Capabilities Inventory and Attributes - Understand the relationship between the Capabilities Inventory and the Applications Inventory
Capabilities Inventory and Attributes
Understand the relationship between the Capabilities Inventory and the Applications Inventory
The relationship between Capabilities and Applications is the most operationally significant cross-inventory relationship in the Enterprise Model. Applications support Capabilities — every Application in the Applications Inventory and Attributes can be mapped to one or more Capabilities it enables. The Capabilities Inventory is the authoritative source for Capability definitions; the Applications Inventory is authoritative for Application records and for the specific mapping of Applications to Capabilities.
The connecting attributes are the Semantic IDs of both Noun Types: the Applications Inventory contains a Supported Capabilities attribute listing the Capability Semantic IDs each Application enables; the Capabilities Inventory reflects those mappings in its Supporting Applications relationship attribute, which is Derived from the Applications Inventory. The relationship is many-to-many: one Application can support multiple Capabilities, and one Capability can be supported by multiple Applications.
When this relationship is well-governed, Enterprise Architecture and APM can identify Capabilities supported by a single application (single-point-of-failure exposure), Capabilities supported by redundant applications (rationalization candidates), and Capabilities with no supporting applications (technology portfolio gaps). This is the foundation of capability-driven portfolio rationalization.
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