The Architecture of a Strategy and the Process for Building one
An organization needs an explicit strategy. That approach must be built, using iteration and incrementalism. Yet, those techniques do not tell an institution how its game plan should look or how to construct its blueprint. Every scheme is different, and each one seemingly has different pieces. They do not have an obvious architecture, when examined individually. Yet, they possess one, when analyzed as a whole. The parts of a strategy fit into consistent categories, and they interact in predictable ways. The fundamental components of a plan are placed by an organization into a consistent structure, using an iterative and incremental method.
That arrangement is a hierarchical one in which each layer builds on those below it. For example, an institution holds domain knowledge, and it acquires data. Those aspects are information, which act as the foundation for a scheme’s framework. That scaffolding’s base is used to draw conclusions, which require clues. Experience, statistics, or some other evidence prompt them. An organization possesses that testimony, or it gathers that intelligence, but it rarely reaches decisions, without any input. Information forms the foundation on which judgements are built. Those inferences form the bedrock on which a company builds a model. That pattern is the conceptual root of a strategy. A blueprint’s intangible core is a theory, which requires conclusions. A business must hold certain beliefs to develop a thesis. That doctrine is systematized into a method, which is the scheme’s process. That procedure cannot be created without an idea about the plan’s solution space. The actual answer is an implementation of that system. A blueprint’s components form a hierarchical structure in which each layer builds on those below it.
A tier cannot be completed, without an organization finishing the levels below it. The architecture of those slabs suggests an institution must complete them sequentially. If conclusions require information, then a company should gather domain knowledge and data, before reaching verdicts. Those components might be constructed by a business iteratively and incrementally. However, it is not operating in a feedback loop or making small commitments, if it constructs a plan’s pieces in the order of their hierarchy. An organization is not adjusting to new insights, when it builds something in a serialized fashion. It could adapt, but it is not doing so by design. An institution could construct a scheme’s parts serially but form each one in increments. However, that company is not required to operate in that way. The method a strategy’s structure suggests is a sequential process that does not necessarily use iteration or incrementalism.
A single cycle could yield a finished approach, but it is unlikely to do so. A loop must adjust to observations from a plan’s deployment. Multiples cycles are needed to obtain the insight necessary to produce a completed product. For example, a draft board scheme might rank players, using a formula. That calculation is based on sound data and domain knowledge, yet it produces a list that recommends athletes who do not work out. The strategy’s arithmetic leads to undesirable results, which only become known, when an organization deploys and utilizes its approach. That institution needs to adjust its scheme to incorporate insights acquired from practical usage. Those observations are integrated into a blueprint, through iteration, which allows a company to deploy new knowledge. A company needs multiple cycles to acquire the wisdom needed to produce finalized strategies, in spite of their structure’s hierarchical nature.
A plan’s framework has components an organization is unlikely complete in a single pass. A draft board scheme might discover its ranking calculations lead to counterproductive results, when a company uses it. At a minimum, that business needs to adjust its deployment, and at a maximum, it must alter everything from its conclusions upward. The element manifesting the detrimental outcomes might not be their root. An aspect lower in the hierarchy could be the source. That cause must be corrected to fix the harmful consequences about which an organization is concerned. That institution has one or more parts requiring work. Those pieces demand at least another iteration. A company will likely need several cycles to complete a strategy’s component.
Finished pieces or an implementable approach do not need to be produced by each loop. For example, a pass could determine that a scheme uses a ranking algorithm but not decide how that formula looks. A plan could know that it uses an ordering calculation but not establish where in its process the equation is used. An iteration needs a stopping point, but it does not require an end with usable strategies and/or completed components. A cycle can build an aspect of an element or a piece of a scheme, and it does have to complete an approach or its parts.
A single ingredient could still be constructed across several passes, before an organization moves onto the next item in a plan’s hierarchy. However, an institution does not need to create a blueprint, in that way. A company does not need to focus on one piece of a strategy, during a cycle. For example, a business could work, in the same iteration, on models for its board, while it develops out processes for running a draft. That organization can even build out aspects of a thesis, while it constructs segments of a method. An institution is not required to focus on a single element, during a loop.
An iteration can tackle multiple ingredients from several pieces of a strategy. That approach and its parts require many passes to complete them. A business must adjust, after each loop, a scheme and its components, to new insights. Those observations help to crystalize the plan and the elements of its hierarchical structure. That design and the process for producing its deployable version are hardly all an organization must know to construct strategies working towards that institution’s goals. A company requires additional information to produce effective approaches. That knowledge will be parceled out across future articles.
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This article originally appeared in the Strategy Construction Journal hosted by ExperTech Insights.
