Capability Dependencies

Why This Exists

This document defines how dependencies between Business Capabilities and related Blueprint concepts are documented.

Capabilities do not operate alone. They depend on Practices, Digital Professionals, SOPs, Business Rules, APIs, Events, Data, UX, KPIs, and Organizational Memory.

Owner

The owner is the Chief Product Officer and Enterprise Architect.

Each owning Practice is responsible for maintaining dependency information for its capabilities.

Business Value

Dependency management creates business value by reducing implementation risk, improving roadmap sequencing, and making the impact of capability changes visible.

Dependency Types

Dependency type	Description
Practice dependency	Another Practice owns work needed by the capability.
Digital Professional dependency	Another Digital Professional contributes reasoning, workflow, or review.
SOP dependency	A procedure governs or triggers capability execution.
Business Rule dependency	Rules define eligibility, thresholds, or decisions.
API dependency	Interfaces are needed to perform or expose capability behavior.
Event dependency	Business events trigger, update, or record capability state.
Data dependency	Data or memory is needed to execute or measure the capability.
UX dependency	Customer experience surfaces expose or operate the capability.

Dependency Model

flowchart TD
    Capability[Business Capability]
    Practices[Practices]
    Professionals[Digital Professionals]
    SOPs[SOPs]
    Rules[Business Rules]
    APIs[APIs]
    Events[Events]
    Data[Data]
    UX[UX]
    Memory[Organizational Memory]

    Capability --> Practices
    Capability --> Professionals
    Capability --> SOPs
    Capability --> Rules
    Capability --> APIs
    Capability --> Events
    Capability --> Data
    Capability --> UX
    Data --> Memory
    Memory --> Capability

Dependency Direction

Each dependency should identify:

• Upstream provider.
• Downstream consumer.
• Dependency reason.
• Impact if unavailable.
• Governance owner.
• Related capability ID.

Dependency Impact Levels

Level	Meaning
Low	Capability can operate with minor degradation.
Medium	Capability can operate with reduced quality or manual support.
High	Capability cannot meet expected business outcome.
Critical	Capability failure creates serious operational, compliance, or customer trust risk.

Review Rule

Capability dependencies must be reviewed when a capability changes lifecycle state, maturity level, ownership, API, event model, data model, or customer-facing UX.