What is downstream?

Refers to the activities from the receipt of a request to the completion of the service for a customer in Agile and Lean philosophies.

In contrast, upstream involves everything that happens before the actual execution, such as product discovery or backlog definition.

Uses the concept of downstream to manage workflow, with a focus on visualizing and optimizing the entire process.

Some metrics used to observe the efficiency of upstream are Lead Time and Cycle Time.

Although not explicitly named, Scrum also implies upstream activities through the management of the Product Backlog by the Product Owner.