The term Capability is often used in business reports and publications to describe something particular to a person, technology or an organisation but in many cases it is often less clear as to what exactly that “capability” is, how it materialises or is managed. So for the sake of clarity and understanding i am going to use the definitions from TOGAF 9 to define governance, function, service and capability, show their relationships and how together they can, through a development process, turn a conceptual term into a real world thing.
An ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve.
As the definition outlines, a capability is composed of multiple elements. As all things within an organisation are governed by something – internal policy or external regulation – the top level definition begins with:
Business Governance
Concerned with ensuring that the business processes and policies (and their operation) deliver the business outcomes and adhere to relevant business regulation.
Business Function
Delivers business capabilities closely aligned to an organization, but not necessarily explicitly governed by the organization.
Business Service
Supports business capabilities through an explicitly defined interface and is explicitly governed by an organization.
Capability Architecture
A highly detailed description of the architectural approach to realize a particular solution or solution aspect.
Capability Increment
A discrete portion of a capability architecture that delivers specific value. When all increments have been completed, the capability has been realized.
By breaking a capability down into its components and its relationships to other concepts it should make it clearer as to what a capability is and how it needs to be designed. Cities or Smart cities should have some cyber security capability so now it is a case of improving and maturing existing ones or defining new capabilities to accommodate the changes and advancements smart cities are making.
Cyber Security Consultant and Enterprise Architect with an interest in semantic systems for security, strategy and architectural development.
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