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The conceptualisation of Capability in Enterprise Architecture

The General Capability Pattern is an explanatory theory about the nature of capabilities^[1]. It identifies six (6) key parts that characterise the idea of capability in general, as exemplified by the sentence - “a <substantial> <possibility> of <possessor> to <result> by/with <source> through <lead-to>”.

The pattern and characterisation are based on possibility, of modal verbs of languages such as English, Swedish, German, and Italian, NAF 4, and dispositions, as found in the Amartya Sens Capability approach ^[2]and NATO Architecture Framework.

Possessor: the portion of reality to which the capability is attributed to, owned by, or accessed by. Examples: organization, person, machine, enterprise, or system.
Possibility: a possibility and modality for something to come into existence by some source through a lead-to mechanism. Examples: capacity or disposition.
Source: the input factors of a capability, the causes, which participate in a thematic ‘source’ role. Examples: things, assets, facilities, resources, people, knowledge, processes, machines, or culture.
Result: the to-part, which participates in a determinant thematic ‘product’ role; the accomplishment, the achievement, effect, and consequence. Examples: activity is done, delivered goods, performed service, or fulfilment of objective.
Lead-to: the way source(s) can lead to the result. Examples: natural process, mechanisms, prescribed or described work, causality, or mathematical formula.
Substantiality: the strength of the lead-to mechanism and source factors. Examples: capacity of sources or demonstrated achievement of results.

Prototypical kinds of capability

Based on the capability pattern, prototypical kinds of capability can be defined.

Processual Capability: A capability where the ‘lead-to’ characteristic is based on and grounded in well-formulated processes, activities, functions, or tasks.
Abstract Capability: A capability where one or more characteristics are defined abstractly or without details, such as a capability defined in terms of “what”.

An Ability can be defined as a Capability where the Substantiality is absent.

Concrete Capabilities

The capability pattern can be used to define concrete kinds of capabilities. Each of the following concepts can be used as a grounding for infinite kinds of capabilities.

Process,
Function
Risk
Undesirable outcomes such as pollution.

Capability Map

The idea of Capability Maps^[3] can be constructed using the General Capability Pattern.

^ Tell, Anders W. (2014), Johansson, Björn; Andersson, Bo; Holmberg, Nicklas (eds.), "What Capability Is Not", Perspectives in Business Informatics Research, vol. 194, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 128–142, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11370-8_10, ISBN 978-3-319-11369-2, retrieved 2023-04-01
^ Sen, Amartya (1985). Commodities and capabilities. Amsterdam: North-Holland. ISBN 0-444-87730-4. OCLC 12342236.
^ Tell, Anders W.; Henkel, Martin (2022). Barn, Balbir S.; Sandkuhl, Kurt (eds.). "Foundations of Capability Maps – A Conceptual Comparison". The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. Cham: Springer International Publishing: 101–117. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-21488-2_7. ISBN 978-3-031-21488-2.

[1] Tell, Anders W. (2014), Johansson, Björn; Andersson, Bo; Holmberg, Nicklas (eds.), "What Capability Is Not", Perspectives in Business Informatics Research, vol. 194, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 128–142, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11370-8_10, ISBN 978-3-319-11369-2, retrieved 2023-04-01

[2] Sen, Amartya (1985). Commodities and capabilities. Amsterdam: North-Holland. ISBN 0-444-87730-4. OCLC 12342236.

[3] Tell, Anders W.; Henkel, Martin (2022). Barn, Balbir S.; Sandkuhl, Kurt (eds.). "Foundations of Capability Maps – A Conceptual Comparison". The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. Cham: Springer International Publishing: 101–117. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-21488-2_7. ISBN 978-3-031-21488-2.

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