5.4.1. Value Chain and Operating Model
💡 First Principle: The value chain names the operating-model activities through which an organization creates value — it's the organization-level cousin of the product lifecycle, and its purpose is to give a flexible operating model that adapts to different demands.
The value chain is the set of interconnected activities an organization performs to deliver a valuable product or service to its consumers and to facilitate value realization. An operating model is the conceptual representation of how an organization runs to create and deliver value — how its resources, activities, and value chain fit together. The value chain activities support the organization's operating model, and different paths through the value chain ("value streams," covered in Phase 6) handle different kinds of demand.
Explaining the connection: an organization's purpose and operating model are supported by value chain activities and the management practices that carry them out. The value chain is deliberately flexible — the same activities recombine into different value streams for different scenarios.
⚠️ Exam Trap: The value chain (organization-level operating activities) is distinct from the product and service lifecycle (the activities a product moves through). They're cousins, not the same model. Don't merge "discover/design/.../support" (lifecycle) with the value chain's operating activities.
Reflection Question: Why does ITIL make the value chain flexible — recombinable into different value streams — rather than a single fixed sequence?
