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Cookbook work products · Version 1.0

Move from guidance to a defensible first artifact.

Nine reusable Excel packs turn selected cookbook recipes into working structures. Each contains a blank template, instructions, explicit boundaries, and a completed example using the same fictional enterprise case.

  • No registration
  • Editable Excel files
  • Fictional examples
  • Versioned guidance

Use sequence

Start with a decision, not a blank spreadsheet.

  1. Name the decision. Confirm the decision owner, timing, and evidence threshold.
  2. Choose the smallest pack. Use only the artifact that changes scope, sequence, ownership, risk, or a formal choice.
  3. Study the connected example. Follow the Northstar relationships across strategy, value, capabilities, information, initiatives, measures, and governance.
  4. Replace the example with governed facts. Preserve assumptions, conflicts, missing evidence, source, owner, and effective date.
  5. Stop when the decision is supportable. Do not complete unused rows or tabs merely because they exist.

The collection

Nine governed work-product packs.

Every workbook identifies its purpose, primary user, related recipes, use instructions, source case, version, and boundary. The filled example demonstrates the method; the blank tabs are the starting point for real work.

Pack 01v1.0

Engagement brief and decision-framing workbook

Turn a request for a map, solution, or transformation into a bounded business-architecture engagement with a named decision, evidence threshold, scope, options, and stop condition.

Included

  • Read me and governance notes
  • Engagement brief
  • Decision frame
  • Evidence and question log
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace a project charter, investment approval, requirements package, or the accountable executive’s decision.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 02v1.0

Capability definition, decomposition, and validation pack

Create stable capability definitions, test decomposition depth, expose orphaned or weak records, and structure a validation workshop without reproducing the organization chart.

Included

  • Read me and modeling rules
  • Capability register
  • Formula-driven decomposition QA
  • Validation workshop record
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not provide an authoritative industry reference model or prove that a capability belongs at a particular level without enterprise context and governance.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 03v1.0

Value-stream stage card and capability cross-map

Define outcome-oriented value-stream stages, entry and exit criteria, measures, and enabling capabilities while keeping process activity out of the strategic view.

Included

  • Read me and distinction tests
  • Stage cards
  • Capability-stage cross-map
  • Coverage checks
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace a process, journey, operating procedure, service blueprint, or control design when activity and handoff detail is required.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 04v1.0

Initiative impact and smallest-useful-release workbook

Trace initiative scope to value-stream stages, capabilities, information, policy, organization, measures, and dependencies, then compare bounded release options.

Included

  • Read me and scope rules
  • Initiative frame
  • Architecture impact grid
  • Release option comparison
  • Measure sheet
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace funding approval, delivery estimation, solution design, backlog management, or benefits-realization ownership.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 05v1.0

Strategy-to-capability linkage worksheet

Translate strategy into explicit outcomes, affected value propositions, required capability changes, initiatives, measures, assumptions, and unsupported objectives.

Included

  • Read me and linkage rules
  • Strategy element register
  • Objective-capability linkage
  • Coverage and gap checks
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not create strategy, authorize investment, or establish causation between an initiative and a business outcome merely because they are linked.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 06v1.0

Business-object register, alias crosswalk, and lifecycle matrix

Normalize business-object identities, definitions, aliases, ownership, authoritative sources, lifecycle states, transitions, and capability use without turning the model into a physical data schema.

Included

  • Read me and object-model rules
  • Business-object register
  • Alias crosswalk
  • Lifecycle matrix
  • Completed Northstar examples

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace a logical or physical data model, master-data design, records-retention schedule, API contract, or legal definition.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 07v1.0

Evidence-based capability assessment and heat-map workbook

Keep strategic importance, observed performance, evidence strength, stakeholder judgment, disagreement, and review triggers visible behind every heat-map status.

Included

  • Read me and assessment scale
  • Evidence register
  • Formula-driven assessment
  • Heat-map summary
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not prove causation, replace performance management, or justify investment from a color alone; scores remain time-bounded judgments.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 08v1.0

Initiative decomposition and capability-roadmap workbook

Break a broad change into outcome-oriented packages, expose true dependencies, distinguish prerequisites from preferred sequencing, and build a capability transition roadmap rather than a disguised project plan.

Included

  • Read me and decomposition rules
  • Change-package register
  • Dependency register
  • Decision-oriented roadmap
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace a project schedule, resource plan, delivery backlog, committed date, or portfolio authority.

Download Excel workbook
Pack 09v1.0

Architecture decision, ownership, and open-item record

Keep decisions, rationale, conditions, decision rights, accountable owners, evidence gaps, assumptions, conflicts, review triggers, and closure dispositions in one governed record.

Included

  • Read me and governance rules
  • Decision record
  • Ownership and decision-right register
  • Open-item log with due-status formulas
  • Completed Northstar example

Related recipes

Boundary

Does not replace formal corporate minutes, legal approvals, records-management policy, delegated-authority schedules, or delivery issue systems.

Download Excel workbook

Governance

Versioned templates, not silent doctrine.

Version 1.0 establishes the working structures and the Northstar example. A later version should change only when practitioner use exposes a material ambiguity, missing decision field, weak control, broken relationship, or repeated failure mode.

The templates are deliberately bounded. They support business-architecture judgment and institutional memory; they do not transfer accountable decisions to a workbook.