Flow Architectures

Chapter 3. Understanding the Flow Value Chain

Now that we’ve built a case for why fluency is desirable, let’s turn our attention to how flow will come into being. While we established the “why” in a single chapter, Chapter 2, answering “how” is a much more complicated task, for two reasons. First, while the techniques we will use here are powerful and create excellent situational awareness, they are not foolproof predictors of the future. There are many possible paths that might lead to flow, and unknown actors that could play a role in getting us there. All we can do is identify the many opportunities to fill theoretical gaps and the strategies that might lead to a competitive advantage in doing so.

Second, we need a starting point from which to evolve. In this book, we will utilize value chains and promises to evaluate meeting user needs. There is a bit of speculation involved in determining the technologies that will be involved in flow, but the good news is that the current market is already rapidly evolving in the right direction. I argue that an excellent baseline has been established, and that we can use today’s EDA marketplace, the requirements we defined in Chapter 2, and modern strategic analysis tools to get a low-resolution picture of the future.

This chapter will focus on understanding, at a high level, what makes up the value chain that will enable flow, using two powerful modeling techniques: Wardley Mapping and Promise Theory.

Recap: The High-Level Properties ...