Work Stream
A chain of linked Work Cards carrying one branch of the Work Breakdown Structure toward its milestones: the breakdown says what the work is, the links say in what order.
A Work Stream is the working form of one branch of Work Breakdown Structure within Integrated Delivery. The breakdown gives it its shape: every piece of scope sits in exactly one branch, so each stream carries its own work and nobody else's. Every activity in it has its Work Card, no card larger than fifty hours, and the Predecessor / Successor links give the stream its order, so it can be read forward (when can this start?) and backward (how late may this be?). Where one stream hands work to another, the handoff is a link between the two, and it carries its Conditions of satisfaction.
It is load-bearing because it is the unit a person or a Cell actually carries, and the unit by which separate efforts become one delivery. One folder, one person or one Cell may hold several streams at once; knowing which stream a piece of work belongs to is how it is found, sorted and handed on. Linked across Cells, streams are how Networks of Commitments join many plans into one plan without anyone owning all of it — the Whole optimized rather than the pieces. A stream lies between the Work Cards that make it up and the breakdown that informs it, and it nests into The plan of the whole (The System Wide Master Planning Group and Process). Seen whole, a stream is a value stream: where waiting and rework show (Value Stream Mapping), and where the streams that feed the Critical Path can be known and protected.
It is also where the orienting questions get their working answer. Where am I? is read from the cards: their state, what each waits on and what waits on it. What is mine to do next? is the constraint-free card with the least Float — one next step, not a list. The same questions are asked at every scale: the day on The TEA Card, the stream on its cards, the Quest on the streams feeding its critical path, the whole in The plan of the whole (Orientation and Onboarding Process · Observe · Orient · Decide · Act · Learn).
A notebook holds a stream as well as a script does: a heading from the breakdown, the cards beneath it in order, each with what comes before and after it.
Also called: a stream of work · workstream · project (in other kits, where that word collides) Stands on: Integrated Delivery · Work Breakdown Structure · Work Card · Predecessor / Successor Opens onto: The activity table · Critical Path · Float · Milestone · Networks of Commitments · Value Stream Mapping In play: table · beyond Sources: the nameless one, 2026-09-24 ("WorkStreams are informed by the Work Breakdown Structure"; "Every activity should have a WorkCard"; "No work card greater than 5 days of 10 hr / day work") · Christopher Allen's work streams, several to a folder, same day — lionsberg.wiki page name: Work Stream Open: none found.