The Cybernetic Enterprise
The Cybernetic Enterprise
How to Build a Future-Ready Organization
About the Book
The Cybernetic Enterprise: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization is your comprehensive operating system for navigating the next era of business transformation. If your company has adopted Agile and DevOps but still struggles to adapt at scale, fast teams, slow enterprise, this book is for you.
This is not another Agile, DevOps, or AI playbook in isolation. Instead, it introduces a unified cybernetic operating model, one designed for continuous learning, AI-augmented intelligence, and fast feedback loops across strategy, product, technology, and operations. You'll learn to sense, learn, and adapt at enterprise scale.
The book equips you with:
- 961 pages of strategic and tactical guidance
- 154 diagrams to clarify complex concepts
- 16 principles and 55 practices across technology, culture, organization, process, and architecture
- 150 page Body of Knowledge, integrating AI, cybernetics, Lean, DevOps, and more
- Concrete transformation tools: assessment rubrics, roadmaps, metrics, and governance patterns
It offers a layered framework, principles, practices, platform, outcomes, that guides you in building an enterprise designed for change, not just coping with it. Whether you are a CTO, CIO, enterprise architect, transformation coach, or team leader, this book offers the models and tools to break silos, align execution with strategy, and embed AI responsibly.
With forewords by Prof. Dr. Oliver Gilbert and Prof. Markus Dobbelfeld, this book bridges academic insight and industry experience, linking vision with execution across leadership, technology, and organizational design.
Why It’s Different
Most transformation efforts bolt new tools onto outdated structures. The Cybernetic Enterprise rebuilds the structure itself. It helps you design a feedback-driven, AI-augmented organization where learning compounds and change becomes a competitive advantage.
Who It’s For
- Executives aligning strategy, investment, and outcomes
- Architects and engineers scaling AI responsibly through platform thinking
- Product managers, designers, coaches, and change agents seeking coherence across initiatives
What You’ll Be Able to Do
- Build feedback loops into every layer of your organization
- Align investment with outcome-based metrics
- Accelerate AI adoption through platform engineering
- Design autonomous, durable product teams
- Create lightweight, principled governance that fosters experimentation
- Assess and steer transformation efforts with structured diagnostics
This Is a Preview Edition
This early release is complete but not final. It’s published now to gather real-world feedback, true to the cybernetic mindset. The final edition will launch in Q4 2025. Early buyers get it free, and the price will increase with the final release.
Build the enterprise you want to work in. Shape the system you want to lead. Become the organization the future demands. Your cybernetic journey starts now.
About the Author
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Table of Contents
- Forewords
- Foreword by Prof. Dr. Oliver T. Gilbert
- Foreword by Prof. Markus Dobbelfeld
- Introduction
- Who This Book Is For
- Why This Book Was Written
- What Is a Cybernetic Enterprise
- How This Book Helps
- Where the Ideas Come From
- Reader’s Guide
- The Case for Change
- The Cybernetic Response
- Definition and Differentiation
- Why You Should Care
- What Can’t the Cybernetic Enterprise Do
- Conceptual Limitations
- Technological Boundaries
- Organizational Challenges
- Closing
- Preview of What’s Next
- Beyond Products and Services
- Defining the Core Concepts
- The Spectrum of Companies
- Shifting the Focus to Value
- A Note on Terminology
- The Mental Model of the Cybernetic Enterprise
- The Layered Mental Model of the Cybernetic Enterprise
- Relationships Between Layers
- The Power of Alignment
- Starting Point for the Cybernetic Enterprise
- The Cybernetic Enterprise
- Definition
- The Core Conceptual Model
- Principles
- Practices
- The Foundation
- Why the Cybernetic Enterprise Matters
- 10 Rules for Leading a Cybernetic Enterprise
- Conclusion
- Principles
- Principles Over Process
- Organize for the Flow of Value
- Empowered Teams
- Outcomes Over Output
- Focus
- Minimize Waste
- Powered by Insights
- Strategic Experimentation
- Assess Product Risk
- Apply Multiple Horizons of Planning
- Architect for Change and Speed
- Iterative Development
- Cadence and Synchronization
- Shift Left
- Apply a Growth Mindset
- Augment with Intelligence
- Practices
- Technical Practices
- Continuous Delivery Pipeline
- Shift Left on Security
- Shift Left on Testing
- Shift Left on Operations
- Separate Deploy and Release
- Platform
- Process Practices
- Lightweight Change Management Process
- Continuous Improvement
- Lean Management Practices
- Small, Frequent, Uncoupled Releases
- Managing Technical Debt
- Work in Small Batches
- Value Stream Identification
- Value Stream Mapping
- Backlogs
- Portfolio Backlog
- Product Backlog
- Team Backlog
- Sprint Backlog
- Backlog Items
- Epic
- Feature
- User Story
- Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs)
- Sprint Burndown Charts
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Product Strategy
- Product Vision
- Roadmaps
- UX
- Culture Practices
- Introduction
- AI in Cultural Practices
- Culture
- Employee Satisfaction
- Learning Culture
- Leadership
- Architecture Practices
- AI in Architecture
- Loosely Coupled Architecture
- Modularity
- Architect for the Cybernetic Enterprise
- Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
- Lean Enterprise Architecture
- Organisational Practices
- CEO
- Team Topologies
- Product Managers
- Product Team
- Product Owner
- Product Designer
- Tech Lead
- Scrum Master
- Engineer
- AI
- Who runs it?
- Distributed Teams
- The Cybernetic Platform
- Introduction
- Codifying Principles into Practice
- Enabling Self-Service and Flow
- Integrating Feedback Loops
- The Platform is the Product
- Foundation for Transformation
- Conclusion
- Key Takeaways
- How to Get Started
- How to Assess
- Transformation Outcome
- When is the Transformation Complete
- The Importance of Results
- Defining Transformation Outcomes
- The Role of Preparedness
- Conclusion
- Transformation Assessment
- Introduction
- Purpose of Transformation Assessment
- Key Principles of Assessment
- How to Use and Interpret the Assessment Levels
- Organizational Assessment
- Technology Assessment
- Process Assessment
- Conclusion
- Transformation Concepts
- 1. Building Core Competencies
- 2. Product Teams: Chemistry and Durability
- 3. Designing Effective Team Topology
- 4. Enhancing Product Discovery and Delivery
- 5. Build the technology foundation
- 6. Driving Customer Engagement
- 7. Fostering a Culture of Innovation
- 8. Aligning Product Vision and Strategy
- 9. Managing the Portfolio
- Transformation Adoption
- The Importance of Tailored Adoption
- Pilot Teams: Starting Small to Go Big
- Three Dimensions of Transformation
- Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches
- Coaching Stakeholders for Collaboration
- Managing Existing Commitments
- Actionable Insights for Leaders
- Avoiding Common Adoption Pitfalls
- Conclusion
- Transformation Evangelism
- The Foundation of a Transformation Plan
- Executing the Transformation Plan
- The Role of Evangelism
- Listening as a Leadership Skill
- The Power of Quick Wins
- Avoiding Evangelism Pitfalls
- Sustaining Momentum: The Drumbeat of Progress
- Conclusion
- Keys to Successful Transformation
- 1. The Role of the CEO
- 2. Technology as a Strategic Foundation
- 3. Strong Product Managership
- 4. Competent Product Owners
- 5. Central Role of Product Designers
- 6. Empowered Engineering Teams
- 7. Insights-Based Product Strategy
- 8. Collaborative Stakeholder Relationships
- 9. Continuous Evangelization of Outcomes
- 10. Corporate Courage
- 11. Feedback-Driven Adaptation
- 12. Lightweight Governance and Sustainability
- Conclusion
- Implementation Roadmap
- Phase 1: Initiate (Months 0-6): Laying the Foundation
- Phase 2: Scale (Months 6-18): Expanding and Accelerating Transformation
- Phase 3: Sustain (Month 18+ and Ongoing): Embedding and Continuous Evolution
- Conclusion
- A Clear Direction
- The Call to Action
- A Lasting Impact
- The Body of Knowledge
- Historical Context
- Bodies of Knowledge
- Lean
- Kanban
- Cybernetics
- Toyota Production System (TPS)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Design Thinking
- Systems Engineering
- Waterfall
- Data Architecture
- Digital Engineering
- Business Architecture
- Enterprise Architecture
- Application Architecture
- Scrum
- Spiral
- Lean Manufacturing
- Six Sigma
- Systems Thinking
- Agile Manufacturing
- Extreme Programming
- Scrum@Scale
- Rational Unified Process (RUP)
- Lean Software Development
- Agile
- Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
- Benefits
- Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS)
- Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
- Agile Portfolio Management
- DevOps
- Lean Startup
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)
- Spotify Engineering Culture
- Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
- Enterprise Scrum
- Nexus
- Value Stream Management
- Flight Levels
- Platform Engineering
- Cybernetic Delivery Method
- Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Product Operating Model
- The Body of Knowledge Summary
- Behind the Book
- Author Biography
- Illustrator Biography
- Writing the book
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Forewords
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