bkjohn2018 People Process Technology Diagnostics
Core Principle
People, Process, and Technology are overlapping lenses, not mutually exclusive boxes.
When to Use
- A visible symptom could come from more than one layer of the operating system.
- A tool, team, or process is being blamed before interactions are understood.
- The user needs to see how ownership, workflow, data, controls, and systems reinforce or constrain one another.
Diagnostic Lenses
- People: Ownership, decision rights, skills, incentives, trust, communication, resistance, capacity.
- Process: Workflow, handoffs, timing, controls, policies, feedback loops, rework, accountability.
- Technology: Systems, data structures, integrations, reports, automation, access, tool limitations, lineage.
- Interactions: Where one layer compensates for another, exposes weakness in another, or creates cross-layer friction.
Workflow
- Identify relevant people, process, and technology dynamics.
- Note where the layers overlap or compensate for each other.
- Flag where a person is being blamed for a design issue.
- Flag where a tool is being blamed for a process or ownership issue.
- Flag where process failure reflects unclear incentives, decision rights, or governance.
- Carry the most important interactions into edge diagnostics.
Output Template
## People / Process / Technology Map
- People dynamics:
- Process dynamics:
- Technology dynamics:
- Key interactions:
- Most important interaction to test:
Quality Checklist
- The map does not claim People, Process, and Technology are MECE.
- Interactions are more important than labels.
- The analysis avoids blaming a node before examining surrounding relationships.
- Findings can feed into
edge-diagnosticsorroot-cause-hypothesis-testing.