There have been some recent posts about managing scope, defining needed Features, determining how to release software to stakeholders - in both traditional and agile processes. While most are good ideas and are necessary, they are NOT Sufficient for project success
It's the Capability to accomplish the Mission to fulfill the Vision that is sufficient for success
Here's a collection of posts on the topic of Capabilities Based Planning
Capabilities-based planning enables the enterprise to identify business and technical needs, allocate resources, and track activities and outcomes.
Here are some materials that will guide the application of Capabilities Based Planning. Each of these posts will have links to other posts and resources needed to successfully deploy Capabilities Based Planning. The primary document produced from the Capabilities Based Planning process is the Concept of Operations. This document is all but unknown in the Enterprise IT domain and completely unknown in the agile software development world.
The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) describes the characteristics of a proposed system from the viewpoint of an individual who will use that system.
This missing document is a root cause of many failures in tradition and agile software development. In both domains, there is no clear and concise description of what DONE looks like in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers. Beyond a de minimis agile project, without this understanding of DONE, the project is on a Death March, This is an essential fallacy of agile, that the description of DONE can emerge before the project runs out of time and money. The Product Roadmap and Release Plan are the solutions in Agile, supported by the ConOps.
- Capabilities Based Planning First Then Requirements - do not start with Requirements. Start with what capabilities do we need to possess for success?
- Capabilities Based Planning - Capabilities Based Planning is a method involving the functional analysis of operational requirements.
- Capabilities Based Planning - Capabilities Based Planning is anchored on producing Enterprise and Software Intensive Systems focused on strategic outcomes. Progress is measured through an assessment of the effectiveness and performance of the deliverables in meeting those strategic objectives. This approach assures business value is connected with the strategy not just measures of the passage or time and consumption of money and the production of technical features.
- The Basis of Capabilities Based Planning - The notion of Capabilities Based Planning is grounded in military planning and acquisition of weapon systems. This approach is well suited for the development or acquisition of any complex system. As well it is a near perfect match for the Agile Development or Agile Project Management paradigm.
- Capabilities Based Planning in Agile Development - Many approaches to ERP focus on "requirements" which are not connected to the business strategy. Balanced scorecard provides the connection of project indicators of success with business indicators of success starts here.
A sample of Resources for Capabilities-Based Planning (Google will find these. Sometimes a Subscription is required)
- A Metric Framework for Capability Definition, Engineering and Management Seventeenth Annual International Symposium of the International Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE) 24 - 28 July 2007
- A Model for Strategy and Tactical Steps that Create Enterprise Capability Capability Strategy: The Six-Factor Model, William T. Scheurer Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.
- Capabilities Development and System Acquisition Management - Executive Primer, Army Force Management School (AFMS) February 2007 (version 12.0)
- Air Force CONOPS & Capabilities Based Planning, Lt Col Nathan Titus, Resource Analyses Directorate, Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency, 19 March 2004.
- Analytic Architecture for Capabilities-Based Planning, Mission-System Analysis, and Transformation, Paul K. Davis, RAND National Defense Institute.
- Capabilities-Based Engineering Analysis (CBEA), Mike Webb, MITRE Corporation
- Capabilities-Based Planning: A Methodology for Deciphering Commander’s Intent, Peter Kossakowski, Evidence Based Research, Inc. 1595 Spring Hill Road, Suite 250 Vienna, VA 22182 kossakowski@ebrinc.com
- Capability engineering for strategic decision-making M. Lizotte, C. Nécaille, C. Lalancette, Systems Engineering: Shining the Light on the Tough Issues, INCOSE 2016 - 16th Annual International Symposium Proceedings
- Capability Strategy: Your Primary Strategic Tool by William T. Scheurer Carlson Executive Development Center, Carlson School of Management University of Minnesota.
- Competing on Capabilities: The New Rules for Strategy, George Stalk, Philip Evans, and Lawrence E. Schulman, Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1992.
- A Methodology for Capability-Based Technology Evaluation for Systems-of-Systems, Patrick Thomas Biltgen, Ph.D. Thesis, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, May 2007
- Portfolio-Analysis Methods for Assessing Capability Options, Paul K. Davis, Russell D. Shaver, Justin Beck, RAND National Defense Institute, 2008.
- An Options-Based Approach to Capabilities Based Planning Executive Summary Thomas Housel, Naval Postgraduate School.
- The Influence of the Concept of Capability-based Management on the Development of the Systems Engineering Discipline Elena Irina Neaga, Michael Henshaw and Yi Yue, 7th Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research 2009 (CSER 2009)
