Viewpoints
A strong ontology should support multiple viewpoints without fragmenting the underlying truth structure.
That is one of the reasons viewpoints matter. They let different people, teams, and frameworks look at the same organisation through different lenses while still grounding those views in a shared model.
Why viewpoints matter
Different questions require different perspectives.
Some views are more internal. Some are more external. Some are more about outcomes. Some are more about activity.
The ontology should support all of these without requiring a new canonical model each time.
Review perspectives from the source material
The original material identifies a set of useful tools and perspectives that can be used to review or interpret organisational information.
| Tool / Perspective | Internal | External | Outcome | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced scorecards | x | x | ||
| Value chain | x | x | ||
| Hoshin Kanri | x | x | ||
| Business Model Canvas | x | x | x | |
| Business Motivation Model | x | x | x | |
| Design thinking | x | x | ||
| Customer journey map | x | x | ||
| SWOT analysis | x | |||
| Storytelling and communication design | x | x | ||
| Brand and content design | x | x | ||
| Experience and interaction design | x | x | ||
| Business design and models | x | x | x | |
| Product and service design | x | x | x | |
| Process and operating model | x | x | ||
| Organisation and ways of working | x | x | x |
What this means
This list matters because it reinforces a key architectural point:
The same underlying organisational reality can be viewed through multiple frameworks and perspectives.
That fits directly with the broader position that:
- the ontology is canonical
- frameworks are views or translations
- different audiences need different surfaces
- the same underlying knowledge can support more than one interpretation layer
Why this matters for agents
Agents should be able to work from the canonical ontology while still supporting multiple viewpoints such as:
- governance
- architecture
- service design
- business model analysis
- operational review
- customer experience analysis
That means the ontology needs enough structure to support translation into different lenses without losing semantic continuity.
Viewpoints and frameworks-as-views
This page is one of the clearest examples of why frameworks should not become the underlying storage model.
A Business Model Canvas, a value chain, a balanced scorecard, or a TOGAF-style architecture view may all be useful. But they should be understood as viewpoints over the organisation, not as the ontological foundation of the organisation itself.
Diagram
If the embedded viewer does not load, open directly:
- /assets/gxp/diagrams/Data-Perspectives.drawio