Design Heuristics - Computers as Theatre - page 158

Many workers in research and in design start their efforts by falling in love with
a whizzy strategy—or worse yet, a mere tactic—and then try to dream up some-
thing grand to do with it. This is like the Polish obsession with the glory of horse
cavalry tactics at the eve of World War II, doomed to failure in competition against
Guderian's panzer divisions when the blitzkrieg came across the border.

—Rob Tow

I've added into my graph the level of “actions.” In a military sense, lo-
gistics operate on the same level as strategy because the logistics plan goes
toward supporting the grand strategic goal in a more general way. How to
get supplies, food, and fuel to many areas in the “theatre of war” is not spe-
cifi cally tied to any given strategy or tactic, but works in parallel to serve
many operations in different locations. Here I am using the term “action”
to refer to what is necessary to meet a particular tactical goal.
Figure 5.2 is another version of the same graph with some new infor-
mation. First, a given strategy can support more than one grand strategic
goal. Likewise, a particular tactic may serve more than one strategy.

GRAND STRATEGY

GRAND STRATEGY

STRATEGY STRATEGY STRATEGY

TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC TAC T IC

Action Action Action Action Action Action Action Action Action Action

Action Action Action Action Action Action Action Action

Figure 5.2. A strategy may work in support of more than one grand strategic goal,
just as a tactic may serve more than one strategy.