Getting Started
Not sure where to begin with Harmonic Methods? A short guide to choosing the right framework and finding the right entry point.
Getting Started
Harmonic Methods is a family of frameworks. The right starting point depends on the scope of the problem you are addressing. This guide helps you orient.
Start with Harmonic Composition
If you are working on a single software system, product, or engagement and want a structured approach to delivery that preserves context and maintains coherence across handoffs, Harmonic Composition is your entry point.
It is the founding framework of Harmonic Methods and the most fully documented. Every other method in the family builds on concepts it establishes.
Harmonic Composition, Getting Started
Define the Coda, capture Notes, identify Beats, and apply the quality gates. A four-step practical pathway.
Begin here →Harmonic Composition, Overview
Understand the framework's structure: key concepts, three phases, and six quality dimensions.
Read the overview →When to consider Portfolio Management
If you are managing multiple delivery threads, systems, or initiatives simultaneously and need a structured way to maintain strategic alignment across them, Portfolio Management is the relevant layer.
Portfolio Management is designed to sit above Harmonic Composition: it provides the strategic context, the broader Codas and capability directions, that individual systems reflect in their own delivery. It is currently in development.
When to consider Orchestration
If delivery is distributed across multiple teams and systems that must coordinate without centralized control, Orchestration addresses the interface between those systems: shared context, dependency sequencing, and alignment recovery.
Orchestration assumes Harmonic Composition is in use within each system. It is currently in development.
If you are new to Harmonic Methods, begin with Harmonic Composition regardless of the eventual scope. Its concepts — Notes, Beats, Revisions, Coda — are the shared vocabulary the other frameworks build on.