Value Streams Inventory and Attributes - Understand the relationship between the Value Streams Inventory and the Applications Inventory

Value Streams Inventory and Attributes

Chapter 31. Understand the relationship between the Value Streams Inventory and the Applications Inventory

Authored and Published By: The International Foundation for Information Technology (IF4IT), LLC

Executive Summary: Chapter Overview

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The Bottom Line

This chapter explains how Applications support Value Stream stages and how that relationship is often derived through Capabilities. The Applications Inventory remains authoritative for Application records, while the Value Streams Inventory uses Supporting Applications to reveal which systems underpin end-to-end value delivery and where application changes create flow impact.

Core Concepts

ConceptDefinition & Strategic Role
Supporting ApplicationsApplications that support the stages of a value stream, often derived through Capability relationships.
Application ImpactMapping applications to value streams reveals which stakeholder outcomes are affected by application outages, degradation, or replacement.
Portfolio ContextApplication portfolio decisions gain business meaning when tied to the value streams they enable.

Quick Q&A

Question: How does the Value Streams Inventory improve application portfolio analysis?

Answer: It connects applications to the end-to-end flows of value they support. This allows application decisions, outages, rationalization efforts, and modernization plans to be evaluated in terms of their effect on stakeholder outcomes rather than only system-level characteristics.

Read More Below

Applications support the stages of a value stream. The Applications Inventory and Attributes is authoritative for Application records. In the Value Streams Inventory, the Supporting Applications relationship attribute is generally derived: it is computed through the Capabilities a value stream draws upon and the applications that, in the Applications Inventory, are recorded as supporting those Capabilities.

This derived relationship lets an enterprise see which applications underpin which end-to-end flows of value — and therefore which value streams are exposed when an application is unavailable, degraded, or scheduled for replacement. It connects application portfolio decisions to the value delivery they affect.

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