> [!tldr] Two kinds: architectural processing framing ones & [[LEAN Manufacturing]]-style (useful) ones I didn't understand Value Streams for **years**. Turns out it's because two different things have the same name. # Generic Architecture connotation What you see when you see Value Stream in, say, [[Archimate]]: High-level basic bucketing of processes. For *these*, I see very little utility in practice. A value stream, then, is just a process out-zoomed about as far as you can go without totally collapsing it to one entity. # [[LEAN Manufacturing]] connotation - a stream of [[Business Value]] On the other hand, *these* kinds of value streams seem very pragmatic and useful. Value Stream Mapping is a [[Diagram Types (index)|Visual Analysis Technique]] to view how [[Business Value]] is (or is not) produced throughout the lifecycle of a process that takes time, **to identify [[Waste]] and bottlenecking factors**. It's slightly more structured than I was expecting, going in. It is built using layers (whose nature seems to vary slightly from source-to-source) and oriented about a timeline, like [[Sequence Diagrams]] turned on their side with swim lanes for information, processes, and value-production (as measured in [[Metrics]]): ![[Value-Stream-Map-Zones.png]] # Layers ## Information Flow Signals that affect system behavior. What kicks off the system. Status messages generated. ## Material Flows Processes that happen. The material that flows between them. Including process metadata, like "[[Takt Time]]", success rate, etc. ## Timeline The bottom of all the Value Stream Maps I've seen are where the actual _value stream_ is. **** ## Source - Wikipedia - [lean.org](https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/value-stream-mapping/) ## Related - [[Six Sigma]] - [[Diagram Types (index)]]