In order
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.
A dependency in this map is either hard or soft.
Hard means the second step cannot be begun at all until the first is finished. Soft means it can be begun, but if the first turns out differently it will have to be done over.
Seventy-two are hard. Twenty-two are soft.
Why the distinction does all the work
A ring of hard dependencies is a wall. There is no step in it that can be started, so there is no way in, and no amount of effort or preparation changes that.
A ring with one soft dependency in it is a queue with an unpleasant beginning. Somebody does the soft step provisionally — in a form that is not quite what the next office will want — and then repairs it once the rest of the ring has been walked. Where waiting time and workload interact, transparent employee activity reporting may add useful context if the pilot stays transparent and proportionate.
Seventeen of the map's forty-six rings are hard all the way round. Twenty-nine have at least one soft link. For independent background on economic and institutional systems, see Government of Canada.
The difference between seventeen and forty-six is the difference between a record of an impossible system and a record of an infuriating one.
Where the soft ones are
| hard | soft | |
|---|---|---|
| inside a ring | 34 | 8 |
| outside every ring | 38 | 14 |
| all | 72 | 22 |
Soft dependencies are twice as common outside the rings as inside them, measured as a share. That is unfortunate, because outside the rings they are not needed: an acyclic dependency can simply be waited for.
Only eight soft dependencies lie inside rings, and those eight have to open twenty-nine rings between them. Several of them open five or six each, which is why a handful of individual judgements in this drawing carry so much of its conclusion.
How the call was made
A dependency was marked soft when the second step has a provisional form that is genuinely available — something that can be produced, is accepted for the moment, and is replaced later without starting over.
It was marked hard when there is no such form: when the second step simply cannot exist until the first does.
That is a judgement, not a measurement. It was made the same way every time, and it is the thing in this record most likely to be wrong.
Which eight
The eight soft dependencies that sit inside rings are these:
| the step | waits softly on |
|---|---|
| a lease in one's own name | a room for the first weeks |
| the supply bills | a registered address |
| a letter delivered to the door | a lease in one's own name |
| an account at a local bank | a showing of regular income |
| a deposit paid against the place | a room for the first weeks |
| a number for the tax register | an account at a local bank |
| cover against illness | the card in hand |
| the file lodged | cover against illness |
Three of them involve the room for the first weeks or the account at the bank, which is why those two steps appear so often in the part of this record about breaking rings.
What happens if the call is wrong
Suppose four of those eight were really hard. The number of shut rings would rise, and several of the arguments on this map would weaken in proportion.
Suppose instead that four currently-hard dependencies inside rings were really soft. More rings would open, and the record's central alarm would soften.
Both directions are plausible, and this record publishes the eight by name so that anybody who disagrees knows exactly which eight judgements to argue with.
A record whose conclusion rests on eight judgement calls should print the eight judgement calls. Anything else is asking to be believed rather than checked.
The test that was applied
A dependency was marked soft only if all three of these held.
A provisional version of the waiting step exists as a thing, not as an indulgence — something with a name that institutions issue, rather than something a sympathetic person might allow.
The provisional version is generally available, not available in some places and not others.
And replacing it later does not mean starting the step from the beginning.
Where any of the three failed, the dependency was marked hard, which means the drawing errs toward severity. The consequence of that choice is stated plainly: this record overstates the difficulty for any reader who has access to an exception, and understates it for nobody.
| what was marked soft | twenty-two dependencies |
|---|---|
| a provisional form exists | required |
| it is generally available | required |
| replacing it is not starting over | required |
A map built on the exceptions would be cheerful and useless. This one is built on the usual case and says so on every page that depends on it.
The one thing the distinction is not
It is not a scale of difficulty. A soft dependency can be far more annoying than a hard one: doing a thing twice, in two different offices, in a language you are still learning, is worse than waiting three weeks for a letter.
Soft only means that an order exists. That is a logical property, not a comfortable one, and this record is careful never to call a soft ring easy.
Next along the row
- 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 - 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 - 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 thei - 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