Business Capability Mapping

Create hierarchical business capability models that bridge strategy and architecture. Based on BABOK v3 Business Capability Analysis (10.6).

What is a Business Capability?

A business capability defines "what" a business does at its core, independent of:

• How it's done (processes)

• Who does it (organizational structure)

• Where it's done (locations)

Capabilities are stable over time, even as processes, technology, and org structure change.

Capability Hierarchy

Level Scope Example Description

L1 Domain Customer Management Strategic capability areas (typically 8-15)

L2 Sub-Domain Customer Onboarding Decomposition of L1 (3-7 per L1)

L3 Activity Identity Verification Detailed activities (3-10 per L2)

L4+ Optional KYC Document Processing Granular (map to SOA services)

Capability Types

Type Description Investment Priority

Strategic Drive competitive advantage High - differentiate

Core Essential to value delivery Medium - optimize

Supporting Enable other capabilities Low - commoditize/outsource

Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery

Before creating a capability map, understand the business domain:

Analyze existing documentation

• Review business processes, org charts, strategy docs

• Identify actors, work objects, activities

Conduct stakeholder interviews

• Invoke stakeholder-analysis skill to identify key stakeholders

• Interview domain experts for capability insights

Use discovered patterns as L1 capability candidates

Phase 2: Capability Identification

Step 1: Define L1 Capabilities

Start with industry frameworks, then customize:

L1 Capabilities (Example: Retail)

Step 2: Decompose to L2

For each L1, identify sub-capabilities:

L2 Decomposition: Customer Management

Step 3: Decompose to L3 (as needed)

Only decompose where detail is needed for planning:

L3 Decomposition: Customer Onboarding

Phase 3: Cross-Mapping

Map capabilities to other domains for strategic analysis:

Cross-Map Domain Purpose Example Questions

People Ownership Who owns this capability?

Process Execution What processes implement this?

Technology Enablement What systems support this?

Strategy Alignment How does this support strategy?

Investment Prioritization Where should we invest?

Risk Exposure What are the risks?

Phase 4: Assessment

Score each capability on maturity and strategic importance:

Maturity Scale (1-5):

• Initial - Ad hoc, reactive

• Developing - Some structure

• Defined - Standardized processes

• Managed - Measured and controlled

• Optimizing - Continuous improvement

Heat Map Visualization:

Capability Heat Map

Output Format

Narrative Summary

Provide human-readable analysis:

Capability Map Summary

Organization: [Name] Scope: [Enterprise / Business Unit / Domain] Date: [ISO date]

Key Findings

1. Strategic Capabilities: [List with assessment]
2. Investment Priorities: [Capabilities needing attention]
3. Optimization Opportunities: [Capabilities to streamline]

Recommendations

1. [Specific, actionable recommendation]
2. [...]

Structured Data (YAML)

capability_model: version: "1.0" organization: "Acme Corp" scope: enterprise generated: "{ISO-8601-date}" generated_by: capability-analyst

capabilities: - id: CAP-001 name: "Customer Management" level: 1 type: core description: "Manage customer lifecycle and relationships" owner: "Chief Customer Officer" children: - id: CAP-001-01 name: "Customer Onboarding" level: 2 owner: "Customer Success Director" maturity: 3 importance: high systems: - CRM - KYC Platform processes: - "Customer Registration" - "Identity Verification" children: - id: CAP-001-01-01 name: "Identity Verification" level: 3 maturity: 4 automation: high

Mermaid Diagram

mindmap root((Enterprise)) Customer Management Customer Onboarding Identity Verification Account Creation KYC Processing Customer Support Ticket Management Live Chat Customer Retention Product Management Product Catalog Pricing Promotions Order Fulfillment Order Processing Shipping Returns

Integration Points

Upstream (Discovery)

• stakeholder-analysis - Identify capability owners and domain experts

• process-modeling - Understand AS-IS processes

• value-stream-mapping - Understand value flow

Downstream (Consumers)

• Requirements - Capability → Requirements traceability

• Systems design - Capability → System mapping

• Investment planning - Capability → Budget allocation

When to Use

Scenario Use Capability Mapping?

Strategic planning Yes - align investments

M&A integration Yes - identify overlaps

Digital transformation Yes - prioritize initiatives

Application rationalization Yes - map apps to capabilities

Process improvement Partial - use with process modeling

Specific feature design No - too high-level

References

• Load references/capability-hierarchy.md for detailed hierarchy guidance

• See BABOK v3 Section 10.6 for formal technique definition

Related Skills

• stakeholder-analysis

• Identify capability owners

• value-stream-mapping

• Map value flow across capabilities

• benchmarking

• Compare capability maturity against industry standards

• prioritization

• Prioritize capability investments

• swot-pestle-analysis

• Strategic context for capabilities

• decision-analysis

• Evaluate capability investment options

User-Facing Interface

When invoked directly by the user, this skill operates as follows.

Arguments

• <business-description> : Description of the business, organization, or domain to analyze

• --mode : Analysis mode (default: guided )

• full : Multi-persona discovery with strategic alignment (~12K tokens)

• quick : Single analysis pass (~4K tokens)

• guided : Interactive capability discovery (variable)

• --output : Output format (default: both )

• yaml : Structured YAML for downstream processing

• mermaid : Mermaid diagram visualization

• both : Both formats

• --dir : Output directory (default: docs/analysis/ )

Execution Workflow

• Parse Arguments - Extract business description, mode, and output format. If no description provided, ask the user what business to map.

• Execute Based on Mode:

• Full: Spawn the capability-analyst agent for comprehensive L1-L3 hierarchy with maturity assessment and gap analysis.

• Quick: Single-pass rapid identification of L1-L2 capabilities with industry template overlays.

• Guided: Interactive discovery using AskUserQuestion for scope/depth selection, then walk through L1 discovery, L2 decomposition, classification, and gap identification.

• Generate Output - Produce YAML structure, Mermaid mindmap diagram, and summary report based on format flag.

• Save Results - Save to docs/analysis/capability-model.yaml and/or docs/analysis/capability-model.md (or custom --dir ).

• Suggest Follow-Ups - Recommend stakeholder-analysis for owners, value-stream-mapping for value flow, and prioritization for investment decisions.

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release