Part I: The Origin of AIFC
8. From Project Structure to Universal Work Patterns
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Once we looked at several projects, a deeper pattern appeared.
Different areas of life seemed to share the same underlying types of work.
A family has work.
A company has work.
A band has work.
A school has work.
A personal project has work.
A house has work.
The work can often be classified into three broad categories:
change
maintenance
support
Change
Change moves a system from current state to desired state.
It includes:
- projects,
- improvements,
- development,
- transformations,
- new capabilities,
- planned evolution.
Maintenance
Maintenance keeps the system from degrading.
It includes:
- cleaning,
- updating,
- repairing,
- reviewing,
- securing,
- refactoring,
- keeping knowledge fresh,
- preserving capability.
Support
Support reacts to needs, problems and signals.
It includes:
- helping users,
- fixing incidents,
- answering questions,
- solving immediate pain,
- detecting recurring problems.
This was a critical abstraction.
It meant that the structure of work could be generalized.
A community does not only “do tasks”.
It changes, maintains and supports itself.