Research publications on Organizational Schema Theory (orgschema), a reverse-design TDD methodology for business operations. Businesses are designed backward from desired customer experience through testable, version-controlled specifications where each operational layer validates the layer above it.
| Paper | Words | Refs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Organizational Schema Theory: Test-Driven Business Design | ~8,300 | 25 | Working paper, Mar 2026 |
| The OrgSchema Audit: A Six-Level Diagnostic for Specification-Driven Organizations | ~9,200 | 24 | Working paper, Apr 2026 |
Introduces the orgschema methodology: a six-level TDD cascade (customer experience contracts, signal requirements, process contracts, procedures, input specifications, sourcing requirements) where each level functions as the acceptance test for the level below it. Demonstrated through a complete specialty coffee operation (Spectra Coffee) specified across all six levels. Evaluated by five independent expert reviewers. Discusses implications for franchise models, organizational openness, and cross-industry perception transplant.
Keywords: test-driven development, business design, configuration management, design science research, declarative process management, organizational specification
Introduces a structured diagnostic protocol that evaluates organizational specification maturity across six cascading levels. Each audit level defines what to examine, what a healthy specification looks like, what failure modes indicate, and what corrective actions restore specification integrity. Demonstrates the full protocol through a worked example using a specialty coffee operation. Advances two propositions: cascade-position prioritization and bidirectional traceability completeness.
Keywords: organizational specification, test-driven business design, operational audit, specification maturity, six-level cascade, experience contracts, organizational schema theory, AI-assisted diagnostics
@article{zharnikov2026ost,
title={The Organizational Schema Theory: Test-Driven Business Design},
author={Zharnikov, Dmitry},
year={2026},
url={https://github.com/spectralbranding/orgschema-papers}
}Machine-readable citation: CITATION.cff
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| orgschema-framework | Python validator + JSON Schema for orgschema specifications |
| orgschema-demo | Spectra Coffee reference implementation -- 25 YAML files, CI/CD pipeline |
| sbt-framework | Spectral Brand Theory -- the perception specification language used for L0-L1 |
| sbt-papers | SBT research papers (sibling framework) |
Orgschema is a sibling framework to Spectral Brand Theory (SBT). Both emerge from specification-first epistemology but target different domains:
- SBT models how brands are perceived (observer-dependent, 8 dimensions)
- Orgschema uses SBT as the test specification language for L0-L1 (desired perception determines required signals)
See Zharnikov 2026a for the SBT paper.
Several papers in the sbt-papers repo are cross-cutting methodology pieces that apply equally to SBT, Orgschema, and the broader specification-first research program. They live in sbt-papers for historical reasons (originated there before the orgschema-papers split) but are conceptually shared between the two frameworks:
| Key | Paper | DOI | Relevance to Orgschema |
|---|---|---|---|
| R13 | Paper as Specification: A Machine-Readable Standard for Scientific Claims | 10.5281/zenodo.19210037 | Applies the orgschema test-driven cascade pattern to scientific publishing — papers as testable specifications. |
| R14 | Research as Repository: A Git-Native Protocol for Scientific Knowledge Production | 10.5281/zenodo.19294864 | Extends orgschema's "git as system of record" architecture to scientific knowledge production. |
| 2026l | The Rendering Problem: From Genetic Expression to Brand Perception | 10.5281/zenodo.19064426 | Cross-domain formalization of the specification-rendering gap that orgschema's L1-L5 cascade addresses operationally. |
These papers' Zenodo DOIs and GitHub paths remain in sbt-papers; this repo points to them rather than duplicating.
Dmitry Zharnikov -- dmitry@spectralbranding.com
Creator of Organizational Schema Theory and Spectral Brand Theory. Background in financial systems engineering and applied epistemology.
All papers are released under MIT License. Use, cite, and build upon this work freely with attribution.
"Organizational Schema Theory" and "orgschema" are trademarks of Dmitry Zharnikov. The MIT license applies to the source code and text only and does not grant permission to use the project trademarks.