What is a Trigger?
A trigger is defined as a catalyst event—internal or external—that compels an organisation to adapt. It is not a standalone structural element but a contextual stimulus that prompts changes to strategy, activates capabilities, or demands cross-functional coordination. Triggers may include legislative changes, customer demands, or performance breaches.
A Trigger is not a standalone structural element of an organisation but an external or internal event, condition, or hypothesis that causes the organisation to:
Mobilise capabilities,
Evaluate policies,
Adjust strategies,
Initiate new initiatives,
Coordinate across services and information flows.
In the Orthogramic Metamodel:
Trigger is a supporting artifact, not a domain.
It is only relevant in the context of a
strategicResponseModel
.
Example: Strategic Response Model Artefact
This section presents a detailed example of a strategic response model, illustrating how a specific trigger—such as the mandated use of AI in compliance reporting—activates relevant strategies, units, capabilities, and initiatives. It demonstrates the practical application of the artefact in real-world organisational strategic responses.
Strategic response model trigger: Mandatory introduction of AI-enabled safety compliance reporting
Strategic drivers:
Reduce regulatory breach risk
Improve transparency in safety inspections
Key units:
Safety Technology Division (owning unit of AI capability)
Operations (utilising unit for inspection automation)
Legal & Risk (dependent on compliance datasets)
Capabilities:
AI-driven compliance reporting (owned by Safety Tech)
Digital field inspection (provided by Operations)
Safety data analytics (supported by Risk & Legal)
Services:
Compliance assurance service
Safety incident triage
Value streams:
Rail infrastructure incident response
Annual compliance certification
Information:
Real-time safety telemetry
Historical incident database
Stakeholders:
Federal Transport Regulator
Union of Track Workers
Policies:
Data transparency policy
AI auditing standards
Performance KPIs:
% of safety incidents auto-classified
Mean response time to compliance events
Initiatives:
AI for Safety Program (current)
Transparent Audit Framework (proposed)
Strategic Response Model trigger catalogue
The trigger catalogue provides a curated and expanding set of predefined triggers that can be used to initiate strategic responses. Each trigger is tagged to relevant business architecture domains, enabling efficient strategic response planning and alignment across organisational activities.
...
Trigger Category
...
Example Triggers
...
Regulatory or compliance
...
New legislation, compliance audit mandate, data sovereignty changes
...
Technological change
...
AI rollout, cybersecurity breach, platform deprecation
...
Environmental & safety
...
Natural disaster preparedness, climate risk disclosures, workplace injury reform
...
Operational transformation
...
Business process outsourcing, shared services implementation, lean redesign
...
Strategic re-alignment
...
Mergers and acquisitions, board-level strategic pivot, budget realignment
...
Customer & stakeholder
...
Community expectations shift, digital service demand surge, key account loss
...
Workforce & skills
...
Critical skill shortage, union action, remote work policy adoption
...
Performance response
...
KPI threshold breach, repeated incident occurrence, audit fail
...
Political or social
...
Public inquiry, ministerial intervention, social licence erosion
...
Innovation-led opportunity
...
Grant funding availability, pilot program success, ecosystem partnership offer
Each strategic response triggered using this catalogue links back to relevant Orthogramic Metamodel domains—such as capabilities, services, initiatives, and stakeholders—to produce a dynamic view of organisational readiness and response.
Relationship with Rationales
Rationales play an important role in classifying and organising strategic responses. Ensure that the trigger catalogue—which lists common environmental or operational triggers prompting strategic responses—is up to date. Reference to the trigger catalogue within this page ensures that rationales are accurately categorised based on their initiating context, improving traceability from external or internal stimuli through to strategic objectives, initiatives, and performance metrics.
DriverType values for rationales
SRM trigger catalogue as an enumeration list of driverType
values for rationales. For example:
"driverType": {
"type": "string",
"enum": [
"Regulatory change",
"Customer demand shift",
"Operational risk",
"Technology obsolescence",
"Performance shortfall",
"Cost pressure",
"Workforce change",
"Stakeholder expectation",
"Market opportunity"
],
"description": "High-level driver category that provides the basis for the rationale."
}
Definition of strategicResponseModel
as a composable artefact
This section formalises the strategic response model as composable within the Orthogramic Metamodel. It outlines the attributes required to define a model, including associated triggers, organisational roles, information dependencies, and KPIs, supporting reuse and integration across governance and planning tools.
...
Attribute
...
Type
...
Description
...
id
...
UUID
...
Unique strategic response model ID
...
responseTitle
...
Text
...
Human-readable name of the strategic response model
...
description
...
Text
...
Summary of the strategic response model’s purpose and scope
...
triggerID
...
Link to Trigger
entity
...
Source event or condition
...
relatedDrivers
...
List of StrategyDriver
...
Strategy elements influenced
...
affectedCapabilities
...
List of Capability
...
Impacted capabilities
...
relatedValueStreams
...
List of ValueStream
...
Value streams engaged
...
impactedUnits
...
List of OrganisationUnit
...
Units with strategic response model-specific roles
...
servicesInScope
...
List of Service
...
Services required or affected
...
dataDependencies
...
List of InformationAsset
...
Key information entities involved
...
policiesInScope
...
List of Policy
...
Applicable rules or regulations
...
stakeholders
...
List of Stakeholder
...
Stakeholders affected or involved
...
kpis
...
List of PerformanceMetric
...
Metrics used to assess strategic response model success
...
linkedInitiatives
...
List of Initiative
...
Programs or projects implementing the response
This format ensures that the strategic response definition is:
Declarative (not procedural or UI-specific),
Traceable (everything points to reusable metamodel entities),
Reusable (across tools, audits, planning activities).
Strategic Response Model JSON Schema
...
Table of Contents | ||
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Introduction
The strategic response model in the Orthogramic Metamodel provides a structured, traceable way to represent how an organisation prepares for and reacts to specific events or conditions—referred to as triggers. These may be internal or external in origin and include changes such as new legislation, technological shifts, workforce disruptions, or emerging stakeholder expectations.
By defining strategic responses through the lens of business architecture domains, the strategic response model enables organisations to systematically assess the impact of a trigger across capabilities, value streams, services, policies, information assets, and stakeholders. It supports alignment of initiatives with strategic objectives and helps clarify the roles of organisation units in responding to change.
This composable artefact strengthens enterprise resilience, supports compliance, and informs forward planning by establishing a consistent format for understanding and managing business strategic responses.
Structure of the artefact
This section outlines how the strategic response model is composed within the Orthogramic Metamodel. It highlights the relationships between the trigger, the impacted organisational domains, and the strategic response artefact that provides a reusable and structured representation of the organisation's response.
...
Section
...
Description
...
Strategic response model trigger
...
A defined external or internal event. Example: Proposed national safety legislation for hazardous freight.
...
Impacted strategic drivers
...
One or more strategic objectives tagged as relevant to the trigger.
...
Key organisation units
...
Units tagged as responsible, dependent, or impacted based on capability and service roles.
...
Affected capabilities
...
Filtered based on alignment with strategic objectives or dependency relationships.
...
Service dependencies
...
Services required to respond to or deliver the desired outcome of the strategic response.
...
Value streams engaged
...
End-to-end business processes likely to be activated or altered.
...
Information requirements
...
Information assets needed to inform decisions or satisfy compliance.
...
Stakeholders
...
Primary stakeholders affected, mapped to expectations, engagement plans, or risks.
...
Policies and compliance
...
Policies that apply or must be created/updated.
...
Performance measures
...
KPIs that will demonstrate strategic response readiness or success.
...
Initiative/program links
...
Existing or proposed initiatives addressing the strategic response.
Table of Contents | ||
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Strategic response model
Introduction
The Strategic Response Model (SRM) allows organisations to capture and understand how internal or external triggers lead to deliberate, structured responses across the business. It provides traceability between cause and effect—connecting performance insights, regulatory changes, stakeholder demands, and other drivers with the actions taken to realign business architecture domains.
This model supports continuous strategic alignment by documenting why a change occurred, how it was rationalised, and what was impacted—across strategies, capabilities, initiatives, policy, and organisational units.
Purpose
The SRM strengthens strategic governance by ensuring that:
Business responses are traceable to defined triggers
Rationales are explicitly captured and consistently structured
Impact across domains and organisational units is recorded
Organisational learning and auditability are enhanced
Structure
Each Strategic Response includes:
A trigger: drawn from the shared trigger catalogue
A rationale object: structured and detailed, replacing simple references
One or more affected domains: such as policy, initiatives, or capabilities
Impacted organisational units: using defined role types
Response actions: steps taken or planned
Expected outcomes: anticipated benefits or changes in performance
Rationale object
Each response includes a rationale
object that captures the justification for action. It replaces previous references to rationaleId
and allows richer traceability and reasoning.
Field | Description |
---|---|
| A short name for the rationale |
| A detailed explanation of the reasoning behind the response |
| Categorises the driver (e.g. Regulatory, Risk, Market, Insight) |
| Reference to the originating insight, regulation, or analysis |
| KPIs that the response is intended to influence or improve |
| (Optional) Indicates urgency or importance (e.g. High, Medium, Low) |
Trigger catalogue
Responses reference a trigger selected from a standardised catalogue of events, trends, or insights. This ensures consistency in classifying causes of change and enables systemic analysis across responses.
See: Trigger catalogue
Affected domains
Strategic responses typically impact one or more of the following domains:
Strategy: adjustments to goals or strategic direction
Capabilities: development, enhancement, or decommissioning
Initiatives: programs or projects started or stopped
Policy: introduction or amendment of rules and frameworks
Performance: redefinition or reweighting of KPIs
Information: changes to how data is used or governed
Value Stream: refinements in end-to-end value delivery
Impacted organisational units
The impactedUnits
array uses standardised relationship roles (as defined in the Inter-unit Domain Relationships model). These include:
Owning: responsible for executing or delivering the response
Providing: delivers resources or services into the response
Utilising: benefits directly from the response outcome
Consuming: depends on updated processes or data
Dependent: cannot proceed without the change
Custodian: maintains the associated processes or information
Governed by: subject to new or modified policies
Supported by: indirectly enhanced by the outcome without direct contribution
Each unit listed includes a description of how it is impacted, ensuring traceability to structure and accountability.
Example
Trigger: Regulation 10.15/F—Mandatory Near Miss Reporting
Rationale:
Code Block |
---|
{
"rationaleTitle": "Compliance with Regulation 10.15/F",
"description": "Federal regulation mandates improved near-miss reporting. The goal is to enable predictive analytics to reduce preventable incidents.",
"driverType": "Regulatory",
"sourceDocument": "FRA Bulletin 2025/04",
"relatedKPIs": ["Near Miss Capture Rate", "Incident Prevention Rate"],
"priorityLevel": "High"
} |
Affected domains: Policy, Capabilities, Performance
Impacted units:
Track Safety Division – Owning
Risk & Compliance – Custodian
Regional Safety Teams – Supported by
Response actions:
Define new reporting protocols
Train field inspectors
Deploy incident management tool enhancements
Expected outcome:
80% near-miss reporting coverage within 12 months
Reduction in preventable incidents by 20% by end of 2026What is a Trigger?
Triggers
A trigger is defined as a catalyst event—internal or external—that compels an organisation to adapt. It is not a standalone structural element but a contextual stimulus that prompts changes to strategy, activates capabilities, or demands cross-functional coordination. Triggers may include legislative changes, customer demands, or performance breaches.
A Trigger is not a standalone structural element of an organisation but an external or internal event, condition, or hypothesis that causes the organisation to:
Mobilise capabilities,
Evaluate policies,
Adjust strategies,
Initiate new initiatives,
Coordinate across services and information flows.
In the Orthogramic Metamodel:
Trigger is a supporting artifact, not a domain.
It is only relevant in the context of a
strategicResponseModel
.
Example: Strategic Response Model Artefact
This section presents a detailed example of a strategic response model, illustrating how a specific trigger—such as the mandated use of AI in compliance reporting—activates relevant strategies, units, capabilities, and initiatives. It demonstrates the practical application of the artefact in real-world organisational strategic responses.
Strategic response model trigger: Mandatory introduction of AI-enabled safety compliance reporting
Strategic drivers:
Reduce regulatory breach risk
Improve transparency in safety inspections
Key units:
Safety Technology Division (owning unit of AI capability)
Operations (utilising unit for inspection automation)
Legal & Risk (dependent on compliance datasets)
Capabilities:
AI-driven compliance reporting (owned by Safety Tech)
Digital field inspection (provided by Operations)
Safety data analytics (supported by Risk & Legal)
Services:
Compliance assurance service
Safety incident triage
Value streams:
Rail infrastructure incident response
Annual compliance certification
Information:
Real-time safety telemetry
Historical incident database
Stakeholders:
Federal Transport Regulator
Union of Track Workers
Policies:
Data transparency policy
AI auditing standards
Performance KPIs:
% of safety incidents auto-classified
Mean response time to compliance events
Initiatives:
AI for Safety Program (current)
Transparent Audit Framework (proposed)
Trigger catalogue
The trigger catalogue provides a curated and expanding set of predefined triggers that can be used to initiate strategic responses. Each trigger is tagged to relevant business architecture domains, enabling efficient strategic response planning and alignment across organisational activities.
Trigger Category | Example Triggers |
Regulatory or compliance | New legislation, compliance audit mandate, data sovereignty changes |
Technological change | AI rollout, cybersecurity breach, platform deprecation |
Environmental & safety | Natural disaster preparedness, climate risk disclosures, workplace injury reform |
Operational transformation | Business process outsourcing, shared services implementation, lean redesign |
Strategic re-alignment | Mergers and acquisitions, board-level strategic pivot, budget realignment |
Customer & stakeholder | Community expectations shift, digital service demand surge, key account loss |
Workforce & skills | Critical skill shortage, union action, remote work policy adoption |
Performance response | KPI threshold breach, repeated incident occurrence, audit fail |
Political or social | Public inquiry, ministerial intervention, social licence erosion |
Innovation-led opportunity | Grant funding availability, pilot program success, ecosystem partnership offer |
Each strategic response triggered using this catalogue links back to relevant Orthogramic Metamodel domains—such as capabilities, services, initiatives, and stakeholders—to produce a dynamic view of organisational readiness and response.
Relationship with Rationales
Rationales play an important role in classifying and organising strategic responses. Ensure that the trigger catalogue—which lists common environmental or operational triggers prompting strategic responses—is up to date. Reference to the trigger catalogue within this page ensures that rationales are accurately categorised based on their initiating context, improving traceability from external or internal stimuli through to strategic objectives, initiatives, and performance metrics.
DriverType values for rationales
SRM trigger catalogue as an enumeration list of driverType
values for rationales. For example:
"driverType": {
"type": "string",
"enum": [
"Regulatory change",
"Customer demand shift",
"Operational risk",
"Technology obsolescence",
"Performance shortfall",
"Cost pressure",
"Workforce change",
"Stakeholder expectation",
"Market opportunity"
],
"description": "High-level driver category that provides the basis for the rationale."
}
Definition of strategicResponseModel
as a composable artefact
This section formalises the strategic response model as composable within the Orthogramic Metamodel. It outlines the attributes required to define a model, including associated triggers, organisational roles, information dependencies, and KPIs, supporting reuse and integration across governance and planning tools.
Attribute | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
| UUID | Unique strategic response model ID |
| Text | Human-readable name of the strategic response model |
| Text | Summary of the strategic response model’s purpose and scope |
| Link to | Source event or condition |
| List of | Strategy elements influenced |
| List of | Impacted capabilities |
| List of | Value streams engaged |
| List of | Units with strategic response model-specific roles |
| List of | Services required or affected |
| List of | Key information entities involved |
| List of | Applicable rules or regulations |
| List of | Stakeholders affected or involved |
| List of | Metrics used to assess strategic response model success |
| List of | Programs or projects implementing the response |
This format ensures that the strategic response definition is:
Declarative (not procedural or UI-specific),
Traceable (everything points to reusable metamodel entities),
Reusable (across tools, audits, planning activities).
Strategic Response Model JSON Schema
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"title": "Strategic Response Model Schema",
"description": "Schema for representing strategic responses to triggers that affect business architecture domains.",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"responseTitle": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The name or title of the Strategic Response"
},
"description": {
"type": "string",
"description": "A detailed explanation of the Strategic Response and its intent"
},
"triggerId": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Reference ID linking to the triggering event or driver"
},
"triggerType": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The category of trigger",
"enum": ["Regulatory", "Market", "Risk", "Performance Insight", "Stakeholder Demand", "Technology Shift", "Other"]
},
"rationale": {
"type": "object",
"description": "Structured rationale that justifies the Strategic Response",
"properties": {
"rationaleTitle": {
"type": "string",
"description": "A short name for the rationale"
},
"description": {
"type": "string",
"description": "A detailed explanation of the reasoning behind the response"
},
"driverType": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Category of driver for the rationale",
"enum": ["Regulatory", "Risk", "Market", "Insight", "Stakeholder", "Technology", "Compliance", "Other"]
},
"sourceDocument": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The name or title of the Strategic ResponseDocument or source that prompted this rationale"
},
"descriptionrelatedKPIs": {
"type": "stringarray",
"description": "A detailed explanation of the Strategic Response and its intent"
}List of KPIs that this response intends to influence",
"triggerIditems": {
"type": "string",
"descriptiontype": "Reference ID linking to the triggering event, condition, or driverstring"
}
},
"triggerTypepriorityLevel": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The category of trigger (e.g. Regulatory, Market, Risk, Performance Insight)",
"enum": ["Regulatory", "Market", "Risk", "Performance Insight", "Stakeholder Demand", "Technology Shift", "OtherUrgency or criticality of the rationale",
"enum": ["High", "Medium", "Low"]
}
},
"rationaleIdrequired": {
"type": "string",
["rationaleTitle", "description": "Reference ID linking to the Rationale that supports this response", "driverType"]
},
"affectedDomains": {
"type": "array",
"description": "Business architecture domains that are affected or changed by this impacted by the response",
"items": {
"type": "string",
"enum": ["Strategy", "Capabilities", "Initiatives", "Policy", "Performance", "Services", "Information", "Value Stream"]
}
},
"impactedUnits": {
"type": "array",
"description": "Organisation units impacted by this Strategic Responsethe response",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"orgUnitTitle": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The name or title "Name of the impacted organisation unit"
},
"relationshipRole": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The role Role played by the unit plays in relation to this response",
"enum": [
"Owning",
"UtilisingProviding",
"ProvidingUtilising",
"Consuming",
"Dependent",
"Custodian",
"Governed by",
"Supported by"
]
},
"impactDescription": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Narrative explanation of how the unit is affected"
}
},
"required": ["orgUnitTitle", "relationshipRole"]
}
},
"responseActions": {
"type": "array",
"description": "Actions taken or planned as part of the Strategic Response",
"items": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"expectedOutcomes": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Expected results or benefits of the Strategic Responsebenefits or changes resulting from this response"
},
"performanceImplications": {
"type": "string",
"description": "How this the response affects current or planned KPIs or performance metricstracking"
}
},
"required": ["responseTitle", "description", "triggerId", "triggerType", "rationale", "affectedDomains"]
}
Definition of trigger
as a new open entity
Triggers are defined as a new open entity within the Orthogramic Metamodel, enabling them to be referenced independently and reused across strategic responses. Each trigger includes a unique identifier, category, description, and links to strategic responses in which it plays a role.
Attribute | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
| UUID | Unique ID |
| Text | Short name (e.g. “Cybersecurity Incident”) |
| Enum | From defined set (e.g. Technological, Regulatory, etc.) |
| Text | Explanation of why this trigger matters |
| List of | Optional reverse reference |
...