once you have an accurate current-state map - the team hasn't established that yet.
- B (additional demand sources): Adding more demand increases workload and would likely worsen resolution times, not improve them.
- D (automate repeatable work): Automation is a downstream optimization; automating steps based on an inaccurate map could entrench the very inefficiencies you're trying to eliminate.
Memory tip: Spot the word "optimized" in the question - that's the trap. VSM must capture the current state (messy reality) before you can design a future state. If the team skipped straight to an ideal flow, they built a map of their wishes, not their problems.
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