Capability mapping is an exercise in defining what your business does well and therefore what it needs to do to succeed. It enables you to further prioritise resources and validate investments. For more content like this, check out Acorn Labs: https://acornlms.com/enterprise-learning-management

1. Capability
Mapping
How to do it like a pro

2. What is a capability map?
A capability map is a visual outline of the capabilities an
organisation currently possesses and the capabilities that
should be prioritised to reach a desired future state.
The idea is to map your business capabilities against your
strategic outcomes.

3. But what about capability frameworks?
A capability map differs from a capability framework (which
looks at illustrating skills, knowledge and behaviours) in that it
focuses on visualising core business drivers (aka capabilities)
by their level of priority in value chains or business functions.

4. Why capability maps?
A capability map provides a more helpful bird’s eye view of how
your business works than other visual aids. It keeps the focus
on your big picture and aligns internal business processes with
people and technology.
It’s like a companion for all your other planning, strategy and
business documents and allows you to undertake gap analysis
more accurately.

5. Capability
Map
Levels

6. Why levels?
Business capability maps are usually arranged in a hierarchy to
display their granularity.
At the highest level, there are a few capabilities that are core to
business success, each being followed by a set of
complementary capabilities that support them.

7. L1: Organise the map
At this level you are creating a logical way to flesh out and
organise your lower levels. It’s common to define business
capabilities based on value streams/chains or key functions
that take you from conception to market. There’s no ‘ideal’
number of core capabilities at this level.

9. L2: Develop the map
This level gives you the necessary detail to make more
informed strategic and resourcing decisions. A key point is
that you don’t need the same number of sub-capabilities for
every core capability. It’s about the drivers defined as critical
to your business.

11. L3: Gain more insight
In most cases, 2-3 levels of sub-capabilities are enough.
However, some organisations go deeper. This granularity
further ensures the right capabilities are represented at that
second level.

12. L4: Further reinforcement
For smaller companies or those undertaking capability
mapping for the first time, this level of granularity is usually
not needed. It’s more common in mature organisations who
may use a capability map from an operational viewpoint.

14. Capability
Map
Benefits

15. Better resource prioritisation
A heatmap articulates the changes required for you to get to
your future state. It visually determines what capability is the
highest priority in terms of maturity, availability or value.
Understanding what business capabilities need attention is
important to realising the true impact of your map.

17. Smarter investment decisions
All companies, regardless of size, will have to make
investment decisions based on their unique alignment
of business, people and technology.
For your HR arm, a business capability map empowers
strategic decision making and visibility. For executives,
it shows the return on investment of technology used
by employees. (The list goes on.)

18. Implementing
A Capability
Map

19. 1) Build a case for consensus
Much like building consensus for other business-related
implementations, business capability mapping won’t stick if
there isn’t a solid reason for using it.
You want to find a common thread or gap in your current
business architecture management that affects all and
justifies the introduction of a new process.

21. 2) Generate management buy-in
There should be more than one champion in your
organisation for a capability map, at multiple levels of
your organisation.
Buy-in needs to be based upon capability mapping being a
pain killer, not just a nice-to-have supplement.

22. 3) Establish ownership
Your champions should also have key parts to play in
managing the map for your organisation.
Your map owners will manage scope and ensure that there
is transparency on the big picture and true collaboration
for a fair representation of organisation drivers.

23. You can learn more about this
topic by checking out the full
article:
https://acornlms.com/enterprise-learning-
management/capability-mapping