At the core of AMMERSE are the seven values. These values are the interrelated values that make up a system. AMMERSE believes that at the heart of any social system, there are people, with values, axiology, motivations, behaviours, beliefs and choices.
When you evaluate a system, you can see these values (eg.by looking at motivation, asking the right questions, observing behaviours, evaluating constraints) and discover or plan their synergy. Their configuration provides context and understanding.
AMMERSE is contextually aware, suited to describe your unique environment.
The seven values are used as values, principles, elements in the system, and categories. It is a means of reasoning about vision, strategy, measurements, categories, processes, and can filter everything we do at any level or kind of organisational unit.
A central aspect of AMMERSE is addressing the gaps. The gaps could be between two people, a team, user vs features, or management vs technical work. In addressing gaps and examining the system of interdependent components, we can reason about what is happening.
The core values (Level 1)
In order to facilitate communication and collaboration, AMMERSE is an abstraction of personal and organisational values. As an abstraction, it can best serve as a heuristic, simplifying the hundreds of values that can be considered. These serve as categories for more specialised values.
The seven values are Agile (A), Minimal (Mi), Maintainable (M), Environmental (E), Reachable (R), Solvable (S), and Extensible (Ex).
Examples:
Openness and courage are "Agile values".
Stewardship and tradition are "Maintainable" values.
Read more about why the AMMERSE language exists as A Value System, including the paper entitled An abstraction language for aligning Individual and Organisational values
Discovery
At a simplistic level, these values prompt the right questions to ask: How agile is this? How minimal is this? They formulate a 360° set of questions. Can I do this within the budget (Reachable) or within a time frame (Reachable)? Can the solution be extended (Extensible)?
Forces
If this is Minimal, is it also Maintainable? If it is Extensible, our Reachable and Maintainable force increases. They complement or detract from each other depending on the context. This also relates to relationships, dependencies, positive or negative feedback, and synergies. We are constantly striving for balance in our environment.
Weights
Each value can be assigned a weight, a value from -1 to 1. As a weight, you can be more precise about the values and their context. For example, “what is the current state of our process flow?” A Minimal score of 0.2 vs 0.8 could be considered based on how minimal the process is. If you can remove a step, you know it's less minimal. This is the start of an evaluation.
Evaluating
Weighted values can be assigned to various aspects of the business and compared. You can be as empirical as you wish. Care should be taken to evaluate and compare effectively. Garbage in, garbage out applies. The idea of measuring the gap is a large part of AMMERSE.
The AMMERSE Set (Level 2)
When you add weights to all the values for a given context and assign it a name, it becomes a named Set. For example, the current state of the website is A(0) Mi(1), M(.2), E(.5), R(1), S(0.8), E(.2), so we name it “2022 Current Site”. The next year after many changes, you evaluate it again, but this time the set is “2023 Current Site”. You can do this for any capability, design, or even strategy.
As Strategy
By creating a set with a purpose, you can create an objective. Let's assume the same website needs to evolve to an Extensible offering; we can create a “2023 Website Target” Set with Ex(.8). This now reflects the desire to boost the extensibility of the site. The developers can then evaluate what the desire means to them technically. They may conclude that something should be redesigned, reworked, or done to satisfy the strategy. This easily becomes a strategy, capability model, and a roadmap.
As Progress
By storing and evaluating Sets, you can easily measure direction and progress towards your goal. It is important to remember that accuracy is something you need to work on, as weights need to be carefully created in the same manner each time.
AMMERSE Framework (Level 3)
You can construct your framework by creating Sets that correlate. AMMERSE comes with three examples: Maturity Index, Modes, and Design Repository. They show how a framework can be built. You may find value in one or more of them, modify them to suit, or create your own (see Extending 3.1).
Maturity Index
The Maturity Index is a built-in example framework consisting of 4 Sets: “Level 1”, “Level 2”, “Level 3”, “Level 3.1”. Level 1 = R(1), S(1). Level 2 = Mi(1), M(1), E(1), R(1), S(1). Level 3 adds A(1), and Level 3.1 adds Ex(1). This gives you a maturity level used as a measure or a strategy. For example, your target could be Level 1 or Level 3, depending on your business. The Maturity Index applies to all kinds of products and services. Imagine a business of M(1), R(1), S(1) vs E(1), Mi(1).
Notice that I have used the Maturity Index in the headings of this guide to show what the level is concerned with in terms of values and maturity of their implementation.
Explanation of the Maturity Index
Modes
Modes is an example framework consisting of 4 Sets representing modes for a team. The four sets are “Development”, “Integration”, “Business”, and a special Set called “Alert”. You can move a team from one mode to another; therefore, everyone understands the focus. You could also create three teams named after the modes and move work between them, with Alert being the synchronous activity all teams do in an emergency.
Design Repository
The Design Repository is another example framework that maps the GoF Design Patterns into the seven values. Some patterns may appear in two or more values. For example, the Singleton could be E(1), meaning the environment it runs in requires a single instance. A Factory Method could be considered Mi(1), M(1), but not Ex(0), whereas the Abstract Factory could be considered Mi(0), M(.5), Ex(1). If your “Strategy Set” is a Mi(1), S(1) Ex(0), you would understand which pattern would be best suited.
Extending (Level 3.1)
There are several hotspots and conventions for extending AMMERSE.
New values
It is strongly advised that new values should not be your first thought, as it is most likely covered by the seven. It is also advised that you keep your extended values within your organisation and that everyone understands it is not part of the core. There are rules for extending that will be published separately.
The convention is to use the first letter after an x, as in AMMERSExP where P is your new principle. This way, everyone knows it's an extension.
Named Concepts
Concepts should be added to a principle. For example, if you want to add a Lean concept, the most appropriate principle may be "Minimal" or "Maintainable".
Processes
You can create a process flow that has Sets at its core. Consider each Set to be a flow or a step. You can define rules around the process flow based on values. If Agile (1), test cases must exist. If Environmental, an ethics checklist is required.
Methods
An entire management method could be designed on AMMERSE. We ask that you include AMMERSE as its foundation in the name to ensure that AMMERSE is presented. AMMERSE Maturity Index is an example.
Pattern Language
AMMERSE is built on the concept of a pattern language. This means that you must inherit from this concept. Named Sets and frameworks built on AMMERSE should have an Intent, Solution to a Problem, and be presented as such. They must be based on values. If you do not, the design, implementation, and uptake of such a thing would be obscured and not aligned with AMMERSE.
View the The Pattern Language Creation guide
Updated: 12/11/2024
