Framework library · Technology management
Business capability map
A business capability map describes what the business does, separately from who does it or which system supports it: take orders, bill customers, maintain the network. Rating each capability for how well it is done today and how much the strategy depends on it, and sizing it by what it costs, shows where money goes to capabilities that matter little and where the capabilities that matter most are weak.
Use it when
- You need to decide where to invest, cut or outsource across the whole business, not system by system.
- A transformation or merger needs a common language for what the business does, separate from organisation charts and systems.
- Operating and technology spend is rising and you need to see whether it goes to the capabilities the strategy depends on.
Avoid it when
- The list of capabilities is not agreed. Spend the first session agreeing it and the level of detail. Rating an unstable list wastes the day.
- You need to redesign how work flows. A capability map says what the business does, not how. Use value stream mapping.
- You need a sourcing decision for one capability. Score the routes with a build, buy or partner comparison.
How to run it
List the capabilities at one level of detail
Nouns for what the business does ("lease and contract management"), not departments or systems. Eight to fifteen at the top level is a workable number.
Rate current maturity from 1 to 5
1: ad hoc and dependent on individuals. 3: defined, repeatable and measured. 5: managed with data and improved continuously. Rate against evidence, not reputation.
Rate strategic importance from 1 to 5
How much the strategy for the next three years depends on this capability being excellent. Few capabilities can be a 5.
Add the annual spend
People, systems and suppliers for each capability. Approximate figures are enough to size the bubbles.
Read the four regions
Important and immature: invest. Important and mature: maintain. Less important and mature: monitor for over-spending. Less important and immature: divest or outsource.
Check where the money goes
Compare each region's share of spend with what the strategy needs. Spend concentrated outside the invest region is the finding to take into the budget round.
Work through it
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Mistakes to avoid
- Mapping the organisation chart. A capability survives a reorganisation; a department does not.
- Rating every capability as strategically important. If everything is a 4 or 5 the map separates nothing. Rank the capabilities first, then score.
- Mixing levels of detail. "Billing" next to "rounding on invoices" makes the map hard to read and the comparison unfair.
- Reading low importance as permission to neglect. Some capabilities simply have to work, and outsourcing them still needs someone to manage the supplier.
Where it comes from
No single originator: capability maps are a business architecture technique. They are described in the Business Architecture Guild's A Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge (BIZBOK Guide) and in The Open Group's TOGAF Series Guide to Business Capabilities (G190). The TOGAF guide treats a capability as an ability the business has or can exchange to achieve a purpose, described without saying how, why or where it is carried out, and shows heat maps that colour capabilities by maturity, performance or cost. The maturity and importance matrix below is one way to read such a map, not part of either guide. Source.
TOGAF is a registered trademark of The Open Group, and BIZBOK is a registered trademark of the Business Architecture Guild. This page describes capability mapping independently and is not endorsed by either.
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Further reading
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