Enterprise Design is an approach that unites all stakeholders, disciplines and competence groups, with the EDGY notation serving as a common language that is easy to learn and understand. EDGY is simple, clear, colorful, and visually appealing.
Enterprise Design is well-suited for collaborative activities like co-design, co-creation, and collaboration. It can be utilized in various ways and for different needs. Enterprise Design is a valuable approach for businesses, the public sector, and non-profit organizations alike, as it offers a clear and versatile development model. It holistically aligns the organization and its business goals with the customer perspective and operational activities.
Enterprise Design is a holistic and people-centric approach.
Enterprise Design Facet Model
Enterprise Design approach is based on the Facet Model, which consists of three facets and their intersections.
These facets exist in all enterprises and all types of business. They are characteristics and qualities, that enterprises have by their nature, regardless of the size, whether they are intentionally designed or not. The facets represent the perspectives, the viewpoints, from which an enterprise can be observed.
The facets are:
- Identity – why do we and our enterprise exist, what motivates and drives us?
- Experience – what people need, feel and want to get done with our help?
- Architecture – how and with what we are running our enterprise?
The intersections are:
- Organisation – how are we organised?
- Brand – what is our reputation and image?
- Product – what do we make and offer for people’s benefit?
The facets are connected through intersections, forming a coherent whole that represents the business. The Facet Model scales to different levels of purpose. The same facets and their intersections exist in almost all large and small entities.
The sailboat represents the business entity being examined. The term “enterprise” can refer to an organisation or a part of an organisation, such as a business unit. It can also represent the ecosystem in which the organisation operates.
Enterprise Design is a holistic approach
The Facet Model supports a holistic examination. It helps in asking the right questions when designing and developing the overall entity.
Facets:
- The Identity facet helps in answering the “Why” questions.
- The Experience facet addresses the “What” questions.
- The Architecture facet provides answers to the “How” questions.
Intersections:
- The Products and Services intersection answers the question of what we do and offer.
- The Organization intersection addresses how we are organized.
- The Brand “manifests” our identity to people, answering questions about the perceptions we create and how we want to be seen and understood.
Enterprise Design and Perspective Switching
Enterprise Design involves the ability to switch perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of the business. By changing perspectives, we can examine different aspects of the enterprise, ensuring that all relevant elements are considered. This flexibility in perspective helps in aligning various components of the enterprise with its overall goals and strategy, ensuring a cohesive and effective design that addresses the needs of the business and its stakeholders.
Using the Enterprise Design Facet Model, we can examine the whole entity from different perspectives, considering all relevant aspects from the viewpoints of various stakeholder groups:
- Identity perspective: This perspective allows us to examine the business itself, its objectives, and service promises.
- Experience perspective: This helps us understand customer needs, customer journeys, and gain insights into customer understanding.
- Architecture perspective: This enables us to fulfill our promises to customers, achieve our goals, and implement changes in operational activities.
Additionally:
- Organisation intersection: We use this to design our organisational structures, consider renewal, collaboration, and cultural aspects.
- Product and Service intersection: This focuses our attention on what we offer and how we deliver it.
- Brand intersection: This involves considering how we communicate about ourselves, our activities, and our offerings.
The most useful approach is to examine all factors influencing the entity together, as everything impacts everything.
Switching perspectives allows us to view the whole from different lenses when addressing development challenges. This helps us consider all influencing factors, including those we might not have initially thought of.
The Enterprise Design Facet Model provides:
- An approach and ready-made model.
- Assistance in asking the right questions.
- Support for building a shared understanding.
The Enterprise Design Facet Model is a tool and means for:
- Perspective switching (reframing).
- Designing and co-designing the whole entity.
- Structuring development challenges and problems.
Enterprise Design and EDGY are suitable for:
- Business and organisational renewal and change implementation, business transformations.
- Facilitating co-design and discussions.
- Visualization and documentation.
Why Enterprise Design and EDGY?
In organizations, there are multiple expert groups that operate within their own silos. Each group has its own specialised terminology and tools, which often result in different and incompatible outputs. A common language is lacking…
The Enterprise Design approach, along with its EDGY language, is human-centered. Enterprise Design emphasizes collaboration and co-design, where various expert groups and stakeholders work together towards a common understanding of the enterprise.
EDGY is a common language for all expert groups involved in co-design (collaborative development).
EDGY
EDGY is a simple language that consists of just four fundamental elements:
- People
- Activity
- Object
- Outcome
Specialised elements are derived from these fundamentals within each perspective (Identity, Architecture, and Experience) and intersections (Organization, Brand, and Product/Service). The shapes of these elements follow the fundamental element’s visual language:
- Outcomes are rounded.
- Activities are arrow-shaped.
- Objects are angular (depicting structural aspects).
Associations (links) or information flows can be depicted between the elements. These relation types are sufficient for describing various scenarios.
In EDGY, there is also a mechanism for additional notations. Tags can be used to add further specifications to elements, such as distinguishing the type of asset. For example, identifying whether an asset is a software system, technology, or information element. Additionally, metrics (using traffic light colors) can be attached to elements to represent aspects such as risks. These labels (tags and metrics) can be customized as needed, such as by changing their color coding.
EDGY includes default interaction types between elements, which facilitates the application and use of the language.
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Enterprise Design Wheel.
Enterprise Design Triangle.
Enterprise Design House.
EDGY tools
The Enterprise Design language, EDGY, from the Intersection Group, enables people to design well-designed outcomes for better enterprises!
EDGY diagrams can be created with several tools, such as:
- Draw.io (available as Confluence plugin, which enables lots of features for combining diagrams, text and tables)
- Miro
- QualiWare
- BlueDolphin
- Powerpoint
More to come.
EDGY stencils (+ lots of information) can be found on the Intersection Group’s Enterprise Design with EDGY pages:
References
[1] Intersection Group pages, https://intersection.group
[2] Enterprise Design with EDGY pages, https://enterprise.design/
[3] EDGY language foundations, book, 2023, (available as pdf), link
[4] EDGY 23 Language Foundations, Online course (4 weeks), Milan Guenther & Wolfgang Goebl, link
[5] Enterprise Design Patterns, Intersection Group book, 2020, (available as pdf), link
[6] EDGY 23 product release, launch on 29th March 2023, webinar recording, Milan Guenther & Wolfgang Goebl, link
Enterprise Design with EDGY – for creating well-designed outcomes for better enterprises.
— Eero Hosiaisluoma