Frameworks, Methodologies, and Processes — Why the Industry Gets This Wrong

A methodology is a set of principles, tools and practices which can be used to guide processes to achieve a particular goal. A framework is a loose but incomplete structure which leaves room for other practices and tools to be included but provides much of the process required.

Most corporations and government agencies have their own definitions of these terms — often wrong, often inconsistent, and almost always confusing to the people trying to do the actual work.

The correct hierarchy, academically: unless you bundle standards, procedures and processes together at an enterprise level, you don’t have a framework. Until you distill a framework into tools, methodologies governing processes, and standards that act as gateways, you don’t have a methodology. The framework is the “what” and “where.” The methodology is the “how.”

The real power is in developing processes in the context of a methodology, applying methodologies in the context of a framework, and most importantly, utilizing all of those things in the context of YOUR business.