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Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

A Strategic Guide for Grasping Current State and Accelerating Mission Impact

What is Value Stream Mapping?

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a Lean tool used to visualize the flow of work, materials, and information needed to deliver value to a customer—from request to delivery. In software delivery, this means mapping everything from a user need to production deployment.

At Rise8, we use VSM in relation to Theories of Constraints to draw focus to identifying and removing constraints that limit throughput, and thus increasing manufacturing capacity. By revealing how value flows through our system, highlighting inefficiencies, and aligning teams around transformation priorities we create imbalances to maximize throughput at the constraint.

  • Every system has a constraint: This is the factor that most restricts the system's output.
  • Constraints set the pace: Draw focus to the constraint until it is no longer the constraint
  • Improving the constraint improves the system: Focusing efforts on the constraint yields the most significant performance enhancements.
  • Continuous improvement: Once a constraint is resolved, another will emerge, necessitating ongoing attention and refinement.

Why is it Valuable?

  • Exposes waste: Bottlenecks, delays, overprocessing, unused talent, excessive handoffs.
  • Aligns stakeholders: Shared visibility across silos.
  • Guides improvement: Enables smarter goal-setting and change management.
  • Builds systems thinking: Understand interdependencies and optimize holistically.
  • Drives mission impact: Every step in the stream must contribute to real-world outcomes.

"VSM gives us the lens to diagnose noise in delivery and rewire teams for continuous value flow."

Three Value Streams to Remember

Regardless of your role at Rise8, it's important to understand the three Value Streams that we influence, and their differences:

  1. Customer Mission: Represents personnel, capabilities and outcomes in production that impact real mission operations (e.g. running Air Operations Center missions such as Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaisssance)
  2. IT Delivery: Enables the delivery of mission capabilities, measured up through deployment into a production environment (e.g. enabling continuous delivery).
  3. Rise8 Delivery Service: How we partner with customers to bridge the gap between output and impact by identifying opportunities for deploying elite software development for mission critical outcomes in production (e.g. deliver cloud & platform, apps & digital products as well as cybersecurity & RMF).

Vakye Strans

Where VSM Fits in Our Continuous Improvement Framework

Value Stream Mapping is the starting point for understanding the current condition within the Improvement Kata framework:

  1. Understand the direction or challenge
    What mission impact are we trying to enable?
  2. Grasp the current condition
    Use VSM to visualize the actual flow of value.
  3. Establish the next target condition
    Set SMART goals based on constraints or opportunities identified.
  4. Experiment your way forward
    Use this insight to conduct safe-to-fail experiments.

If you don’t know what value you're trying to achieve, how value is flowing, or what’s constraining it—start with a VSM.

Order of Context Modeling Tools is Intentional

Vakye Strans

  • VSM defines the what and why (business events, mission impact, and flow).
  • Domain Modeling (Event Storming, Boris, Swift Method) defines the how (bounded contexts, actors, and system behavior).
  • Service Blueprint defines the who and where (front-stage/back-stage roles and tools).

Without a Value Stream Map, the rest is fiction.

How to Facilitate a Value Stream Mapping Exercise

Pre-Work Checklist

Item Why It’s Needed
Clear mission objective Guides what to optimize
Cross-functional participants Ensures holistic view
Physical or virtual wall space Allows collaborative mapping
Sticky notes or Miro board Visual collaboration
Facilitation plan Keeps session on track
Stopwatch or timer Time measurements if needed

Value Stream Mapping Supplemental Materials from Karen Martin & Mike Osterling.

Key Components to Map

Component Description
Trigger What kicks off the process? (e.g. customer request)
Steps All discrete activities in value delivery
Actors Who performs each step?
Tools Systems or artifacts used
Time Duration, wait time, cycle time
Handoffs Between people, systems, departments
Pain Points Bottlenecks, delays, rework, rejections

Facilitation Tips

  1. Apply a “Go See and Find Out” mentality – Encourage participants to describe what really happens, not what should happen.
  2. Timebox mapping per stream – e.g., conduct iterations of 60–90 minutes for mapping, 30 minutes for analysis, until you have enough clarity to make measurable decisions.
  3. Ask probing questions - What mission impact are we trying to enable? What causes delays here? Where do handoffs break down? Where do you wait on feedback? Where do we often repeat steps/work?
  4. Avoid mapping wishful thinking – It’s about the current state, not the ideal (this is more of a focus for Service Blueprint artifacts).

What to Avoid

  • Mapping systems or roles instead of flows
  • Rushing straight to solutions
  • Over-scoping the stream (keep it narrow and meaningful)
  • Failing to include voices from the edges (e.g., QA, Ops, Compliance)

Facilitation Script & Prescriptive Steps for Building a VSM

Use the following script and facilitation steps to confidently lead a Value Stream Mapping session. This structured approach ensures the session yields a high-quality map and actionable insights.

Before the Session

  1. Define the scope and objective
    "We’re here to understand how value flows today—so we can unblock it and drive greater mission impact."

  2. Identify the right participants
    Include frontline workers, key process owners, system leads, and stakeholders.

  3. Prepare the collaboration space
    Whether virtual or physical, have clear lanes for steps, time, pain points, actors, and tools.

  4. Send pre-read materials
    Share what a VSM is, why it matters, and the session goals.

During the Session

Opening Script (5 mins)

"Thanks for joining. Today we’re mapping our value stream to uncover where work gets stuck, who’s involved, and how it flows—or doesn’t flow—across systems and teams. This helps us deliver outcomes faster and with less pain. Our focus is on the current state, not what we wish it looked like."

Step-by-Step Facilitation

  1. Establish the mission outcome - "What’s the core mission this stream supports?" (e.g., “Deliver approved benefits to Veterans”)
  2. Identify the triggering event - "What starts the process?" (e.g., “Veteran submits claim”)
  3. Map major process steps - Use stickies or virtual cards, and ask, “What happens next?” after each step
  4. Add actors to each step - "Who does this work?"
  5. Identify tools/systems used - "What tools support this step?"
  6. Estimate durations and wait times - "How long does this take?" "How long does it wait?"
  7. Mark handoffs and dependencies - Use arrows to denote transitions or approvals.
  8. Capture pain points - "Where do things break down?" "What causes delay or rework?"
  9. Highlight visible and invisible work - Surface shadow systems, workaround steps, manual interventions.
  10. Review the full map - "What surprises you?" "Where do we lose the most time or value?"

After the Session

  1. Document and digitize the map - Use Miro, Lucidchart, or Mural to clean up and archive.
  2. Synthesize insights - Highlight biggest bottlenecks, gaps, or silos.
  3. Debrief with participants - Share early takeaways and thank them for candor.
  4. Link to Improvement Kata - Define the next target condition using the VSM output.
  5. Decide next play - DDD? Service Blueprint? Outcome-Oriented Roadmap?

“The goal isn’t just the map—it’s momentum. Use your VSM to drive the next best improvement toward better mission outcomes.”

What Comes After a VSM?

Now that you have a Value Stream Map, it’s time to act on it:

Play Recommendations

Next Play's to Consider Why It Follows VSM
Improvement Kata Confirm current and target conditions & prioritize changes to test how you could unblock value
Domain Modeling (Event Storming, Boris, Swift Method) Model the supporting systems and bounded contexts
Service Blueprint Define user experience & operational architecture
Impact Mapping Clarify initiative scope by tying improvements to outcomes in prod with measurable user/system behavior changes & mission impact
Outcome-Oriented Roadmap Communicate and align your team and stakeholders to what gets worked now, next and later to address our value stream current conditions

Final Thought

“Until you make the invisible visible, you cannot improve it.”
— W. Edwards Deming

Value Stream Mapping isn’t just a workshop—it’s a lens. Use it to decode your current state, align your team, and unlock the flow of mission impact.