Scenarios and versions
Charts holds more than one version of the same thing in three different ways. They look similar and answer different questions.
Versions — what this chart used to be
Section titled “Versions — what this chart used to be”Every publish creates a version, with a note describing what changed. Version history is the record of the same chart over time.
Use it to answer “what did this say in June?”.
Versions are linear. There is one chart, and it moves forward.
Scenarios — what this chart could be instead
Section titled “Scenarios — what this chart could be instead”A scenario pins the saved chart and gives you a separate copy to change. It carries a name, a type such as future state, and a field for assumptions and notes.
Use it to answer “what if we did it this way?”.
Scenarios are parallel. The baseline and the proposal both exist at once, which is what makes comparison possible.
Duplicates — a new chart that started here
Section titled “Duplicates — a new chart that started here”Duplicate in a chart’s Actions menu makes an independent copy with no relationship to the original.
Use it when you want a similar chart for a different purpose — the same escalation process for a second team, say.
A duplicate is a fork. Nothing connects the two afterwards, and nothing will tell you they have drifted apart.
Choosing
Section titled “Choosing”| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Record what the process looked like before | A version |
| Propose a change and show the difference | A scenario |
| Start a different chart from this one | A duplicate |
The mistake worth avoiding is duplicating a chart to draft a proposal. You get two charts, no comparison, and no record of which was the baseline.
Why assumptions matter more than they look
Section titled “Why assumptions matter more than they look”A scenario’s assumptions field is the one people leave empty and later need.
A future-state chart claims a process will be faster. That claim rests on things being true — that a classifier is accurate enough, that a review can be dropped, that volume holds steady. Written down, those become checkable. Left in someone’s head, the numbers get quoted without them and the proposal gets approved for reasons nobody can reconstruct.
After a change ships
Section titled “After a change ships”Remap the real process once it has settled and publish it as the new baseline version.
Keep the scenario. It is the record of what was promised, which is what you need when someone asks whether the change worked.
Related
Section titled “Related”Improve a process with scenarios is the full cycle. Review and publish covers versions and notes.