Wardley Mapping
Map strategic scenarios.
Author: Eero Hosiaisluoma @EeroHosi
Stage: This is a stub – if you would like to contribute and expand it please get in touch.
Phase: Focus | Explore | Co-Create | Invest | Realise | Sustain | All
Scope: Architecture | Identity | Experience | Enterprise
Flight level: Operations | Coordination | Strategy
Short description
Strategic scenario planning can take advantage of scenario mapping with Wardley Mapping. A Wardley Map represents the situational awareness and assumptions about a context, and illustrates which strategic scenarios are available, or have been recognised.
Why and how to use
A Wardley map is a tool and an approach with which strategic scenarios can be made. The tool is simple; it consists of Y- and X-axes. The Y-axis represents the visibility towards the customer (activities needed to fulfil customer needs), and the X-axis represents the evolution (how activities change over time). The map is anchored to customer segment(s), to which the strategic movements can be taken.
A Wardley Map is a representation of business operations in a certain context. The example above introduces an operational business landscape, in which certain strategic scenarios can be made by the management and specialists (C-level + professional advisors).
The diagram represents the following strategic scenarios:
Scenario 1: Customer Service -capability is outsourced, for better customer service and cost efficiency. The new service provider manages both personnel and concerned applications (e.g. CRM).
Scenario 2: Order Handling -capability is changed to utilise the Order Handling application as a SaaS cloud service from an external provider, for better and modernised features. This scenario is keeping the personnel and other applications within the organisation. Another option, scenario 2 B would e.g. outsource the whole Order Handling capability, not only parts of it.
Scenario 3: Delivery and Logistics -capability is outsourced, as it is not the core but a supporting operation of the business of the organisation. These scenarios can be executed sequentially, or alternative scenarios can be created for each main scenario. There is always a scenario ‘no changes at all; nothing is to be changed’, and then several alternative scenarios in what extent the target area is to be changed (from partly to completely changed).
A Wardley Map can be used for strategic scenario planning.
The Operational Map (an applied Wardley Map) enables scenario planning for operational changes, like capability development. Its five phases, 1) Genesis (New), 2) Custom, 3) Optimised, 4) Standardised, and 5) Utility, are optimised for operational development, covering both behavioral and structural elements, not just technical ones.
An example Operational Map shown below.
Why an Operational Map?
A standard Wardley Map is excellent for mapping technical assets - applications, platforms, infrastructure - along their evolution from custom-built to commodity. But operational change rarely stops at technology. When an organisation outsources e.g. Customer Service capability, the change affects people, processes, skills, governance, and contracts just as much as the CRM application. A traditional Wardley Map doesn't distinguish between these dimensions; everything is simply a "component" on the same axis.
The Operational Map addresses this gap. By extending the evolution axis into five phases: Genesis, Custom, Optimised, Standardised, and Utility - it provides a more granular lens that fits how operational capabilities actually mature. A new capability with its contents (such as people, processes and assets) may begin as an ad-hoc initiative carried by a few people (Genesis), become a defined and established, organisation-specific practice (Custom), get measured and improved (Optimised), align with industry standards or performed with partnership etc. (Standardised), and eventually be completely outsourced (Utility). This progression applies equally to behavioral elements (ways of working, competencies, culture) and structural elements (applications, data, infrastructure), making it possible to plan the full scope of an operational change - not only the technical slice of it.