PRO³ Schema

The PRO³ schema enables us to structure the field of methodology.
For the last 15 years or so, methodology has been reduced to a single component: process, to such an extent that its name spontaneously evokes the phase representations that most methods bring to the fore.
However, the contributions of a methodology are not limited to process alone and numerous questions arise which cannot be answered in terms of process. It is therefore important that the whole methodological discourse be represented.
We believe that methodology covers three main chapters (rather than “dimensions”):

• Products: the object being built or transformed;
• Processes: the collective organization of the building or transformation activities;
• Procedures & Methods: the detail of the procedures and methods.

Hence the mnemonic name: PRO³ (“pro cube”). This schema reproduces the classical Product / Production dichotomy, distinguishing, in the latter, that which is the domain of the collective (processes) from that of the individual (procedures). The question of the overall purpose crowns this tripole structure. It broadens the discourse to the quality approach.