Solution Archetypes

1,134 archetypes — named, prescriptive moves for solving recurring structural problems.

Where the primes are descriptive (recurring patterns in how the world works), the archetypes are prescriptive (configurations you assemble to address a class of problem when you encounter it). A few concepts play both roles: a prime can also stand on its own as a workable solution archetype when its pattern is itself the move to make.

Each archetype's page lists its key components — the operational pieces you assemble to deploy the archetype (for Backlog Visibility: backlog scope definition, age distribution metrics, owner mapping); its common mechanisms — how the archetype is typically implemented in practice (queue dashboards, backlog reports); and its tuning dimensions — the knobs you adjust to fit context (metric breadth, age-bucket granularity, priority taxonomy). The primes most commonly associated with an archetype are listed for reference, not as building blocks.

Each page also includes When This Archetype Applies: a computed diagnostic problem, one or more sufficient condition sets, links to the prime and domain-specific abstractions that ground those conditions, and explicit open requirements where the reviewed catalogs do not yet supply a defensible grounding. These trigger relationships are separate from the conceptual ingredients listed under Related Abstractions.

Browse

• Alphabetically — the complete A–Z list, with a concise description of every archetype.
• By problem family — begin with the recurring structural condition that makes intervention necessary, then narrow to a reviewed problem subfamily.
• By solution family — begin with the governing move a solution makes, then inspect the archetypes that implement that move.