Skip to content
Software Architecture Guide

Business Capability

Explanation

Section titled “Explanation”

A business capability is an ability or capacity that a business may possess or exchange to achieve a specific purpose or outcome. Capabilities represent the core functions an organization needs to run its business.

What, not how. A capability says what the organization can do. A process says how the work gets done. Keeping these two apart is the main idea. The article “Capability versus process” covers the difference in more detail.

Hierarchy. Capabilities are shown on a capability map. A map is a set of boxes. Each box breaks down into smaller boxes, and each level adds detail. People call these levels one, two and three. See “Business Capability Map” for how to read one.

How it differs from related ideas.

  • Value stream: a high-level, end-to-end sequence of activities that delivers value to a customer or other stakeholder. It is not a business process. Processes break down from it.
  • Capability and value stream: a value stream uses one or more capabilities, in sequence or in parallel. Capabilities are stable. The same capability can serve several value streams. Mapping capabilities onto the stages of a value stream shows the key ones.
  • Organization unit: a capability can be mapped to an organization unit, so the two are not the same thing. Level-one capabilities map to major organization units.

Why it helps. Capabilities often match domain objects. Finding them, and the services built on them, requires an understanding of the business. See “Business Domain Understanding”.

Example

Section titled “Example”

An insurer lists “Claims Handling” as a capability. Below it sit smaller capabilities at the next level. The company can later change the steps of its claims process. The capability stays on the map. A “claims” value stream and a “policy renewal” value stream could both use the same capability. The map also shows which organization unit is linked to it.

Trade-offs

Section titled “Trade-offs”

The facts here do not cover costs or limits of the approach. One point follows from the definitions: a capability map says what the business can do. It does not show how work flows. For that, you need processes and value streams.

A capability breaks down into levels and can be used by several value streams.

Diagram source 
graph TD
  A[Claims Handling - level 1] --> B[Level 2 capability]
  A --> C[Level 2 capability]
  B --> D[Level 3 capability]
  V1[Value stream 1] -.uses.-> A
  V2[Value stream 2] -.uses.-> A

Checks

Section titled “Checks”
  • Capabilities are described as what the organization can do, not as steps of how work is done.
  • The capability map breaks capabilities into levels, each more detailed than the one above.
  • Capabilities are kept distinct from organization units, and level-one capabilities are mapped to major organization units.
  • Value streams are not confused with business processes, and capabilities are mapped to value stream stages.
Section titled “Related”

Sources

Section titled “Sources”