Gate 05 · Strategic Planning Architecture™
CASCADE — Value stream & function goals
Which value streams carry the element across the functions, and what must each function do inside them?
Pass criteria
- Every element cascades to at least one value stream goal that crosses two or more functions.
- Every value stream goal has one accountable owner and a joint leading/lagging pair the crossing functions share.
- Every function goal states the value stream it serves, with one owner and its own leading/lagging pair.
- No orphan goals: a goal without a parent element or stream is removed or promoted.
Evidence required
- The cascade tree from element to value stream to function goal.
- The named crossing point — the hand-off between functions where the stream actually fails.
- The alignment audit, clean of orphans, unowned goals, single-function streams and missing measures.
Owner: Value stream owners with functional leaders
The tell
The plan cascades straight down the functional hierarchy, so each department optimizes its own column and the hand-offs between them are nobody's number.
The counter
The audit flags every element with no value stream, every stream that touches only one function, and every function goal that serves no stream; the review does not close until the list is empty.
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