Over the past month I’ve been building “Solitaire,” a lightweight visualization tool powered by D3.js that extends the journey I started with “Domino.”
While Domino focused on service dependencies across our service catalog (an essential lens for impact analysis and incident readiness), Solitaire turns the spotlight to the organization itself. It visualizes teams, streams, and domains, and links each of them to the services they maintain. Every team member is encoded by role and function within the domain, so ownership and responsibilities are crystal clear at a glance. The way the teams are displayed with all those colored cards reminded me of Solitaire, one of the most iconic applications included in Microsoft Windows 95!
Why build it myself instead of buying?
Because the market is full of paid solutions that are:
• often too generic (or too rigid) for the realities of Service Management, and
• frequently too expensive for the value we actually need right now.
Solitaire is a pragmatic answer to a specific need of my function: a tailored, explainable map that connects people, domains, and services. And thanks to today’s toolchain and the boost AI brings to prototyping and data wrangling, custom doesn’t mean slow anymore. With the right technical background, disciplined slicing of the iterative software cycle, and a strong adherence to the context we operate in, it is possible to ship focused small solutions that move the needle immediately.
What this changes:
• Faster onboarding and clearer accountability
• Better risk assessment and change planning (who/what is impacted)
• Sharper conversations between Service, Delivery, and Development teams
• A living map that evolves with the org
