The M-CaReM-AI Method: Defining Work for AI / Unit 4 MCM 097 review, 2 to 3 minutes
The Library Inventory
The idea
A worked example, constructed for this course, builds the library's Object Inventory from the things named in earlier units.
In practice
The team starts with the six things from its diagnostic: Member, Item, Loan, Hold, Fine and Branch. A noun storm with desk staff adds Lost Item Report, Interlibrary Request, Overdue Notice, Membership Card, Item Category, Loan Policy and Circulation Log. The team then writes a row for each. The Loan's row reads: a data record, one period of borrowing one item, from checkout to return, core, circulation zone, with a note that reporting staff call a renewal a new loan. The Membership Card's row raises a question: is the card a thing, or a field on the Member? The team marks it supporting and writes the question in the notes. Item Category turns out to be a reference list rather than a record, so it is typed as a technical item. Loan Policy surprises everyone. It is the document that sets loan periods and renewal limits, and it changed last year without anyone updating the overdue notice template. It is marked core. By the end the inventory has thirteen rows, four of them core: Member, Item, Loan and Loan Policy.
Where people slip
Two of the four core things, the Loan and the Loan Policy, were things the original feature list never mentioned directly. The inventory did not add work. It made visible the things the work already depended on, and gave each one a row that people could argue about. The open question about the Membership Card is a good sign, not a flaw: it is exactly the kind of disagreement phase one is meant to surface and park for later.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for The M-CaReM-AI Method: Defining Work for AI