Benefit Dependency Network

What is a BDN?

A Benefit Dependency Network (BDN) is a visual technique for mapping how technology investments link to business objectives and strategy. It answers the question: "Why are we building this, and how does it support our goals?"

The network flows left-to-right across up to six columns. Every new model starts with these default column headers:

Arrows represent dependency: an arrow from item A to item B means B depends on A, or A enables B.

Models

A model is a complete BDN for one organisation or initiative. Each model has its own items, connections, views, and layout.

Creating a model

Click the + icon at the top of the sidebar, type a name, and press Enter.

Selecting a model

Click any model name in the sidebar. The canvas loads automatically.

Renaming a model

Hover over a model name in the sidebar — a pencil icon appears on the right. Click it, edit the name, then press Enter or click away to save. Press Escape to cancel.

Views

Every model has a Default view that shows all items. You can create additional named views that show only the subset of items connected upstream and downstream from a set of root items you choose.

Creating a view

With a model open, click + next to the Views label in the sidebar, type a name, and press Enter. The View Filter dialog opens automatically so you can define the view's root items straight away. The canvas is auto-arranged as soon as you save.

Switching views

Click a view name in the sidebar to switch the canvas to that view.

Opening the View Filter dialog

The View Filter dialog lets you choose which items anchor a named view. There are three ways to open it:

• After creating a view — the dialog opens automatically.
• Double-click a view name in the sidebar.
• View ▾ → Manage View in the toolbar — available whenever a named non-default view is selected.

Using the View Filter dialog

1. Use the Filter by column dropdown to select which column to anchor the view from. All of the model's currently active columns are available (see Custom Column Headers); the default is the model's leftmost column, Strategies unless it has been renamed.
2. A checklist of all items in that column appears below the dropdown. Tick one or more items to use as root items.
3. Use Select all or Clear to bulk-select or deselect the list.
4. Click Save. The canvas immediately shows only the selected root items plus every item connected to them upstream and downstream. The layout is automatically tidied so items are compactly arranged from the top of the canvas.

Deleting a view

Hover over a non-default view name in the sidebar and click the ✕ that appears.

Custom Column Headers

Every model starts with the six default column headers — Strategy, Objective, Program, Project, System, and Technology — described in What is a BDN?. Those names describe one common way of thinking about strategic alignment, but they are not the only one, and they are not fixed. Each model can be configured with its own column titles and its own number of columns (from 2 to 6), so the network can speak whatever planning language your audience already uses.

How to configure columns

Click Configure in the toolbar (visible only to a model's owner — see Models). The dialog always shows six text boxes, one per column slot, in a fixed left-to-right order:

1. Each box is pre-filled with that slot's current title (the default name, or a previously customised one).
2. Type over any box to rename that column. The limit is 26 characters per title.
3. To use fewer than six columns, clear the boxes from the right-hand end — for example, clear boxes 5 and 6 to run a 4-column model. The number of columns the model actually uses is simply the count of filled-in boxes, read from left to right.
4. Boxes must be filled in order with no gaps — you can't leave box 3 blank while box 4 has a title. A model must use at least 2 columns.
5. Click OK to save. The canvas, Columns menu, and Add Items dialog update immediately.

What changes when you customise columns

Renaming or reducing columns is purely a labelling and visibility change — it never alters or deletes item data. Specifically:

• The Columns menu, canvas headers, and the type buttons in Add Items and Edit Item all show your custom titles instead of the defaults.
• CSV export writes your configured title as each item's type value (instead of the internal name like strategy); CSV import matches those titles back to the right column automatically. See CSV Import.
• draw.io and PowerPoint exports use your custom titles as column headers.
• The Alt+key shortcuts in Add Items (Alt+S, Alt+O, etc. — see Adding Items) only work while a model is still using the exact default six columns. As soon as any title is customised, or a column is turned off, those shortcuts are dropped — there's no reliable mnemonic letter for an arbitrary custom title, so the buttons remain mouse-clickable instead.
• The minimum visible columns in the Columns menu (see Column Visibility) is 3, or the model's total active column count if that's fewer than 3 — a 2-column model can't hide either of its two columns.

Turning a column back on

If you reduce a model from, say, 6 columns to 4, the items that were in the two deactivated slots are not deleted — they simply stop appearing anywhere (canvas, menus, exports) until you reopen Configure and fill those boxes in again. At that point their items reappear exactly as they were left. This is the same behaviour as unchecking a column in the Columns menu, just set as the model's default instead of a temporary per-visit choice.

When to rename columns — and when not to

The right column names are whatever your stakeholders already use to talk about strategy and delivery — the goal is to remove translation effort between the BDN and the language people bring into the room, not to force every model into one vocabulary. Some situations where custom headers are worth setting up:

• Your organisation doesn't use "Program" or "Project" as distinct concepts. Many teams only have one level of delivery work between objectives and systems. Renaming — or simply deactivating — the extra column avoids an artificial split that confuses reviewers.
• You're building a benefits-realisation model, not a delivery model. The classic Benefits Dependency Network terminology (Ward & Daniel) reads right-to-left as IT Enablers → Enabling Changes → Business Changes → Benefits → Investment Objectives. Relabelling the same six slots left-to-right as, e.g., Investment Objective, Benefit, Business Change, Enabling Change, IT Enabler keeps the tool's mechanics identical while matching the vocabulary a benefits-management audience expects.
• You're translating a public strategy document into an alignment model. Annual reports, investor presentations, and strategy memos rarely use "Strategy/Objective/Program" language. For example, a model built from a retailer's stated priorities might use Goals, Business Benefits, Business Enablers, Platform Enablers, and Potential Workstreams — five columns matching the report's own framing, with the sixth slot left unused. This makes the resulting diagram instantly recognisable to executives who read the source document.
• Your team plans in OKR language. Renaming the columns to Objective, Key Result, Initiative, Deliverable, System, and Tool lets an OKR-based team use the same dependency-mapping mechanics without relearning PPM terminology.
• You're doing capability-based enterprise architecture planning. Business Capability, Capability Gap, Change Initiative, Enabling Project, Application, and Technology maps EA capability models onto the same six-slot structure.

Reasons to keep the defaults instead:

• You're sharing models across multiple teams or business units, and a consistent, well-known vocabulary (Strategy/Objective/Program/Project/System/ Technology) matters more than any one team's preferred phrasing.
• You genuinely use all six levels of granularity from strategy down to named technology products — the default six-column split already fits.
• The model will be handed off or compared against other BDN tools/templates that assume the standard terminology.

Adding Items

There are two ways to open the Add Items dialog:

• Click + Add Items in the toolbar.
• Double-click any empty area of the canvas.

In the dialog:

1. Select the item type — one button per active column (Strategy, Objective, Program, Project, System, and Technology by default, or your model's custom titles; see Custom Column Headers).
2. Enter the item name and press Enter or click Add.
3. Add as many items as you need, then close the dialog.

On a model still using the exact default six columns, holding Alt plus S / O / P / J / Y / T jumps the current row to Strategy / Objective / Program / Project / System / Technology respectively. These shortcuts are turned off once a model's columns are customised — see Custom Column Headers.

Editing Items

Double-click any item on the canvas to open the Edit Item dialog. All fields can be changed here (see Item Fields below). Press Enter or click Save to apply changes.

To delete an item, open Edit Item and use the Delete button (if present), or remove it via CSV import/export.

Item Fields

Drawing Connections

A connection represents a dependency: the item on the left enables the item on the right.

1. Click an item to select it. Blue handles appear on its left and right edges.
2. Hover over a handle until the cursor changes to a crosshair.
3. Drag from the handle to another item and release.

Transitive connections (dashed lines) are shown automatically when an intermediate column is hidden — they represent the shortest visible path between two items.

Deleting Connections

1. Click a connection line to select it. It turns blue.
2. Press Delete or Backspace to remove it.

Navigation & Zoom

• Pan — click and drag on an empty area of the canvas.
• Zoom — scroll the mouse wheel, or use the + / − / fit buttons in the bottom-left corner of the canvas.
• Zoom range: 30 % – 200 %.

The View Menu

Click View ▾ in the toolbar to open the View menu. It groups all canvas display and analysis controls in one place so the toolbar stays uncluttered.

Auto Layout

Click View ▾ → Auto Layout in the toolbar to automatically sort and position all items. The algorithm:

• Orders items within each column by Priority (lowest number first).
• Uses a barycenter heuristic to minimise connection crossings.
• Saves the new positions so they persist across sessions.

View-aware layout

When a named (non-default) view is active, Auto Layout only positions the items visible in that view. Items are packed compactly from the top of the canvas — there is no extra white space from items that are hidden by the current filter. Items not visible in the view keep their existing positions for when you return to the Default view.

Auto Layout also runs automatically whenever you save a View Filter, so newly created or updated views are always neatly arranged.

Column Visibility

Click Columns ▾ in the toolbar to show or hide individual columns. The menu lists only the model's currently active columns — if the model has been configured to use fewer than six (see Custom Column Headers), only those appear here. At least 3 columns must remain visible, or all of them if the model uses fewer than 3.

This is a temporary, per-visit display preference — it's independent of the model's configured column titles and count, which are set once via Configure and apply for everyone who opens the model.

When a column is hidden, connections that passed through it are shown as dashed transitive lines connecting the nearest visible items on either side.

Show / Hide Lines

Click View ▾ → Show Lines to toggle the visibility of all connection lines on the canvas. A ✓ next to the item means lines are currently visible.

Hiding lines is useful when the canvas is dense and you want to focus on the items themselves without the visual noise of connections.

LTR / RTL Direction

Click View ▾ → LTR in the toolbar to flip the canvas direction. A ✓ next to LTR means left-to-right is active.

• LTR (left-to-right): the model's first configured column (Strategy by default) is on the far left, its last active column (Technology by default) on the far right. Arrows point right.
• RTL (right-to-left): columns are mirrored. Arrows point left.

The direction preference is saved automatically.

Relationship Tracer

The tracer highlights all items connected — directly or indirectly — to a selected item, making it easy to trace impact or lineage across the network.

1. Click View ▾ → Tracer to enable it (a ✓ appears next to the item).
2. Click any item on the canvas. It and all its connected ancestors and descendants are highlighted in green.
3. Click the same item again to deselect and clear the highlight.
4. Click View ▾ → Tracer again to disable the mode.

Item tooltips

Hovering over any item on the canvas shows its full name in a browser tooltip. This is helpful when item names are long and overflow the oval label.

Status Highlighting

Click View ▾ → Status to show a small coloured square in the top-right corner of each item that has a status set. A ✓ appears next to the item when status highlighting is active.

Colours can be customised in Settings — click the ⚙ gear icon near the right end of the toolbar.

Alignment Indicator

Items with no upstream connections display a small red triangle on their left edge. This indicates the item has no strategic alignment — nothing in the network currently depends on or leads to it from the left.

Items in the leftmost visible column (typically Strategy) are exempt, since they are the root of the network by definition.

Search

Type in the Search stakeholder / dept box in the toolbar. Items whose Stakeholder Name or Department contains the search text are highlighted with a blue border. The search is case-insensitive. Clear the box to remove highlighting.

What Are Suggestions?

Suggestions let you crowdsource ideas for a model from anyone — stakeholders, department leads, an entire team — without giving any of them an account or editing access. You share a link, they add candidate strategies, objectives, programs, projects, systems, or technologies (whatever column types your model uses) from a simple public form, and you review everything privately before deciding what actually becomes part of the model.

Nothing a visitor submits touches the real model automatically — every suggestion sits in a review queue until you explicitly Promote it into a real item on the canvas (see Reviewing & Promoting below).

Creating a Suggestion Link

1. Select a model, then click Suggestions in the toolbar (it swaps to BDN View once you're there, to switch back).
2. In the Suggestion Links panel, click + New Suggestion Link.
3. Write instructions for whoever receives the link — what you're looking for, any context they need (e.g. "Please suggest programs you'd like considered for Q1 planning"). This text is the first thing they see.
4. Click Create Link, then Copy the generated URL and send it however you like — email, Slack, a meeting invite. Sending it isn't handled by the tool itself.

A model can have any number of active suggestion links at once, each with its own instructions — useful for collecting from different audiences separately (e.g. one link per department).

Submitting Suggestions (No Account Needed)

Anyone with a suggestion link can open it in a browser and start adding items — no sign-up, no login. The page shows your instructions at the top, then a form for adding one item at a time: Name, Type (one of the model's active column types), Description, Stakeholder, Department, an optional external ID, Priority (1–10), and Status.

• Draft list stays private. Everything a visitor adds is visible only to them until they click Submit suggested items — not to you, and not to anyone else using the same link.
• Bulk add via CSV. The Upload CSV button accepts a file with the header row name, type, priority, description, stakeholder_name, department, link_id, status — useful for a visitor who already has a spreadsheet of ideas rather than typing them one at a time.
• Edit or delete before submitting. A visitor can change or remove anything in their own draft list right up until they submit it.
• Submission is one-way. Once submitted, those items move into your review queue and the visitor sees a simple thank-you confirmation — they can't recall or edit a submitted batch themselves after that point.

Reviewing & Promoting

Everything submitted through any of a model's suggestion links lands in the same place: the Suggested Items table on the Suggestions tab, sortable by any column. You can also add a suggestion directly here yourself (via + Add Suggestion) — useful for capturing an idea from a conversation without setting up a link for it.

Promoting an item

Click Promote on any suggestion to turn it into a real item. You choose which model it becomes part of — the model the suggestion came in on is the common case and is preselected, but you can promote into any other model you have editor access to — and which column type it takes in that model, since the destination's active columns may not match the source's. Promoting creates a genuine item on the canvas; the suggestion itself stays in the table, now marked Included.

Editing, deleting, and priority

Edit or delete any suggestion the same way you would any other row. The Priority a visitor set (1–10, lower = more important) carries straight through and can be adjusted here before or after promoting, the same as any other field.

Settings & Help Icons

Two icon buttons appear near the right end of the toolbar:

• ⚙ Gear icon (Settings) — opens the Settings dialog where you can customise the status colours used for each status value.
• ? Help icon — opens this user guide in a new browser tab.

CSV Import

Click CSV ▾ → Import CSV in the toolbar. A four-step dialog guides you through the import:

Step 1 — Select file

Drag a CSV (or TSV/TXT) file onto the drop zone, or click to browse. The delimiter is detected automatically.

Step 2 — Map columns

The dialog shows all BDN fields alongside dropdown menus. Choose which column in your file maps to each BDN field. Common header names are auto-detected (e.g. "title" maps to Name, "owner" maps to Stakeholder Name). A preview of the first five rows helps verify the mapping.

Name and Type are required; all other fields are optional.

Step 3 — Importing

The file is uploaded and processed. A spinner is shown during this step.

Step 4 — Done

A summary shows how many items and connections were created. Click Done to close.

Links (depends on) column format

To create connections during import, include a Links column containing a semicolon-separated list of item names that the current row depends on. Names must match exactly.

Example: CRM Platform;Mobile Platform

CSV Export

Click CSV ▾ → Export CSV to download all items and connections as a CSV file. The file contains all nine fields (Name, Type, Priority, Description, Stakeholder Name, Department, Link ID, Status, Links) and can be re-imported into any BDN model.

The Type column contains the model's own column title for each item (e.g. Strategies, or a custom title like Goals — see Custom Column Headers), not an internal code name. Re-importing the file into the same model matches those titles back to the right column automatically; a file exported from a model with different column titles is still readable if it happens to be re-imported into that same differently-configured model, but the Type values won't line up with a model using different titles unless they happen to match by coincidence.

The filename is based on the current model and view name (e.g. My Model - Q1 View.csv).

Image & PowerPoint Export

Click Export ▾ in the toolbar and choose a format:

All exports capture the full canvas at its current zoom. The filename follows the pattern Model - View.ext.