Beyond death and taxes there is another constant in the universe called change.
Right now business globally is undergoing significant transformation in response to the risks, issues and opportunities presented through the global financial crisis.
IT more than ever before is a critical enabler of that change; so how do we make sure our IT capability supports the business effectively?
Lens shift: supporting business capability
The answer to this question can be challenging, as often the business strategy is either a work in progress, not agreed or simply reactive to change. Without this baseline to reference against how can IT effectively support what the business needs?
The answer is to shift the lens from enabling business strategy to supporting business capability. A business capability defines the organisation’s capacity to successfully perform a unique business activity.
A Business Capability Model is the top layer of the business architecture distilling onto a page what the business does or needs to do to meet its objectives, which represents:
- The building blocks of the business
- Stable business functions which are unique and independent from each other
This snapshot of capabilities is extremely powerful in helping shape the organisation and is invaluable in driving out the supporting IT Technology, Information and Applications required.
Assess current capability against required capability
By undertaking an assessment of current capability against required capability IT can then define its roadmap in the context of the business needs and put it back on the business to prioritise which capability gaps need to be addressed in what order.
Taking the example above by simply colour coding each capability Red, Amber, Green with respect to the current state against required state IT can have a business driven conversation as to priorities.
Furthermore when a business capability changes (less often than strategy) the impact of the change can quickly be assessed against both the business and IT and an informed discussion can be held.
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