Operating Model

Explore what an operating model is, where it comes from, the dimensions it is designed across, and the journey from current to target.

Interactive Operating Model

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Understanding The Operating Model

If the business model is the what, the operating model is the how — the way an organisation delivers its value proposition day to day.

The Operating Model starts with vision and strategy, and the design principles that translate strategic intent into testable rules. It shows how the operating model delivers the value proposition through capabilities and value streams, and how it is designed across six dimensions: processes, organisation, people and skills, information and data, technology, and locations and sourcing. It also connects governance, decision rights, performance measures, and the method for moving from the current operating model to the target through gap analysis, a transition roadmap, and the change portfolio.

How To Use It

Start with vision and strategy, and how strategy is distilled into the design principles that govern every design decision.
Trace how the operating model delivers the value proposition through the capabilities the organisation must have.
Explore the six design dimensions and why an operating model is designed across all of them together.
Follow how governance allocates decision rights, sets policies and standards, and uses performance measures to keep the model honest.
Walk the journey: assess capabilities, baseline the current operating model, design the target, analyse the gap, and sequence the transition roadmap.
Consider the context — customers, leadership, and culture — that determines whether the target operating model will actually land.

Model Domains

Domain	What It Helps Explain
Strategy & direction	How vision, strategy, the business model, the value proposition, and design principles set direction for the operating model.
Operating model core	How the operating model delivers the value proposition through capabilities and the value streams that flow value to customers.
Design dimensions	The levers a designer pulls: processes, organisation, people and skills, information and data, technology, and locations and sourcing.
Governance & performance	How governance allocates decision rights, sets policies and standards, and uses performance measures to drive continuous improvement.
Building the model	How capability assessment, the current and target operating models, gap analysis, the transition roadmap, and the change portfolio connect.
Context & people	How customers receive value, leadership owns the model, and culture conditions whether the target operating model succeeds.

Explore Each Domain

Each domain has its own guide covering who is involved, what it means, when it applies, where it sits, and why it matters — with a dedicated section for security architects.

Strategy & Direction

Vision, strategy, the business model, the value proposition, and the design principles distilled from them.

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Operating Model Core

The operating model itself, the capabilities it requires, and the value streams that deliver the value proposition.

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Design Dimensions

Processes, organisation, people and skills, information and data, technology, and locations and sourcing.

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Governance & Performance

Governance, decision rights, policies and standards, performance measures, and continuous improvement.

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Building The Model

Capability assessment, the current and target operating models, gap analysis, transition roadmap, and change portfolio.

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Context & People

Customers, leadership, and the culture that determines whether the designed model survives contact with reality.

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Tools Of The Trade

A Practical Reference, Not A Seventh Domain

The six domains above are the model. This is the toolkit: Business Model Canvas, Operating Model Canvas, Wardley Mapping, RACI, and the other techniques architects reach for while doing the work in each domain. Each tool is set out with what it is, its value in operating model work, when to use it, its constraints and opportunities, and its alternatives — cross-linked back to the domain it supports.

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Supporting Downloads

Static editions of the model are available for reading, workshops, presentations, and adaptation.

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