Capabilities Inventory and Attributes

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.