Early on in my career, I was introduced to business capability modeling. This technique helps an organization identify its capabilities. It focuses on what the business does rather than how it does it. Capabilities help abstract the “how” away and define the needed capabilities of what the company does to deliver value. In this way, you develop a common language for describing what the business does. This helps us navigate change in the Enterprise by using a standard language model across the organization.
I have gathered a set of best practices for building business capability models, and I thought I would list them here for reference.
Engage the Business
This may seem obvious, but too often, I have seen the effort of building capability models become an IT function with little business involvement. This is an excellent opportunity to engage with the business, put technology aside, and discuss key business capabilities. I will introduce one of my principles: “It is easier for the team to edit than create.” Start with industry reference models and have the business members interject their points of view, changing the model to describe the business best.
Capabilities over tools
Often, a business will say it needs a particular piece of software to do a job. Capabilities are great for moving the conversation away from the tool or software product. They help define what the business is doing regardless of the tool. Later, this process will help the organization rationalize its software inventory when it determines that it has many tools delivering the same capability.
Identify a Benevolent Dictator
I use this best practice in many situations, and it works well here. It is vital to have an identified leader. Someone who will let the dialogue continue for enough time to have everyone heard but knows when the conversation is losing value and becoming repetitious. The benevolent dictator will manage contention and drive the team to a consensus. That might mean asking someone to accept that they have been heard, but the group is going in a different direction. As you collect capabilities and standardize them, it’s essential to have this role to keep the modeling process moving along and being effective.
Agree on taxonomy
This is the exercise at hand. What is the language? What are the nouns we are going to use to describe what drives our business value? Agree on the words and phrases that make sense for your organization. Utilize industry reference models as a starting point and then drive to words that resonate and make sense to your organization. For example, if you only use a dealer network, use dealers instead of customers if that works for the group.
Establish the right level of hierarchy
You can lose yourself by driving too many levels deep in your capability models. I suggest driving for three to four and challenging yourself if you start to go beyond six. It is better to go wide than it is to go deep. Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) is an excellent model to ensure that the capabilities are distinct enough to stand independently but can assist in defining functional value streams when used collectively.
Focus on progress over perfection
“Perfection is the enemy of good.” This is one of my favorite quotes about anything in the Enterprise Architecture space. I have seen too many teams try to get it right and never get it done. It is better to get the first draft in the books and into the organization than spend months getting it right. It will never be a finished model anyway, so drive the team to use a minimum viable product approach to your capability models for use in the organization. Tweak and tune it as it’s consumed rather than working on perfecting it upfront.
Make it a living document/process
We prioritize progress over perfection because we will continue to update the capability maps as we go along. Too many teams do great work on building a capability model and then never bring it out again. Once you create the capability model, use it in meetings and presentations. Make it part of the culture of how you describe the business.
Ensure that the actions do not overtake the intent
The British Economist Charles Goodhart is credited with saying, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Do not let the action overtake the intent. The intent is to have a working capability model that helps rationalize the organization’s approach via value streams, not a pretty capability model. Make sure the capability model adds value. Validate with as many team members and groups as possible.
Summary
Capability modeling is an excellent tool in a Business Architect’s toolkit. I hope my best practices, gathered over years of utilization, will add value to your digital transformation journey. I am happy to discuss this topic or any Enterprise Architecture related topics in more detail. You can find me on LinkedIn.
