Introduction

The Strategic Response Model provides a formalised structure for capturing how an organisation responds to external triggers, internal performance insights, and proactive strategic initiatives. It links these drivers to organisational reasoning (rationales) and defines the actions taken across strategic, policy, capability, and initiative domains. By making these relationships explicit, the model supports traceability, alignment, and accountability across the business architecture.

Each strategic response includes references to the triggers that prompted the change or the strategic intents that initiated it, along with the rationales that explain the basis for the response. Responses are associated with affected domains and are monitored through linked performance indicators, which define what success looks like and how progress is measured. These indicators support ongoing evaluation by including target values, baseline comparisons, timeframes, and data sources, enabling continuous assessment of strategic effectiveness.

This model supports continuous strategic alignment by documenting why a change occurred, how it was rationalised, and what was impacted and by how much—across strategies, capabilities, initiatives, policy, and organisational units.

Components of the strategic response model

The Strategic Response Model (SRM) links both proactive intentions and observed conditions—external and internal—to formal responses across Strategy, Capabilities, Policy, Initiatives, and other domains. It is comprised of four core elements:

• Strategic Intent: Proactive, forward-looking strategic initiatives that drive organizational change.

• Triggers: Events, insights, or conditions that prompt a response. See: Trigger

• Rationales: The reasoned justification for responding to a trigger or pursuing a strategic intent. See Rationale

• Responses: The aligned changes or activities, captured in other business architecture domains.

• Performance Indicators: The quantifiable metrics used to evaluate the success, efficiency, or impact. See: Performance indicators

This structured model enables traceable, auditable, and adaptive decision-making throughout the organisation.

Purpose

The SRM strengthens strategic governance by ensuring that:

• Business responses are traceable to defined triggers or strategic intents

• Rationales are explicitly captured and consistently structured

• Impact across domains and organisational units is recorded

• Organisational learning and auditability are enhanced

• Proactive strategic planning is integrated with reactive responses

Structure

Each Strategic Response includes:

• A trigger or strategic intent: drawn from the shared trigger catalogue or strategic intent register

• 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

• A performance indicator measuring a response

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). See: https://orthogramic.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OM/pages/285016368

Strategic intent model

The Strategic Intent Model provides a structured approach for capturing proactive, forward-looking strategic initiatives that drive organizational change. Unlike triggers which are reactive in nature, strategic intents represent deliberate organizational choices to pursue opportunities for innovation, growth, efficiency, or other strategic advantages.

Relationship with strategic responses

Strategic Intents have a one-to-many relationship with Strategic Responses. A single intent can spawn multiple coordinated responses across different domains and organizational units. This relationship is bidirectional, as Strategic Responses reference the Strategic Intent that initiated them through the intentReferences field.

Intent register

The organization maintains a Strategic Intent Register that catalogs all proactive strategic initiatives. This register enables:

• Tracking of intent-to-response relationships

• Assessment of strategic alignment

• Evaluation of intent completion and effectiveness

• Analysis of organizational proactivity vs. reactivity

Strategic context and relationships

Each Strategic Response now includes these properties capture the strategic context and relationships.:

• Strategic Themes: Identification of which organizational strategic priorities the response supports, enabling portfolio-level analysis of strategic coverage.

• Alignment Strength: A quantitative assessment (1-5) of how closely the response aligns with organizational strategy, supporting prioritization decisions.

• Adjacent Initiatives: Related initiatives that complement this response, facilitating coordination and preventing duplication.

• Strategic Levers: The primary business mechanisms being utilized (e.g., scale, scope, differentiation), providing insight into how the response creates value.

• Strategic Horizon: Categorization using the Three Horizons Framework:

  • Horizon 1: Core business optimization (0-18 months)

  • Horizon 2: Emerging opportunities (18-36 months)

  • Horizon 3: Creating viable options for future business (36+ months)

Purpose - Enhanced Benefits

The enhanced Strategic Response Model further strengthens strategic governance by ensuring that:

• Strategic responses are explicitly connected to organizational strategic themes

• The degree of strategic alignment is quantifiably assessed

• The portfolio of initiatives is coordinated through explicit adjacency relationships

• Value creation mechanisms are clearly identified

• Time horizons are explicitly considered in strategic planning

Relationship with rationales

Rationales play an important role in classifying and organising strategic responses and intents. Ensure that the trigger catalogue and strategic intent register—which lists common environmental or operational triggers and proactive intentions prompting strategic responses—are up to date. Reference to the trigger catalogue and strategic intent register 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.

Trigger catalogue reference

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.

Strategic response model JSON Schema

See: https://github.com/Orthogramic/Orthogramic_Metamodel

Schema properties

Strategic Response Schema

Strategic Intent Schema

Enumerations: Strategic Intent Components

Each Strategic Intent includes:

• A unique identifier (intentID)

• A concise title describing the strategic initiative

• A detailed description of the intent's purpose and scope

• Reference to the strategic objective it supports

• Classification of the opportunity type

• Assessment of maturity and uncertainty levels

• Estimated value and timeframe

• Links to resulting strategic responses

• Identified stakeholders and impacted capabilities

Enumeration Values

Opportunity Type

• Innovation: Creating new products, services, or business models

• Growth: Expanding market share, customer base, or revenue streams

• Efficiency: Optimizing processes, reducing costs, or improving productivity

• Resilience: Strengthening organizational adaptability or risk management

• Compliance: Addressing regulatory requirements or industry standards

• Differentiation: Creating competitive advantage through unique capabilities

• Sustainability: Enhancing environmental or social responsibility initiatives

• Transformation: Fundamentally changing organizational structure or operations

Maturity Level

• Conceptual: Early-stage idea requiring significant development

• Emerging: Partially developed concept with initial validation

• Established: Well-defined approach with proven implementation methods

• Scaling: Successfully implemented and ready for broader adoption

• Optimizing: Mature implementation focused on continuous improvement

Potential Value

• Low: Incremental impact with limited organizational benefits

• Medium: Moderate impact with significant benefits to specific domains

• High: Substantial impact with organization-wide benefits

• Transformative: Fundamental reshaping of organizational capabilities or market position

Uncertainty Level

• Low: Well-understood implementation with predictable outcomes

• Medium: Some unknowns but manageable with existing approaches

• High: Significant unknowns requiring new methods or capabilities

• Experimental: Highly speculative with unpredictable outcomes and potential pivots

Strategic Response Status

• Planned: Response defined but not yet initiated

• In Progress: Currently being implemented

• Completed: Successfully implemented and operational

• Deferred: Temporarily postponed but still intended

• Cancelled: Permanently stopped before completion

Strategic Intent Status

• Proposed: Initial concept under evaluation

• Active: Approved and currently being pursued

• Completed: Successfully realized with objectives met

• Abandoned: Discontinued due to changed priorities or conditions

• Transformed: Evolved into a different strategic intent

• Superseded: Replaced by a newer strategic intent

Strategic Levers

• Scale: Utilizing size, volume, or reach to create value

• Scope: Leveraging breadth of offerings or markets

• Differentiation: Creating unique value propositions

• Innovation: Developing novel solutions or approaches

• Efficiency: Optimizing resource utilization

• Resilience: Strengthening adaptive capacity

• Other: Strategic levers not covered by standard categories

Strategic Horizon

• Horizon 1: Maintaining and defending core business (0-18 months)

• Horizon 2: Building emerging business opportunities (18-36 months)

• Horizon 3: Creating viable options for future business (36+ months)