value stream mapping

A lean-management method for visually analyzing the current state to deeply understand how work gets done and designing an improved future state for a long-lived sequence of steps used to deliver tangible value to a customer. Most value streams are highly cross-functional, typically flowing through many functional departments or work teams within the organization (e.g., from product ideation in the business group, through development in the IT or dev group, with activities performed by the legal group and compliance group).