Frequently Asked Questions

No. Kanban is a flow management method focused on visualizing work and limiting work in progress. Triad Flow™ is a structural model focused on how decision authority is organized. Kanban does not prescribe ownership structure — Triad Flow™ does. You could use Kanban boards within a Triad Flow™ structure, but the models operate at different levels of abstraction. Kanban optimizes flow management; Triad Flow™ restructures ownership.

Triad Flow™ can be adopted incrementally. The most common starting point is mapping existing roles to the three decision domains. A Product Owner maps naturally to the Driver domain. Engineering leads map to the Maker domain. The Guardian domain — often the most underserved — requires identifying who currently owns release readiness, quality, and risk. The transition is structural, not ceremonial: you change who owns which decisions, not which meetings you hold.

A triad can be as small as three individuals (one per role) or as large as the work demands, with multiple people operating within each domain. The structural principle is that the three decision domains remain distinct and co-equal regardless of team size. Book 3 in the series specifically addresses early-stage teams where roles may need to collapse.

Yes, and the authors recommend it. The most impactful first step is typically consolidating the Guardian function — identifying who owns risk, readiness, and release, and giving them genuine authority. Many organizations already have informal Driver and Maker roles but lack an empowered Guardian. Starting there produces visible results quickly.

No. It eliminates meetings that exist to compensate for structural deficiencies. When ownership is fragmented, meetings become the mechanism for alignment. When ownership is consolidated, much of that alignment happens naturally. The ceremonies that remain should provide genuine signal: what is done, what is blocked, what is at risk.

QA is a function — a set of testing and quality assurance activities. The Guardian is an ownership domain that encompasses QA but extends far beyond it. The Guardian owns risk (including security, compliance, and operational risk), readiness (the holistic judgment of whether work is safe to ship), and release confidence. A QA engineer may perform Guardian activities, but the Guardian role is about decision authority over the ship/no-ship decision, not testing alone.

Triad Flow™ was designed for enterprise environments where regulatory compliance is non-negotiable. The Guardian role explicitly includes compliance within its decision domain. Rather than external compliance gates that create queues, the Guardian applies compliance standards directly during execution and escalates only for non-routine situations. This is not about reducing compliance — it’s about removing the queue.

The model was developed in the context of enterprise software delivery, and that is where it has been most thoroughly examined. However, the underlying structural principles — consolidated ownership, flow-based progression, integrated governance — are not inherently software-specific. Any context where delivery is constrained by coordination overhead and fragmented authority may benefit from these structural principles.

Triad Flow™ does not prescribe estimation practices. When work moves in flow cycles governed by readiness rather than time-boxed sprints, the need for point-based estimation decreases. The Driver defines intent and acceptance criteria; the Maker provides delivery expectations based on experience and judgment; the Guardian assesses risk factors that might affect timing. Planning happens through continuous refinement rather than batch planning ceremonies.

This is a common practical constraint. Triad Flow™ can operate structurally while providing sprint-cadence reporting for organizational compatibility. The key insight is that reporting cadence need not dictate execution cadence. Teams can deliver in flow cycles while reporting progress at whatever interval the organization requires. The structural change (consolidated ownership) delivers value even within existing reporting frameworks.

A good engineering manager may informally consolidate some decision authority, but their ability to do so depends on organizational structure. In most enterprises, even excellent managers cannot unilaterally approve releases, set compliance standards, or override external governance gates. Triad Flow™ makes structural what good managers attempt informally — it provides the organizational design that gives consolidated ownership formal legitimacy.

Start with the Process page on this site for the conceptual overview. For the complete treatment, Book 1 provides the full structural argument, the model definition, and practical application. The white paper (available as a pre-print PDF) provides the academic treatment submitted to IJMARR.