To the Bedrock
Interdependence & Coordination

Diagnose the work and its boundary

Score the work as it operates, not as the plan describes it. The result separates the structure of the work from the capacity of the current boundary to handle the adjustment it requires.

For each statement, select Never, Sometimes, or Regularly. “Regularly” means it is a normal feature of successful delivery, not an isolated incident.

Set 1 What does the work actually require?

The contributions can be completed separately and combined without one team needing to revise another's output.

A known, one-way handoff can usually take work from one party to the next without the earlier party changing its decision.

A change made by one function needs a substantive response from another, then a further response back.

The information needed at the next handoff cannot be honestly specified today; the teams will recognise it only while working.

New evidence from another part of the work makes an existing commitment wrong, so output must be revised, replaced, or discarded.

The parties draw on a shared finite constraint—such as engineering capacity, a safety margin, a market window, budget, or sales attention—and must trade it off.

When this goes wrong, the signature is work that must be redone or discarded, rather than only a late handoff.

Set 2 Can the boundary support the adjustment?

A disagreement becomes visible and reaches a decision before dependent work has time to harden around it.

The people holding the technical, commercial, and operational context can resolve the trade-off without routine escalation.

The parties share enough context that adjustment begins with the trade-off, not a long reconstruction of background and assumptions.

A revised commitment and its reason are visible where the dependent teams work, rather than disappearing into a private call or chat thread.

Someone or some forum integrates cross-boundary consequences as part of normal work, instead of reviewing them only after a milestone is at risk.

Current reading

Answer the questions above

The instrument will distinguish the structure of the work from the capacity of its current boundary.

Structure
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Retraction
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Boundary fit
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Use the result to change the boundary

A high reciprocal-retractive reading points to a practical design issue: authority, context, and review cadence are too far from the work if a necessary revision can spread before anyone resolves it. A low reading supports simpler coordination. Treat the result as a prompt to inspect a specific handoff, not as a verdict on the programme.