SKStephen KlahrApplied Business Architecture

Cookbook · Connected Case Study · Version 1.1

Northstar Equipment Services: Connected Service Promise.

A fictional enterprise case showing how one business-architecture question develops across three evidence-bounded decision stages: authorize the change, prepare the operation, and judge realized value.

Download the v1.1 case guideDownload the complete Northstar bundleSee the SCALE work cycle
  • Entirely fictional
  • Decision-centered
  • Evidence and confidence retained
  • Later knowledge kept out of earlier decisions

Enterprise context

A service problem arrives disguised as a mapping and technology request.

Northstar is a fictional commercial-equipment maintenance and rental company. Branch personnel frequently promise service dates before confirming technician skills, parts, geography, or capacity. Regions use different object terms and different definitions of promise adherence. Customers experience unreliable commitments, while executives face pressure to validate a proposed scheduling-platform replacement.

The original request is to create a capability map and validate the platform. The business architect reframes it into a choice about a bounded, reversible business change using existing systems before Northstar commits to enterprise technology procurement.

$780MAnnual revenue
48Branches
12U.S. states
3,200Employees

Connected architecture

The stable case backbone.

The artifacts reuse governed identifiers and relationships. The view expands only when the next decision requires more architecture.

  1. StrategyReliable promises, protected margin, and less disruption and repeat work, with branch discretion preserved
  2. ValueRestore Equipment Availability across five stakeholder-state stages
  3. CapabilitiesC-100 through C-180, from Customer Need Management to Information Governance
  4. InformationBO-01 through BO-06, including Customer Promise, Work Order, and Part Reservation
  5. ChangeI-01, releases R1–R3, change packages CP-01–CP-05, and governed decisions

Evidence-bounded sequence

Three episodes, distinct decision points.

Each episode may use only the evidence available at that point. That preserves the difference between a defensible authorization, operational readiness, and observed value.

Episode A · Authorize

Should Northstar fund a bounded three-branch change before buying an enterprise scheduling platform?

Evidence available

  • Twelve months of directionally reliable service-performance data
  • A disputed regional repeat-visit sample and governed margin baseline
  • Five branch workshops and a vendor capability demonstration
  • Current strategy, value stream, capability, object, initiative, and ownership relationships

Decision boundary

The evidence supports a reversible test and explicit conditions. It does not prove root cause, repeatability, or realized platform value.

Disposition: DEC-001 conditionally authorizes R1 within a $150,000–$300,000 planning band. DEC-002 defers enterprise platform procurement.

Recipe 01 · Recipe 05 · Recipe 19 · Recipe 36 · Recipe 37 · Recipe 39

Episode B · Prepare

Can the three branches operate, support, govern, measure, and recover the changed service-promise practice?

Evidence available

  • Approved promise and measure definitions with named measure owners
  • Organization-to-value and capability contribution relationships
  • Limiting-condition diagnosis and current-to-target operating-model delta
  • E-008 confirms ORG-08 as BO-05 owner; the inventory reservation record is only a provisional R1 source with twice-daily reconciliation, not an enterprise authority
  • Policy, dependency, adoption, support, exception, and readiness evidence

Decision boundary

Preparation evidence can support release, limitation, remediation, delay, or stop. It cannot be treated as evidence of post-release value.

Disposition: ORG-15 records DEC-003 and authorizes a staggered R1 start after the remaining shift completes training. The information and escalation conditions expire at the day-30 review unless ORG-15 closes, adapts, or explicitly renews them against E-009.

Recipe 40 · Recipe 41 · Recipe 42 · Recipe 44 · Recipe 45

Episode C · Realize

After release, should Northstar scale, adapt, remediate, preserve, or stop the change?

Evidence available

  • Day-30 confirmed commitments of 84%, adherence of 89%, adoption of 78%, margin of 30.8%, and technician productivity 4.1% below baseline
  • Day-90 confirmed commitments reach 92% against a 90% gate; adherence reaches 93% against the 92% R1 gate but remains below the 95% strategic target
  • E-010 covers 486 eligible promises—176 metropolitan, 166 mixed-fleet, and 144 rural—meeting the approved evidence-volume condition
  • Day-90 adoption reaches 96%, margin reaches 31.2%, and technician productivity is 2.0% below baseline but within its 3% guardrail
  • Repeat visits remain at 11% versus an 8% target and one-shift exceptions reach 88% versus 90%; final cost of $287,000 and peak demand of 5.8 FTE equivalent remain within the authorized band
  • The rural branch reaches only 89% adherence, so aggregate improvement cannot establish repeatability
  • Attribution limits, competing explanations, displaced consequences, and DEC-004’s M-03 remediation after Finance validation, M-06 no-scale response after Field Service and Finance validation, and M-08 scope correction after Finance and Delivery Management validation

Decision boundary

Observed association is not proof of causation, and deployment is not value realization. Later results must not be written backward into Episodes A or B.

Disposition: ORG-13 records DEC-005, treats R1 as feasible with material conditions, and authorizes R2 design and readiness work only. The DEC-002 review disposition keeps platform procurement deferred.

Recipe 35 · Recipe 39 · Recipe 43

Method crosswalk

Move from recipe to artifact to case decision.

The Cookbook supplies the method, the work product holds the evidence, the case shows the decision context, and SCALE can accelerate the same architect-led cycle.

WorkCookbook recipeWork productCase episodeSCALE cycle
Frame the decision and trace the problemRecipe 01 · Recipe 02 · Recipe 03 · Recipe 05 · Recipe 37Engagement and decision framing
Capability definition and validation
Strategy-to-capability linkage
Value stream and capability cross-map		A · AuthorizeDiscover → Structure
Select which capabilities require attentionRecipe 19 · Recipe 36Capability selection and heat map
Initiative impact and smallest release		A · AuthorizeAnalyze → Create
Bound the first release and sequence the changeRecipe 04 · Recipe 20 · Recipe 22 · Recipe 23Initiative impact and smallest release
Initiative decomposition and roadmap		A · Authorize → B · PrepareAnalyze → Create
Diagnose why a selected capability is constrainedRecipe 41Capability limiting-condition diagnosis
End-to-end BA delivery pack		B · PrepareAnalyze
Define the operating change and test readinessRecipe 10 · Recipe 11 · Recipe 40 · Recipe 42 · Recipe 44 · Recipe 45End-to-end BA delivery pack
Business objects and lifecycle
Initiative decomposition and roadmap		B · PrepareStructure → Analyze → Create
Observe value, decide the next disposition, and preserve knowledgeRecipe 35 · Recipe 39 · Recipe 43End-to-end BA delivery pack
Decision, ownership, and open items		C · RealizeAnalyze → Create → Maintain

Important distinction: Recipe 19 selects which capabilities require attention. Recipe 41 begins only after selection and diagnoses the limiting conditions preventing a capability from producing the required outcome.

Case materials · Version 1.1

Read the case, then open only the artifact the decision requires.

The guide is the narrative authority. The nine Excel workbooks provide governed working structures; the end-to-end pack carries the organization, operating-model, readiness, realization, and policy views.

Case guide · Markdown

Northstar Equipment Services case guide

The complete fictional case, case backbone, episode boundaries, evidence, decisions, and use guidance.

Download case v1.1
Complete bundle · ZIP

Northstar applied-BA work-product bundle

Nine Excel workbooks, the canonical Northstar case guide, the end-to-end BA delivery pack, and a checksum manifest in one versioned ZIP.

Download bundle v1.1
Recipes 40–45 · Markdown

End-to-end BA delivery work products

Six connected, portable structures for carrying a change from organizational context and capability diagnosis through operating-model change, readiness, value realization, and policy impact.

Download pack v1.1

Individual Excel workbooks

All nine connected examples.

  1. 01
  2. 02
  3. 03
  4. 04
  5. 05
  6. 06
  7. 07
  8. 08
  9. 09

Use boundary

A worked case is evidence of method, not a reference answer.

Northstar demonstrates how relationships, uncertainties, decision rights, evidence quality, and review triggers can remain connected. It does not prescribe a universal capability model, ownership structure, operating model, score, or investment decision for a real enterprise.