The Operating Model Design and Delivery Method (OMDDM) defines seven phases, from Scope to Govern, each with its own inputs, outputs and expected outcomes. A programme enters the method at whichever phase matches where its operating model change already stands.
The OMDDM (the method) does not compress operating model change into fewer steps than it requires, and it does not add process for its own sake. Each phase is defined with its own inputs, outputs and expected outcomes, and maps directly onto one or more of the five failure modes OMDDMS® was built to address.
Not every operating model change starts from nothing. A programme that already has scope agreed and a current-state view in place enters the OMDDM at Discover or Analyse rather than repeating Scope. What the seven phases support is a flexible entry to the method, but that every phase still ahead of where the change stands gets its own inputs, outputs and expected outcomes, so nothing is skipped by assumption. A programme that enters at Design still needs Transition and Govern to follow it; treating the phases still ahead as optional is what reintroduces the failure modes the Standard was built to close.
Each phase states what it establishes and the failure modes it counters. Hover over or select a tag for a summary of how the phase prevents that failure.
Scope defines the boundary of change and resolves the operating model questions a programme needs answered before any solution is chosen. Where Scope is skipped or rushed, the operating model is left to be decided implicitly by whatever solution gets built, which is how transformation ends up designed backwards.
Discover establishes the current operating model in enough detail to be tested against the future one, including a baseline OMDDMS® Maturity Assessment: where the organisation stands today, where it needs to be, and the scale of the effort to close the gap.
Analyse takes the gap Discover has established and determines what a proposed change would actually do to the operating model, its capabilities, its services, and the people and decision rights that sit inside it, before that change is committed to design.
Design specifies the target operating model in full: its organisation design, its capability and service model, its decision rights, and the principles it operates by. Structural capability gaps are identified and closed here, not left for a training programme to paper over once the model is live.
Transition designs how the organisation operates while the current and target models run side by side, distinguishing governed change, made deliberately and tracked, from ungoverned change that accumulates by default. Telling people what is changing is not the same as designing how the organisation runs during the changeover.
Monitor tracks the operating model's performance against what Design specified, so that drift away from the target model is visible early rather than discovered retrospectively, once it has already become the organisation's new normal.
Govern separates governance from management across nine defined areas of decision-making authority, not just reporting lines, and gives the operating model a named owner once it is live. Without this phase, a redesigned model is modified informally and inconsistently after go-live until it no longer resembles what was designed.
OMDDMS® was designed from the ground up to work alongside existing standards, frameworks, and methods, not replace them. The table shows how each phase maps to disciplines an organisation is likely to be running already.
| Discipline | OMDDM phases | Standards, methods, frameworks1,2,3 |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio, programme and project management | Scope, Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition, Monitor, Govern | ISO 21500:2021, ISO 21502:2020, Project Management Institute (PMI), Association for Project Management (APM), Agile Alliance (AA), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) |
| Business analysis | Scope, Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition, Monitor, Govern | ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2018, International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), British Computer Society (BCS) |
| Software engineering and testing | Design, Transition | ISO/IEC/IEEE 26514:2022, DevOps, GitOps, International Institute for Software Testing (IIST) |
| Service management | Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition, Monitor | ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018, ITIL® (Version 5) |
| Risk management | Scope, Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition, Monitor, Govern | ISO 31000:2018, International Risk Management (IRM) |
| Enterprise and domain architecture | Scope, Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition, Monitor, Govern | ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2022, TOGAF®, BIZBOK® |
| Systems and software engineering | Design, Transition | ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017 |
| Governance | Scope, Discover, Analyse, Design, Govern | ISO/IEC 38500:2024, ISO 37000:2021, COBIT® 2019 |
1 Sample list 2 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are acknowledged 3 Other standards are available from standards organisations, industry groups, and commercial organisations
The seven phases are the reason OMDDMS® certification is structured the way it is, and the reason conformance to the Standard can be assessed rather than taken on trust.
A single method spanning Scope to Govern that portfolio, architecture, risk, and governance teams all work from, instead of eight disciplines each with its own view of what "done" looks like.
A named phase for every stage of a programme, each with defined inputs, outputs, and expected outcomes, so a gap in the method is visible before it becomes a gap in the programme.
A way to ask which phase a struggling programme is actually in. The two failure modes boards most often miss, no named decision authority and no owner after go-live, both sit in the same phase: Govern.
Questions about the phases of the OMDDM, where to enter the method, and how it works with other frameworks.
The Operating Model Design and Delivery Method (OMDDM) has seven phases:
Each phase has its own inputs, outputs and expected outcomes.
No. A programme enters the OMDDM at whichever phase matches where its operating model change already stands. A programme with scope agreed and a current-state view in place can enter at Discover or Analyse. Every phase still ahead of the entry point should then be applied in full, not treated as optional.
Every phase counters at least one of the five failure modes:
In Discover. A baseline OMDDMS® Maturity Assessment establishes where the organisation stands today, where it needs to be, and the scale of the effort to close the gap.
Govern. It separates governance from management across nine defined areas of decision-making authority and gives the operating model a named owner once it is live. It counters two failure modes: governance built for accountability rather than decisions, and a model declared complete at go-live.
The OMDDM works alongside them. Enterprise architecture (including TOGAF®) and portfolio, programme and project management (including PRINCE2® and SAFe®) map across all seven phases. Service management (including ITIL®) maps to Discover, Analyse, Design, Transition and Monitor. Organisations keep the frameworks they already use.
Read the five failure modes in detail, or find an ATO to get certified in all seven phases.