Enterprise Capability Modeling: Concepts, Method, and Application

Strategic alignment among digital services and organizational objectives is crucial for IT, if the enterprise is to use it for competitive advantage. The motivation for the work presented in this paper is based on the need for the design of services that meet the challenges of alignment, agility and sustainability in relation to dynamically changing enterprise requirements. To this end, the paper presents an approach to enterprise modeling that historically has its roots in strategic management and more recently has been considered within the broader spectrum of enterprise architecture, business process management and service-oriented development. We refer to this approach as a capability-centric modeling approach. The paper establishes a framework within which capability modeling would be used in collaboration with other modeling viewpoints and focuses on the specific concepts and techniques that relate to enterprise capability. These concepts and techniques are elaborated upon using a scenario from a leading digital services enterprise.