website/methodology.html at main · plausibleba/website · GitHub

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>BIZBOK Methodology — Capability Maps, Value Streams, Capsicum Triad | PlausibleBA</title>
<meta name="description" content="PlausibleBA is grounded in BIZBOK, the Capsicum Triad (Party/Record/Resource), and the VCC pipeline. Structured business architecture methodology encoded into three Claude Cowork slash commands.">
    <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico">
    <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/favicon-32.png">
    <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/favicon-16.png">
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/favicon-180.png">
    <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.plausibleba.com/og-image.png">
    <meta property="og:image:width" content="1200">
    <meta property="og:image:height" content="630">
    <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
    <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.plausibleba.com/og-image.png">
    <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="/site.css">
    <!-- Privacy-friendly analytics by Plausible -->
    <script async src="https://plausible.io/js/pa-fQD2wVJrTO7vhKcNfQW4P.js"></script>
    <script>
      window.plausible=window.plausible||function(){(plausible.q=plausible.q||[]).push(arguments)},plausible.init=plausible.init||function(i){plausible.o=i||{}};
      plausible.init()
    </script>
</head>
<body>

<nav class="site-nav">
  <div class="nav-inner">
    <a class="nav-brand" href="/"><img src="/logo-icon-1x.png" alt="PlausibleBA" width="37" height="30" srcset="/logo-icon-2x.png 2x"><span class="nav-brand-text">PLAUSIBLE <span style="color:#6AC3EE">BA</span></span></a>
    <button class="nav-hamburger" id="nav-hamburger" aria-label="Menu">
      <span></span><span></span><span></span>
    </button>
    <div class="nav-links">
      <a href="/skills">Skills</a>
      <a href="/methodology" class="active">Methodology</a>
      <a href="/install">Install</a>
      <a href="/canvas">Canvas</a>
      <a href="/vcc">VCC</a>
      <a href="/case-study">Case study</a>
      <a href="/about">About</a>
      <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
      <a class="nav-cta" href="/canvas">Try it free →</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>
<div class="nav-mobile" id="nav-mobile">
  <a href="/">Home</a>
  <a href="/skills">Skills</a>
  <a href="/methodology">Methodology</a>
  <a href="/install">Install</a>
  <a href="/canvas">Canvas</a>
  <a href="/vcc">VCC</a>
  <a href="/case-study">Case study</a>
  <a href="/about">About</a>
  <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
  <a href="/canvas" class="nav-cta-mobile">Try it free →</a>
</div>
<script>
  var btn = document.getElementById('nav-hamburger');
  var menu = document.getElementById('nav-mobile');
  if (btn && menu) {
    btn.addEventListener('click', function() {
      btn.classList.toggle('open');
      menu.classList.toggle('open');
    });
  }
</script>

<section class="hero" style="padding:4rem 2rem 3rem">
  <div class="hero-inner">
    <div class="hero-eyebrow">The foundations</div>
    <h1>The methodology behind the skills</h1>
    <p class="hero-sub" style="margin-bottom:0">PlausibleBA is not a prompt wrapper. It encodes BIZBOK-grounded methodology so BAs get structurally correct outputs without needing to know the framework.</p>
  </div>
</section>

<!-- BIZBOK -->
<section class="section section-white">
  <div class="section-inner">
    <div style="max-width:720px">
      <div class="section-eyebrow">Grounding 1</div>
      <h2 style="margin-bottom:1rem">Standards-based</h2>
      <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">The Business Architecture Guild's BIZBOK (Business Architecture Body of Knowledge) is the reference framework for the PlausibleBA skills. Our capability maps, value streams, and business concepts are three of the core metamodel elements of classic business architecture.</p>
      <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">PlausibleBA is not intended as a substitute for Business Architecture. We advocate that any artefact created from PlausibleBA foundation content should be aligned and integrated into a comprehensive business architecture model, by a business architect. Our intent is that doing so should not slow you down. Business Analysts operate under intense time pressures of project deadlines and can't afford to get bogged down in arguing over abstractions. Their skills are in elicitation workshops, requirements engineering and analysis techniques. A <em>"just enough, plausible model"</em> is intended to assist in those tasks. Alignment with the model of record is the domain of the business architect.</p>
      <p>The distinction matters. PlausibleBA's goal is to enlist Business Analysts to promote business architecture on their projects, producing artefacts that are structurally sound and compatible with architecture principles. At the end of the project, BA's leave behind an enduring asset for their business stakeholders, to be curated by business architects.</p>
    </div>
    <div style="margin-top:2.5rem;display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(3,1fr);gap:1.5rem">
      <div class="card card-accent">
        <h3 style="font-family:var(--sans);font-size:1rem;font-weight:600;margin-bottom:0.4rem">Capability map</h3>
        <p style="font-size:0.875rem">What the business is able to do — independent of how it's organised or what technology it uses. Stable over time.</p>
      </div>
      <div class="card card-accent">
        <h3 style="font-family:var(--sans);font-size:1rem;font-weight:600;margin-bottom:0.4rem">Value stream</h3>
        <p style="font-size:0.875rem">How the business delivers value to a recipient through a sequence of stages — orchestrating capabilities into a coherent flow.</p>
      </div>
      <div class="card card-accent">
        <h3 style="font-family:var(--sans);font-size:1rem;font-weight:600;margin-bottom:0.4rem">Business concept</h3>
        <p style="font-size:0.875rem">The things the business manages, exchanges, and records — the nouns that ground the capabilities and flow through the value stream.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<!-- CAPSICUM TRIAD -->
<section class="section section-mid">
  <div class="section-inner">
    <div style="display:grid;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr;gap:4rem;align-items:start">
      <div>
        <div class="section-eyebrow">Grounding 2</div>
        <h2 style="margin-bottom:1rem">The Capsicum Triad</h2>
        <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">PlausibleBA classifies all business objects using the Capsicum Triad — Party, Record, Resource. The triad is grounded in REA theory (McCarthy 1982) and Mario Bunge's ontology of social systems.</p>
        <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">REA (Resources, Events, Agents) provides the economic foundation: every business exchange involves a resource being transferred between agents, with records documenting the event. The Capsicum Triad maps directly onto this: Resources are the things of value, Parties are the agents, and Records are the evidence.</p>
        <p>The triad is deliberately minimal — three types is enough to classify every business object in any domain. More types introduce ambiguity. Fewer types lose discriminating power.</p>
      </div>
      <div>
        <div style="background:var(--navy);border-radius:14px;padding:2rem;border:1px solid #2e3f5c">
          <div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:1.25rem">
            <div>
              <div style="display:flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;margin-bottom:6px">
                <span style="width:12px;height:12px;border-radius:50%;background:#2dd4bf;flex-shrink:0"></span>
                <span style="font-size:13px;font-weight:700;color:#e0fdf9">Party</span>
              </div>
              <p style="font-size:12px;color:#94a3b8;margin-bottom:4px">A person or organisation that plays a role in the business.</p>
              <p style="font-size:11px;color:#64748b;font-family:'DM Mono',monospace">Owner · Guest · Contractor · Tenant</p>
            </div>
            <div style="border-top:1px solid #2e3f5c;padding-top:1.25rem">
              <div style="display:flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;margin-bottom:6px">
                <span style="width:12px;height:12px;border-radius:50%;background:#4a9eda;flex-shrink:0"></span>
                <span style="font-size:13px;font-weight:700;color:#e0f2fe">Resource</span>
              </div>
              <p style="font-size:12px;color:#94a3b8;margin-bottom:4px">A thing of value that is managed, exchanged, or consumed.</p>
              <p style="font-size:11px;color:#64748b;font-family:'DM Mono',monospace">Property · Portfolio · Booking · Tenancy</p>
            </div>
            <div style="border-top:1px solid #2e3f5c;padding-top:1.25rem">
              <div style="display:flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;margin-bottom:6px">
                <span style="width:12px;height:10px;border-radius:2px;background:#e05b8a;flex-shrink:0"></span>
                <span style="font-size:13px;font-weight:700;color:#fce7f3">Record</span>
              </div>
              <p style="font-size:12px;color:#94a3b8;margin-bottom:4px">A document that captures evidence of something that happened.</p>
              <p style="font-size:11px;color:#64748b;font-family:'DM Mono',monospace">Financial Report · Guest Review · Maintenance Request</p>
            </div>
          </div>
          <div style="margin-top:1.25rem;padding-top:1rem;border-top:1px solid #2e3f5c;font-size:11px;color:#64748b;line-height:1.6">
            Grounded in REA theory (McCarthy 1982) and Bunge's ontology of social systems. Three types — no more, no less.
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<!-- VCC PIPELINE -->
<section class="section section-white">
  <div class="section-inner">
    <div style="max-width:720px">
      <div class="section-eyebrow">Grounding 3</div>
      <h2 style="margin-bottom:1rem">The VCC Pipeline</h2>
      <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">Every PlausibleBA skill exports a <code>ba-skills-bundle.json</code> — a schema-validated JSON document that imports directly into the <a href="/vcc">Value Cognition Canvas (VCC)</a>.</p>
      <p style="margin-bottom:1rem">VCC is a business architecture workshopping platform built by the same team. It takes the structural scaffold produced by PlausibleBA and adds analytical layers: friction heatmaps, solution mapping, throughput projections, governance controls, and facilitated stakeholder workshops.</p>
      <p>PlausibleBA is the front door to VCC. The skills produce the structure — free, in any Cowork session. VCC adds the analysis — for teams who need to go deeper.</p>
    </div>
    <div style="margin-top:2.5rem;background:var(--surface-3);border-radius:14px;padding:2rem;border:1px solid var(--border);max-width:720px">
      <div style="font-size:11px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--ink-4);margin-bottom:1.25rem">What PlausibleBA produces vs what VCC adds</div>
      <div style="display:grid;grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr;gap:1.5rem">
        <div>
          <div style="font-size:12px;font-weight:700;color:var(--blue);margin-bottom:0.75rem;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.06em">PlausibleBA (free)</div>
          <ul style="margin-left:1.25rem">
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Capability hierarchy (L1–L3)</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Business object taxonomy</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Value stream with outcome chain</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">PPIT breakdown per stage</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3)">Interactive visualisations + XLSX</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <div>
          <div style="font-size:12px;font-weight:700;color:var(--teal);margin-bottom:0.75rem;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.06em">VCC adds</div>
          <ul style="margin-left:1.25rem">
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Friction heatmap</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Solution mapping</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Throughput projections</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3);margin-bottom:0.35rem">Governance controls</li>
            <li style="font-size:13px;color:var(--ink-3)">Facilitated workshop mode</li>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

<!-- "JUST ENOUGH" -->
<section class="section section-dark">
  <div class="section-inner" style="max-width:720px">
    <div class="section-eyebrow light">The philosophy</div>
    <h2 style="color:#fff;margin-bottom:1rem">"Just enough business architecture"</h2>
    <p style="color:rgba(255,255,255,0.55);margin-bottom:1rem">The name PlausibleBA is intentionally ambiguous. To the IIBA crowd it reads as Business Analyst. To the Guild crowd it reads as Business Architecture. Both readings are correct.</p>
    <p style="color:rgba(255,255,255,0.55);margin-bottom:1rem">The mission is to enlist Business Analysts — who are already doing analysis, requirements, and process work on every project — to produce business architecture artefacts as a natural extension of their existing practice. Not a separate discipline. Not a separate role. Just enough biz arch, done at project scope, using tools they already have.</p>
    <p style="color:rgba(255,255,255,0.55)">A BA who runs <code style="color:#4a9eda">/capability-map</code> on their project isn't doing "business architecture". They're doing their job better — with a structured, validated, cross-referenced output that any enterprise architect can read, any stakeholder can validate, and any VCC session can extend.</p>
  </div>
</section>

<section class="cta-banner">
  <h2 style="color:#fff;margin-bottom:0.75rem">Start with the skills</h2>
  <p>Free, open source, no configuration. Three slash commands in Claude Cowork.</p>
  <div style="display:flex;gap:12px;justify-content:center;flex-wrap:wrap">
    <a class="btn-primary" href="/install">Install free in Cowork →</a>
    <a class="btn-ghost" href="/skills">See all three skills</a>
  </div>
</section>

<footer class="site-footer">
  <div class="footer-inner">
    <div class="footer-brand-col">
      <span class="footer-brand"><img src="/logo-icon-1x.png" alt="PlausibleBA" width="37" height="30" srcset="/logo-icon-2x.png 2x"><span class="footer-brand-text">PLAUSIBLE <span style="color:#6AC3EE">BA</span></span></span>
      <p>Just enough business architecture.<br>For every BA, on every project.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="footer-col">
      <h4>Skills</h4>
      <a href="/skills#capability-map">Capability Mapping</a>
      <a href="/skills#concept-model">Concept Model</a>
      <a href="/skills#value-streams">Value Streams</a>
      <a href="/install">Install</a>
    </div>
    <div class="footer-col">
      <h4>Learn</h4>
      <a href="/methodology">Methodology</a>
      <a href="/canvas">Canvas</a>
      <a href="https://discoverednotinvented.substack.com/" target="_blank">Substack</a>
      <a href="https://github.com/plausibleba/ba-skills" target="_blank">GitHub</a>
    </div>
    <div class="footer-col">
      <h4>About</h4>
      <a href="/about">About PlausibleBA</a>
      <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
      <a href="/privacy">Privacy policy</a>
      <a href="/vcc">Value Cognition Canvas</a>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="footer-bottom">
    <p>© 2026 PlausibleBA · Licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-SA 4.0</a></p>
    <p>Built for <a href="https://claude.ai/download" target="_blank">Claude Cowork</a> by Anthropic</p>
  </div>
</footer>

</body>
</html>