Content Principles

This section contains principles covering some key content principles – the topics we believe must be the foundation of any digital standard.

Name	Digital First
Statement	Digital standards assume a “digital-first” business model.
Rationale	Digital standards have delivery of value to the customer through digital means as their primary business driver. Therefore, the ability to deliver value through technology must be an organic part of lines of business.
Implications	Digital standards contain a statement of how they will enable delivery of value to the marketplace through a combination of business and technology processes; this may include principles of Product-Centricity and Lean Value Stream, as described in the O-AAF Draft Standard (see Referenced Documents) Digital standards and guidance eliminate or minimize boundaries between lines of business and IT Internal service management or capability development are secondary to digital value delivery in digital standards – they are the means to an end; not ends in themselves (Source: Digitization is not Digital, MIT Sloan, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/dont-confuse-digital-with-digitization/)

Name

Digital First

Statement

Digital standards assume a “digital-first” business model.

Rationale

Digital standards have delivery of value to the customer through digital means as their primary business driver. Therefore, the ability to deliver value through technology must be an organic part of lines of business.

Implications

Digital standards contain a statement of how they will enable delivery of value to the marketplace through a combination of business and technology processes; this may include principles of Product-Centricity and Lean Value Stream, as described in the O-AAF Draft Standard (see Referenced Documents)
Digital standards and guidance eliminate or minimize boundaries between lines of business and IT
Internal service management or capability development are secondary to digital value delivery in digital standards – they are the means to an end; not ends in themselves

(Source: Digitization is not Digital, MIT Sloan, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/dont-confuse-digital-with-digitization/)

Name	Continuous Delivery of Value and Evolution of Digital Operations
Statement	Digital standards must guide enterprises to adopt techniques to continuously explore, refine, and deliver value to their users (employees, partners, and customers) to control risk exposure.
Rationale	Experiences for users within the construct of “home/personal” and “work” is converging more than ever. Barriers to adopting complex computational technologies are falling with time. Development of innovative and unique products and services is core to enterprise growth. Enterprises must be encouraged to be flexible to deliver value at the pace of evolution of user expectations or pivot their business and operating models to minimize risks, impacting their ability to retain internal talent, partners, or customers. A digital enterprise will have a product mindset, and make frequent releases to be responsive to the market.
Implications	Digital standards explicitly direct organizations to adopt techniques and technologies that enable continuous and incremental delivery of value and minimize risks (see Assumption of Agile) Digital standards explicitly encourage adoption of a digital product lifecycle

Name

Continuous Delivery of Value and Evolution of Digital Operations

Statement

Digital standards must guide enterprises to adopt techniques to continuously explore, refine, and deliver value to their users (employees, partners, and customers) to control risk exposure.

Rationale

Experiences for users within the construct of “home/personal” and “work” is converging more than ever. Barriers to adopting complex computational technologies are falling with time.

Development of innovative and unique products and services is core to enterprise growth. Enterprises must be encouraged to be flexible to deliver value at the pace of evolution of user expectations or pivot their business and operating models to minimize risks, impacting their ability to retain internal talent, partners, or customers. A digital enterprise will have a product mindset, and make frequent releases to be responsive to the market.

Implications

Digital standards explicitly direct organizations to adopt techniques and technologies that enable continuous and incremental delivery of value and minimize risks (see Assumption of Agile)
Digital standards explicitly encourage adoption of a digital product lifecycle

Name	Assumption of Agile
Statement	Digital standards use an Agile product management approach. Agile product management uses various methods such as Design Thinking or Lean Startup to discover and validate both told and untold customer needs. These methods follow a “learning cycle” approach that uses prototyping and experimentation to verify and validate learnings.
Rationale	In an Agile product management approach every iteration helps the enterprise learn in one or more dimensions while limiting the risk resulting from large iterations. (Source: The DPBoK Standard, Origins and Practices of Agile Development)
Implications	Digital standards use learning cycles as their primary method of discovering and validating customer requirements, and minimize up-front and reductionist requirements analysis Every Agile product management cycle should help the enterprise learn in one or more dimensions; for example: Discover and validate customer needs Better define the product Improve the product-market fit Estimate production costs Formulate a pricing strategy Digital standards explicitly direct organizations to adopt Agile methodologies Digital standards explicitly describe how the content of the standard or guide can be implemented and leveraged by an organization through use of Agile methodologies; in particular, for example, iteration or parallel development paths By controlling the risk of any single increment of market value, an Agile product management approach improves the competitiveness of an enterprise This flexibility is a key business enabler for a project-to-product shift towards delivery of market value through digital means. (Source: The O-AAF Draft Standard, Chapter 3: A Dual Transformation) Where relevant, standards should adopt a Product Management methodology based on Lean or Agile product management bodies of knowledge

Name

Assumption of Agile

Statement

Digital standards use an Agile product management approach. Agile product management uses various methods such as Design Thinking or Lean Startup to discover and validate both told and untold customer needs. These methods follow a “learning cycle” approach that uses prototyping and experimentation to verify and validate learnings.

Rationale

In an Agile product management approach every iteration helps the enterprise learn in one or more dimensions while limiting the risk resulting from large iterations. (Source: The DPBoK Standard, Origins and Practices of Agile Development)

Implications

Digital standards use learning cycles as their primary method of discovering and validating customer requirements, and minimize up-front and reductionist requirements analysis
Every Agile product management cycle should help the enterprise learn in one or more dimensions; for example:
- Discover and validate customer needs
- Better define the product
- Improve the product-market fit
- Estimate production costs
- Formulate a pricing strategy
Digital standards explicitly direct organizations to adopt Agile methodologies
Digital standards explicitly describe how the content of the standard or guide can be implemented and leveraged by an organization through use of Agile methodologies; in particular, for example, iteration or parallel development paths
By controlling the risk of any single increment of market value, an Agile product management approach improves the competitiveness of an enterprise

This flexibility is a key business enabler for a project-to-product shift towards delivery of market value through digital means. (Source: The O-AAF Draft Standard, Chapter 3: A Dual Transformation)
Where relevant, standards should adopt a Product Management methodology based on Lean or Agile product management bodies of knowledge

Name	Assumption of Lean
Statement	Digital standards adopt a Lean Product Development and product management approach. They employ a “minimum viable” approach to requirements management and governance.
Rationale	Development of innovative and unique products and services is core to enterprise growth. (Source: The DPBoK Standard, Lean Product Development) An essential value of agility results from the ability to explore market options and reactions through iteration. Therefore, only resources essential to an iteration should be used in planning, deployment, and sustainment at any given time.
Implications	Digital standards minimize reductionist or stage-gated product management approaches in favor of improvement cycles that validate learnings using prototyping and experimentation; e.g., Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Digital standards explicitly support a Lean Product Development approach Digital standards explicitly incorporate an Adaptive Operating Model, as described in the O-AA™ Draft Standard (see Referenced Documents)

Name

Assumption of Lean

Statement

Digital standards adopt a Lean Product Development and product management approach. They employ a “minimum viable” approach to requirements management and governance.

Rationale

Development of innovative and unique products and services is core to enterprise growth. (Source: The DPBoK Standard, Lean Product Development) An essential value of agility results from the ability to explore market options and reactions through iteration. Therefore, only resources essential to an iteration should be used in planning, deployment, and sustainment at any given time.

Implications

Digital standards minimize reductionist or stage-gated product management approaches in favor of improvement cycles that validate learnings using prototyping and experimentation; e.g., Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Digital standards explicitly support a Lean Product Development approach
Digital standards explicitly incorporate an Adaptive Operating Model, as described in the O-AA™ Draft Standard (see Referenced Documents)

Name	Assumption of Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD)
Statement	Digital standards employ techniques that shorten the cycle of learning and delivery of value to customers.
Rationale	Adopting the principles of Assumption of Agile and Lean requires frequent and fast learning cycles. By dramatically reducing the lead time of product experimentation and development, Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) accelerate learning cycles and shorten time-to-market.
Implications	Digital standards should assume continuous delivery as a practice Digital enterprises should implement a digital product lifecycle

Name

Assumption of Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD)

Statement

Digital standards employ techniques that shorten the cycle of learning and delivery of value to customers.

Rationale

Adopting the principles of Assumption of Agile and Lean requires frequent and fast learning cycles. By dramatically reducing the lead time of product experimentation and development, Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) accelerate learning cycles and shorten time-to-market.

Implications

Digital standards should assume continuous delivery as a practice
Digital enterprises should implement a digital product lifecycle

Name	Emergence Model
Statement	Digital standards guide enterprises as they grow in complexity.
Rationale	As the TOGAF definition of “enterprise” includes organizations of all sizes, our standards need to be usable at all enterprise scales, not just large organizations. The embodiment of Lean principles further dictates that standards must not introduce complexity beyond that which is needed at the current scale of the enterprise. Digital standards must provide explicit guidance tailored to the different stages of organizational growth and complexity, and help prepare organizations to navigate transitions between stages.
Implications	Digital standards should provide reference to an explicit emergence model, ideally adopting the DPBoK emergence model; scale-free is insufficient Digital standards should provide material that helps users prepare for future stages of growth where relevant; this can be in the body of the standard or in guides

Name

Emergence Model

Statement

Digital standards guide enterprises as they grow in complexity.

Rationale

As the TOGAF definition of “enterprise” includes organizations of all sizes, our standards need to be usable at all enterprise scales, not just large organizations. The embodiment of Lean principles further dictates that standards must not introduce complexity beyond that which is needed at the current scale of the enterprise. Digital standards must provide explicit guidance tailored to the different stages of organizational growth and complexity, and help prepare organizations to navigate transitions between stages.

Implications

Digital standards should provide reference to an explicit emergence model, ideally adopting the DPBoK emergence model; scale-free is insufficient
Digital standards should provide material that helps users prepare for future stages of growth where relevant; this can be in the body of the standard or in guides

Name	Reverse Scaling
Statement	Digital standards guide enterprises and practitioners on how to navigate scaling boundaries in both directions.
Rationale	Enterprises are not static, and navigating changes in size and structure is a major management challenge. This challenge occurs in both directions; enterprises that are growing (see the Emergence Model principle above), but also organizations that are faced with restructuring as a result of re-orientation towards digital value delivery.
Implications	Digital standards should provide material that guides users to prepare for restructuring where relevant, especially into Agile product management teams; this can be in the body of the standard or in guides Additional guidance for the executive level may be needed to build an understanding of why restructuring is needed

Name

Reverse Scaling

Statement

Digital standards guide enterprises and practitioners on how to navigate scaling boundaries in both directions.

Rationale

Enterprises are not static, and navigating changes in size and structure is a major management challenge. This challenge occurs in both directions; enterprises that are growing (see the Emergence Model principle above), but also organizations that are faced with restructuring as a result of re-orientation towards digital value delivery.

Implications

Digital standards should provide material that guides users to prepare for restructuring where relevant, especially into Agile product management teams; this can be in the body of the standard or in guides
Additional guidance for the executive level may be needed to build an understanding of why restructuring is needed

Name	Serve the Practitioner
Statement	Digital standards tune in and respond to the needs and feedback of the practitioner.
Rationale	An outside-in perspective should drive the activity and prioritization of standards development.
Implications	Digital standards should consider (and respond to) the identified gaps, opportunities, and feedback identified by various communities (e.g., product managers, Enterprise Architects, etc.) as part of their roadmaps and efforts Digital standards are likely to leverage open contributions and a modern digital tool chain for content development and delivery

Name

Serve the Practitioner

Statement

Digital standards tune in and respond to the needs and feedback of the practitioner.

Rationale

An outside-in perspective should drive the activity and prioritization of standards development.

Implications

Digital standards should consider (and respond to) the identified gaps, opportunities, and feedback identified by various communities (e.g., product managers, Enterprise Architects, etc.) as part of their roadmaps and efforts
Digital standards are likely to leverage open contributions and a modern digital tool chain for content development and delivery