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Most of you may have heard of Aesop’s Fables. You may not have heard about the Perry Index. It is an index and catalog for Aesop’s Fables. As Wikipedia states clearly, “This system does not help the casual reader, but is the best for scholarly purposes.”

For scholars, the act of indexing and cataloging is immensely valuable. Such efforts create the potential for use in ways that were never imagined. The first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus states its mission in its title, “Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.” Can you imagine doing a writing project without a Thesaurus?

Imagine an index and catalog for your business processes. How valuable will it be for you to consult THE BOOK which lists all that your organization does and needs to do to satisfy the customer. This is called Enterprise Architecture, and is practiced by companies with budgets to burn. Meaning, such companies are large and they can afford to fund an activity that does not directly link to customer objectives. If they get it right, they will have THE BOOK. Not to mention satisfied customers.

The idea is inspirational, the execution is usually not. Is it because of a lack of talent, or because the business processes are hard to catalog? Probably both. THE BOOK currently exists in the head of subject matter experts and “old timers” in your organization. It is called Tribal Knowledge. If you depend on these folks to get things done, beware the Tribal Knowledge Paradox (See The Tribal Knowledge Paradox: Using the War on Waste to Align Strategy with Process
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