Shared models help clarify what we agree that we’re trying to do. “Agile” has unfortunately become too misunderstood and jargon-y to serve this purpose. At Grainger, we’ve been exploring alternate framing to point more clearly to what we’re trying to do: “Continuous Delivery”, “Modern Software Engineering”, etc. The latest version I’m proposing is a Target Operating Model emphasizing 4 properties: Safe, Responsive, Trustworthy, Coherent. I’ll describe the problems this target operating model is intended to solve and the reactions it has received so far.