Wardley Maps Community Hub

Wardley Mapping is a technique that helps you examine your environment, identify upcoming changes and properly choose your actions. By examining what is needed, what components will be in use, what are their dependencies and characteristics, you can build a visual representation of your world, play what-if games, and pick your direction and best actions to support it.

This is a list of useful Wardley mapping resources and examples. Short URL: list.wardleymaps.com. Contributions welcome! Contribution guidelines for adding something to the list.

Contents

• Quick Start
• Community
• Reading
• Videos
• Courses
• Maps in the Wild
• Research Papers
• Apps
• Templates
• Events
• Workshops
• Meetups

Quick Start

• Investing in innovation - How situational awareness can put your business on the map (5:51).
• My basics for business strategy - In 11 diagrams by Simon Wardley.
• Getting Strategic on Peace and Justice - An engaging animation by Sue Borchardt (5:39).

Community

• Wardley Mapping Forum - A place to discuss everything connected with Wardley Maps.
• mapcamp.slack.com - Join Map Camp on Slack here.
• LinkedIn Group - Wardley Maps Community.
• Mapping Maps Newsletter - Subscribe here. Newsletter archive.
• #WardleyMaps - Join the conversation.

Reading

• Wardley maps - Topographical intelligence in business - Creative Commons book by Simon Wardley.
  • E-book - PDF and Kindle downloads.
  • Audiobook - MP3 downloads.
  • Spanish Translation - Mapas de Wardley. El uso de la inteligencia topográfica en la estrategia empresarial.
• Glossary
• Wardleypedia - A Wiki Encyclopedia dedicated to the strategy mapping techniques pioneered by Simon Wardley.
• Wardley map - Wikipedia entry.
• Bits or pieces? - Simon Wardley's blog.
• Practical Introduction to Wardley Mapping - A step-by-step guide to creating and using Wardley Maps by E. Alex Hudson. PDF/iPad/Kindle.
• The Art of Strategy - Sun Tzu, Boyd & Wardley on situational awareness, OODA "Loops" and Wardley mapping by Erik Schön. PDF/Paperback.
• Reaching Cloud Velocity: A Leader's Guide to Success in the AWS Cloud - Chapter 2.3 Mapping Your Way Through.

Videos

• Wardley Maps - Community YouTube channel and playlists.
• Wardley Maps on Vimeo - Talks by Simon Wardley and the Wardley mapping community.
• Wardley Maps BarCamp 2020 - Over 10 hours of presentations by 17 speakers.
• Map Camp London 2019 - Watch presentations and video recordings on InfoQ.

Courses

• Wardley Mapping - Learn how to stimulate future ideas and strategies with the Leading Edge Forum.
• LearnWardleyMapping.com - Video chapter summaries of Simon Wardley's book, 15-minute introductory course, and a quick reference.
• GCATI - Globally recognised Wardley mapping training and certifications; Awareness, Foundation, Practitioner, Strategy Development Workshop and Wardley Mapping BattleCamp.
• User Strategy Development with Wardley Maps in Miro - Tricia Bagley, Coursera Project Network.

Maps in the Wild

Blog posts and other interesting examples of Wardley maps. Ordered by date, newest first.

• Digital Sovereignty - Look before you leap. Oct 22, 2020.
• How to use Wardley Mapping to understand how you deliver customer value - Sep 15, 2020.
• The What, The Why and Some How of Wardley Mapping - A conversation with Simon Wardley. Aug 4, 2020.
• Doctrine or Dogma? - Challenge your Wardley mapping assumptions in a friendly way. Aug 2, 2020.
• How to Introduce Wardley Mapping to Different Strata of the Organization - What is the best way to introduce Wardley Mapping to different groups? Jul 22, 2020.
• Thoughts on 'value' in the Value Chain - It is important to understand the need and outcome. It is vital to understand the value desired. Jul 17, 2020.
• Would you survive the loss of your phone? - How to use Wardley mapping to increase resilience using personal security as an example. Jun 18, 2020.
• Estratégia com Wardley Maps - Jun 7, 2020.
• Wenn Customizing zur Legacy wird - Analyse eines ERP-Systems mit Wardley Maps und strategischem Domain-driven Design. Jun 2, 2020.
• Your story never had a chance - Gameplay, fractal patterns, feedback loops, doctrine. May 9, 2020.
• Mapping the blog - Applying Wardley maps to personal blog user needs. Apr 20, 2020.
• Research Skills Framework - The RSF Map and Mapping Kit build upon Simon Wardley's maps. Retrieved Mar 30, 2020.
• Me versus We - Off the beaten track — pivot. Mar 27, 2020.
• On the diversity of values - On the inclusive and exclusive nature of values. Feb 24, 2020.
• From HS2 to China and … back again - On the changing world of geopolitics. Feb 23, 2020.
• Mapping Alignment - Looking across teams and strata in an organisation and the practices used to meet organisational needs like alignment, reporting, etc. Feb 9, 2020.
• Blockchain brokers trust in a fragmented world - Wardley mapping shows blockchain is following the same maturity evolution as other mainstream technologies. 28 Jan, 2020.
• Some initial thoughts about ERP systems - Jan 23, 2020.
• Structural Deepening - Using Wardley maps to look at the evolution of the jet engine. Jan 5, 2020.
• Map Your Improvement Strategy - Because that expert you hired has no magical bullets. Nov 4, 2019.
• Embedded in memory - Cultural cycles. Oct 2, 2019.
• Exploring value - Values, resilience, principles, enablement systems. Oct 1, 2019.
• From values to rituals - Sep 9, 2019.
• Exploring Brexit - The first rule of Brexit is “you’re wrong”. Sep 5, 2019.
• Exploring Culture - Mapping Culture. Sep 4, 2019.
• Building a working map of Ethereum 1.0 - 10,000 feet view of Ethereum's user needs and capabilities. Aug 13, 2019.
• What culture is right for you? - Jul 31, 2019.
• An illustration from Gerstner's book - Part 2 - Mapping "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" by Louis Gerstner. Jun 18, 2019.
• Mapping Crypto: Common Pitfalls - Mapping the challenges of launching novel payment solutions. Jun 14, 2019.
• Mapping Crypto: A Primer - Understanding the crypto ecosystem through Wardley maps. Jun 2, 2019.
• Broaden the scope of the SUT - Understanding how test strategies are based on the underlying landscape. Apr 19, 2019
• Plotting a path to a greener web with Wardley mapping - The Green Web Foundation. Mar 20, 2019.
• UN Global Platform - Handbook on Information Technology Strategy - Covers the development of your IT strategy using Wardley Maps to predict the future, understand which methodologies are best suited to developing and delivery information management systems. Download the Wardley map source files used to create the Handbook on IT Strategy. Mar 13, 2019.
• UN Privacy Preserving Techniques Handbook - Two use cases: giving NSOs access to new sources of (sensitive) Big Data; and enabling Big Data Collaborations Across Multiple NSO. Download Wardley maps slide deck. Mar 12, 2019.
• The Art of Strategy - A curated atlas of Wardley mapping examples. Mar 6, 2019 - Present.
• Burja Mapping - Combines Samo Burja's Empire Theory with a form of mapping similar to that pioneered by Simon Wardley. Jan 2, 2019.
• Research heresies - Three ways to think about user needs and user research and how Wardley maps can help us think about where to do user research. Nov 2, 2018.
• What is an expert? - Oct 31, 2018.
• Rebooting GDS - How to stop the organisation from actively harming itself by focusing on doctrine and spend control. Oct 30, 2018.
• A Platform Design Example Explained - Exploring and designing a platform in the renewable energy context. Oct 28, 2019.
• Understanding Platforms through Value Chain Maps - Why is a Platforms' Wardley (Value Chain) Map Z-Shaped? Oct 11, 2018.
• Healthcare information technology strategy - How can we make best use of technology to support healthcare? Jul 19, 2018.
• Mapping Maturity - Context specific maturity models with Wardley maps informed by Cynefin. May 11, 2018.
• A mechanism for building a roadmap - Using a Wardley map to build a roadmap. Jan 9, 2018.
• Uber, the not so disrupting disruptor? - By Simon Wardley. Sep 11, 2017.
• Blue pill or red pill? - Doctrine and doctrine phases by Simon Wardley. May 25, 2017.
• Is my diagram a map? - By Simon Wardley. May 12, 2017.
• Gameplay for Data Flow - By James Urquhart. Mar 24, 2017.
• Applying doctrine to data flow - By James Urquhart. Feb 4, 2017.
• Designing for constant evolution - Pioneer, Settler and Town Planner (Wardley PST). Jan 31, 2017.
• Near field, far field and the crazy ideas - My future career as a Harmony Designer. Jan 17, 2017.
• Adding Context To The Wardley Map of Data Flow - How do you extract value from the jumble of components and value relationships by James Urquhart. Jan 12, 2017.
• A Simple Wardley Map of Data Flow - Building a Wardley Map from a value chain for "real time business automation" by James Urquhart. Dec 30, 2016.
• The data flow value chain - Exploring a value chain using a basic architecture of data flow by James Urquhart. Dec 22, 2016.
• Thank you Amazon. Boom! Everything in business will change - Dec 3, 2016.
• Something that will change the world of competition - Dec 1, 2016.
• Amazon is eating the software (which is eating the world) - Nov 30, 2016.
• The map is not the territory - Nov 24, 2016.
• Why the fuss about serverless? - Evolution and co-evolution of architectural practice and worth based development. Nov 23, 2016.
• On user needs and listening to customers - Simon Wardley focuses on one of the most important parts of mapping - the anchor. April 11, 2016.
• Evolving Enterprise Collaboration To Digital Ecosystems - Oct 17, 2015.
• The power of situational awareness for digital government - Part 2 Mark Thompson outlines a digital vision to make government a more cohesive, integrated organisation. Oct 9, 2015.
• Time to get mapping - how a blind government can develop sight - Part 1 Mark Thompson outlines a digital vision to make government a more cohesive, integrated organisation. Oct 9, 2015.
• Simon Wardley's 100-day Corporate get fit plan - For the newly-appointed executive, to help get you into a position from which you can start to learn and talk about strategy. Aug 21, 2015.
• Other tools I use with mapping - Simon Wardley discusses some of the other tools he uses with mapping. Mar 6, 2015.
• Guest post: mapping the way to a strategy - GOV.UK Government Digital Service. 16 Apr, 2014.
• Context, Situation, Components, PaaS, Dead or Alive … it's all semantics isn't it? - tl;dr Caveat Emptor. Feb 4, 2014.

Research Papers

• Building Situational Awareness in the Age of Service Ecosystems - Pujadas, R; Thompson, M; Venters, W; et al. March 2019.
• Mapping Practice Papers - A series of position papers published by the Leading Edge Forum. Jun 13, 2018 - Jan 28, 2019.

Apps

Mapping

• OnlineWardleyMaps - Online open source mapping tool. For updates follow @MapsAsCode on Twitter. Hosted version available here. Online documentation Wardley Maps as Code.
• Wardley Maps for Visual Studio Code - Render and edit Wardley maps within Visual Studio Code. This VSCode extention leverages the engine from OnlineWardleyMaps.com. Online documentation Wardley Maps as Code.
• Wardley Maps for Jupyter Notebooks (ipywardley) - A plugin for generating Wardley maps in Jupyter Notebooks.
• Atlas2 - Open source mapping tool. Hosted version available here.
• MapScript - Note MapScript is built on Observable. Read their Terms of Service. MapScript feature requests. Hosted version available here.
• Go-Wardley - Generates a Wardley map in SVG format from a HCL-based map description file.

Doctrine Assessement

• Doctrine - A simple tool for visualising how competitive a company is in light of Wardley's doctrine. Hosted version available here.

Commercial Enterprise Platforms

• Wemvula - A visual transformation platform that provides the situational awareness to make sense of your interconnected web of needs, ideas, service components, supply contracts and change activities.

Templates

• Wardley Mapping Tools and Techniques - A semi-serious reflection on the problem space of tools for mapping, and an overview of all sorts of mapping tools and techniques.

Mapping

• Wardley Maps in draw.io - How-to guide with animations and a collection of open source Wardley map icons.
• Office 365 Wardley Mapping Templates - Templates for Microsoft Visio and PowerPoint.
• Miro Wardley Mapping Template - How-to guide on mapping using this template.
• Figma Mapping Template - A mapping template for Figma.
• wardley-omnigraffle - Wardley mapping stencils for OmniGraffle.
• Wardley Maps in LaTeX - Figures 8 and 11 from the book by Simon Wardley to demonstrate drawing Wardley maps in LaTeX.
• yEd Palette - Wardley maps palette for yEd.

Doctrine Assessement

• Doctrine Grid Tool - Based on Google Forms and Google Sheets.

Events

• Map Camp 2020 - A free all-day online event on October 13, 2020.
• Map Camp - Follow Map Camp on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Workshops

• Wardley Maps Battle Camp - Workshop rules, cards and materials.
• Workshop Building Block - New Year's Eve Party - Help workshop participants gain confidence in mapping in a business-neutral environment.

Meetups

• Australia
  • Melbourne
• Europe
  • Belgium
    • Antwerp
  • Czech Republic
    • Prague
  • France
    • Paris
  • Germany
    • Cologne
    • Hamburg
    • Munich
  • Netherlands
    • Amsterdam
  • Norway
    • Oslo
  • Serbia
    • Belgrade
  • Spain
    • Barcelona - Organizational Change - Wardley Maps
    • Barcelona - Wardley Maps Strategy
  • Switzerland
    • Basel
  • UK
    • London
• North America
  • USA
    • California
      • San Diego

License

To the extent possible under law, the Wardley Maps Community has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.