Value Streams Inventory and Attributes

In this version of the Value Streams Inventory, the stages of a value stream are captured as an ordered descriptive attribute — the Value Stream Stages attribute — and the Capabilities that enable a value stream are related to the value stream as a whole. For many enterprises this is sufficient. It records the structure of each value stream and the Capabilities each flow depends on, and it supports analysis of value delivery at the level of the whole value stream.

Some enterprises need finer resolution. They need to know which Capabilities enable which individual stage — so that they can perform pinpoint impact analysis when a single Capability degrades, diagnose precisely which stage of a flow is the bottleneck, or make investment decisions at the level of an individual stage. For these enterprises, the value stream’s stages are broken out into a separate inventory, in which each stage becomes a governed Noun Instance in its own right — with its own identifier, its own descriptive attributes, and Capabilities related directly to it.

When stages are governed in a separate inventory, the relationship between a value stream and its Capabilities does not disappear — it becomes more granular. Capabilities are related directly to individual stages, and the value-stream-level set of enabling Capabilities becomes a derived value, computed as the union of the Capabilities that enable each of the value stream’s stages. This is a deliberate trade-off. The stages-as-attribute approach in this document is simpler, faster to populate, and sufficient for whole-value-stream analysis. A dedicated stages inventory is more granular and supports finer per-stage analysis, at the cost of a second inventory to build and govern. Whether to make that move is a decision each enterprise makes according to its own analytical needs.

The IF4IT recognizes the Value Stream Stage as an anticipated Noun Type in the Enterprise Inventory Management taxonomy. Should it prove valuable to standardize the practice, the IF4IT may publish a companion Value Stream Stages Inventory and Attributes document. Until then, enterprises that choose to govern stages as first-class entities should do so following the general inventory governance principles in the IF4IT Enterprise Inventory Management Best Practices document.