Organizational Schema Theory
Test-driven business design. Customer experience goals are acceptance tests. Testable, version-controlled, forkable specifications where each operational layer validates the layer above it.
Reverse-Design TDD for Business Operations
The Organizational Schema Theory applies Test-Driven Development methodology to business design. Customer experience requirements are the acceptance tests. Signal architecture is the integration test suite. Process specifications are the unit tests. Procedures are the implementation. The CI/CD pipeline is the test runner. Version control is the audit trail.
Explore the Methodology
Theory
The six-level TDD cascade, contract-procedure separation, executor topology, and why customer experience is an acceptance test.
Toolkit
The Spectra Coffee demo: 26 YAML files, CI/CD validation pipeline, and the orgschema-validate CLI.
Research
The DSR paper on SSRN, Design Science methodology, prior art comparison, and academic positioning.
Observer-Agnostic Design
The TDD cascade is observer-agnostic: it works identically whether the customer is a person, an algorithm, or a hybrid decision system. Only the top of the cascade changes character. The operational core (L2-L5) is customer-type-invariant.
For machine customers, L1 collapses — the signal IS the specification. No perception gap. No non-ergodicity. Validation becomes deterministic. For hybrid customers (AI shopping agents, procurement algorithms), the machine narrows and the human decides.
From Operations to Perception
Organizational Schema Theory is the internal view: how to design and validate business operations as testable specifications. Its sibling framework, Spectral Brand Theory, is the external view: how observers perceive the signals those operations produce across eight perceptual dimensions. Together, they are two projections of a single system.