Value Streams Inventory and Attributes

Section A — Sourcing and Harvesting

Before building the Value Streams Inventory from scratch, assess whether value stream definitions already exist in the enterprise. Common sources include business architecture deliverables and capability-mapping work, which frequently identify value streams alongside capabilities; operating model documentation; Lean or process-improvement initiatives, which often produce value stream maps; and frameworks specific to the enterprise’s industry. Harvesting from these sources reduces the initial definition effort. AI agents are also effective for bootstrapping a Value Streams Inventory: an agent can propose an initial set of value streams for a given industry, drawing on well-understood value stream patterns, which practitioners then validate and refine. AI-generated records must be treated as a starting point requiring human validation, and their origin documented in the Provenance and Audit attributes.

Section B — Ownership and Accountability

Every inventory must have a named owner accountable for the accuracy, completeness, and governance of the inventory as a whole. Inventory ownership is distinct from the ownership of individual value stream records. For the Value Streams Inventory, Enterprise Architecture is the natural organizational owner; in organizations without a formal Enterprise Architecture function, Business Architecture or a strategy function is an appropriate alternative. Because value streams cross organizational boundaries, it is especially important that each value stream record names a single accountable Value Stream Owner — without one, no individual is accountable for the performance of the flow as a whole.

Section C — Lifecycle and Review Cadence

The Value Streams Inventory is a living governance artifact and must be actively maintained. Every value stream record moves through defined lifecycle states: Proposed, Active, Under Review, Deprecated, and Retired. Reconciliation cadence should be established and enforced: quarterly at minimum for value streams of Critical strategic importance, and at least annually for all Active value streams. Reconciliation that happens informally and undocumented is reconciliation that did not happen for governance purposes.

Section D — Data Quality and Starting Approach

Do not attempt to populate all attributes for all value streams simultaneously. The most common failure mode for inventory initiatives is scope overreach. The recommended approach: first, identify all known value streams and create a stub record for each, populated with Semantic ID, Display Name, Description and Purpose, and the ordered Value Stream Stages. This produces a complete, if thin, inventory. Second, populate the remaining Crawl attributes across all records before adding any Walk attributes. Third, validate Crawl completeness before advancing. Fourth, populate Walk attributes systematically. Fifth, introduce Run attributes — most notably Flow Efficiency — only when the enterprise has the measurement discipline to support them. A value stream inventory with accurate stages and enabling capabilities for every flow is far more valuable than one with sophisticated flow metrics for only a few.

Section E — Access Control

The Value Streams Inventory contains governance-sensitive data. Access should be governed explicitly: read access broadly available to consuming stakeholders; write access restricted to the inventory steward, designated value stream owners, and authorized automated feeds; schema change access reserved for the inventory owner and governing body. At Crawl maturity, a shared spreadsheet with restricted edit access is an adequate access control model.

Section F — Change Management

The attribute schema of the Value Streams Inventory is itself a governed artifact. Schema changes follow a five-step process: Propose, Review, Approve, Implement, Communicate. The same discipline applies to the value stream portfolio itself: adding, renaming, restructuring, or retiring a value stream — and changing the ordered sequence of a value stream’s stages — is a governed action, recorded in the inventory document’s change log.

Section G — Archival and Retention

When a value stream is retired, its record is not deleted — deletion destroys audit history. Update the Lifecycle Status to Retired, retain the record for one full reconciliation cycle in the active inventory, then archive it. Archived records remain queryable but are excluded from active governance reporting. Retain indefinitely any record for a value stream involved in a significant decision; for all others, define a retention period consistent with applicable regulatory requirements and organizational policy.