Connected case · Northstar v1.2

Can Northstar make a dependable service promise?

A fictional equipment-services company wants a verdict on scheduling software. Its evidence raises a larger question: what needs to change for customers to get dependable service?

Follow that question through three business decisions. Use the evidence with your own AI, then compare your recommendation with the authored reference.

Try Northstar Read the worked example →

The worked example contains all three answers. Try the exercise first if you want to form an independent judgment.

One case. Three decisions.

A · What to fund

Choose the next commitment.

Compare a proposed platform, a bounded operating experiment, and a narrower alternative using inconsistent source records and capacity assumptions.

B · Ready to begin?

Test operating readiness.

Examine information, authority, training, support, and recovery before recommending release.

C · What the results justify

Judge realized value.

Reconcile reporting periods, excluded work, customer outcomes, cost, and branch variation before deciding what comes next.

The case carries its question, architecture relationships, evidence, and corrections from one decision to the next. Each episode supplies only the information available at that stage.

Related Cookbook methods and reference answers

Work	Method	Reference answer
Frame and trace the problem	Recipe 01 · Recipe 37	Episode A brief
Compare options and bound the release	Recipe 04 · Recipe 20 · Recipe 25	Alternatives, learning cost, and decision conditions
Diagnose and prepare the operation	Recipe 41 · Recipe 42 · Recipe 44	Episode B brief
Test value and preserve the decision	Recipe 43 · Recipe 39	Episode C brief

Download the complete v1.2 instructor guide · Contains all answers.

Earlier workbook examples · v1.1 archive

The nine Excel workbooks demonstrate the original v1.1 case. The current v1.2 learning edition adds source records, stronger alternatives, cohort reconciliation, and customer-value observations. Use the current episode packets for the exercise; the older workbook results use earlier definitions and periods.

Download the v1.1 workbook bundle · Read the original v1.1 guide

Northstar capability hierarchy

Northstar v1.1 workbook example · Corrected October 6, 2026. Seven selected enterprise branches with explicit object boundaries. This is an authored hierarchy for the fictional case, not a complete enterprise map or a BIZBOK reference model. Original C-100–C-180 IDs remain stable; original decision labels are retained as aliases. The added parents, siblings, names, and levels are modeling additions, not evidence of approval in Episodes A–C.

L1 identifies an object-centered business ability. L2 identifies a finer ability within that same object boundary; the shown children collectively cover the stated parent definition. Every child has one parent and every decomposed parent has multiple distinct children. Object types, organizations, processes, applications, and dependencies are cross-mapped separately.

Defined parents and children · Original case IDs preserved
ID / parent	Level	Capability	Object and boundary
C-010Root	L1	Service Request Management	Service Request (BO-01). Establish and maintain a recognized equipment-service need, then govern its disposition against the requested customer outcome.
C-100Parent: C-010	L2	Service Request QualificationCase alias: Customer Need Management	Service Request (BO-01). Identify, accept, qualify, and maintain a service need; exclude the customer commitment and authorization of work.
C-160Parent: C-010	L2	Service Request ResolutionCase alias: Service Outcome Management	Service Request (BO-01). Reconcile the request, promise, and work result; confirm restored availability and customer acceptance, retain open recovery obligations, or record termination without fulfillment.
C-110Root	L1	Customer Promise ManagementCase alias: Service Promise Management	Customer Promise (BO-02). Establish, validate, communicate, monitor, and revise a governed customer commitment; use resource evidence without planning work or owning resource allocations or final customer-value acceptance.
C-111Parent: C-110	L2	Customer Promise Definition	Customer Promise (BO-02). Specify the proposed commitment, its scope, timing, and terms.
C-112Parent: C-110	L2	Customer Promise Validation	Customer Promise (BO-02). Assess the proposed commitment against policy and the available feasibility evidence.
C-113Parent: C-110	L2	Customer Promise Communication	Customer Promise (BO-02). Communicate the commitment and its status to the parties who rely on it.
C-114Parent: C-110	L2	Customer Promise Monitoring	Customer Promise (BO-02). Determine the commitment’s current standing and whether its terms are being met.
C-115Parent: C-110	L2	Customer Promise Change	Customer Promise (BO-02). Revise, cancel, or supersede the commitment while retaining its history and obligations.
C-030Root	L1	Work Order Management	Work Order (BO-03). Specify and authorize a unit of service work, perform and record it, then reconcile and close its work record; exclude customer-value acceptance and resource ownership.
C-120Parent: C-030	L2	Work Order PlanningCase alias: Work Planning	Work Order (BO-03). Translate an accepted need into authorized work scope, method, and prerequisites; exclude capacity assignment and execution.
C-150Parent: C-030	L2	Work Order ExecutionCase alias: Field Service Execution	Work Order (BO-03). Perform and record the authorized equipment intervention and its exceptions; exclude customer acceptance and promise policy.
C-151Parent: C-030	L2	Work Order Closure	Work Order (BO-03). Reconcile recorded work, consumption, and exceptions and determine administrative closure or cancellation; closure alone does not prove delivered customer value.
C-040Root	L1	Human Resource Management	Human Resource. Govern the identity and engagement of people whose work the enterprise uses, their qualifications and availability, and their assignment to demand; cross-map agreements, payments, and organizational units.
C-131Parent: C-040	L2	Human Resource Engagement	Human Resource. Establish and maintain a person’s working relationship with the enterprise, including entry, changes, and exit.
C-132Parent: C-040	L2	Human Resource Qualification	Human Resource. Establish and maintain the evidence of a person’s skills and qualifications.
C-133Parent: C-040	L2	Human Resource Availability	Human Resource. Determine the person’s available time, location, and capacity constraints.
C-130Parent: C-040	L2	Human Resource SchedulingCase alias: Resource Scheduling	Human Resource. Match authorized demand to qualified people, time, geography, and capacity; govern the resulting assignments without owning parts or customer commitments.
C-050Root	L1	Part Management	Part. Define and acquire physical components used in equipment service, govern their availability and use, and retire unusable or obsolete components; cross-map suppliers, payments, and equipment assets.
C-141Parent: C-050	L2	Part Definition	Part. Establish and maintain the identity, specification, and permitted use of a physical service component.
C-142Parent: C-050	L2	Part Acquisition	Part. Obtain and accept components that satisfy the defined service need.
C-140Parent: C-050	L2	Part Availability ManagementCase alias: Parts Availability Management	Part. Determine, reserve, position, consume, release, and expire availability of service components; exclude technician assignments and customer commitments.
C-143Parent: C-050	L2	Part Retirement	Part. Determine and govern withdrawal or disposal of unusable or obsolete components.
C-170Root	L1	Performance Measure ManagementCase alias: Service Performance Management	*Performance Measure (M- register).** Define business measures and guardrail thresholds, determine their observed values, and interpret and govern their use; exclude source transactions and operational remediation.
C-171Parent: C-170	L2	Performance Measure Definition	*Performance Measure (M- register).** Specify a measure’s meaning, calculation, population, period, and guardrail thresholds.
C-172Parent: C-170	L2	Performance Measure Determination	*Performance Measure (M- register).** Calculate and substantiate the measure’s value from governed evidence.
C-173Parent: C-170	L2	Performance Measure Review	*Performance Measure (M- register).** Interpret, explain, review, and govern use of the measure and any decision implications.
C-180Root	L1	Information Definition GovernanceCase alias: Business Information Governance	Business Information Definition. Establish shared business meaning, semantic accountability, quality requirements, and controlled changes to information definitions; exclude the operational decisions represented by that information.
C-181Parent: C-180	L2	Information Definition Structuring	Business Information Definition. Specify a concept’s meaning, category, types, states, and typed relationships.
C-182Parent: C-180	L2	Information Definition Stewardship	Business Information Definition. Assign and maintain accountable owners and stewards for the definition.
C-183Parent: C-180	L2	Information Quality Rule Definition	Business Information Definition. Specify the quality rules and thresholds associated with the definition.
C-184Parent: C-180	L2	Information Definition Change Control	Business Information Definition. Evaluate, authorize, version, and communicate changes in shared business meaning.

Authored Northstar v1.1 teaching model; BIZBOK Guide v11.0, section 2.2, pages 64–67, 79, 86–87. The current v1.2 learning exercise remains a separate evidence set.

Download the hierarchy and validation workbook · Read the corrected v1.1 case

Northstar is an entirely fictional $780 million company with 48 branches. Every organization, document, number, and decision is authored for teaching. Reference answers illustrate judgment; they are not reports of a real engagement or proof of AI performance.