A Value Stream is a long-lived series of steps that provide a continuous flow of value to the customer whereas an Agile Release Train (ART) is a long-lived team of teams that is organized around a Value Stream. A Value Stream can have many ARTs within it. SAFe value streams are used to DEFINE and gather Portfolio-level business GOALS and establish Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to deliver value more quickly. Forming around value offers SIGNIFICANT benefits to the organization, including faster learning, shorter time-to-market, higher quality and higher productivity.

For example, if there is a feature request from the customer which triggers the flow of value. It finishes when some value has been delivered—a shipment, customer purchase, or solution deployment. The phases during the execution are the activities the ENTERPRISE uses to accomplish it. A value stream contains the people who actually work, the systems they develop or operate, and the flow of information and materials. The time from the trigger to the value delivery is the lead time. Minimizing the lead time reduces the time-to-market.