Capabilities Inventory and Attributes

Processes operationalize Capabilities — a Process describes the sequenced activities that realize a Capability’s outcomes in practice. The Capability is the stable answer to “what does the enterprise do”; the Process is the volatile answer to “how does the enterprise do it.” Both are valuable, but they serve different governance purposes. The Processes Inventory is not yet published — refer to the IF4IT Enterprise Inventory Management Best Practices document for its current definition in the Noun Type taxonomy.

When the Processes Inventory is published, the Related Processes relationship attribute in this inventory will be populated from Process records that reference each Capability. The many-to-many relationship enables analysis of which Processes realize which Capabilities and how Process changes affect Capability outcomes.

When fully established, this relationship enables a critical question to be answered cleanly: when a Process is redesigned, which Capabilities are affected and which Capabilities are unchanged? Process improvement initiatives can be sequenced and prioritized by the Capability outcomes they target. Capabilities with no documented operationalizing Processes become visible as governance gaps requiring attention.