Key blanks. These are what a key master uses when asked to create a duplicate key.

Finished keys

They may look similar from a distance – but they are not the same. The whole point and meaning of their existence lie in being different.

Being different is the reason to exist for a key. The same is true for a business.

If you are not different, you are not needed

You can think of the way you organize work as a unique combination of skills and knowledge attributed to your workforce.

• This unique way of working may be similar to another company’s way of working – but not the same.
• The variation between your way of working and how others do it is how you stay competitive.
• Your insights cause subtle differences in how you solve day-to-day business – much as the subtle difference between the two keys.

MDriven as described in terms of a key that unlocks your business

The blank key is the Modernity - the technology used by many, the platform, the physical thing - the thing many mistakenly think is an investment and holds value on its own. It does not.

The system Gist in MDriven will be the crests in the key – the thing that makes the key unique and fits your needs.

The secret is not much. It is hidden in plain sight, but it makes all the difference.

The system Gist – your model – is the same. It is a finite set of knowledge that can truly help you be unique in the best sense of the word.

You can be fully supported by IT and skip the investment in modernity – focus on the pattern of the crests, your Gist.

Businesses Change

Your business is not as simple as a lock and key – it is much more complex. Contrary to a lock and key, your business constantly changes and evolves.

The fact that your business changes over time – to stay competitive – can be thought of as the crests must move too. When this inevitably happens, you will be very happy that your pattern and crests are plastic when they need to be with MDriven.

With MDriven’s use of UML to declaratively define your crest pattern – your Gist - you will understand how to change from where you are now to where you need to be in a controlled way.

When the time comes to swap the Modernity, it will be easy to move the pattern of your Gist to a new type of blank key – a new Modernity. Just as MDriven has moved between Win32, ASP.NET, WPF, and Silverlight to Html5.

In short, you do not want to spend time with your own Modernity that brings no real business value.

Get a blank key like any MDriven compatible Modernity and simply apply your Gist pattern.

The Value is in the Pattern – the Gist

It is hard to understand that the value is in the pattern alone– but it is.  This is true for business support systems and for keys, credit cards, DVDs, etc.

This is why UML is the asset you should own when it comes to business support systems – not the Modernity.

Stay unique – stay needed – stay competitive.

Want to know more? Read the book.