Product Modeling
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Overview
Once provisioning is complete, you are ready to set up your product value streams! Simply log in, and follow our in-application instructions to add your product to Viz or follow the instructions below.
The following instructions will guide you through the steps to create your first product value stream and its associated artifact sets and tool connections.
Adding a Product
To create a new product, click the + sign.

Add a Product
Type in your product’s name and your product's group(s). If your product doesn't have a group yet, that's ok, you can create a product group later.
Next, fill in some basic data around your product. This data will help people in your organization understand what your product does and how your value stream works. This data may also be used for analytics and insights Viz will prepare for you.
Note: You can update this information in the product menu dropdown.

Add Product Details
After you've created your product, it's time to start modeling. The first step is product modeling, which is done in the Product Modeling tab.

Product Modeling Tab
In product modeling, you’ll point Viz to the relevant tool, and within it — the projects or artifacts that are pertinent to your product.
Note: Viz should already be connected to your software delivery tools. If you see one missing, please reach out to your Viz admin.
To add your first data set, click Add Artifact Set.

Click 'Add Artifact Set'
Next, select the tool and relevant projects. Consider also including your dependencies in this modeling, because bottlenecks are often found there.

Select Tool and Project(s)
You'll also need to assign your artifact set to a value stream phase so you can measure flow across disciplines. Each value stream phase represents a key stage in the end-to-end software delivery process, from planning to code review to support.
Value Stream Phase |
Description |
Examples |
---|---|---|
Ideate |
Tools used to capture customer requests and new ideas, gather requirements, plan roadmaps, define scope, and design a feature. |
|
Create |
Tools used to manage the backlog, analyze issues, architect solutions, and write, build, and test code. |
|
Release |
Tools used to manage, orchestrate, and automate the release of code changes to production. |
|
Operate |
Tools used to operate, support, monitor, govern, and secure solutions running in production. |
|
Once you’ve added the necessary data to your artifact set, click Add.

Click 'Add'
After you add your first artifact set, you will see it created in the Product Modeling tab. You should add all the relevant artifact sets to cover the remaining phases of software delivery.

Add Additional Artifact Sets
In the below sections, you can learn more about copying a product, product groups, and adding favorites. But if you'd like to skip those sections, you can move on to the next step in modeling your value stream — artifact modeling.
Copying a Product
You can create a new product by copying an existing product — allowing you to easily recreate a product in scenarios where the data set is mostly the same, but the modeling is slightly different.
For example, suppose you'd like to create a new product with the same modeling but with a few changes to your conditional modeling. Instead of manually creating a new product with these changes, you can copy an existing product.
To copy a product, click the + and select the Duplicate an existing Product checkbox.

Click '+'

Click 'Duplicate an existing Product'
After selecting the checkbox, the dropdown will be available to select an existing product. The following configurations will be copied from the selected product:
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Product Modeling
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Artifact Modeling
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Flow Modeler
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Business Results and Timeline Events (if selected)
Note: The product groups and product metadata (i.e., Additional Fields data) from the existing product will also be automatically added to the duplicated product. This data can be removed or updated as needed.

Select an Existing Product to Duplicate
If you'd like to copy your Business Results and Timeline Events, select the Duplicate Business Results and Timeline Events checkbox.

Click 'Duplicate Business Results and Timeline Events'
To create the duplicate product, click Add.

Click 'Add'
Once you've created the duplicate product, you'll notice a banner at the top of the screen indicating that processing has been suspended. This allows you to make changes to your artifact modeling without triggering a reprocessing event.
Note: Flow Metrics and artifact counts will not appear until processing is resumed.

Processing Suspended Banner
When you're finished making changes, click Resume Processing and reprocessing will begin normally.

Click 'Resume Processing'
Creating a Product Group
After you have added your product value streams, you can create a group to organize your products in one place for easier navigation. You can add a single product to one group or multiple groups.
Note: You must be an executive user to create or move groups or subgroups, however, all users can add products to existing groups.

Add a Group
Click + Add Product to add products to your group.
Note: For clarity and ease, all products can be accessed from the products list. This allows you to add individual products to multiple groups, or to find any product regardless of which group(s) it belongs to. You can also use the search bar in the left panel to search by product or group name.

Add Products to your Group
Group your products by business division, portfolio, customer experience, or whatever else you'd like.

Group Products by Division, Portfolio, etc.
Click + Add Subgroup to break down your product group into subgroups.

Add a Subgroup

Subgroup View
After you've added your products and subgroups, you can click the > next to your group to view the group hierarchy.

View your Group Hierarchy

Group Hierarchy View
Favoriting a Product or Group
You can also favorite a product, group, or subgroup for easier navigation. Favorites are customizable for each user — so your favorites won't impact the favorites view for other users at your organization.
To add a favorite, simply click on the star next to the product or group you'd like to favorite.

Add a Favorite
And that's it! Your favorites will then appear on the left sidebar in Viz.

Favorites View
Tip: To remove a favorite, just deselect the green star next to the favorited product(s) or group(s).
Portfolio View
The Portfolio View offers a birds-eye view of all the products in your portfolio — providing insight into trending Flow Metrics and easy access to Business Results and Timeline Events.
To access this feature, click the Products tab on the All Products screen.
Note: You must be granted Executive user role permissions to access this feature.

Portfolio View
You can also use the Portfolio View for product groups by clicking the Products tab from an individual product group.

Click the 'Products' Tab to Access the Portfolio View
The Portfolio View will show you all the products in your organization or product group and the trending Flow Metrics for each product.

Portfolio View
The date range for the Portfolio View will default to the range that most closely matches the range selected on your Flow Metrics dashboard.
If you’d like to customize your view, you can select a new range using the date picker.

Customize your Portfolio View
To do this, select a period to group by in the dropdown and then select a range.
Note: Viz will not allow you to select a partial period (i.e., A full week must be selected if grouping by week, a full month must be selected if grouping by month, etc).

Group by Period

Group by Month
If you’d like to only include certain flow items in your Portfolio View, you can use the flow item type filter. This filter allows you to select one or more flow item types for your Portfolio View.

Filter by Flow Item Type
You can also conveniently analyze and manage Business Results and Timeline Events directly from this view — giving you context to the drivers behind changes to your Flow Metrics.
Simply click the Business Result or Timeline Event value to see the events or results associated with an individual product.

Manage Business Results and Timeline Events from the Portfolio View

Manage Business Results
Coaching Tutorial
You can learn more about defining product value stream in the short coaching video below:
Note: This tutorial can also be accessed from the Add Product or Edit Product screens.
Next Steps
After you've finished creating your artifact sets, you can begin modeling your artifacts.