Method is the system of conventions, specifications, skills, and policies that governs how an endeavor conducts itself.
Secondary intension
Something is method when it has all of:
- Codification: it is documented — as specifications, policies, skills, or other explicit artifacts. Uncodified habit is not method (it may become method through codification).
- Coherence: its parts relate to each other as a system, not as an ad-hoc collection of rules
- Prescriptiveness: it says how things should be done, not merely how they are done
- Revisability: it can be changed when it no longer serves the endeavor’s objectives
Distinguished from
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Practice: the actual doing. Method is the score; practice is the performance. Method without practice is shelfware. Practice without method is improvisation.
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Methodology: a methodology is a particular named approach to work (e.g., Scrum, Shape Up). Method may draw on multiple methodologies. Method is what this endeavor actually uses; methodology is what someone else designed.
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Doctrine: in military usage, doctrine is the body of principles guiding action. Doctrine and method are close — but doctrine emphasizes principles and authority, while method emphasizes system and practice-orientation.
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Specification: a specification defines a single convention (e.g., semiotic-versioning defines how versioning works). Method is the collection of all such specifications as a coherent system.
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Policy: a policy is a single standing commitment (e.g., “reason constructively”). Method includes all policies plus the specifications, skills, and conventions that implement them.
In the semiotic framework
Method is the stable fragment of the agential semioverse — the configuration of norms, tools, and conventions that has achieved closure (the j operator). When method works and is practiced, it is invisible. When method fails to close under new conditions, closure pressure generates revision.
In this repository
The semiotic-* specification family constitutes the emsemioverse’s method:
- semiotic-markdown — how files carry meaning
- semiotic-specification — how conventions are documented
- semiotic-versioning — how artifacts are versioned
- semiotic-changelog — how changes are tracked
- semiotic-project-management — how work is planned and tracked
- semiotic-endeavor — how these cohere as a system