A decision never broken down into work.
A strategy or goal gets done through the projects and tickets beneath it. When one has other records below it but no project or ticket anywhere down the line, nothing beneath it can complete it. Helen flags it so a person can break it into work or close it. The check is called Decomposition Gap.
- How it works
- Rule-based, follows the line downward
- Where it stops
- It looks only at decisions that already have something below them, so a decision with nothing beneath it never raises this flag. Drafts and closed decisions are skipped, and any project or ticket below counts, even a closed one.
What the check catches.
Helen's Foundry keeps the line from your strategy down to each piece of work as linked records, each one tied to the decision above it. In the product, this line is called the context chain. Your mission, vision, strategy, goals, and domain model sit near the top. Projects and tickets are the work at the bottom.
The check starts from each mission, vision, strategy, goal, and domain model that is not a draft, is not closed, and has at least one record below it. It follows every link downward and looks for a project or ticket.
Any project or ticket counts, whatever its status. The flag means the decision was never broken into work, not that its work is finished or stalled.
What Helen records.
When part of your plan is missing, Helen raises a flag. In the product, this flag is called a finding. Each Decomposition Gap finding records the decision and what is missing below it.
- The decision Its title, its type, and its current status.
- What is missing A note that no project or ticket sits anywhere below it.
What a person does about it.
The flag goes to Reconcile, the place where a person decides what to do about a flag. Reconcile lists Decomposition Gap findings under Completeness, with other missing work, and keeps that group collapsed until you open it.
Reconcile asks you to add projects or tickets under the decision. Break it into work when your team is ready to start. If the decision no longer holds, close it. Once a project or ticket sits below it, Helen resolves the finding on her next check.
A workspace admin can also acknowledge the flag, which hides it from the default view, or dismiss it with a reason. There is no bulk action for this flag. Helen does not label it as blocking, and she never changes a decision on her own.
Research basis.
Simon, H. A. (1962). The architecture of complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106(6), 467–482.
See what Helen flags in your own plans.
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