The Memoranda Series¶
The SituationReport software is the tool – the memoranda are its conceptual foundation. The series examines how large IT portfolios and solutions are led: with an honest situational picture, trained staffs, and most recently AI as a staff member. All memoranda address decision-makers and require no military, agile, or AI background.
Each memorandum is available here in its current edition as a PDF (German and English). Curated and owned by Robert Seebauer, produced with the support of Claude (Anthropic) – see the transparency notice below.
The series at a glance: five memoranda in sequence, each with its single most important sentence – from the original talk to the AI memorandum. Click to enlarge.
The connections in detail: the series mind map
The memoranda (right), foundation and tooling (left), cross-connections (dashed). Click to enlarge. The mind map is maintained in German – the memoranda themselves are fully bilingual.
Memorandum 0 · The Origin¶
Large Solution Management – Everything Will Be Fine, Right? Version 1.5 · 2026-08-19 · 18 pages – talk given at the SAFe Treff, Frankfurt am Main, February 26, 2026
The single most important sentence
Between strategy and tactics, operational planning is missing – and its first tool is the situational picture: if you do not know where you stand, you need not tell anyone where to march.
The talk that started everything: the missing operational-planning layer, the four knowledge fields Flow · Quality · Value · Dependencies, competence instead of rules – including all original slides and a one-page flyer for every memorandum.
Download: PDF German · PDF English Software connection: The four knowledge fields grew into this toolsuite's module overview.
Companion Memorandum · The Term¶
What is a situational picture? The term, its origin – and six examples from hospital, fire brigade, navigation and corporate IT Version 1.0 · 2026-08-19 · 9 pages – for readers without a military background
The single most important sentence
A situational picture is not a collection of numbers but the shared, honest answer to three questions – where do we stand, what has changed, what follows from it – prepared so that someone can decide.
The explanation of the term that all other memoranda presuppose – written in response to a reader's question after the series went public: origin (situation, situational picture, assessment, briefing, situation service), the difference from status reports, dashboards and KPI reports, six characteristics as a checklist, the command process as a control loop – and six examples: shift handover (SBAR), the fire-brigade situation map, navigation, a complete portfolio picture on a single page, the delta briefing and three counter-examples. With a guide: the first situational-picture page within a week.
Download: PDF German · PDF English
Software connection: The example picture in Part C is the page that portfolio and simulate produce – number and confidence from the software, the third question from the staff.
Main Memorandum 1 · People & Rituals¶
Team of Teams & the Training of Staffs and Operational Planners Version 4.2 · 2026-08-18 · 19 pages
The single most important sentence
It is not the reporting tool that creates the operating picture, but the ritual and the trained people around it – the tool (our software) merely makes the ritual cheaper, faster and more honest.
What portfolios can learn from McChrystal's Team of Teams and 200 years of general-staff training: a shared operating picture plus decentralized decision-making, and staff work as a teachable craft – including a 12-month curriculum and a quick-start path.
Download: PDF German · PDF English
Software connection: The aggregated report is the O&I artifact; simulate provides the quantitative wargaming.
Main Memorandum 2 · Content & Structure¶
Enterprise Architecture & the Situational Picture at the Solution Level Version 2.2 · 2026-08-18 · 11 pages
The single most important sentence
The solution level is not a "coordination layer" but the architectural responsibility level: it keeps the control loop between strategy (EA) and delivery (the ARTs) closed – and the situational picture is the instrument with which it does so.
The EA ↔ solution control loop, capabilities as a shared language, five situational-picture principles, and the four report dimensions beyond flow metrics – with a 90-day entry path.
Download: PDF German · PDF English
Software connection: The portfolio module implements the solution situational picture; the EA dimensions shape its roadmap.
Side Memorandum · The Civilian Key Witnesses¶
Four Architecture Thought Leaders in Detail: Hohpe · Fowler · Martin · Hohmann Version 1.2 · 2026-08-18 · 12 pages
The single most important sentence
Four paths, one destination: architecture work is deciding under uncertainty with a shared language – its tools (patterns, options, boundaries, games) are therefore leadership and staff tools, not technology internals.
The in-depth treatment of the four thought leaders who serve as the series' key witnesses – their works, core concepts, and six directly actionable software derivations.
Download: PDF German · PDF English
Software connection: Trend columns, the debt quadrant, and the strangler metric are anchored as roadmap derivations around the portfolio module.
Main Memorandum 3 · Tooling & Provision¶
AI and the Situational Picture – From Report to Situation Service Version 2.1 · 2026-08-18 · 19 pages
The single most important sentence
AI makes situational information cheap while judgment remains scarce – therefore AI belongs on the staff, not on the commander's hill, and its greatest lever is provision: the right information, at the right time, in the language of the recipient.
To what extent AI helps create and above all provide situational information: the intelligence cycle, four AI roles, seven situation-service patterns, seven AI principles – since v2.0 with the judgment block (decomposing every decision into six components, bias ≠ noise and decision hygiene, the jagged frontier) and the mapping of where software, AI and humans belong per decision component – with a 90-day pilot including a noise audit and a governance catalogue; since v2.1 with the legal frame of the EU AI Act (as of August 2026: deployer duties, transparency, the high-risk trap of person-level data) and legal guardrails for the software.
Download: PDF German · PDF English
Software connection: The seven situation-service patterns define the AI phase of the portfolio roadmap (pilot: delta briefing); simulate remains the deterministic core that AI explains but never replaces.
Versioned Editions¶
This page always offers the current edition of each memorandum. Frozen editions are published as GitHub releases using the tag scheme denkschriften/<date> – in addition, every PDF carries its version in the file name and in the version history on its last page.
Transparency Notice¶
All memoranda of the series were produced with the support of an AI system (Claude, Anthropic – models Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Fable 5, via Claude Code): drafting, research preparation, typesetting and chart code. All content was substantively reviewed, edited and approved by Robert Seebauer, who holds editorial responsibility. The series thus practises what its AI memorandum demands: AI is a staff member, not a commander – and human sign-off is the last step before every publication.