The preceding chapters define the parts: the Taxonomy that names the information space, the CMM that measures whether the organisation can carry the method, the ADM wheel that governs a project, and the BPT loop the organisation runs on.

This chapter is what a DBJ Method adopting organisation actually does.

IMPORTANT
Core premise: You do not need to be EA to think architecturally. The DBJ Method uses a simplified form of Enterprise Architecture as a shared discipline (not an IT department) that every domain (Business, Products, Technology) practises together.

Conceptual, not a system

The DBJ Method is located in the info-space at the Conceptual Category of the Taxonomy. It names the domains, the roles accountable in each, the decisions they own and the loop they run. It specifies no tool, no schema, no workflow engine and no board.

That is deliberate. A project management system belongs to the lower levels of abstraction; the adopting organisation is free to design/build one, buy one, or keep what it already runs. The DBJ Method states what such a system has to carry — who decides, what is recorded, where an exception goes — and leaves the rest to the customer.

Read this chapter as the operating model description, not as a product specification.

Principles

The DBJ Method is product centric. A product is whatever the Products Domain declares and develops: a software product, but equally a method, a model, a service or a standard. Adoption commits the organisation to four things. Enterprise Architect role is the overarching authority and “method advisor”.

  1. Architecture is everyone’s contribution

Every domain is responsible for understanding how its decisions affect the whole system.

  1. Maturity over complexity

Climb the DBJ CMM ladder progressively. Each level must be stable before the next begins.

  1. Cycle, don’t waterfall

The B ↔ P ↔ T loop replaces linear product delivery with iterative, domain-aware execution, guiding the whole organization navigating in and around the three domains: Business, Products, Technology.

  1. Write the why down

Decisions outlive the people who made them. A Business Decision Record preserves the reasoning, so that a BPT Exception months later can find its true origin instead of stopping at a decision nobody can explain.

In this chapter