Value Stream

What it is

A Value Stream in [[entities/it4it]] v3 is one of seven cross-cutting flows that operate on the Digital Product Backbone:

1. Evaluate — strategy, portfolio fit, investment justification.
2. Explore — design, options, architecture, build-vs-buy.
3. Integrate — engineering, composition, build.
4. Deploy — release engineering, packaging, environment promotion.
5. Release — orchestration into production.
6. Operate — run, monitor, incident, change.
7. Consume — request, fulfilment, customer-facing experience.

Each value stream owns a distinct contract with the [[entities/digital-product]]. ITIL plugs into Operate. DevOps plugs into Integrate / Deploy / Release. TOGAF plugs into Explore. COBIT threads through all seven.

How DPF uses it

DPF's lifecycle and routing surfaces are organised around the seven value streams. Portfolio pages categorise products by value-stream coverage. Agent coworkers tag their work by value stream so the platform can report on activity by flow.

The platform uses the canonical slugs evaluate, explore, integrate, deploy, release, operate, consume everywhere a value stream appears.

Relationships

• Defined by: [[entities/it4it]].
• Operates on: [[entities/digital-product]].
• The seam for: ITIL (Operate), DevOps/SAFe (Integrate, Deploy, Release), TOGAF (Explore), COBIT (all).

Examples

A new analytics application proposal moves Evaluate → Explore → Integrate → Deploy → Release → Operate → Consume across its first eighteen months. The agent surfaces relevant tools, runbooks, and approvals depending on which value stream the work is currently in.

See also

• Stance: [[stances/it4it-is-substrate]]
• Entity: [[entities/it4it]]
• Raw source: [raw-sources/frameworks/it4it-v3](/founder-kernel/raw-sources/frameworks/it4it-v3/)