# PDCA+ v2.0 > A structural framework for how management-system disciplines align through a shared conjunction. By Joacim Brandell. Public-review release, 2026. Companion to ISO 31000, NIST SP 800-128, ISO/IEC 27035, ITIL 4, and ISO/IEC 27001. Every management-system standard describes its own Plan–Do–Check–Act cycle, but none specifies how its cycle relates to the others. PDCA+ names the missing structure: a conjunction layer — a shared substrate holding schemas, taxonomies, translation rules, and measurement constructs — through which disciplines align, plus second-order observation as the framework's capacity to detect drift in its own apparatus. All documents are available as PDF (canonical, human-formatted) and Markdown (agent-friendly, structure-preserving). Prefer the Markdown versions for machine reading. ## Primary documents - [White paper: PDCA+ v2.0](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/pdca-plus-v2-0.md): The complete framework in seven chapters — the strand conjunction, how disciplines bind, a worked example of a finding moving through the structure, and the relation to existing standards. [PDF](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/PDCA_plus_v2_0.pdf) - [Companion: the connector and pathfinder](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/centre/companion.md): How the four bearings of supporting material relate, and where to start. [PDF](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/compass/centre/Companion.pdf) ## North bearing: Strategic & business For senior management, boards, audit and risk committees, and strategy leadership. - [N.1 The structural absence](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n1-the-structural-absence.md): What is missing in most organisations, and what its absence costs. - [N.2 Inside the organisation](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n2-inside-the-organisation.md): What changes that senior management should care about — five categories named directly. - [N.3 External relationships](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n3-external-relationships.md): What changes with customers, regulators, auditors, providers, and partners. - [N.4 The economics of compliance](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n4-the-economics-of-compliance.md): A more sophisticated vocabulary for the CFO conversation and the audit committee. - [N.5 Risk vocabulary for the board](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n5-risk-vocabulary-for-the-board.md): Bridging inherited governance language and what the framework actually produces. - [N.6 Competitive and market positioning](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n6-competitive-and-market-positioning.md): Structural consequences expressed in market terms. - [N.7 The leadership posture](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n7-the-leadership-posture.md): What the framework asks of senior leadership. - [N.8 The trust architecture](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/north/n8-the-trust-architecture.md): Trust as the structural property the framework produces. ## East bearing: Cybernetics For cyberneticists, systems thinkers, and those interested in the framework's intellectual provenance. - [E.1 PDCA+ from a cybernetics perspective](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/east/e1-pdca-plus-from-a-cybernetics-perspective.md): Reading PDCA+ against Ashby, Beer, and second-order cybernetics. - [E.2 A VSM account of management-system integration](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/east/e2-a-vsm-account-of-management-system-integration.md): Disciplines as System 1 units of an organisation viable as a whole. - [E.3 A variety-engineering vocabulary for GRC](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/east/e3-a-variety-engineering-vocabulary-for-grc.md): Nine terms from the cybernetic tradition, defined and applied. - [E.4 Second-order observation](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/east/e4-second-order-observation.md): A design pattern with four conditions, four worked instances, and a diagnostic checklist. ## South bearing: Technical operationalisation For technical architects, GRC technology leads, enterprise architects, and developers building substrate-based systems. - [S.1 Infrastructure foundations](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/south/s1-infrastructure-foundations.md): Database, workflow engine, event flow, the GRC tool's actual role — a reference architecture. - [S.2 The substrate, in detail](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/south/s2-the-substrate-in-detail.md): Data model, governance, authority, and the staged path from where you are today. - [S.3 Observing and integrating the substrate](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/south/s3-observing-and-integrating-the-substrate.md): What must be observable in production, and how the API surface emerges. - [S.4 Code-as-compliance](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/south/s4-code-as-compliance.md): Compliance rules as executable code, and PDCA+ as the substrate it needs. ## West bearing: Regime application For risk and compliance professionals, GRC managers, and supply-chain compliance practitioners. - [W.1 Supporting assurance towards a regime](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/west/w1-supporting-assurance-towards-a-regime.md): A worked example through multi-regime defence supply-chain assurance — CMMC, DEFSTAN, Canada Protected B. - [W.2 The control-objective chain](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/west/w2-the-control-objective-chain.md): Why the substrate pivots on the control objective. - [W.3 Three modes of compliance](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/west/w3-three-modes-of-compliance.md): Check, continuous, strategic — qualitatively different relationships, not maturity stages. - [W.4 Tensions, and why they are not risks](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/md/compass/west/w4-tensions-and-why-they-are-not-risks.md): A category of organisational concern needing different handling than risk vocabulary provides. ## Optional - [Introduction for GRC practitioners (PPTX, 17 slides)](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/PDCA_plus_introduction_for_GRC.pptx): Companion presentation deck. - [Sitemap](https://pdca-plus.brandell.net/sitemap.xml) ## Contact - Author: Joacim Brandell — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbrandell - Status: Public review. Comments, disagreements, and adoption stories welcome.