Implementation Intelligence Research & Practice
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Understanding why implementation succeeds or fails
Implementation Intelligence is a descriptive approach for understanding how implementation actually works.
Why it was developed
Implementation is widely recognised as critical to successful change, yet the language used to describe it remains fragmented across disciplines and sectors.
Built on a shared vocabulary and four foundational concepts, it provides a consistent way to observe implementation before evaluation or redesign. Originally developed through sustainability implementation research, it is designed for application across sectors.
Why it was developed
Implementation is widely recognised as critical to successful change, yet the language used to describe it remains fragmented across disciplines and sectors.
Implementation Intelligence consolidates these perspectives into a shared descriptive vocabulary and four foundational concepts, providing a common foundation for implementation research and practice.
RESEARCH & PRACTICE
Implementation Intelligence bridges research and professional practice.
➔ The research programme develops concepts, vocabulary and methods for describing implementation.
➔ Practice translates these foundations into sector-diagnostics instruments & records, workshops, implementation architecture design and sector-specific applications.
The same descriptive principles remain consistent across sectors while their application adapts to different operational contexts.
➔ The research programme develops concepts, vocabulary and methods for describing implementation.
➔ Practice translates these foundations into sector-diagnostics instruments & records, workshops, implementation architecture design and sector-specific applications.
The same descriptive principles remain consistent across sectors while their application adapts to different operational contexts.
THE 4 CONCEPTS OF IMPLEMENTATION INTELLIGENCE
Every implementation can be described through four complementary concepts.
Together they provide a common language for observing implementation without immediately judging performance or prescribing solutions.
Together they provide a common language for observing implementation without immediately judging performance or prescribing solutions.
IMPLEMENTATION CONDITIONS
IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTURE
The observable structure through which implementation becomes operational
IMPLEMENTATION CAPABILITY
The repeatable routines a carrier can deploy
IMPLEMENTATION KNOWLEDGE
What a carrier can explain or supply on request
1
IMPLEMENTATION CONDITIONS
Implementation Conditions are the observed states of the entities that a specified implementation object interacts with, depends on, or acts upon.
- Entity scope is derived from the object's requirements
- Entities qualify by capacity to interact rather than by any interaction that has occurred
- States are recorded on the gradient:
2
IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTURE
Implementation Architecture is the observable structure through which an implementation object becomes operational:
- Components typed as members, tasks and tools
- Dependencies of prerequisite, shared-resource and simultaneity class
- Interfaces and what passes across them
- Coordination mechanisms, assigned or unassigned
3
IMPLEMENTATION CAPABILITY
Implementation Capability is the set of repeatable routines a carrier can deploy to act on an implementation object.
- Bounded by repeatability, deployability and person-independence
- Described by consistency of execution and object-generality
- Portability graded by carrier type, with tool-carried routines transferring most readily and member–task–tool networks least
4
IMPLEMENTATION KNOWLEDGE
Implementation Knowledge is what carriers can supply on request concerning an implementation object and concerning what making it function in a specified setting requires.
- Why it works
- How to install
- Who holds what and who can act
- It is held in members, tasks and tools and in the networks crossing them
- It comprises four elements:
- Why it works
- How to install
- Who holds what and who can act
THE CORE PRINCIPLES
The core principles are organised around a commitment that is easy to state and consequential in practice: An implementation is described before it is judged.
Three operations are distinguished and kept separate:
➔ Observation asks what is there.
➔ Correspondence asks whether there is a match to what a specified implementation requires.
➔ Evaluation asks whether this is good or bad, relative to a chosen outcome.
The observer:
The methodology vocabulary serves two strands of work and distinguishes them because they are governed by opposite commitments:
Three operations are distinguished and kept separate:
➔ Observation asks what is there.
➔ Correspondence asks whether there is a match to what a specified implementation requires.
➔ Evaluation asks whether this is good or bad, relative to a chosen outcome.
The observer:
- Describe before judging.
- Adopt where existing language suffices.
- Define only where there is a gap.
- Distinguish states from relations, and both from what actors bring.
- Grade rather than binarise.
The methodology vocabulary serves two strands of work and distinguishes them because they are governed by opposite commitments:
- The descriptive strand observes and describes implementation.
- The design strand designs or redesigns implementation on the basis of description.
Roles are positions occupied within a given analysis, not categories of entity.
The vocabulary distinguishes:
➔ The implementation object (what is being put into effect)
➔ The implementing actor (who acts)
➔ The observer (who describes)
➔ The designer (who specifies)
➔ The carrier (what holds knowledge or capability)
The vocabulary distinguishes:
➔ The implementation object (what is being put into effect)
➔ The implementing actor (who acts)
➔ The observer (who describes)
➔ The designer (who specifies)
➔ The carrier (what holds knowledge or capability)
PROGRAMME ROADMAP
YUN CONSULTANCY & THE IMPLEMENTATION INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE are engaging with the programme's future developments:
- Observation Protocols & Ethics
- Professional Practice
- Methodology Handbook
- Practitioner Licence & Certification
- Educational Programme & Adult Training
YUN CONSULTANCY
IMPLEMENTATION INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE
Implementation Research, Infrastructure, Sustainability & Operational Systems
INSIGHTS & RESEARCH
SUSTAINABILITY IMPLEMENTATION SYSTEMS
