How does value flow from PRD priority to shipped outcome — and where does time die?
Trigger
From Outcome Map: pipeline has prioritised work, an engineering agent needs to start a session and ship. Currently agents spend 5-10 minutes re-exploring what happened before doing any work.
VALUE STREAM MAP: AGENT SESSION LIFECYCLE
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
[PRIORITY TABLE UPDATED]
│
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 1. DISPATCH │ C/T: 2min Wait: 0-∞ %C&A: 30%
│ Human reads table, │ (Manual: read table, open terminal,
│ opens terminal, │ decide which team, which agent)
│ starts session │
└──────────┬──────────┘
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ (wait: hours-days, human availability)
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 2. CONTEXT RECOVERY │ C/T: 5-10min Wait: 0 %C&A: 40%
│ Agent reads codebase,│ (Re-explore: what was built, what's left,
│ past sessions, PRD │ where did we leave off, what failed)
└──────────┬──────────┘
│ ░░░ (wait: seconds, loading)
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 3. PLAN CREATION │ C/T: 10min Wait: 5min %C&A: 60%
│ Compose plan from │ (Template selection, task decomposition,
│ template + PRD │ estimation — often wrong template chosen)
└──────────┬──────────┘
│ ░░░░░ (wait: human review of plan)
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 4. EXECUTION │ C/T: 60-120min Wait: 15min %C&A: 70%
│ Agent builds, │ (Code, test, iterate. Blocked by missing
│ tests, iterates │ context from other teams — archaeology)
└──────────┬────── ────┘
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ (wait: blocked on other teams, no signal)
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 5. STATUS REPORT │ C/T: 5min Wait: 0 %C&A: 50%
│ Agent reports what │ (Often incomplete: "done" without evidence,
│ was built │ no commissioning link, no measurement)
└──────────┬──────────┘
│ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ (wait: human reads, verifies)
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ 6. COMMISSIONING │ C/T: 15min Wait: 1-3 days %C&A: 30%
│ Dream team verifies │ (Manual: navigate deployed URL, walk PRD
│ against PRD │ table, compare expectation vs reality)
└──────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
[OUTCOME: Feature shipped and verified]
TIMELINE SUMMARY
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Step C/T Wait %C&A (est.)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1. Dispatch 2min 4-48hrs 30%
2. Recovery 7.5min 0 40%
3. Plan 10min 5min 60%
4. Execution 90min 15min 70%
5. Status 5min 0 50%
6. Commission 15min 1-3 days 30%
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
TOTAL C/T: ~130min (2.2 hours of actual work)
TOTAL WAIT: ~1-4 days
LEAD TIME: 1-4 days per feature cycle
FLOW EFFICIENCY: 130min / (130min + ~2880min avg wait) = ~4.3%
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Note: %C&A values are estimates based on observed sessions. Phase 1 (drmg vvfl audit --dry-run) will establish baselines.
Flow Efficiency
Current: ~4.3% (130 minutes of work in ~2880 minutes of lead time)
Target: above 15% (outcome map O3: 2x cycle time improvement requires eliminating wait between steps)
World-class: above 40%. We are at "worse than typical" (typical = 5-15%).
Bottlenecks (Ranked)
| Rank | Bottleneck | Wait Time | Root Cause | Outcome Map Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Dispatch → Recovery | 4-48 hours | Human availability gates every session start | Blocks O1, O3 |
| #2 | Context recovery | 5-10 min per session | No memory persistence — agent re-explores from zero | Blocks O1, F1 |
| #3 | Status → Commissioning | 1-3 days | Builder validates own work, dream team manual | Blocks O3, O4 |
| #4 | Execution blocks | 15 min avg | No block signalling — team waits silently | Blocks O2, F2 |
| #5 | Plan quality | 5 min rework | Wrong template, no PRD-to-template mapping | Blocks O3 |
Waste (Toyota Categories)
| Waste | Where | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting | Dispatch queue, commissioning queue | Critical — 95%+ of lead time |
| Rework | Context recovery (redo what was known last session) | High — 5-10 min per session |
| Motion | 3 separate CLI entry points, context switching | Medium |
| Transport | Code-merge communication between teams | Medium — archaeology, not messages |
| Over-processing | Manual commissioning (navigate, screenshot, compare) | Medium |
| Inventory | Unverified features pile up between commissioning | Low-Medium |
5 of 7 wastes present. Waiting dominates.
Improvement Targets
| Bottleneck | Platform Feature | Target Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| #1 Dispatch | Priority dispatch (Concern 3, Feature 14) | Automated: table update → message in under 2min |
| #2 Recovery | Session bootstrap (Concern 1, Feature 3) | Under 30s (from 5-10min) — loads memory + messages |
| #3 Commissioning | Commissioning dispatch (Concern 3, Feature 19) | Agent walks deployed URL, captures evidence |
| #4 Block signal | Block signalling (Concern 2, Feature 11) | Under 2min broadcast, help arrives faster |
| #5 Plan quality | PRD→template mapping (Concern 3, Feature 15) | Correct template auto-selected from PRD metadata |
Gate
Before moving to Dependency Map:
- All 6 steps documented with cycle time — YES (2, 7.5, 10, 90, 5, 15 minutes)
- Wait time measured between steps — YES (0-48hrs, 0, 5min, 15min, 0, 1-3 days)
- Flow efficiency calculated — YES (4.3% current, above 15% target)
- Bottlenecks identified and ranked — YES (5 bottlenecks by wait impact)
- Waste types categorized — YES (5 of 7 Toyota wastes mapped)
- Improvement opportunities prioritized — YES (5 improvements linked to platform features)
- %C&A flagged as estimates — YES (note present, baseline measurement planned)
Context
- Outcome Map — Previous: success measures this stream must improve
- Dependency Map — Next: what blocks fixing these bottlenecks?
- Value Stream Template — The empty pattern
- Agent Platform PRD — Full depth