Platform specification/use cases

In describing how platform is used, we are in essence describing a method for systematic organisation on a personal, group and societal level. The fundamental assumption we make is that individuals or groups are striving toward the achievement of goals and visions and are using a systematic approach to achieve them. We will attempt to describe clearly the activities and procedures individuals or groups engage in when working toward goals using a system, as well as what is needed to coordinate the activities of multiple groups forming societies or institutions.

Even though we will describe these things in a technology-neutral way, these usage scenarios can form the basis of "epics" and "stories" that are used in agile software development. This will aid our efforts to develop software that is compliant with the platform specification. software-specific considerations such as interface layouts and networking technology is described in our software architecture article.

Platform use for self organisation

Our entry point to using a platform is naturally the perspective of the individual user and the activities people engage in to get work done, be it for private or business affairs. We refer to the systematic approach for pursuing these activities as "self organisation". Other terms commonly used for this process are personal organisation or self-management:

In business, education, and psychology, self-management refers to methods, skills, and strategies by which individuals can effectively direct their own activities toward the achievement of objectives, and includes goal setting, decision making, focusing, planning, scheduling, task tracking, self-evaluation, self-intervention, self-development, etc. Also known as executive processes (in the context of the processes of execution).

— Wikipedia, Self-management

In software terms, applications that support these activities go under the umbrella term "PIM tool" - Personal Information Management tool.

Personal organisation methodology

Two of the leading approaches for how to go about self organisation are principle-based and productivity-based. The difference is which area of life they use as a starting point. Principle-based methods focus on defining personal high level goals,vision and principles (or habits). A popular example of this approach is Stephen Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". By maintaining a small number of specific habits, Covey maintains, people can achieve a balanced life and enjoy success. He does not cover in any great detail how to organise daily activities, projects or to-do lists.

Productivity-focused self organisation, in contrast, is about helping people organise the "stuff" in their lives: the projects they are involved with in private and professional life, tasks, appointments, in-boxes, filing systems, etc. Only after these things have been organised into a coherent, trusted system is the work on high level goals and values introduced. One of the leading thinkers in this area is David Allen, who pioneered the "Getting Things Done" system for self organisation.

There has been an increasing uptake of the productivity-based approach in the past decade, particularly GTD, possibly because it tackles a challenging aspect of modern life - information and work overwhelm. Among an increasing global population that earns its keep with knowledge work, there is also growing demand for ways to increase productivity and free the mind of unnecessary clutter. In theory, having achieved productivity and a clear mind, one is then free to turn to defining high level goals, developing quality relationships and cultivating positive habits - all of those important, but not urgent activities that tend to fall by the wayside when life gets busy.

GTD specifically is also quite aligned with OrganicDesign thinking due to the fact that it is a systems-based approach (Allen often refers to the goal of GTD being the creation of a "trusted system") and also introduces the idea of "scale" to be able to encompass the most abstract and long term aspects of self organisation, such as goals, vision and values. On regular cycles, practitioners review the relationship between everyday activities and high level goals and ensure that there is clear sense of connection between the two. Therefore GTD as an approach conceptually incorporates the notions of both systems thinking and personal mastery advocated by Peter Senge as two of the disciplines required for creating learning organisations.

• Setup
• Direction and administration
• Communications
• Finance

Group platform

Activities and processes for group activities

• Setup - group formation and membership

Governance

• Group decision making
• TIPAESA
• Direction and administration
• Communications
• Finance

Setup & deployment

• Organisation
• Member

Scheduling

• Notifications
• Shared
• Resource booking
• System (roles, people, processors)

Forms & records

• Reports

Trading

• Payment methods
• products and services
• subscriptions
• invoices