5 Wardley Mapping

 

This chapter covers

  • Iterating through the Strategy Cycle
  • Creating Wardley Maps to gain situational awareness
  • Applying climatic forces to a Wardley Map
  • Making strategic decisions and plays using a Wardley Map
  • Connecting architecture to strategy

Wardley Mapping is essential for business and technology leaders, especially during an architecture modernization journey. It has emerged as a popular and highly effective tool. It moves beyond simple 2 × 2 grids and gut instinct to a model that involves mapping out businesses using value chains and their evolution. It is the enabler for richer and more nuanced discussions about strategy. Even better, Wardley Mapping makes strategy more collaborative, allowing diverse groups, including technical and business experts, to explore their landscape and connect the business and technological aspects of value chains.

Not only is Wardley Mapping a technique, but it is also a large community that continues to grow. It is becoming mainstream, and the terminology used in Wardley Mapping is becoming the de-facto strategy language in business and technology environments. Therefore, it’s essential to learn Wardley Mapping to know the terminology and its nuances. Another reason to learn Wardley Mapping is that it is often combined with many other techniques in this book, like Team Topologies.

5.1 The Strategy Cycle

5.2 Creating a Wardley Map

5.3 Grasping evolution

5.3.1 Evolution characteristics

5.3.2 Rapid learning exercise: Grasping evolution

5.4 Climatic forces

5.4.1 Everything evolves

5.4.2 Components coevolve

5.4.3 Past success breeds inertia

5.4.4 Change is not always linear

5.4.5 Assessing the effect of climatic changes