Lifecycle and Status Attributes for the Capabilities Inventory - Capabilities Inventory and Attributes

Lifecycle and Status Attributes for the Capabilities Inventory

(Chapter 11 of Capabilities Inventory and Attributes)

Executive Summary: Chapter Overview

IF4IT

The Bottom Line

This chapter defines lifecycle attributes that show whether a Capability is proposed, active, under review, deprecated, or retired, along with key dates used for longitudinal planning and retirement governance.

Core Concepts

Concept	Definition & Strategic Role
Lifecycle Status	Distinguishes active capabilities from those in transition or exit.
Effective Date	Records when a capability became part of the governed portfolio.
Planned Retirement Date	Supports transition planning for deprecated capabilities.

Quick Q&A

Question: What governance problem do lifecycle attributes solve?

Answer: They prevent retired, proposed, and active capabilities from being treated the same in investment, architecture, and portfolio decisions.

Lifecycle and Status attributes track the current state of each Capability and the key dates associated with lifecycle transitions.

Attribute Name	Maturity	Description and Notes
Lifecycle Status	Crawl	Description — The current state of the Capability in its governed lifecycle. Benefit(s) — Enables the capability map to distinguish actively governed capabilities from those in transition or exited. Source — Manual Examples — Proposed, Active, Under Review, Deprecated, Retired Notes — Valid values: Proposed, Active, Under Review, Deprecated, Retired. Status changes require inventory owner approval.
Effective Date	Walk	Description — The date on which this Capability became Active. Benefit(s) — Enables longitudinal analysis of how the enterprise capability portfolio has evolved. Source — Manual Examples — 2024-01-01, 2022-07-15
Planned Retirement Date	Walk	Description — The date on which this Capability is planned to reach Retired status. Populated only for Capabilities in Deprecated status. Benefit(s) — Enables transition planning for capabilities scheduled for retirement. Source — Manual Examples — 2026-12-31, 2025-06-30 Notes — Use Not Applicable for Active and Proposed Capabilities.

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