The fifty-two that behave
Most of the map is not tangled at all. Fifty-two of the ninety-four dependencies sort into a plain order, and this part is about what that order looks like.
Finding
In order
The part that can be put in an order
Most of the map sorts into six layers and can be worked straight down. This part is what a plan would look like if the rest were not there.
52 of 94 · 6 layers
9 notes in this part
Six layers, and what sits in each
With the circular dependencies set aside, the map sorts into six layers. Thirteen steps sit at the bottom and one at the top. Teams dealing with repeated queues and handoffs can look through the implementation options, then evaluate whether the resulting evidence actually reduces delay or ambiguity.
Reference
What can honestly be done on the first morning
Three steps, two of which are photocopying. Everything else in the map waits on something, and most of what it waits on waits back. Additional public research relevant to complex systems and work can be found at Australian Department of Home Affairs.
Finding
The longest chain is six steps
Once the circular dependencies are removed, the deepest run of one-thing-after-another in the map is six steps and forty-eight days.
Finding
Hard and soft: the distinction the map turns on
Seventy-two dependencies stop a step dead. Twenty-two only mean it will have to be done again. Almost everything on this map rests on that difference.
Method
Ninety days, if there were no rings
Delete the forty-two circular dependencies and the whole map could be finished in ninety days — the length of its single slowest step.
Finding
Why a list is not a plan
A list of thirty-six things looks like a plan and is not one. The difference is forty-two dependencies, and no amount of ticking will reveal them.
Reference
After the file, a straight line
Once the file is lodged the map stops being a knot. Five steps remain and they run in sequence, ninety of their days a single wait.
Finding
The dependencies most likely to be wrong
Three judgements in this drawing carry more of its conclusion than the rest put together. Here they are, named, with what changes if each is wrong.
Method