{ "schema": "wardley-industry-resources/v1", "compiled": "2026-08-23", "method": "WebSearch + WebFetch only. YouTube returned HTTP 429 through the sandbox proxy so youtube.com URLs are search-derived and unverified; Discord invites require JS and were not validated.", "count": 34, "resources": [ { "category": "1. THE PRIMARY SOURCE", "name": "Wardley Maps \u2014 the book (Medium serialisation)", "url": "https://medium.com/wardleymaps (verified \u2014 index page renders only chapter 1 link; full chapter list verified via https://learnwardleymapping.com/book/)", "type": "book", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley", "started": "Serialisation began 2016; written while at Leading Edge Forum (CSC). Still formally unfinished.", "status": "Live, complete at 19 chapters, no longer being extended. Simon's own writing has moved to https://swardley.medium.com and https://www.swardleymaps.com.", "licence": "**Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).** Standard attribution string used across the ecosystem: *\"Wardley Mapping is provided courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0.\"* \u26a0\ufe0f Note the distinction from his blog (see next entry) which is CC BY-SA **3.0**.", "what_it_is": "The canonical text of the technique, serialised as 19 Medium chapters under the \"Wardley Maps\" publication. It moves from a narrative of strategic failure (\"On Being Lost\") through the construction of a map, to doctrine, climatic patterns, gameplay, scenario planning and organisational structure. It is deliberately autobiographical \u2014 Wardley describes his own failures as CEO of Fotango, the origin of the technique in 2005, and its refinement at Canonical. It is not a textbook; it is a long argument with worked examples, and it is the source every other resource in this list derives from. The full chapter list, verified: 1. On Being Lost \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/on-being-lost-2ef5f05eb1ec 2. Finding a Path \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/finding-a-path-cdb1249078c0 3. Exploring the Map \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/exploring-the-map-ad0266fad59b 4. Doctrine \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/doctrine-8bb0015688e5 5. The Play and a Decision to Act \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/the-play-and-a-decision-to-act-8eb796b1dff1 6. Getting Started Yourself \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/getting-started-yourself-e1a359b785a2 7. Finding a New Purpose \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/finding-a-new-purpose-8c60c9484d3b 8. Keeping the Wolves at Bay \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/keeping-the-wolves-at-bay-93de21b6b2f8 9. Charting the Future \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/anticipation-89692e9b0ced 10. I Wasn't Expecting That! \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/i-wasnt-expecting-that-dcfe122a2234 11. A Smorgasbord of the Slightly Useful \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/a-smorgasbord-of-the-slightly-useful-2498a1163dd6 12. The Scenario \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/the-scenario-8bc05feee81 13. Something Wicked This Way Comes \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/something-wicked-this-way-comes-b028d5c607bf 14. To Thine Own Self Be True \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/to-thine-own-self-be-true-543cfe2cd1a 15. On the Practice of Scenario Planning \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/on-the-practice-of-scenario-planning-49eed8279e90 16. Super Looper \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/round-round-get-around-i-loop-around-d88e865d4337 17. To Infinity and Beyond \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/to-infinity-and-beyond-c7a53ccd2a07 18. Better for Less \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/better-for-less-58fe8c0a3aaa 19. On Playing Chess \u2014 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/on-playing-chess-2634b825dbac", "limitations": "Long (572 pages in the compiled edition), digressive, and structurally uneven. Medium's reading experience is poor for a 19-part work; chapter 9's URL slug (\"anticipation\") doesn't match its title, which trips up automated indexers. It stops mid-argument \u2014 Wardley has said it is unfinished. No index, no glossary, and the diagrams are inline images with no alt text.", "best_link": "https://medium.com/wardleymaps/on-being-lost-2ef5f05eb1ec", "screenshot_target": "https://medium.com/wardleymaps (the publication index page)", "attribution": "\"Wardley Maps by Simon Wardley, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.\" Because it is **ShareAlike**, any adapted/derivative content you publish (re-drawn diagrams, restructured chapter summaries) must itself carry CC BY-SA 4.0. Verbatim quotation with attribution is safe; adaptation licence-infects your page." }, { "category": "1. THE PRIMARY SOURCE", "name": "Wardley Maps \u2014 compiled editions (Leanpub / GitHub / audiobook)", "url": "https://leanpub.com/wardley-maps (verified)", "type": "book (derivative compilation)", "maintainer": "Compiled and published on Leanpub by **Stuart Gunter**; original work by Simon Wardley. A separate AsciiDoc compilation is maintained by **Andrew Harmel-Law** at https://github.com/andrewharmellaw/wardley-maps-book (verified \u2014 CC BY-SA 4.0, 307 stars, 78 commits, PDF/HTML/MOBI in Releases).", "started": "Leanpub edition \u2014 last updated **20 December 2025**.", "status": "Live and current. 572 pages. Suggested price $7.99, pay-what-you-want, free with Leanpub Reader Membership; Gunter states all proceeds are donated to charity.", "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0 (explicitly stated on the Leanpub page).", "what_it_is": "Three independent community compilations of the Medium serialisation into offline formats. The Leanpub edition (Gunter) is the most polished and most current, giving PDF/EPUB/Kindle of all 19 chapters. Harmel-Law's GitHub repo is the source-controlled AsciiDoc version that produces HTML, PDF and MOBI from Releases \u2014 useful if you want to diff or re-typeset. A third, **Markus Harrer's** community audiobook (https://feststelltaste.github.io/wardley-maps-audiobook/ \u2014 verified) narrates all 19 chapters / 201 sections via Amazon Polly in male and female voices, distributed as MP3 plus RSS feeds for podcast apps; launched February 2021, v1.1, CC BY-SA 4.0. A basic paperback also exists via Amazon KDP, linked from Learn Wardley Mapping.", "limitations": "All are third-party compilations, not authored or QA'd by Wardley; typography and figure quality vary. The Leanpub edition's \"author\" field says Stuart Gunter, which confuses people into thinking it's a different book. Audiobook is synthetic TTS \u2014 serviceable, not pleasant.", "best_link": "https://leanpub.com/wardley-maps", "screenshot_target": "https://leanpub.com/wardley-maps", "attribution": "\"Wardley Maps by Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0; compiled edition by Stuart Gunter.\" Audiobook: \"Courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0; audiobook by Markus Harrer.\"" }, { "category": "1. THE PRIMARY SOURCE", "name": "Bits or pieces? \u2014 Simon Wardley's blog", "url": "https://blog.gardeviance.org/ (verified)", "type": "reference / primary source", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley", "started": "Long-running (posts date back well over a decade; the evolution-axis post is from March 2014).", "status": "**Effectively dormant.** Most recent post verified: *\"A good enough map\"*, 3 February 2024. Archive remains fully accessible. Active writing has moved to https://swardley.medium.com/ (verified \u2014 15,000 followers, most recent post *\"Map Camp \u2026 and so it starts\"*, 10 June) and to https://www.swardleymaps.com/.", "licence": "**Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0** \u2014 stated on-blog: *\"My writings on this blog are provided as Creative Commons 3.0 Share Alike.\"* \u26a0\ufe0f **This is 3.0, not 4.0.** Do not conflate with the book's licence.", "what_it_is": "The working notebook where the technique was actually developed in public. It contains the canonical short-form definitions that the book later expanded \u2014 most importantly the doctrine list (https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/08/doctrine.html, 16 August 2016, verified) and the map cheat sheet post (https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/04/whats-in-wardley-map-and-need-for-cheat.html, verified) which sets out the four constituent parts of a map: **anchor** (user need), **position** (visibility via chain of needs), **types** (activities, practices, data, knowledge), and **evolution** (stages I\u2013IV measured by ubiquity vs certainty, explicitly *not* time-based diffusion). The evolution-axis post (https://blog.gardeviance.org/2014/03/on-mapping-and-evolution-axis.html) is where the ubiquity-vs-certainty derivation is laid out. Also carries much of the polemic that gives Wardley his reputation.", "limitations": "Blogspot-hosted, poor search, no tagging discipline, images frequently low-resolution. Dormant since Feb 2024 \u2014 anything you cite from it is at least 2.5 years stale, and doctrine has since expanded to a 40-principle / 4-phase grid (see Learn Wardley Mapping below) that the blog's 10-item list predates.", "best_link": "https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/04/whats-in-wardley-map-and-need-for-cheat.html", "screenshot_target": "https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/08/doctrine.html", "attribution": "\"Simon Wardley, *Bits or pieces?*, CC BY-SA 3.0.\" ShareAlike applies. Because 3.0 and 4.0 are not identical, keep blog-derived and book-derived material separately attributed rather than merging under one notice." }, { "category": "1. THE PRIMARY SOURCE", "name": "swardleymaps.com \u2014 Simon Wardley's current home / SWARDLEYMAPS LTD", "url": "https://www.swardleymaps.com/ (verified)", "type": "reference (official)", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley, trading as **SWARDLEYMAPS LTD**, company number **15425177**, registered England & Wales. Contact: simon@swardleymaps.com. Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/swardley. LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/simonwardley. A Bluesky account exists at `@swardley.bsky.social` *(unverified \u2014 search-derived only)*.", "started": "Company incorporated 2024; the site is the successor to his Leading Edge Forum-era presence.", "status": "**Actively maintained.** Now the authoritative index of official material \u2014 book, writings, resources, events, experimental projects (Technomic Empire, Moldable Development).", "licence": "Site states Wardley Maps are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, linking to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Site chrome itself carries no explicit licence.", "what_it_is": "Wardley's own current site and the correct canonical entry point in 2026 \u2014 more so than the Medium publication or the old blog. Its resources page (https://www.swardleymaps.com/resources.html \u2014 verified) is a hand-curated list of what he himself endorses: Learn Wardley Mapping (Ben Mosior), WardleyMaps.com (Chris Daniel), OnlineWardleyMaps, MapKeep, the MAP-REPOSITORY, plus a reading list of derivative books (The Value Flywheel Effect, Flow Architectures, The Platform Handbook, GCHQ's Boiling Frogs, Better for Less). The events page (https://www.swardleymaps.com/events.html \u2014 verified) describes Map Camp as \"the bi-annual conference on strategic mapping\" and points to a Wardley Mapping Discord.", "limitations": "Its resources page still links **MapKeep**, which ceased operations 30 May 2026 (see Dead or Dying). `/community.html` returns 404 \u2014 the site's own navigation has broken links. His \"current affiliation\" is not stated anywhere on the site beyond the limited company; he is described externally as independent (see the June 2026 API Evangelist interview at https://conversations.apievangelist.com/store/2026-06-19-simon-wardley/ \u2014 *unverified*).", "best_link": "https://www.swardleymaps.com/resources.html", "screenshot_target": "https://www.swardleymaps.com/", "attribution": "\"Simon Wardley / SWARDLEYMAPS LTD.\" Site design and non-mapping content are not covered by the CC notice \u2014 treat site chrome as all-rights-reserved and screenshot only as fair-dealing commentary." }, { "category": "1. THE PRIMARY SOURCE", "name": "Wikipedia: Wardley map", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map (verified). A separate biography exists at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wardley (verified, but currently a thin stub).", "type": "reference", "maintainer": "Wikipedia contributors", "started": "\u2014", "status": "Live, reasonably maintained.", "licence": "**CC BY-SA 4.0** (Wikipedia standard).", "what_it_is": "The most useful neutral third-party summary and the best single source for the *history*, which the primary sources scatter. It records that Wardley created the technique at **Fotango in 2005**, building on evolutionary framing developed in 2004, and that **Canonical UK refined it 2008\u20132010**, with components documented in the 2010 *Better for Less* paper. It states the axes cleanly (Y = value chain position / user visibility; X = evolution: genesis \u2192 custom build \u2192 product \u2192 commodity), notes government adoption (GDS, HS2) and security operations modelling, and \u2014 unusually for a Wikipedia article on a management technique \u2014 carries a genuine criticism sentence: against Wardley's claim that mapping works by \"exposing assumptions, allowing challenge and creating consensus,\" critics counter it may instead *\"launder assumptions into facts, delegitimise challenge (and still create consensus).\"*", "limitations": "Does not cover climatic patterns or gameplay at all. The tools list is stale in places (still lists MapScript and MapKeep). The Simon Wardley biography article is a stub with almost no career detail \u2014 do not rely on it for affiliations.", "best_link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map", "screenshot_target": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map", "attribution": "\"Wikipedia contributors, 'Wardley map', CC BY-SA 4.0\" with a link back to the article. ShareAlike applies to adaptations." }, { "category": "2. LEARNING RESOURCES", "name": "Learn Wardley Mapping (LearnWardleyMapping.com) \u2014 Ben Mosior / Hired Thought", "url": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/ (verified)", "type": "course + reference", "maintainer": "**Ben Mosior**, operating as **Hired Thought**. Contact: ben at hiredthought dot com.", "started": "Site launched **2019**. Current course launched September 2021 (https://learnwardleymapping.com/2021/09/13/new-wardley-mapping-course-launch/).", "status": "**Actively maintained.** Over **2,600** people have completed the course. The course platform migrated off Teachable \u2014 old `courses.learnwardleymapping.com/p/...` URLs now 302-redirect to `auth-pwm.learnwardleymapping.com` login (verified), so send people to the root domain, not to old course links.", "licence": "Free reference material is licensed **Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike**; the doctrine pages carry the explicit note *\"Adapted by Tasshin Fogleman from Simon Wardley's social media posts and Better for Less,\"* CC BY-SA 4.0. The **paid course video content is not CC-licensed** \u2014 treat it as all rights reserved.", "what_it_is": "The de facto second-best entry point after the book, and for most people the *first* one they should actually use. The free half is a structured reference organised the way the technique is actually taught \u2014 Purpose, Landscape, Climate, Doctrine, Leadership \u2014 plus a glossary, a tools directory, and chapter-by-chapter video summaries of Wardley's book. The doctrine section (https://learnwardleymapping.com/doctrine/ \u2014 verified) is the best-rendered version of the full four-phase doctrine grid anywhere: Phase 1 *Stop Self-Destructive Behaviour*, Phase 2 *Becoming More Context Aware*, Phase 3 *Better for Less*, Phase 4 *Continuously Evolving*, with roughly 40 principles distributed across them \u2014 substantially more than the 10-item list on Wardley's blog. The paid product is **Pragmatic Wardley Mapping**: 7 modules, 75 minutes of core video plus 298 minutes of bonus material, the Wardley Map Library, and case-study recordings, at **$149 one-time** with lifetime access to current and future iterations and a 30-day money-back guarantee.", "limitations": "Pricing is a single $149 tier with no cheaper on-ramp, which is a real barrier for individuals. The tools directory, while honest about what's dead, is itself slightly behind (it lists MapKeep as discontinued correctly, but doesn't yet cover Mermaid's `wardley-beta`). Course content is not openly licensed, so you can describe it but not excerpt it.", "best_link": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/", "screenshot_target": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/doctrine/", "attribution": "For free reference/doctrine content: \"Learn Wardley Mapping (Ben Mosior / Hired Thought), CC BY-SA 4.0; Wardley Mapping provided courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0; doctrine adapted by Tasshin Fogleman.\" For course screens: fair-dealing commentary only, credit Ben Mosior / Hired Thought, do not reproduce video stills at length." }, { "category": "2. LEARNING RESOURCES", "name": "The Wardley Mapping Canvas", "url": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/portfolio/wardley-mapping-canvas/ (verified); repo at https://github.com/HiredThought/wardley-mapping-canvas (verified)", "type": "reference / template", "maintainer": "Hired Thought (Ben Mosior)", "started": "Repo at version **0.1.0**", "status": "Live; low-velocity but stable. 62 stars. Contains `README.md`, `Wardley Map Canvas.excalidrawlib`, and `Wardley Mapping Canvas.jpg`.", "licence": "**Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International** \u2014 explicitly stated in the repo.", "what_it_is": "A single-sheet worksheet that walks a first-time mapper through the process in order: define purpose and scope, identify users and their needs, build the value chain, then assess evolution across Genesis / Custom / Product / Commodity. It exists as a printable JPG, an Excalidraw library, and in a form that drops cleanly into Miro and Mural. It is the artefact most workshop facilitators actually put in front of people, because it removes the blank-canvas problem that kills most first mapping attempts.", "limitations": "Version 0.1.0 with no release cadence; no SVG or PDF in the repo (only JPG and the Excalidraw library), so print quality at A0 is limited. Doesn't cover climate, doctrine or gameplay \u2014 it stops at \"you have a map.\"", "best_link": "https://github.com/HiredThought/wardley-mapping-canvas", "screenshot_target": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/portfolio/wardley-mapping-canvas/", "attribution": "\"Wardley Mapping Canvas by Hired Thought, CC BY-SA 4.0, incorporating concepts from Simon Wardley (CC BY-SA 4.0).\" Fully safe to mirror and to screenshot; ShareAlike applies to any modified canvas you publish." }, { "category": "2. LEARNING RESOURCES", "name": "WardleyMaps.com \u2014 Chris (Krzysztof) Daniel", "url": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/ (verified)", "type": "reference / course", "maintainer": "**Krzysztof \"Chris\" Daniel** (KDA). Content described as *\"adapted and expanded by Krzysztof Daniel from Wardley Maps by Simon Wardley.\"* Daniel is also the author of the older `cdaniel/wardleymapstool`.", "started": "Copyright notice reads \u00a9 2025 WardleyMaps.com; current in 2026.", "status": "**Actively maintained** \u2014 the most current *editorial* Wardley site. Commentaries verified through **2 June 2026**.", "licence": "**CC BY-SA 4.0**, stated site-wide and repeated per-guide.", "what_it_is": "The best-designed and most current explanatory site in the ecosystem, and \u2014 importantly \u2014 the one most willing to editorialise. \"Wardley Mapping 101\" (https://www.wardleymaps.com/guides/wardley-mapping-101 \u2014 verified) is a 15-minute beginner path built around a single sustained worked example (an e-commerce skincare business), taking the reader through value chain, the four evolution stages, a complete map, and then step-by-step instructions to build their own. Beyond that it carries a map gallery, case studies, checklists, a curated 29-book strategy reading list, downloadable templates (PDF 4:3, PDF wide, PNG for Miro, PowerPoint), and a commentaries stream: *Where the Doctrine Ends* (2 Jun 2026), *End of an Era: Mapkeep Is Shutting Down on 30 May 2026* (5 May 2026), *Wardley Mapping Meets Mission Command* (1 Apr 2026), *The 30-Minute Map That Saved a Project* (28 Jan 2026), *How Wardley Mapping Unlocks Non-Linear Thinking* (21 Jan 2026), *SWOT Analysis Limitation* (14 Nov 2025). Workshops, coaching and speaking are advertised, several tracks marked \"Coming Soon.\"", "limitations": "One author's interpretation, not a neutral or official source, and the \"adapted and expanded\" framing means it departs from Wardley in places. Commercial services are woven into the educational content. Several service tracks are still \"Coming Soon.\" Its tools list is thin (essentially Miro, pen and paper, \"your head\") and it does not attempt tool comparison.", "best_link": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/guides/wardley-mapping-101", "screenshot_target": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/guides/wardley-mapping-101", "attribution": "\"WardleyMaps.com, adapted and expanded by Krzysztof Daniel from Wardley Maps by Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0.\" Quotable and screenshot-able under CC; ShareAlike applies." }, { "category": "2. LEARNING RESOURCES", "name": "GCATI \u2014 Foundation in Wardley Mapping (certification)", "url": "https://gcati.org/certificate/foundation-wardley-mapping (verified)", "type": "course / certification", "maintainer": "Global Certification Authority for Technical Innovation (GCATI). Developed with practitioners credited as **@wardleymaps, @mcraddock (Mark Craddock), @spurkis, @simalexan (Simon Alexander)**.", "started": "Not stated on the page.", "status": "Live and offered.", "licence": "Not stated. Assume all rights reserved for syllabus and exam material.", "what_it_is": "The only formal certification in Wardley Mapping. Assessment is **50 multiple-choice questions, 1 hour, 80% pass mark**, in English, with training listed as *optional* and no prerequisites. The syllabus covers mapping history, map design elements, the strategy lifecycle, value chain formulation, climatic patterns, evolution, competitive-advantage patterns, economic forecasting, and outsourcing decisions. Target audience is explicitly senior: \"Strategic Decision Makers, CEOs, C-Suite, Board members, VPs, Product Managers.\"", "limitations": "Not endorsed by Simon Wardley \u2014 he is not mentioned on the page, and the technique's CC licence means anyone may certify against it. Price is not published. A 50-question MCQ cannot assess whether someone can actually draw a useful map, which is the entire skill. Treat as credential, not competence.", "best_link": "https://gcati.org/certificate/foundation-wardley-mapping", "screenshot_target": "https://gcati.org/certificate/foundation-wardley-mapping", "attribution": "\"GCATI.\" Do not reproduce syllabus text at length; no open licence." }, { "category": "2. LEARNING RESOURCES", "name": "Practical Introduction to Wardley Mapping (Leanpub)", "url": "https://leanpub.com/practicalintroductiontowardleymapping/ (verified)", "type": "book", "maintainer": "**E. Alex Hudson**", "started": "Last updated **19 August 2019**; marked complete.", "status": "Available for purchase but **dormant \u2014 not updated in seven years.**", "licence": "Not CC. DRM-free with free updates for purchasers; all rights reserved.", "what_it_is": "A 154-page step-by-step guide to creating and using Wardley maps, aimed at executives and managers. Covers user needs and customer journeys, map construction and component placement, strategic analysis and market evolution, and works a HomeChoice vs. Netflix case study. Includes workshop exercises. $14.99 suggested, free with Leanpub membership, in PDF and EPUB.", "limitations": "Frozen in 2019 \u2014 predates the full doctrine grid, OnlineWardleyMaps' modern DSL, Mermaid support, and everything in the current tooling landscape. Not openly licensed, so nothing can be mirrored. Note the name collision: this is **not** Ben Mosior's material, despite \"practical introduction\" being a phrase people associate with Learn Wardley Mapping.", "best_link": "https://leanpub.com/practicalintroductiontowardleymapping/", "screenshot_target": "https://leanpub.com/practicalintroductiontowardleymapping/", "attribution": "\"E. Alex Hudson, *Practical Introduction to Wardley Mapping* (Leanpub, 2019).\" No reproduction rights \u2014 cover image screenshot for review purposes only." }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "OnlineWardleyMaps (OWM)", "url": "https://onlinewardleymaps.com/ (verified live \u2014 single-page app, so a raw fetch returns only metadata and a loading state; confirmed via meta tags and the docs site). Docs: https://docs.onlinewardleymaps.com/ (verified). Repo: https://github.com/damonsk/onlinewardleymaps (verified).", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "**Damon Skelhorn** (@damonsk). Community handle @MapsAsCode on X/Twitter. Funded via Patreon.", "started": "Repo has **1,445 commits**; project predates 2020.", "status": "**Actively maintained \u2014 the healthiest tool in the ecosystem.** 308 stars, 75 forks. Major modernisation released **15 June 2025**: full JavaScript\u2192TypeScript migration, resizable split-pane editor with persisted layout, DSL modernisation replacing legacy `market` and `ecosystem` keywords with unified decorator syntax, memoised React rendering. Stated roadmap: plugin architecture, map analytics, real-time collaborative editing, mobile optimisation.", "licence": "**MIT** (the code). The mapping technique itself is credited CC BY-SA 4.0 to Simon Wardley.", "what_it_is": "The reference implementation of maps-as-code, and the de facto standard text format for the entire ecosystem. You type a small DSL in the left pane and a map renders live on the right. The DSL uses `[visibility, maturity]` coordinates on 0\u20131 scales, where visibility is the Y-axis (0 invisible \u2192 1 visible) and maturity is the X-axis (0 genesis \u2192 1 commodity). Keywords: `component`, `anchor`, `pipeline`, `evolve`, `inertia`, `submap`, `note`, `annotation`, `accelerator`, `deaccelerator`, `title`, `style`, `size`, `url`, `label`; links are `->` (dependency) and `+>` (flow). A minimal example: ``` title Payment System Map component Customer [0.95, 0.2] pipeline Processing [0.5, 0.9] evolve Gateway 0.9 Customer->Website annotation 1 [[0.6, 0.8]] Modernisation needed note Legacy system [0.4, 0.7] ``` The same engine ships as a VS Code extension and an Obsidian plugin, so one syntax covers browser, editor and notes. Architecture is a React front end plus a Node/TypeScript API for save/fetch, with Docker and docker-compose for local running.", "limitations": "Positioning is manual numeric coordinates \u2014 there is no layout engine, so you nudge decimals until it looks right, and large maps become tedious. No real-time multi-user collaboration yet (it is on the roadmap, and MapKeep's death removed the only tool that had it). Being an SPA, maps are not server-side rendered, which hurts sharing and archiving. Single-maintainer bus factor, mitigated only by MIT licensing.", "best_link": "https://docs.onlinewardleymaps.com/docs/dsl-reference/", "screenshot_target": "https://onlinewardleymaps.com/ (the split-pane editor with a map rendered)", "attribution": "\"OnlineWardleyMaps by Damon Skelhorn, MIT licensed. Wardley Mapping provided courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0.\" MIT permits code reuse with the licence notice; screenshots of the UI are fine with credit." }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Wardley Maps in Mermaid (`wardley-beta`)", "url": "https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/wardley.html (verified). Mirror at https://mermaid.ai/open-source/syntax/wardley.html *(unverified)*.", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "Mermaid project (mermaid-js). The Wardley diagram type was contributed by **Mark Craddock** (@tractorjuice), resolving long-standing issue #1661 via **PR #7526** (commit `efe218a`). Craddock's write-up: https://medium.com/learn-wardley-mapping/bringing-wardley-maps-to-mermaid-a-journey-from-idea-to-open-source-contribution-8fe5009eafd3 (verified, published **9 November 2025**).", "started": "Shipped in **mermaid@11.14.0**. \u26a0\ufe0f The GitHub releases page rendered the date as \"1 April\" without a year in my fetch; the surrounding sequence (11.13.0 = 9 March, 11.15.0 = 11 May) and Craddock's November 2025 contribution date imply **April 2026**. Treat the exact release date as approximate and re-verify before publishing.", "status": "**Live and explicitly beta.** The docs mark it with a \ud83d\udd25 and the diagram keyword is literally `wardley-beta`. Mermaid 11.15.0 is the current line and the maps still parse under it.", "licence": "Mermaid is **MIT**.", "what_it_is": "Native Wardley map rendering inside the world's most widely embedded diagramming library \u2014 which means maps now render directly in GitHub markdown, GitLab, Notion, Obsidian, Docusaurus, GitBook and anywhere else Mermaid is supported, with no plugin. The syntax deliberately mirrors OWM: `component Name [visibility, evolution]`, `anchor Name [v, e]`, links `A -> B` (dependency), `A +> B` (flow), `A -.-> B` (dashed), `evolve Name targetEvo`, `note \"text\" [v, e]`, `annotation N,[x,y] \"text\"`. Decorators `(inertia)`, `(build)`, `(buy)`, `(outsource)`, `(market)` mark strategic sourcing. It supports custom evolution stages (`evolution Stage1 -> Stage2`), `pipeline Parent { ... }` blocks, and label offsets (`component Name [v, e] label [offsetX, offsetY]`). Critically, coordinates are `[visibility, evolution]` \u2014 **not** conventional `[x, y]` \u2014 matching OWM and catching out everyone who assumes otherwise. Implementation is a lightweight regex-based parser plus a custom D3 renderer, shipped with 7 unit tests and 12 E2E visual regression tests. Mark Craddock also maintains https://github.com/tractorjuice/wardley-maps-mermaid (verified), a mirror of Simon Wardley's canonical repository with all **147 maps** across 22 domains converted to `wardley-beta`, reporting 100% component/link retention across 4,905 components and 5,172 links, evolution coordinate drift of exactly 0.0, and mean visibility variance of 0.008 \u2014 all 147 parse under Mermaid 11.15.0+.", "limitations": "**Beta, and the keyword says so** \u2014 `wardley-beta` will change when it stabilises, so anything you author today may need a keyword rewrite. Handdrawn/rough mode is explicitly unsupported. The regex-based parser is less rigorous than a real grammar and will be less forgiving of edge cases than OWM's. Renderer is bespoke D3, so it does not inherit Mermaid's usual layout machinery. Not all Mermaid *hosts* have upgraded \u2014 GitHub, GitLab and others pin older Mermaid versions, so `wardley-beta` may silently fail to render in the exact place you most want it (Joplin, for example, has an open issue just to reach 11.14.0). Verify your host's Mermaid version before promising it works.", "best_link": "https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/wardley.html", "screenshot_target": "https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/wardley.html", "attribution": "\"Mermaid (MIT), Wardley map diagram type contributed by Mark Craddock.\" Docs prose is subject to Mermaid's licensing \u2014 quote briefly with attribution; the syntax itself is not copyrightable." }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Wardley Maps for Visual Studio Code", "url": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=damonsk.vscode-wardley-maps (verified). Repo: https://github.com/damonsk/vscode-wardley-maps (verified via README). Docs: https://docs.onlinewardleymaps.com/docs/vscode-extension/", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "Damon Skelhorn (@damonsk)", "started": "\u2014", "status": "Live. Version **2026.2.16**, ~**4,856** installs, 4/5 stars. \u26a0\ufe0f The marketplace page's \"last updated\" field parsed as November 2024 in my fetch, which contradicts the CalVer version string implying February 2026 \u2014 re-check this field before publishing a date.", "licence": "Listed as \"Free\" on the marketplace; the underlying OWM engine is MIT. The extension repo's exact licence file was not directly verified.", "what_it_is": "Brings the OnlineWardleyMaps rendering engine into VS Code. Syntax highlighting for `*.wm` and `*.owm` files, live map rendering via the command palette, autocomplete and snippets on Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Click to jump between components, and bundled example maps and documentation. Maps are fully round-trippable with onlinewardleymaps.com.", "limitations": "Depends entirely on one maintainer and on OWM's engine; if OWM's DSL moves, the extension must follow. No collaborative editing. Rendering is a webview panel, so it is heavier than Mermaid's inline rendering and doesn't show up in GitHub's diff view.", "best_link": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=damonsk.vscode-wardley-maps", "screenshot_target": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=damonsk.vscode-wardley-maps", "attribution": "\"Wardley Maps for VS Code by Damon Skelhorn.\"" }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Wardley Maps for Obsidian", "url": "https://github.com/damonsk/obsidian-wardley-maps (verified). Directory listing: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/wardley-maps *(unverified)*", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "Damon Skelhorn (@damonsk)", "started": "\u2014", "status": "In the official Obsidian community plugin directory. 22 stars. Latest verified release **v1.0.10, 29 November 2024** \u2014 so roughly **21 months without a release**. Treat as low-activity but functional rather than abandoned; the shared OWM engine keeps improving underneath it.", "licence": "**AGPL-3.0** \u2014 note this is *more restrictive* than OWM's MIT. If you embed or fork this plugin's code in a network-accessible service, AGPL's network clause applies.", "what_it_is": "Renders and edits OWM-format Wardley maps inside Obsidian notes using ` ```wardleymap ` fenced code blocks, supporting components, evolution, annotations and styling. Written in TypeScript. Installed via Settings \u2192 Community plugins \u2192 Browse \u2192 \"Wardley Maps\".", "limitations": "No release in ~21 months. AGPL licensing is a genuine consideration for commercial reuse. Small user base (22 stars) means bugs surface slowly. Obsidian-only. **Note:** Obsidian also renders Mermaid natively, so once your Obsidian build ships Mermaid \u226511.14.0, `wardley-beta` code blocks become a plugin-free alternative \u2014 check which you actually need.", "best_link": "https://github.com/damonsk/obsidian-wardley-maps", "screenshot_target": "https://github.com/damonsk/obsidian-wardley-maps", "attribution": "\"Wardley Maps for Obsidian by Damon Skelhorn, AGPL-3.0.\"" }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "wardleyToGo", "url": "https://github.com/owulveryck/wardleyToGo (verified). Playground: https://owulveryck.github.io/wardleyToGo/ *(unverified)*", "type": "tool (library)", "maintainer": "**Olivier Wulveryck** (@owulveryck)", "started": "**518 commits** on main; long-running.", "status": "Live. 58 stars. Ships tagged binaries via GitHub Releases.", "licence": "**MIT**", "what_it_is": "A Go library plus CLI for treating Wardley maps as data structures rather than pictures. It models maps on a 100\u00d7100 coordinate grid of visibility and evolution and renders to SVG. It accepts two input formats: **OnlineWardleyMaps syntax** (so it interoperates with the ecosystem standard) and its own **WTG2 DSL**, which is more expressive \u2014 Roman-numeral evolution phases (I\u2013IV) instead of raw decimals, component declarations with coordinates and metadata, edges, annotations (notes, warnings, signals), pipelines, submaps, grouping, custom stages, and block-level configuration for type, colour and notes. The CLI is `wtg2svg`, reading WTG2 on stdin and writing SVG on stdout: `go install github.com/owulveryck/wardleyToGo/cmd/wtg2svg@latest`. A browser playground exists.", "limitations": "Go-only \u2014 no bindings for Python, JS or anything else, which excludes most data-science and web workflows. WTG2 is a second, non-standard DSL that fragments the ecosystem; maps written in it don't open in OWM or Mermaid without conversion. Small community (58 stars), essentially one maintainer. SVG output styling is fixed and less polished than OWM's.", "best_link": "https://github.com/owulveryck/wardleyToGo", "screenshot_target": "https://owulveryck.github.io/wardleyToGo/ (the interactive playground) *(unverified \u2014 verify before use)*", "attribution": "\"wardleyToGo by Olivier Wulveryck, MIT licensed.\"" }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "cli-owm", "url": "https://github.com/monkeypants/cli-owm (verified)", "type": "tool (CLI)", "maintainer": "GitHub user **monkeypants**", "started": "Newest entry in the awesome list, added around **7 March 2026**.", "status": "Live but very new and very small \u2014 **2 stars**. Treat as promising, unproven.", "licence": "**MIT**", "what_it_is": "A Node CLI that renders OnlineWardleyMaps DSL text directly to SVG with no browser involved. It uses the actual OnlineWardleyMaps parser rather than a reimplementation, which is the key design decision \u2014 output should stay faithful to the reference renderer. Reads files or stdin, writes files or stdout, ships five built-in visual themes, distributed as an npm package and as standalone binaries. Build with `npm install && npm run build`; the executable lands at `dist/cli.js` and can be `npm link`ed globally.", "limitations": "2 stars, no release history verified, single contributor, brand new \u2014 do not build a production pipeline on it without pinning a commit. No release/version metadata was visible on the repo page.", "best_link": "https://github.com/monkeypants/cli-owm", "screenshot_target": "https://github.com/monkeypants/cli-owm", "attribution": "\"cli-owm by monkeypants, MIT licensed; uses the OnlineWardleyMaps parser (Damon Skelhorn, MIT).\"" }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Map (macOS / Linux) \u2014 Tranquil Systems", "url": "https://map.tranquil.systems (verified). Linux build: https://map.tranquil.systems/map-for-linux *(unverified)*", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "**Rub\u00e9n Beltr\u00e1n del R\u00edo**, trading as Tranquil Systems (\u00a9 2025). Same author as the `wmap-parser-*` family of libraries.", "started": "\u2014", "status": "**Actively maintained.** Version **4.3.1** current, with a published changelog. macOS (native) and a GTK4 Linux build.", "licence": "**AGPL-3.0**, source available.", "what_it_is": "A native desktop Wardley map editor built around the `wmap` text syntax \u2014 a *different* DSL from OWM's. Maps are plain text files, so they version-control cleanly, with image export. Being native rather than Electron, it has real macOS integration: Quick Look preview of map files in Finder, iCloud Drive sync for lightweight collaboration, customisable fonts and backgrounds, and smart editing. Completely free \u2014 no account, no subscription. It anchors a whole parser/renderer family by the same author: `wmap-parser-js` (npm), `wmap-parser-rust` (crates.io), `wmap-parser-swift`, `wmap-parser-c` (ANSI C), `tree-sitter-wmap` (with a bundled Neovim plugin for syntax highlighting), `wmap-renderer-canvas`, `wmap-renderer-svg`, `wmap-renderer-rust` \u2014 plus a fedwiki plugin, `wiki-plugin-wmap`.", "limitations": "**`wmap` is not the OWM DSL.** This is the single biggest ecosystem fragmentation issue after WTG2: maps authored here do not open in onlinewardleymaps.com, Mermaid, VS Code or Obsidian without conversion. macOS-first with Linux second-class; no Windows, no web. AGPL-3.0 restricts commercial embedding. iCloud \"collaboration\" is file sync, not real-time co-editing.", "best_link": "https://map.tranquil.systems", "screenshot_target": "https://map.tranquil.systems", "attribution": "\"Map by Rub\u00e9n Beltr\u00e1n del R\u00edo / Tranquil Systems, AGPL-3.0.\"" }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "ArcKit (Wardley mapping for AI coding assistants)", "url": "https://github.com/tractorjuice/arc-kit (verified)", "type": "tool", "maintainer": "**Mark Craddock** (@tractorjuice) \u2014 also the author of Mermaid's Wardley support.", "started": "Rapid release cadence through 2025\u20132026; **v5.15.0** current with **1,322 commits**.", "status": "**Very actively maintained** \u2014 2,000+ stars, 250+ forks.", "licence": "**MIT**", "what_it_is": "An enterprise-architecture governance harness for AI coding assistants, with Wardley mapping as a first-class capability rather than an afterthought. It exposes a set of slash commands \u2014 `/arckit:wardley` to build a strategic map for component evolution analysis (Genesis \u2192 Custom \u2192 Product \u2192 Commodity), build-vs-buy and vendor comparison, plus specialised variants `wardley.value-chain`, `wardley.doctrine`, `wardley.gameplay` and `wardley.climate` that each drive a different part of the method. It vendors **147 Wardley maps** in-repo as a reference corpus, so the assistant has grounded examples rather than hallucinating from memory. It installs across Claude Code (primary \u2014 13 plugins via marketplace), Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot (`.prompt` files), Mistral Vibe and Codex/OpenCode, and bundles MCP servers for AWS Knowledge, Microsoft Learn and Google Developer Knowledge.", "limitations": "Wardley mapping is a *feature* of a much larger EA governance product \u2014 you take on a great deal of unrelated surface area to get it. Heavily oriented toward UK/enterprise governance concerns (jurisdictional overlays, G-Cloud). Very fast version churn (v0.3 \u2192 v5.15 in about a year) means documentation and blog posts go stale quickly. LLM-generated maps inherit all of Matt Edgar's \"laundering assumptions into facts\" critique, amplified \u2014 an agent will confidently place components on the evolution axis with no basis whatsoever.", "best_link": "https://github.com/tractorjuice/arc-kit", "screenshot_target": "https://github.com/tractorjuice/arc-kit", "attribution": "\"ArcKit by Mark Craddock, MIT licensed.\" The 147 vendored maps are CC BY-SA 4.0 from Simon Wardley's repository and must be attributed as such separately." }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Simon Wardley's map repository", "url": "https://github.com/swardley/WARDLEY-MAP-REPOSITORY (verified). Also referenced as `swardley/MAP-REPOSITORY` from his own resources page \u2014 I could not confirm whether that shorter path redirects; **use the full name**.", "type": "reference (dataset)", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley, with contributions from research-project attendees", "started": "Maps from the \"2022 AND BEYOND\" research projects onward", "status": "Live. 228 stars, **752 commits**, 22 sector folders (finance, healthcare, defence, retail, manufacturing, construction, education, agriculture, energy, transportation, telecoms, government).", "licence": "\u26a0\ufe0f **Ambiguous \u2014 flag this.** The README states *\"Contributions to be accepted under same license of creative commons share alike\"* (CC BY-SA 4.0), but GitHub's detected repository licence field reads **GPL-3.0**. These are incompatible characterisations. Craddock's Mermaid mirror resolves it by declaring map *content* CC BY-SA 4.0 and preserving *upstream code* as GPL-3.0, which is the sensible reading \u2014 but **get confirmation before mirroring anything**.", "what_it_is": "The largest corpus of real Wardley maps by the technique's author, stored as OWM text and viewable at onlinewardleymaps.com. Roughly 147 maps (per Craddock's mirror, which reports 4,905 components and 5,172 links). It is the closest thing to a ground-truth training and reference set for what a competent map actually looks like across many industries.", "limitations": "No index or README-level navigation of what each map covers; you open files to find out. Maps are workshop artefacts of variable quality, not polished exemplars. Licence ambiguity is a real blocker for redistribution.", "best_link": "https://github.com/swardley/WARDLEY-MAP-REPOSITORY", "screenshot_target": "https://github.com/tractorjuice/wardley-maps-mermaid/ (renders the maps visually on GitHub, unlike the source repo)", "attribution": "\"Maps by Simon Wardley and research project contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0\" \u2014 **but resolve the GPL-3.0/CC BY-SA conflict before republishing.** Safest position: link, don't mirror." }, { "category": "3. TOOLS", "name": "Diagramming templates (Miro, Mural, Figma, draw.io, Excalidraw, Office)", "url": "Directory at https://learnwardleymapping.com/tools/ (verified). Miro guide: https://miro.com/blog/wardley-maps-whiteboard-canvas/ (verified). Others via the awesome list: draw.io \u2014 https://juliusgamanyi.com/2019/03/25/wardley-maps-in-drawio/; Office 365 (Visio + PowerPoint) \u2014 https://endjin.com/blog/2020/03/office365-wardley-mapping-templates; Figma \u2014 https://community.wardleymaps.com/t/figma-mapping-template/487; OmniGraffle stencils \u2014 https://github.com/harrylove/wardley-omnigraffle; yEd palette \u2014 https://github.com/colugo/yed-wardley; LaTeX \u2014 https://github.com/latticecut/Wardley_Chapter2_Finding_a_path; Google Slides template *(all unverified)*.", "type": "tool (templates)", "maintainer": "Various. Miro guide by **Ben Mosior** (18 May 2018). Others by individual community members.", "status": "Learn Wardley Mapping's directory lists Archi, Diagrams.net, Excalidraw, Figma, Google Slides, Keynote, Kumu, LucidChart, Miro, Mural, OmniGraffle, PowerPoint and a PowerPoint macros menu as *active*; and Mapkeep, MapScript, SharpCloud and both Doctrine Assessment tools as **discontinued** \u2014 *\"no longer actively maintained, available, or confirmed working.\"* WardleyMaps.com separately offers direct downloads: PDF 4:3 (126 KB), PDF wide (125 KB), PNG for Miro (60 KB), PowerPoint (98 KB).", "licence": "Varies per template; mostly unstated. **Assume nothing is openly licensed unless the individual repo says so.** The WardleyMaps.com downloads sit under that site's CC BY-SA 4.0 notice.", "what_it_is": "The whiteboard-and-slideware layer \u2014 how mapping actually happens in a room full of people who will not learn a DSL. Miro and Mural are the workshop default; the Wardley Mapping Canvas (above) drops into both. Figma serves design-led teams; draw.io and Excalidraw serve people who want free and offline; the Office 365 templates serve organisations where the output has to be a PowerPoint.", "limitations": "Nothing here is versionable or diffable; maps become screenshots and rot. There is no round-trip to OWM/Mermaid, so a workshop map has to be retyped to become a durable artefact. Template quality varies wildly and several links date from 2018\u20132020 and are likely rotted \u2014 verify each before publishing. The community forum-hosted Figma template link is on a domain that appears to be a static archive (see Dead or Dying).", "best_link": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/tools/", "screenshot_target": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/tools/", "attribution": "Per-template; credit the named author. For Miro's blog guide: \"Ben Mosior, Miro blog.\" Do not assume reuse rights." }, { "category": "4. COMMUNITY", "name": "Wardley Mapping Discord (replaces the Slack)", "url": "Current invite advertised on https://www.mapcamp.co.uk/ (verified page): **https://discord.gg/Drrwpr3f9B**. An older invite, https://discord.gg/5FuMYXBw, appears on https://www.map-camp.com/_pages/slack/ (verified page). \u26a0\ufe0f **Neither invite could be validated** \u2014 Discord invite pages require JavaScript and returned only the app shell. Verify by opening in a browser before publishing.", "type": "community", "maintainer": "Map Camp / Simon Wardley and Jane Kingston", "started": "Migration from Slack occurred after the Slack workspace wound down.", "status": "**The Slack is gone. Discord is the live channel.** The Map Camp site states plainly: *\"Slack shutting down; replaced by Discord.\"* Simon Wardley's own events page also directs people to a Wardley Mapping Discord. mapcamp.co.uk says: *\"For general assistance, please join us on Discord.\"*", "licence": "N/A (community space). Chat content is not licensed for republication.", "what_it_is": "The single live real-time community for the technique \u2014 where questions get answered, maps get critiqued, and tool authors are reachable. It replaced `mapcamp.slack.com`, which is defunct. Fallback route if invites expire, per the Map Camp site: contact Simon on Twitter (@swardley).", "limitations": "**Two competing invite links exist on two different official-looking Map Camp domains**, neither verifiable programmatically, which is a poor onboarding experience. No member count is published anywhere. Discord is not indexed, so accumulated knowledge is not searchable from outside \u2014 a real loss compared to the old forum.", "best_link": "https://www.mapcamp.co.uk/ (let them take the current invite from the source, rather than hard-coding an invite that may expire)", "screenshot_target": "https://www.mapcamp.co.uk/", "attribution": "\"Wardley Mapping community Discord, via Map Camp.\" Never quote Discord messages without the author's permission." }, { "category": "4. COMMUNITY", "name": "Map Camp", "url": "https://www.mapcamp.co.uk/ (verified \u2014 **current**). Also https://www.map-camp.com/ (verified \u2014 **stale**), and its history page https://www.map-camp.com/_pages/events/ (verified).", "type": "community (conference)", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley and **Jane Kingston**; 2026 workshop ticketed by **Swardley Maps Ltd**.", "started": "Originated from a **2017 tweet** by Simon Wardley proposing a small London meetup; first event **London, 5 October 2017**. Simon's announcement post: https://medium.com/mapcamp/map-camp-4f483b36de23 (verified, 10 February 2017).", "status": "**Alive and returning.** Verified full history: 2017 London (5 Oct); 2018 London (3 Oct) and Edinburgh (3 Dec); 2019 Atlanta (9\u201310 Apr) and London (15 Oct); 2020 Wardley Maps BarCamp (29 Jul) and Map Camp Online (13 Oct); 2021 Map Camp Online (13 Oct) and Use Case Edition (23 Nov); 2022 Map Camp UK Online (13 Oct); 2023 Wardley Maps for Business (19 May); 2024 Map Camp UK (19 Sep). Then a gap \u2014 and now **MAP CAMP Workshop 2026 on Thursday 12 November 2026, 09:00\u201317:30, at Lumiere London, N1 7JQ** (verified: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/swardleymapsltd/2240281), with **Map Camp 2027** promoted as the next full conference. Simon's Medium post *\"Map Camp \u2026 and so it starts\"* (10 June) marks the restart. Wardley's own site now describes it as *\"the bi-annual conference on strategic mapping.\"*", "licence": "N/A. Recordings are hosted by third parties under their own terms (InfoQ, YouTube, Vimeo).", "what_it_is": "The community's only conference, and the event that turned a technique into a scene. The 2026 workshop is a full day covering mapping fundamentals, case studies (including a fictional \"magical system detection\" scenario), AI and workforce transformation, and interactive Q&A, with catering included. Recordings survive across three archives: **InfoQ** hosts Map Camp London 2019 in full (https://www.infoq.com/Map-Camp-Conference-London-2019/presentations/ \u2014 verified) with James Duncan on *Using Maps in Government* (14:56), Tal Klein on *Maps and Stories* (15:06), Ramon van Alteren on *Maps and Organization* (18:45), Mark Craddock on *Maps and the UN* (20:23), Emily Webber on *Mapping Skills and Capability* (28:22), Liz Keogh on *Managing for Serendipity* (25:42), Roser Pujadas on *Mapping as a Sensemaking Practice within Digital Ecosystems* (27:16), Rachel Murphy on *Building a Company with Maps* (16:43), and Sal Freudenberg & Chris Adams on *Pivot! Tech, Climate and Mapping* (28:56). The **Wardley Maps BarCamp 2020** playlist is over 10 hours across 17 speakers *(unverified YouTube URL)*, and a **Vimeo channel** exists at https://vimeo.com/channels/wardleymaps *(unverified)*.", "limitations": "**Two live domains with conflicting information** \u2014 map-camp.com is stale (its events list stops at 2024, and its Slack page still advertises a dead Heroku invite) while mapcamp.co.uk carries the current 2026/2027 information. Anyone landing on the .com will conclude the event is dead. There was a **gap between Sept 2024 and Nov 2026** with no event. Recordings are scattered across three platforms with no unified index.", "best_link": "https://www.mapcamp.co.uk/", "screenshot_target": "https://www.tickettailor.com/events/swardleymapsltd/2240281 (proves the event is live and dated)", "attribution": "\"Map Camp.\" For talk recordings, credit the speaker, the event and the hosting platform (e.g. \"Emily Webber, *Mapping Skills and Capability*, Map Camp London 2019, via InfoQ\"). Do not re-host video." }, { "category": "4. COMMUNITY", "name": "awesome-wardley-maps", "url": "https://github.com/wardley-maps-community/awesome-wardley-maps (verified). Rendered site: https://list.wardleymaps.com/ (verified). Update tracker: https://www.trackawesomelist.com/wardley-maps-community/awesome-wardley-maps/ (verified).", "type": "reference (curated list)", "maintainer": "The **Wardley Maps Community** GitHub organisation; open community contributions with a code of conduct and contribution guidelines.", "started": "**227 commits**", "status": "**Actively maintained** \u2014 811 stars, 67 forks; most recent verified addition **7 March 2026** (`cli-owm`).", "licence": "**CC0-1.0** \u2014 public domain dedication. **This is the most permissively licensed resource in the entire ecosystem.** You may copy, adapt, mirror and republish its content with no attribution obligation whatsoever (attribution is still good manners).", "what_it_is": "The community's index of everything. Sections: Quick Start, Community, Reading, Videos, Courses, Certifications, Maps in the Wild, Research Papers, Apps (mapping / doctrine assessment / commercial platforms), Tools & Scripts (development, ChatGPT), Templates (mapping, doctrine assessment), Events, Workshops, Meetups. It is far more comprehensive than any single curator's list \u2014 it is the source for the ~16 regional meetups, the `wmap` parser family across six languages, the four ChatGPT GPTs, the LaTeX and yEd and OmniGraffle templates, the Spanish-language course (Joaqu\u00edn Pe\u00f1a Fern\u00e1ndez, https://mapasdewardley.com/estrategia/acelera-tu-aprendizia/), Cory Foy's course, and the Coursera Miro project by Tricia Bagley.", "limitations": "Curation lags reality. Despite the March 2026 update, the README still lists **MapKeep** (dead since 30 May 2026) and **MapScript** (dead) in its Apps section, and its Events section stops at Map Camp 2021 while Map Camp 2026/2027 are live. Many meetup and Twitter/X links date from 2020\u20132022 and are likely rotted. **Verify every link you take from it.** The ChatGPT GPT links are all `chat.openai.com/g/...` \u2014 an older URL scheme that may no longer resolve.", "best_link": "https://list.wardleymaps.com/", "screenshot_target": "https://github.com/wardley-maps-community/awesome-wardley-maps", "attribution": "**None legally required (CC0-1.0).** Credit \"the Wardley Maps Community awesome list\" as courtesy." }, { "category": "4. COMMUNITY", "name": "WardleyPedia", "url": "https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page (verified)", "type": "reference (wiki)", "maintainer": "Community-editable MediaWiki. Maintainer not stated on the main page.", "started": "Not stated.", "status": "**Live but effectively stalled** \u2014 the main page advertises just **14 articles**. It has useful pages (e.g. *Climatic patterns*, *Atlas2*) but never reached critical mass. Founding date, governance and licence are not stated on the main page.", "licence": "\u26a0\ufe0f **Not stated on the main page \u2014 treat as unknown.** MediaWiki installations commonly default to CC BY-SA, but do not assume it. **Flag as ambiguous; seek permission before quoting at length.**", "what_it_is": "\"The free strategy encyclopedia that anyone can edit\" \u2014 an attempt at a canonical reference wiki for Wardley mapping terminology, patterns and tools. Its *Climatic patterns* page is one of the few dedicated, structured treatments of the climatic pattern list outside the book itself, and its tool pages (Atlas2 among them) preserve history that has otherwise vanished.", "limitations": "Fourteen articles. It has been overtaken by learnwardleymapping.com's glossary and reference sections, which are better written and better maintained. No visible editorial activity, unstated licence, and a MediaWiki URL scheme (`/mediawiki/index.php/...`) that is fragile.", "best_link": "https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Climatic_patterns *(page found via search; main page verified)*", "screenshot_target": "https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page", "attribution": "**Unknown licence \u2014 do not quote substantively or mirror.** Link only, credited \"WardleyPedia,\" until the licence is confirmed." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones (talk)", "url": "https://www.infoq.com/presentations/stuational-awareness/ (**verified**). YouTube versions exist \u2014 GOTO 2018 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IW9L1uNMCs, and others at `7GDeG3Yf9r4`, `5AgCLanGSak`, `Ie2KtSU_ndQ` *(all unverified \u2014 YouTube returned HTTP 429 on every attempt)*.", "type": "talk", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley; hosted by InfoQ / C4Media", "started": "Recorded at **QCon London 2019**; published 4 July 2019. Duration **48:09**. Also delivered at DevOpsCon 2017 and GOTO 2018.", "status": "Live and **free to watch** on InfoQ, with MP3 audio and slides downloadable, plus playback speed controls.", "licence": "InfoQ terms of use; **all rights reserved.** Not CC.", "what_it_is": "Wardley's signature talk and the best single hour of him explaining the technique. He works through situational awareness and its application to technology strategy: how mapping an environment surfaces opportunities that a spreadsheet or a SWOT cannot, using examples from both UK government and commercial settings. He covers the patterns by which technology evolves, how organisations should restructure around those patterns (pioneers, settlers, town planners), and how leaders can anticipate change rather than react to it. The title is the argument: you cannot plan the crossing in advance, but you can feel for the next stone \u2014 provided you have a map that tells you which direction the far bank is in.", "limitations": "From 2019 \u2014 predates the current tooling entirely, and predates his AI-era writing. Multiple near-identical recordings from different conferences create confusion about which is canonical. InfoQ requires no login but does gate some features. Not openly licensed, so no clipping or re-hosting.", "best_link": "https://www.infoq.com/presentations/stuational-awareness/", "screenshot_target": "https://www.infoq.com/presentations/stuational-awareness/", "attribution": "\"Simon Wardley, *Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones*, QCon London 2019, via InfoQ.\" **Do not embed, clip or re-host the video** \u2014 link only. A single screenshot of the InfoQ page for illustration is defensible; frame grabs from the video are not." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Situation Normal, Everything Must Change (talk)", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYH-vLWHhyY (GOTO 2016) *(unverified \u2014 YouTube 429)*. Alternative at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6pOVEc3bA *(unverified)*.", "type": "talk", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley; GOTO Conferences", "started": "GOTO 2016", "status": "Presumed live on the GOTO Conferences channel \u2014 **could not verify**; a Class Central listing for it exists, suggesting it remains available.", "licence": "YouTube standard licence; all rights reserved.", "what_it_is": "The other talk people cite. Where *Crossing the River* teaches the method, *Situation Normal* makes the argument for why strategy as practised is broken \u2014 that most corporate strategy is meme-following dressed as analysis, and that the absence of situational awareness is why. It is the more rhetorical, more quotable of the two.", "limitations": "**I could not verify this URL** \u2014 YouTube rate-limited every request. Confirm before publishing. From 2016, so the examples are dated. Heavy on polemic, light on method.", "best_link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYH-vLWHhyY *(unverified)*", "screenshot_target": "The YouTube watch page *(verify first)*", "attribution": "\"Simon Wardley, *Situation Normal, Everything Must Change*, GOTO 2016.\" Link/embed via YouTube's own player only; no re-hosting." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "The map cheat sheet, doctrine list, climatic patterns and gameplay", "url": "Cheat sheet \u2014 https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/04/whats-in-wardley-map-and-need-for-cheat.html (verified). Doctrine (canonical short list) \u2014 https://blog.gardeviance.org/2016/08/doctrine.html (verified). Doctrine (full modern grid) \u2014 https://learnwardleymapping.com/doctrine/ (verified). Climatic patterns \u2014 https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Climatic_patterns *(found via search; parent wiki verified)*. Gameplay \u2014 Chapter 5, https://medium.com/wardleymaps/the-play-and-a-decision-to-act-8eb796b1dff1 (verified as part of the chapter list).", "type": "reference", "maintainer": "Simon Wardley (originals); doctrine grid adapted by **Tasshin Fogleman** for Learn Wardley Mapping.", "started": "Cheat sheet April 2016; doctrine post 16 August 2016.", "status": "Wardley's originals are frozen (blog dormant since Feb 2024). The Learn Wardley Mapping doctrine grid is the actively maintained version. There is **no single canonical, actively maintained, openly licensed gameplay list** \u2014 this is a genuine gap in the ecosystem.", "licence": "\u26a0\ufe0f **Mixed \u2014 be careful.** Blog originals are **CC BY-SA 3.0**. Learn Wardley Mapping's doctrine grid is **CC BY-SA 4.0**. Book chapters are **CC BY-SA 4.0**. WardleyPedia's climatic patterns page has **no stated licence**.", "what_it_is": "The reference furniture of the technique. The **cheat sheet** post defines the four constituent parts of any map \u2014 *anchor* (the user need), *position* (visibility, derived from the chain of needs), *types* (activities, practices, data, knowledge) and *evolution* (stages I\u2013IV) \u2014 and stresses that evolution is measured by **ubiquity vs certainty**, explicitly *not* by time-based diffusion curves, which is the single most commonly misunderstood point in the whole method. It also gives weak signals for each stage. The **doctrine** post gives the canonical ten: focus on user need; use a common language; be transparent; challenge assumptions; remove duplication and bias; use appropriate methods; think small; think aptitude and attitude; design for constant evolution; enable purpose, autonomy and mastery \u2014 defined as *\"basic universal principles applicable to all industries,\"* distinct from context-specific gameplay and from climatic patterns. Learn Wardley Mapping's grid expands this to roughly **40 principles across four phases**: *Stop Self-Destructive Behaviour*, *Becoming More Context Aware*, *Better for Less*, *Continuously Evolving*.", "limitations": "**There is no official doctrine poster** \u2014 I found no canonical printable artefact from Wardley himself. The two doctrine-assessment tools that existed (Chris Daniel's at doctrine.wardleymaps.com, and Justin Stach's Google-Forms-based Doctrine Grid Tool) are both listed as discontinued by Learn Wardley Mapping; doctrine.wardleymaps.com no longer resolves. The 10-item and 40-item doctrine lists coexist without a clear statement of which supersedes which, which confuses newcomers. Climatic patterns and gameplay have **no well-maintained standalone list** \u2014 the book chapters are the only reliable source, and they are long-form prose rather than reference tables. Blog images are low-resolution.", "best_link": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/doctrine/", "screenshot_target": "https://learnwardleymapping.com/doctrine/ (the four-phase grid)", "attribution": "Match the source precisely. Blog material: \"Simon Wardley, *Bits or pieces?*, CC BY-SA 3.0.\" LWM doctrine grid: \"Learn Wardley Mapping, adapted by Tasshin Fogleman from Simon Wardley's posts and *Better for Less*, CC BY-SA 4.0.\" Book material: CC BY-SA 4.0. **Do not merge these under one notice** \u2014 3.0 and 4.0 are different licences." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "What do Wardley maps really map? A settler writes (critique)", "url": "https://blog.mattedgar.com/2017/08/13/what-do-wardley-maps-really-map-a-settler-writes/ (verified)", "type": "critique", "maintainer": "**Matt Edgar**", "started": "**13 August 2017**, updated 26 August 2017", "status": "Live, stable. WordPress.com hosted.", "licence": "**No explicit licence statement** \u2014 assume all rights reserved. Standard fair-dealing quotation only.", "what_it_is": "The most substantive published critique of Wardley mapping, and the one that has genuinely stuck \u2014 a version of its central objection now appears in the Wikipedia article. Edgar, self-identifying as \"a serial settler,\" raises three objections. First, that organising around pioneers/settlers/town planners is actively harmful, producing turf wars rather than clarity \u2014 he cites Orange Group wasting effort arguing about which category the app store belonged to. Second, that the evolution axis implies an inevitable left-to-right progression that reality does not honour: components stall, and components move backwards, and *\"we're terrible at making predictions. Especially about the future.\"* Third and most damagingly, that **\"Wardley maps are therefore an artefact of social science, not a life science\"** \u2014 that the x-axis measures **level of consensus**, not objective evolution, which means the technique is manipulable and, rather than exposing assumptions for challenge, may **launder assumptions into facts and delegitimise challenge while still manufacturing consensus.**", "limitations": "From 2017; does not engage with the doctrine grid or with anything from the last nine years of practice. Blog-length, not rigorous \u2014 it is an argument, not a study. No licence, so you can quote briefly but not reproduce.", "best_link": "https://blog.mattedgar.com/2017/08/13/what-do-wardley-maps-really-map-a-settler-writes/", "screenshot_target": "https://blog.mattedgar.com/2017/08/13/what-do-wardley-maps-really-map-a-settler-writes/", "attribution": "\"Matt Edgar, *What do Wardley maps really map? A settler writes* (2017).\" Short quotations with attribution under fair dealing; **no reproduction of the full post**, and no assumption of reuse rights." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Where the map ends: understanding Wardley maps' limitations (critique)", "url": "https://dannybuerkli.medium.com/where-the-map-ends-understanding-wardley-maps-limitations-6c41b8feae68 (verified)", "type": "critique", "maintainer": "**Danny Buerkli**", "started": "**2 February 2025**", "status": "Live on Medium.", "licence": "Medium default \u2014 **all rights reserved** unless the author states otherwise. Fair-dealing quotation only.", "what_it_is": "The most *useful* critique, precisely because it is not adversarial. Buerkli sets out four structural limitations and is explicit that these are inherent constraints reflecting the method's assumptions, not defects. **One:** maps show how components evolve from genesis to commodity but cannot tell you *which new components will emerge* in genesis \u2014 the map is blind to the thing that will disrupt it. **Two:** components only move along the evolution axis under competitive pressure; absent competition, they simply sit still, so the predictive machinery stops working in monopolies, regulated markets and internal-only landscapes. **Three:** a map can only represent what its creators already understand \u2014 *\"you can't map what you don't see.\"* **Four:** usefulness depends entirely on choosing the right scope and resolution, and there are no codified rules for doing so \u2014 it takes experience the method does not teach. His closing move is the right one: the question is not whether Wardley mapping is flawed but whether it is more useful than the alternatives for a given problem.", "limitations": "Medium-hosted with all-rights-reserved defaults. Short. It bounds the method without offering a remedy \u2014 pair it with Chris Daniel's *Where the Doctrine Ends* for the \"so what do we do\" half.", "best_link": "https://dannybuerkli.medium.com/where-the-map-ends-understanding-wardley-maps-limitations-6c41b8feae68", "screenshot_target": "the article page", "attribution": "\"Danny Buerkli, *Where the map ends: understanding Wardley maps' limitations* (February 2025).\" Brief quotation with attribution; no reproduction." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Where the Doctrine Ends (critique)", "url": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/commentaries/where-the-doctrine-ends (verified)", "type": "critique", "maintainer": "**Chris Daniel**", "started": "**2 June 2026** \u2014 the most recent substantive critique found.", "status": "Live.", "licence": "**CC BY-SA 4.0** (site-wide notice on wardleymaps.com). **This is the only major critique you can freely quote and adapt.**", "what_it_is": "A qualified critique from inside the practice \u2014 Daniel calls it *\"a divergence, not a dismissal.\"* His argument is that Wardley mapping excels at diagnosis and fails at driving action: *\"Most organisations can read their landscape well enough. What stops them is rarely a missing map.\"* He identifies three problems. The **action gap** \u2014 doctrine diagnoses inertia but does not overcome it, and seeing a problem is categorically different from solving it. **Incentive blindness** \u2014 maps don't change budgets or how people vote, and organisations run two parallel strategies, the stated one and the one revealed by the budget. And **incompleteness** \u2014 doctrine *\"teaches you to spot inertia on the map and plan around it\"* but cannot *\"get a leadership team to vote against its own incentives.\"* His proposal is not better mapping but attention to the machinery of inertia: how budgets are allocated and how decisions are actually made.", "limitations": "One consultant's view, published on his own commercial site alongside his services. Newer and less tested than Edgar's critique. Offers a direction rather than a method.", "best_link": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/commentaries/where-the-doctrine-ends", "screenshot_target": "https://www.wardleymaps.com/commentaries (the commentaries index, which shows the recency of the site)", "attribution": "\"Chris Daniel, *Where the Doctrine Ends*, WardleyMaps.com, CC BY-SA 4.0.\" **Freely quotable and adaptable**, ShareAlike applies to derivatives." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Wardley mapping in security \u2014 Threat Models and Wardley Maps", "url": "https://open-security-summit.org/sessions/2022/mini-summits/mar/threat-modeling/threat-models-and-wardley-maps/ (verified)", "type": "talk / reference", "maintainer": "**Brook S.E. Schoenfield, Dave van Stein, Dinis Cruz, Izar Tarandach, Jakub Kaluzny, Krzysztof Daniel** \u2014 Open Security Summit, Threat Modeling project", "started": "**Open Security Summit 2022**, March mini-summit; 90-minute working session (18:00\u201319:30 Monday).", "status": "Session page live; a video recording is stated to be on YouTube *(link unverified)*.", "licence": "Open Security Summit terms; not stated on the session page. **Treat as unknown.**", "what_it_is": "The single most credentialed gathering on Wardley mapping in security \u2014 Schoenfield, Tarandach and Cruz are established threat-modelling authorities, not mapping enthusiasts. The session explores *\"the use of Wardley Maps in Security, and how Wardley Maps could be the missing piece of the puzzle when doing Threat Models.\"* The framing matters: the claim is not that maps replace threat models, but that threat modelling lacks a way to reason about *where the landscape is going*, and mapping supplies it. It is a working session rather than a lecture, so the recording is a genuine practitioner argument rather than a polished talk.", "limitations": "From 2022. The recording link is stated but not verified \u2014 confirm before publishing. Working-session format means it is discursive and less immediately actionable than van Stein's written article. Licence unknown.", "best_link": "https://open-security-summit.org/sessions/2022/mini-summits/mar/threat-modeling/threat-models-and-wardley-maps/", "screenshot_target": "the session page", "attribution": "\"Threat Models and Wardley Maps, Open Security Summit 2022,\" crediting the six named presenters. Licence unknown \u2014 link, don't reproduce." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Using Wardley Mapping for Optimizing Your Threat Modeling Strategy", "url": "https://xebia.com/blog/using-wardley-mapping-for-optimizing-your-threat-modeling-strategy/ (verified)", "type": "reference (applied, security)", "maintainer": "**Dave van Stein**, Xebia", "started": "Updated **27 January 2026** \u2014 current.", "status": "Live and recently updated.", "licence": "Xebia corporate blog; **all rights reserved.** Fair-dealing quotation only.", "what_it_is": "The most concrete, most actionable security application I found, and the one to build a security page around. Van Stein's argument is that teams jump straight into STRIDE and drown in detail, and that a Wardley map should sit *above* the threat model as a targeting layer. The method: build a high-level map of the system positioning components by commoditisation with the responsible team marked for each layer; then apply Wardley's opportunity framework \u2014 validate assumptions at **team boundaries**, marked with triangles, because handoff points between teams are *\"bias hotspots\"*; assess organisational capability and expertise gaps that threaten secure implementation; and challenge the attack surface by asking which components could be **eliminated entirely** rather than defended. Only then run STRIDE, on the areas the map identified. He works a concrete example of an API system with DNS, WAF, proxies and load balancers, and includes four maps with annotated problem areas. His own framing: *\"it hopefully will provide you more overview on where to apply STRIDE without getting lost in dirty details.\"*", "limitations": "Vendor blog, all rights reserved, so nothing can be mirrored. One consultant's method, not a validated framework. Assumes STRIDE familiarity. The maps are illustrative rather than from a real engagement.", "best_link": "https://xebia.com/blog/using-wardley-mapping-for-optimizing-your-threat-modeling-strategy/", "screenshot_target": "https://xebia.com/blog/using-wardley-mapping-for-optimizing-your-threat-modeling-strategy/ (one of the four annotated maps)", "attribution": "\"Dave van Stein, Xebia.\" **Do not reproduce the diagrams** \u2014 they are Xebia's copyright. Describe the method, link for the maps." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "Evolution-informed Security Architecture: Using Wardley Mapping (SABSA)", "url": "https://sabsa.org/evolution-informed-security-architecture-wardley-maps/ (verified). \u26a0\ufe0f A related SABSA page, https://sabsa.org/webinar-evolution-informed-security-architecture-using-wardley-mapping/, is **blocked by robots.txt** and could not be fetched.", "type": "talk (security)", "maintainer": "**Mario Platt**, then Independent Consultant and Strategy Director at Practical DevSecOps; hosted by **The SABSA Institute** (webinar WB105).", "started": "**Tuesday 26 May 2020**, 07:00 EDT / 12:00 BST / 21:00 AEST.", "status": "Abstract page live; **the recording is members-only.**", "licence": "SABSA Institute; all rights reserved, members-only content.", "what_it_is": "The most institutionally serious treatment of Wardley mapping in security architecture \u2014 SABSA is an established enterprise security architecture framework with a formal certification track, and this webinar maps Wardley's technique onto it. Platt introduces mapping as a strategy-development framework and then demonstrates *\"how it can help inform decisions at different layers of the SABSA matrix,\"* using climatic patterns and doctrine to help security architects spot risks and opportunities in enterprise security delivery. The significance is the direction of travel: rather than security people discovering mapping, this is an established security architecture body incorporating it.", "limitations": "**The recording is behind SABSA membership** \u2014 you can cite the abstract but most readers cannot watch it. From 2020. A sibling SABSA URL is robots.txt-blocked, so verification is partial. Presupposes SABSA knowledge.", "best_link": "https://sabsa.org/evolution-informed-security-architecture-wardley-maps/", "screenshot_target": "https://sabsa.org/evolution-informed-security-architecture-wardley-maps/", "attribution": "\"Mario Platt, *Evolution-informed Security Architecture: Using Wardley Mapping for Situational Awareness and Decision Making*, The SABSA Institute (WB105, May 2020).\" Members-only content \u2014 link to the abstract only, never reproduce." }, { "category": "5. REFERENCE & DERIVATIVE WORKS", "name": "The Value Flywheel Effect", "url": "https://itrevolution.com/product/the-value-flywheel-effect/ (verified)", "type": "book (derivative)", "maintainer": "**David Anderson, Mark McCann, Michael O'Reilly**; IT Revolution", "started": "**29 November 2022**", "status": "In print, all formats (paperback, eBook, audiobook) across major retailers.", "licence": "Commercial; all rights reserved.", "what_it_is": "The best-known applied Wardley mapping book and the one most likely to land with an engineering leadership audience. Subtitled *Power the Future and Accelerate Your Organization to the Modern Cloud*, it uses *\"Wardley Mapping and other sense-making approaches\"* to help organisations anticipate market changes and user needs, structured around a four-phase flywheel. David Anderson is explicitly described by the publisher as a member of the Wardley Mapping community, and **Simon Wardley wrote the foreword**, endorsing it for understanding competitive landscapes in the modern industrial era. It is the clearest evidence that mapping has escaped its originator and been productised into a repeatable organisational method.", "limitations": "Commercial and closed \u2014 nothing quotable at length. Mapping is one technique among several; it is not a mapping textbook. Cloud/serverless framing dates it somewhat. From 2022.", "best_link": "https://itrevolution.com/product/the-value-flywheel-effect/", "screenshot_target": "https://itrevolution.com/product/the-value-flywheel-effect/", "attribution": "\"David Anderson, Mark McCann and Michael O'Reilly, *The Value Flywheel Effect* (IT Revolution, 2022).\" Cover image for review purposes only." } ], "dead_or_dying": [ { "name": "MapKeep", "url": "https://mapkeep.com/", "status": "DEAD \u2014 ceased 30 May 2026", "by": "Tristan Slominski", "why": "The only tool with genuine real-time multiplayer collaboration. Its loss is a real capability gap. Obituary: wardleymaps.com/commentaries, 5 May 2026. Domain no longer resolves.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps README", "Wikipedia", "Simon Wardley's own resources page" ], "migration": "MapKeep offered OWM export; go to OnlineWardleyMaps" }, { "name": "MapScript", "url": "https://mapscript.org", "status": "DEAD \u2014 DNS/connection failure", "by": null, "why": "Confirmed discontinued by Learn Wardley Mapping's tools directory.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps README", "Wikipedia" ], "migration": null }, { "name": "Doctrine assessment tools", "url": "https://doctrine.wardleymaps.com/", "status": "DEAD \u2014 DNS failure", "by": "Chris Daniel; also Justin Stach's Google-Forms tool", "why": "BOTH doctrine assessment tools are listed as discontinued by Learn Wardley Mapping. There is currently NO working doctrine assessment tool \u2014 a notable ecosystem gap, and directly relevant since pki.sgit.ai has a working one.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps README" ], "migration": "None exists. This is an opportunity." }, { "name": "Map Camp Slack invite", "url": "https://map-camp-slack-invite.herokuapp.com/", "status": "DEAD \u2014 HTTP 404", "by": null, "why": "Heroku free-tier casualty. mapcamp.slack.com itself is wound down. Anyone following the awesome list to join the community hits a 404.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps README", "map-camp.com/_pages/slack/" ], "migration": "Discord, invite on mapcamp.co.uk" }, { "name": "Atlas2", "url": "https://github.com/LeadingEdgeForum/atlas2", "status": "ARCHIVED 31 May 2021", "by": "Leading Edge Forum", "why": "Historically significant as LEF's official tool. Apache-2.0 (excl. logo), 169 stars, 512 commits. Read-only.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "older articles", "WardleyPedia" ], "migration": "Maintainer notice recommends alternatives" }, { "name": "Leading Edge Forum Wardley Mapping course", "url": "https://learn.leadingedgeforum.com/p/wardley-mapping/", "status": "DEAD \u2014 HTTP 404", "by": "Leading Edge Forum", "why": "LEF was Wardley's employer during the book's writing. Reflects his departure.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps Courses section" ], "migration": null }, { "name": "Wardley Mapping Forum (Discourse)", "url": "https://community.wardleymaps.com/", "status": "EFFECTIVELY ARCHIVED \u2014 snapshot dated 27/02/2024", "by": null, "why": "Hundreds of useful threads remain readable but nobody is answering. Do NOT send newcomers here to ask questions. Treat as a valuable read-only archive.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps (individual threads)" ], "migration": "Discord" }, { "name": "map-camp.com (the stale domain)", "url": "https://www.map-camp.com/", "status": "STALE but live \u2014 actively misleading", "by": null, "why": "Events list stops Sept 2024; advertises the dead Heroku Slack invite and an older Discord link. A visitor landing here will reasonably conclude Map Camp is dead. It is not.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "search results" ], "migration": "ALWAYS link mapcamp.co.uk \u2014 Map Camp 2027 and the 12 Nov 2026 workshop are listed there" }, { "name": "Teachable deep links", "url": "https://courses.learnwardleymapping.com/p/...", "status": "MOVED \u2014 302 to a login wall", "by": "Hired Thought", "why": "Deep links still circulating in search results and community posts land on auth-pwm.learnwardleymapping.com/auth/login.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "search results", "community posts" ], "migration": "Link learnwardleymapping.com" }, { "name": "DDD Academy \u2014 Wardley Mapping workshop", "url": "https://ddd.academy/wardley-mapping-ben-mosior-jabe-bloom/", "status": "DORMANT \u2014 'No upcoming sessions yet'", "by": "Ben Mosior & Jabe Bloom", "why": "2026 copyright footer but no scheduled sessions. Private team sessions still offered on request. Do not present as an available course.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "course directories" ], "migration": null }, { "name": "Unverified, likely rotted", "url": null, "status": "CHECK BEFORE PUBLISHING", "by": null, "why": "~16 meetup.com groups in the awesome list (several date 2020-2022); bit.ly links for the Mapping Maps Newsletter; four ChatGPT GPT links on the old chat.openai.com/g/ scheme; r/wardleymaps (Reddit 403 through the proxy \u2014 status genuinely unknown); vimeo.com/channels/wardleymaps.", "still_listed_as_live_by": [ "awesome-wardley-maps README" ], "migration": null } ] }