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Business Capability Map

        posted by Anna Mar, Simplicable, July 05, 2011

It is the most important diagram in all of business architecture — the Business Capability Map.

The Business Capability Map is the what of business architecture — defining your business' ability to execute.

Level 1

The Level 1 Business Capability Map defines the high level capabilities of your business. This is often sliced and diced by department, location, product etc...

The following example illustrates the level 1 capabilities of a software sales department:

sales business

Level 2

The Level 2 Business Capability Map goes another level down in detail. It still answers the what without getting into the how or the why.

business capability map

Level 3

The level 3 Business Capability Map is a high level process diagram that begins to answer the how.

business process

The Power of Business Capabilities

Business, PMO and Enterprise Architecture documentation is often mapped to business capabilities. For example:

business strategy → business capabilities
products → business capabilities
projects → business capabilities
applications → business capabilities
data → business capabilities

Everything a business does can be tied back to a capability. Business capabilities are the keys that tie business architecture to application, data and technology architecture.

With your projects and architecture tied to business capabilities you can answer questions such as:

What does the business use this application for?
What does the business use this data for?
What does the business use this infrastructure for?
How does this project tie to business strategy?
How does this application tie to business processes?
How does this data tie to business strategy?
etc...

This is the power of Business Capability Maps — they are your vocabulary for business execution.

Audience

Business Capability Maps can be used by the entire organization. Examples of uses include:

- business strategy
- business cases
- business development
- competitive analysis
- project planning
- enterprise architecture
- solution architecture
- application support
- training and onboarding

Target Operating Model

Business architects typically maintain current and target versions of Business Capability Maps. Target versions are based on business strategy and are often referred to as Target Operating Models.

Drill Down

It is common to provide level 1 to 3 drill down views of Business Capability Maps.

Tools

Ideally, Business Capability Maps are maintained in a Enterprise Architecture Tool or a Business Process Management Suite (BPMS).


   



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