Value stream

The end-to-end sequence of value-adding stages that produces an outcome for a stakeholder. It is defined from the perspective of the recipient of value, not the internal cost of producing it, and differs from a process in that it does not describe how the work is executed.

It differs from a process by point of view. A value stream is defined from the recipient of the outcome and crosses whichever departments it must; a process describes how each stretch is executed. Confusing the two produces the classic error of optimising a department and worsening end-to-end time.