Value stream

Value streams are artifacts within business architecture that allow a business to specify the value proposition derived by an external
(e.g., customer) or internal stakeholder from an organization. A value stream depicts the stakeholders initiating and involved in the
value stream, the stages that create specific value items, and the value proposition derived from the value stream. The value stream is
depicted as an end-to-end collection of value-adding activities that create an overall result for a customer
, stakeholder, or end-user.

In modeling terms, those value-adding activities are represented by value stream stages, each of which creates and adds incremental
stakeholder value items from one stage to the next.[1] While value streams are referenced in multiple methodologies, there is
increasing agreement[2] on the description and the purpose of value streams as a core domain of business architecture[3] and Scaled
Agile Framework[4], which has since been applied by multiple standards bodies.
[5] [6]

Contents
Purpose of Value Streams
Components of a value stream
Commonly associated concepts
Misconceptions
Alignment to Agile Methodologies
See also
References

Purpose of Value Streams

Value streams are a component of the business ecosystem that describe how a stakeholder – often a customer – receives value from
an organization. As opposed to many previous attempts at describing stakeholder value, value streams take the perspective of the
initiating or triggering stakeholder rather than an internal value chain or process perspective. From this outside-in view, value streams
can be cross-mapped to enabling business capabilities that describe what and how, respectively, an organization must do to deliver
value to the stakeholder.

Components of a value stream

Value streams represent end-to-end views on how value is achieved for a given external or internal stakeholder.[7] Value streams are
named with a definition of the value proposition provided to stakeholders. Stakeholders within a value stream can take two forms:

A triggering stakeholder is the person or organization that initiates and, as a rule, participates in the value stream.
A participating stakeholder is a person or organization that either provides or facilitates aspects of the value
delivered in the value stream, or that may receive ancillary value from the value stream.
Additionally, value streams are composed of value stream stages, which represent iterative value items that are accrued to deliver
value throughout the value stream, ultimately delivering a value proposition.

Commonly associated concepts

Value streams are often seen in a form in which they are cross-mapped to stakeholders and capabilities. These cross-mappings allow
practitioners to better identify the people and organizations to whom – or from which – value is provided. For example, enabling
capabilities, associated with each value stream stage, produce outcomes that collectively contribute to the creation of a value item
within that stage. In other words, the capabilities do the work to achieve each value item at each stage. In addition, many practitioners
align value streams and value stream stages to business capabilities. This facilitates alignment of how an organization provides value
to the internal view of what a company does.

Misconceptions
There are multiple misconceptions around the concept of value streams. These are outlined at a high level below, with references to
additional information on each. For clarification:

Value streams are not processes[8]

Value streams are not associated with theLean concept of value stream mapping.While named similarly, Lean
value stream mapping is a process-based practice that seeks to identify waste, whereas value streams provide a
higher-level overview of how a stakeholder receives value.
The Lean value stream is a diagrammatic representation of the sequence of activities required to design, produce, and deliver a good
or service to a customer. Despite the similarity in name to the Business Architecture value stream, the Lean value stream’s primary
purpose is to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a
customer. It is not designed (nor is it well suited) to broader architectural purposes – namely, decomposing down to the critical
activities (or stages) that progressively combine to produce value for a stakeholder, or cross-mapping those value stream stages to the
enabling business capabilities.[9]

Value streams are not internally focused.Some methodologies reference value streams as delivering value to an
internal stakeholder. While this can hold truewithin a specified context, the goal of most practitioners is to focus on
stakeholders outside of an organization.
Value streams are not customer journey maps. While both value streams and journey maps take the perspective
of the external stakeholder, they seek to describe different sets of information[10] . Customer journey maps typically
seek to describe the emotions, intent, and individual interactions with a customer . Such instances are not
architecturally sound. In contrast, value streams provide a consistent, foundational view .

Alignment to Agile Methodologies

The concept of a value stream is especially important to agile methodologies, which often seek to maximize a focus on customer or
business value. Specific forms of agile methodologies, such as the Scaled Agile Framework, incorporate the value stream as a way to
create a foundational view of the business from which agile work can be completed. This approach encourages a common level of
understanding that allows multiple disciplines to interact, creating a more consistent, simplified view of theganization.
or

See also
Business architecture

References
1. "Value Streams" (https://publications.opengroup.org/g170). Prepared by The Open Group Architecture Forum
Business Architecture Work Stream. 2017-01-31. (registration required)
2. Batts, Renee; Fons, Francis; Randell, Alex (2017-03-01)."Aligning Business Architecture and the Scaled Agile
Framework(R)" (http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/AligningBIZ_ARCHSA
Fe.pdf) (PDF). Business Architecture Guild.
3. Ulrich, William; Kuehn, Whynde (2015)."Business Architecture: Setting the Record Straight"(http://c.ymcdn.com/site
s/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/BusinessArchitectureSettingt.pdf)(PDF). Future Strategies,
Inc.
4. "Value Streams" (http://www.scaledagileframework.com/value-streams/). Scaled Agile, Inc. 2017-10-05.
 5. "Value Streams" (https://publications.opengroup.org/g170). Prepared by The Open Group Architecture Forum
Business Architecture Work Stream. 2017-01-31. (registration required)
6. "The Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge, Part 1"(http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.businessarchite
ctureguild.org/resource/resmgr/BIZBOKv6/BIZBOKv6Part1.pdf)(PDF). Business Architecture Guild. 2017-07-20.
7. Ulrich, William; Kuehn, Whynde (2015)."Business Architecture: Setting the Record Straight"(http://c.ymcdn.com/site
s/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/BusinessArchitectureSettingt.pdf)(PDF). Future Strategies,
Inc.
8. Dugan, Lloyd; McWhorter, Neal (2014-10-31). "Business Architecture and BPM - Differentiation and Reconciliation"
(http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/BAtoBPMAlignmentPositionPape.pdf)
(PDF). Business Architecture Guild.
9. "Value Streams" (https://publications.opengroup.org/g170). Prepared by The Open Group Architecture Forum
Business Architecture Work Stream. 2017-01-31. (registration required)
10. Clark, Mike; Kuehn, Whynde; Mullins, Chalong; Spellman, Eric (2016-10-01).
"Business Architecture and the
Customer Experience: A Comprehensive Approach for u Trning Customer Needs into Action"(http://c.ymcdn.com/sit
es/www.businessarchitectureguild.org/resource/resmgr/public_resources/CXWhitepaperPub100716Lpdf.pdf)(PDF).
Business Architecture Guild.

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