Introduction
Capabilities are one of the most misunderstood concepts in modern businesses. The idea isn't new, you only have to look at how the defence and nuclear industry have used this term for over 20+ years. Quite often people use the terms capabilities and function interchangeably, but it's important to note that they are NOT the same thing and can NOT be used in this interchangeable manner. In this section of the TOGAF AIDES Space, we attempt to define capability and demonstrate why it's not just a function.
Capability can be defined as - the ability to achieve a desired effect in a specific operating environment, it is a logical construct that is made manifest through the components of an organisation.
Conepts
Capabilities are high level building blocks that can be arranged in a number of ways to allow an enterprise to achieve it's goals. Let's try and resolve the mystery surrounding this term.
Consider a situation where you are looking to employ the services of a builder to do some work on your home. What key characteristics would you consider when you're looking to employ someone in this role?
- skills (physical competency - bricklaying, plumbing, electrical work, roofing, carpentry etc)
- competencies (education, qualifications and areas of knowledge - bricklaying, plumbing, electrical work, roofing, carpentry etc)
- cost
- work ethic (turns up on time, is diligent and doesn't leave a job half done, honesty
- how quickly they get the job done - can they deliver in the time allotted
- customer relationship management (how much they keep me informed about the costs and what they are doing) - communications skills
- tools (good knowledge of the right tools for the job) - equipment
- quality (consider TQM as defined by Toyota)
- how well organised are they, this will involve the team around them and how effectively they work as a team
Use the following statement as a guide to this thinking "being able to do building work doesn't make you a competent builder". Most people can run (to some degree), this doesn't make them competent runners, that competency comes from training, eating well and plenty of sleep. In other words there are number of key characteristics that must be developed in order to enable that capability.
The next thing to remember about a capability is that it is more than just a business function, service or team. It is a logical entity with distinct measurable characteristics (described above) that work together to achieve a goal. Typically a capability considers the following (a MOD perspective on the characteristics of a capability (TEPIDOIL)
- skills and competency (roles/personnel)
- training
- philosophy (way of thinking)
- equipment (operational level)
- organisation (required organisation structure)
- information (data and processes)
- infrastructure (platforms, communications, and core primary services)
- logistics (pulling it all together)
Alternatively one could choose to define capability from the architectural unification approach POLDAT
- Process (business processes)
- Organisation (structures)
- Location (Geographical information)
- Data (models, life cycles, security etc)
- Application (software, security, interoperability etc)
- Technology (infrastructure)
Both TEPIDOIL and POLDAT pay no attention to organisation unit boundaries (business unit, sector, service, function etc) but weave a path through organisation units, selecting those areas within those units that, deliver the characteristics needed by the capabilities.
More often than not, a goal is delivered through multiple capabilities
We can now start to see that as we weave through the different parts of the organisation we need to ask the following questions
Our next task is to try and illustrate this weaving nature that we have described above? One approach that we are currently trying is to map the thread through a UML activity model. We use swimlanes to provide a visual way of representing organisational units and other sub units.
This model captures the weaving nature through our first example of one capability to deliver a goal |  |
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In this example we show multiple capability paths delivering a goal |  |
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Defining a capability is an extensive task but once done can lead to a major simplification in the overall understanding and modelling of a problem domain. Consider the following example, you you want to build a home from scratch, core required capabilities
- architecture
- building services (described above)
- garden landscaping
- land (with planning permission) - a key resource !