Interactive
Value Chain Explorer
The 8 value chain activities are always the same — but every service uses a different path through them. Select a real-world scenario to see which activities light up and exactly why each one is needed.
A series of steps an organisation uses to create and deliver products and services to a service consumer — a specific path through the value chain.
All 8 activities are always available. Each value stream selects only the activities it needs. A simple service request uses 3; a new service deployment uses 6.
Identify the goal: restoring something = incident/support stream (short). Building something new = deployment stream (long). Routine pre-approved = service request (shortest).
ITIL v5 adds AI monitoring as a primary Operate activity. AI-powered features also appear in Design (ethics/governance) and Support (automated triage).
Value chain vs value stream: the distinction the exam tests
The value chain is the complete set of eight activities an organisation can use to create value: Discover, Design, Acquire, Build, Transition, Operate, Deliver and Support. In ITIL v5 these are the activities of the Product and Service Lifecycle, covered in depth in the lifecycle guide. Think of the chain as a toolbox: every activity is always available, but no single piece of work needs all of them.
A value stream is one specific path through those activities, triggered by a particular demand and ending in a particular outcome for a consumer. Resolving an incident, onboarding a new employee and launching a new service are three different value streams that draw on the same chain.
| Value chain | Value stream | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The full set of 8 activities | One path through selected activities |
| How many | One, shared by the organisation | Many, one per type of demand |
| Defined by | The activities themselves | The trigger and the outcome it delivers |
Three rules that answer most value stream questions
- A stream uses only what it needs. Fulfilling a routine service request might touch just Discover, Deliver and Support. Deploying a new service uses almost the whole chain. If an option claims every stream must pass through all eight activities, it is wrong.
- Start from the trigger, end at the outcome. Ask what started the work (a failure, a request, a new business need) and what the consumer gets at the end. Then pick only the activities required to get from one to the other.
- The goal tells you the length. Restoring something is a short stream, centred on Operate and Support. Creating something new is a long stream that runs from Discover through Design, Build and Transition before it reaches Deliver.
A worked example: onboarding a new user
Here is the onboarding stream from the explorer, walked through the way an examiner thinks about it:
- Discover: establish the person's role, the systems they need and their start date.
- Acquire: obtain the laptop, licences and credentials.
- Deliver: hand everything over and complete the onboarding with the user.
- Support: handle the first-week access issues that always follow.
Notice what is missing. There is no Design, Build or Transition, because nothing new is being created, only existing products being provided to a new consumer. Exam questions often hide the answer in exactly this kind of omission.
Where value stream mapping fits
Value stream mapping is the technique of drawing a stream end to end so its delays, handoffs and wasted steps become visible. It connects directly to the guiding principles: focus on value (does each step add value for the consumer?), think and work holistically (see the whole flow, not one team's part) and optimise and automate (simplify first, then automate what remains). When a question describes a team analysing a workflow to remove bottlenecks, value stream mapping is usually the answer.
New in ITIL v5: AI features add continuous monitoring in Operate, for bias, accuracy drift and unexpected behaviour. Compare the "Launch an AI feature" scenario above with "Deploy a new service" to see the difference, and practise it with the AI (6C) capability model guide.