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Value Realization™ Taxonomy

Purpose

This document is the human-readable view of the authoritative controlled vocabulary.

Generation

This file is generated from 020. Value Realization Taxonomy.yaml by 90. Build and Publishing/915. Generate Taxonomy Markdown.ps1.

Do not manually edit the generated term content in this file. Update the YAML taxonomy and regenerate this Markdown view instead.

Canonical rules

  • Authority. Definitions in the YAML taxonomy are authoritative.
  • Stability. Do not broaden authoritative definitions to accommodate examples.
  • Separation. Put rationale, analogies, and exceptions in doctrine or practice guides.

Taxonomy metadata

  • Name: Value Realization™ Taxonomy
  • Version: v20260528.001
  • Status: draft
  • Notes: Authoritative controlled vocabulary for the Value Realization™ Framework.

Terms

Value Realization™

Authoritative definition. The discipline and outcome orientation concerned with converting identified, qualified, quantified, and justified value into verified and realized value.

  • Synonyms: Value Realization
  • Prohibited variants: Value Capture, Value Extraction
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery, legal
  • Related terms: Value Realization Management™, Value Realization Share, Finding, Recommendation, Initiative
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Value Realization™ when describing the overall discipline, outcome orientation, and value lifecycle.
  • Distinguish realized value from theoretical, asserted, forecasted, or merely identified value.

Drafting guidance.

  • Use the trademark symbol in content where appropriate, including headings.
  • Do not use the trademark symbol in file names or folder names.

Value Realization Management™

Authoritative definition. The management discipline, operating model, and governance approach for pursuing, verifying, and realizing value across Players, Partners, Platforms, Products, Practices, and Projects.

  • Synonyms: Value Realization Management
  • Prohibited variants: VRM
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery
  • Related terms: Value Realization™, Economic Optimization, Practices, Projects
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Value Realization Management™ when referring to the broader management discipline rather than a single outcome or engagement.

Drafting guidance.

  • Use the trademark symbol in content where appropriate.
  • Avoid unexplained acronyms in executive, legal, or market-facing artifacts.

Value Realization Share

Authoritative definition. The negotiated share or participation amount associated with value realized through an account, engagement, Value Realization Element, or Value Realization Element Contributor.

  • Synonyms: Value Share, Participation Share
  • Prohibited variants: Commission, Success Fee, Gainshare
  • Where used: legal, sales, delivery, governance
  • Related terms: Value Realization™, Recommendation, Initiative, Investment
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Value Realization Share to describe Alescent's negotiated participation in realized value.
  • Avoid conventional labels that imply a narrower, transactional, or less economically integrated model.

Drafting guidance.

  • Define the applicable account, engagement, element, contributor, earning event, and payment mechanics when used in legal or commercial documents.

Finding

Authoritative definition. A surfaced condition, observation, issue, possibility, constraint, or source of potential value that may be developed into a Recommendation.

  • Synonyms: Observation, Insight
  • Prohibited variants: Opportunity
  • Where used: delivery, analytics, sales
  • Related terms: Recommendation, Initiative, Value Realization™
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Finding when the item has been surfaced but has not yet been developed into a Recommendation.

Drafting guidance.

  • Avoid loose use of Opportunity; map the concept to Finding, Recommendation, or Initiative based on state or stage.

Recommendation

Authoritative definition. A proposed course of action, investment, change, or initiative that has been or is being qualified, quantified, or justified.

  • Synonyms: Proposed Action, Proposed Investment
  • Prohibited variants: Idea, Opportunity
  • Where used: delivery, sales, legal, analytics
  • Related terms: Finding, Initiative, Investment, Value Realization Share
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Recommendation when a Finding has been developed into a proposed action or investment.
  • Recommendations may progress through qualifying, quantifying, and justifying stages.

Drafting guidance.

  • Capitalize Recommendation when using it as a controlled term.
  • Avoid implying that a Recommendation has realized value before verification or realization.

Initiative

Authoritative definition. An active unit of work through which an approved or justified Recommendation is pursued, verified, and realized.

  • Synonyms: Project, Workstream
  • Prohibited variants: Opportunity
  • Where used: delivery, sales, legal, analytics
  • Related terms: Recommendation, Projects, Value Realization™, Value Realization Share
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Initiative when the work has moved from recommendation into active pursuit, execution, verification, or realization.

Drafting guidance.

  • Capitalize Initiative when using it as a controlled term.
  • Distinguish Initiatives from Projects where the domain model requires Projects as the canonical work unit.

Player

Authoritative definition. A person participating in value realization, regardless of employment status, organizational affiliation, or contractual relationship.

  • Synonyms: Participant, Individual Contributor
  • Prohibited variants: Resource, Headcount
  • Where used: governance, delivery, marketing, legal
  • Related terms: Players, Team Member, Role Schedule, Entity
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Player when referring to a person of any kind, including a customer's or partner's employees, contingent labor, contractors, consultants, partner teams, and other individual participants.

Drafting guidance.

  • Use Players for the domain model and Player for an individual person.
  • Use Team Member for Players within the Alescent network or team.

Entity

Authoritative definition. A legally or commercially recognized organization or person that may be a party, counterparty, customer, partner, assignee, or other participant in a relationship or instrument.

  • Synonyms: Counterparty, Organization, Party
  • Prohibited variants: None.
  • Where used: legal, governance, sales
  • Related terms: Player, Team Member, Partner, Account
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Entity where legal or commercial relationship boundaries matter.

Drafting guidance.

  • In legal instruments, preserve the defined meaning given in the applicable instrument.
  • Do not use Entity as a substitute for Player when the subject is specifically an individual participant.

Team Member

Authoritative definition. A Player or Entity within the Alescent network or team, including those operating under applicable schedules, role assignments, account assignments, or other Alescent relationship instruments.

  • Synonyms: Alescent Team Member
  • Prohibited variants: Employee, Contractor, Staff
  • Where used: legal, delivery, governance
  • Related terms: Player, Role Schedule, Role Assignment, Entity
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Team Member as an operating audience and relationship category, not merely an employment category.
  • A Team Member may be legally arms-length from Alescent.

Drafting guidance.

  • Preserve legal and relationship boundaries when using Team Member.
  • Use specific role terms where the legal instrument requires more precision.

Role Schedule

Authoritative definition. A legal or operating schedule that qualifies a Team Member or Entity for a role and defines role-specific participation conditions, boundaries, or responsibilities.

  • Synonyms: Schedule
  • Prohibited variants: Employment Agreement, Contractor Agreement
  • Where used: legal, governance, delivery
  • Related terms: Team Member, Role Assignment, Account Assignment, Player
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Role Schedule to describe qualification for a role without implying employment status.

Drafting guidance.

  • Distinguish Role Schedules from Role Assignments and Account Assignments.

Economic Optimization

Authoritative definition. The broader discipline of improving economic outcomes by managing investments, returns, constraints, and value realization rather than treating activity only as cost, spend, or budget consumption.

  • Synonyms: Economic Management
  • Prohibited variants: Cost Management, Spend Management
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery, analytics
  • Related terms: Investment, Value Realization™, Value Realization Management™
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Economic Optimization to avoid reducing the model to conventional finance, cost, spend, or budget language.
  • Frame committed resources as Investments where appropriate to preserve the connection to return and value realization.

Drafting guidance.

  • Use conventional finance terms where needed for CapEx, OpEx, accounting, or finance-system integration, but map back to Investment and Value Realization™ where possible.

Investment

Authoritative definition. A commitment of resources, effort, capital, time, or attention made with an expectation of return, value realization, or economically meaningful outcome.

  • Synonyms: Committed Resources
  • Prohibited variants: Spend, Cost, Budget
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery, legal, analytics
  • Related terms: Economic Optimization, Recommendation, Initiative, Value Realization Share
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Investment to preserve the connection between committed resources and return or value realization.

Drafting guidance.

  • Use cost, spend, budget, expenditure, CapEx, and OpEx where required by conventional finance contexts, but avoid allowing those terms to replace the broader Investment framing.

Value Realization™ Domains

Authoritative definition. A canonical completeness model describing how value originates, where it exists, and what must be governed to realize it.

  • Synonyms: Value Domains, Value Realization Domains
  • Prohibited variants: Domains of Value Realization
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery, analytics
  • Related terms: Players, Partners, Platforms, Products, Practices, Projects
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Domains to ensure completeness across actors, counterparties, means, and work objects.
  • Use Domains as a classification lens, not as stages or sequence.

Drafting guidance.

  • Introduce Domains as a completeness model and then define each Domain term.
  • Do not describe Domains as phases, stages, or progressions.

Players

Authoritative definition. Role types that participate in value realization, defined by accountability, responsibility, and authority rather than organizational chart position.

  • Synonyms: Participants, Contributors
  • Prohibited variants: People, Personnel, Resources
  • Where used: governance, delivery, marketing
  • Related terms: Team Member, Role Schedule, Role Assignment
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Players to describe roles without implying employment status or org structure.

Drafting guidance.

  • Prefer 'Players' when describing the domain model.
  • In legal documents, use 'Team Members' or specific role terms where enforceability requires.

Partners

Authoritative definition. External organizations and counterparties that contribute to, constrain, enable, or capture value, including vendors, integrators, alliances, channels, and customers.

  • Synonyms: Counterparties, Vendors
  • Prohibited variants: None.
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery
  • Related terms: Account, Partner Account
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Partners to describe the external relationship landscape shaping value realization.

Drafting guidance.

  • When needed, distinguish Partner Accounts and their Representatives in legal definitions.

Platforms

Authoritative definition. Physical, digital, informational, and conceptual foundations upon which value is realized, including systems, assets, data substrates, and operating foundations.

  • Synonyms: Foundations
  • Prohibited variants: None.
  • Where used: governance, delivery, analytics, marketing
  • Related terms: Products, Practices
  • Confidence: medium

Rationale/application.

  • Use Platforms to frame the enabling substrate for value creation and realization.

Drafting guidance.

  • Avoid limiting Platforms to software, include physical and conceptual platforms when relevant.

Products

Authoritative definition. Discrete commercializable artifacts that directly provide value, including intellectual assets, methods, templates, tools, and deliverables.

  • Synonyms: Offerings
  • Prohibited variants: None.
  • Where used: governance, marketing, sales, delivery
  • Related terms: Product Assignment, Intellectual Property
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Products to describe what is delivered or made available, distinct from Practices (how).

Drafting guidance.

  • In legal documents, 'Product' may be a defined term that incorporates intellectual property and other assets.

Practices

Authoritative definition. Repeatable disciplines, behaviors, policies, procedures, and protocols that govern how value is pursued, verified, and sustained.

  • Synonyms: Disciplines
  • Prohibited variants: None.
  • Where used: governance, delivery, analytics
  • Related terms: Patterns, Capability Models
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Practices to describe repeatable methods and governance behaviors, distinct from Products (what).

Drafting guidance.

  • Treat Practices as repeatable, not one-off activities.

Projects

Authoritative definition. Discrete units of work through which value realization is pursued and verified, progressing from identification through realized outcomes.

  • Synonyms: Initiatives, Assignments
  • Prohibited variants: Programs
  • Where used: governance, delivery, analytics
  • Related terms: Project Portfolio, Engagement
  • Confidence: high

Rationale/application.

  • Use Projects as the atomic unit for accountable value progress.
  • Programs may exist operationally, but Projects are the canonical work unit in the framework.

Drafting guidance.

  • Prefer 'Projects' in the domain model; use 'Engagement' or 'Assignment' where contract structure requires.