ORBITAL

ORBITAL is WE’s frame for planning and overseeing a project, a program, a department or a company. Where ANDROID Ops describes how a team spends its time, ORBITAL describes what a plan has to say. Its name is an acronym of seven components: Objective, Resources, Budget, Indicators, Transport, Activities, Logistics.

Like the other frameworks, it is a working method written by WE. It is not a standard and WE makes no claim about the results it produces. A plan that answers all seven components is complete in the sense that matters: a stranger could pick it up and know what it is for and how it will run.

The seven components

1. Objective

The goal or outcome the project aims at. A good objective is clear, measurable and aligned with the larger aims of the organization, and it leaves room for new ideas about how to reach it.

2. Resources

What the work needs: people, equipment, materials and technology. The component covers identifying them, planning how they are allocated, matching the team’s skills to the job and using them responsibly.

3. Budget

The money the work needs, set out as a financial plan with itemized costs and a timeline for spending. It also covers how costs are controlled and how spending is reported.

4. Indicators

How progress will be judged. The team picks performance indicators, or sustainability goals where they apply, decides how they are monitored and how outcomes are reported.

5. Transport

How energy, goods or information moves from one place to another in an organized way. For a software team that is chiefly the movement of information and work products; the component asks for a plan for that movement and for the risks in it.

6. Activities

The tasks and events that make up the work, organized into a timeline with milestones and deadlines, and coordinated so that one task does not block another.

7. Logistics

Coordination, communication and risk. This is where the plan says how people stay informed, which risks are expected and how they will be handled, and how the team monitors, evaluates and learns as it goes.

A plan in seven orbits

In the UBF sky a moon is a side project, a startup or a department, and each one runs on its own O.R.B.I.T.A.L. plan. The drawing shows a world forming with its seven rings around it, one for each question the plan answers.

The frame at a glance

O.R.B.I.T.A.L. components
Component	What the plan says
Objective	State the goal or outcome.
Resources	Name what the work needs.
Budget	Set out the money and its timeline.
Indicators	Decide how progress is judged.
Transport	Plan how work and information move.
Activities	List the tasks, milestones and deadlines.
Logistics	Plan coordination, communication and risk.