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The Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability aims to provide the organization with an accurate picture of its current IT management capabilities, and to identify areas needing improvement.

• Improve the organization’s ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in key IT capabilities.
• Establish a consistent approach to assessing IT capabilities and selecting areas for IT capability improvement that are aligned with the organization’s strategic direction.
• Identify over-investment in IT capabilities that are of lower strategic importance.
• Establish a credible and achievable approach to managing a continual improvement programme, which can be used to verify improvements over time.

The Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability helps ensure reliability, repeatability, and validity in assessing IT capabilities and implementing improvement initiatives.

The creation, deployment, and exploitation of distinct and inimitable IT capabilities can be among an organization’s key competitive differentiators^{12 target="_blank" rel="noopener">3}, as they determine the pace and manner by which it can use technology to innovate and deliver value⁴.

However, to optimize IT capabilities, an organization needs to know which IT capabilities are strategically important, how mature they currently are, and in what areas they need to be developed further⁴. The organization thus needs reliable, repeatable, and valid approaches for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of various IT capabilities and developing dependable improvement roadmaps.

By developing an effective Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability, the organization can conduct capability assessments, set capability targets, and implement improvement initiatives in a consistent and transparent manner. This enables the organization to develop the core IT capabilities that support its strategy, and to identify non- core capabilities that may be stood-down and resources diverted elsewhere.

The Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability is the ability of the organization to conduct current state evaluations and plan improvements for its portfolio of IT capabilities. Current state evaluations involve gathering and documenting data about the specific IT capabilities in the organization. The results then inform the planning and execution of improvement actions to deal with any deficiencies. The Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability covers:

• Selecting an overarching capability framework and mapping other frameworks used in the organization to it.
• Managing continuous improvement of the organization’s IT capabilities.
• Securing appropriate senior management sponsorship for IT capability improvement.
• Promoting organizational buy-in and incentivizing participation in capability improvement evaluation and planning.
• Planning, preparing, and conducting capability evaluations.
• Setting IT capability targets and defining development roadmaps for key IT capabilities.

Representative POMs are described for CAM at each level of maturity.

2Basic

• Practice

  Determine if any IT capability frameworks are already in use, and establish basic relationships/linkages between them.

  Outcome

  Clear mapping between frameworks supports greater transparency in IT capability assessments.

  Metric

  Number of discrete frameworks in use.

• Practice

  Run awareness campaigns across the IT function to inform employees of IT capability assessment activities and the reasons for change.

  Outcome

  There is increased awareness of and buy-in to IT capability assessment and improvement.

  Metric

  Number of communications formats used to inform relevant employees.

• Practice

  Establish a basic IT capability assessment approach to evaluate key IT capabilities, and to identify areas for improvement in key parts of the IT function.

  Outcome

  Basic planning and preparation activities can begin to identify the capabilities needed to address the organization’s needs and business goals.

  Metric

  Percentage of IT capability assessments adhering to an emerging approach or blueprint for conducting assessments.

• Practice

  Make IT line managers responsible for addressing identified gaps.

  Outcome

  Responsibility for realizing improvement is clearly assigned, increasing the likelihood of successful improvement action.

  Metric

  Percentage of identified capability gaps assigned to IT line managers. IT capability improvement funding as a percentage of total IT expenditure.

3Intermediate

• Practice

  Select and agree one lead framework for IT capabilities, and establish an approach for consistently mapping, integrating, or migrating other frameworks that were previously used to this lead framework.

  Outcome

  The lead framework acts as a central reference under which any other frameworks can be organized or mapped. The mapping of all frameworks and methodologies in use to this lead framework provides capability assessments with greater transparency, consistency, and comparability.

  Metric

  Percentage of legacy/discrete frameworks that are retired, integrated or mapped onto the lead framework.

• Practice

  Introduce assessment cycles for key IT capabilities.

  Outcome

  Time series comparisons and benchmarking over time become more reliable.

  Metric

  Percentage of targeted IT capabilities that were assessed per annum. Percentage of targeted survey participants who provided current-state evaluations of IT capabilities.

• Practice

  Take industry benchmarks and results of previous assessments into account when setting improvement goals.

  Outcome

  Improvement goals are more likely to be realistic, resource feasible, and aligned with business needs.

  Metric

  Percentage of IT capability targets that are achieved.

• Practice

  Establish a standardized support structure for implementing prioritized IT capability improvements, including senior management commitment and guidance, and adequate resourcing for improving IT capabilities.

  Outcome

  Fundamental requirements for implementing improvements are in place, increasing confidence in the delivery of business value and in achieving targets.

  Metric

  Percentage of identified IT capability improvement initiatives that have adequate financial and stakeholder resources explicitly assigned to them. IT capability improvement funding as a percentage of total IT expenditure. Percentage of IT capability improvement initiatives with explicit senior stakeholder sponsorship.

4Advanced

• Practice

  Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the lead framework against the on-going needs of the broader IT function and all other business units, and establish a consistent organization-wide mapping of all subservient frameworks to this lead framework.

  Outcome

  The framework is comprehensively aligned with the broader organization’s needs and strategic direction, and is supported by all business stakeholders. The IT capability assessments are regarded as highly credible.

  Metric

  Percentage of legacy or subservient frameworks that are integrated or mapped to the lead framework.

• Practice

  Foster broader awareness of, and support for, IT capability assessments through organization-wide communications.

  Outcome

  There is increased support for IT capability assessment and improvement initiatives.

  Metric

  Percentage of relevant employees in each business unit involved in IT capability assessments.

• Practice

  Ensure organization-wide compliance with the standardized IT capability assessment planning approach or blueprint.

  Outcome

  A holistic and reliable IT capability assessment across the organization is possible.

  Metric

  Percentage of IT capability assessments adhering to a standardized blueprint.

• Practice

  Implement formal training and incentive schemes organization-wide to encourage employee participation in driving capability improvements (including appropriate capability training, improvement suggestion schemes, and integration with employee incentive schemes for promotion, recognition, and reward).

  Outcome

  Greater employee support for capability assessment and improvement is fostered, increasing the likelihood of successful capability improvements.

  Metric

  Percentage of relevant employees in each business unit receiving training. Percentage of relevant employees in each business unit receiving additional compensation/recognition based on their contribution to IT capability improvements.

5Optimized

• Practice

  Continually review and improve framework integration by taking into account insights and lessons learned from previous IT capability assessments.

  Outcome

  The framework continues to support required IT capability evaluations.

  Metric

  Frequency of review of the framework integration approach (and update as appropriate).

• Practice

  Regularly review the support structure for managing IT capability improvement (including, for example, levels of senior management commitment and guidance, training, and resource provisioning), based on feedback and lessons learned.

  Outcome

  The support structure continues to enable IT capability improvements.

  Metric

  IT capability improvement funding as a percentage of total expenditure. Distribution of employees with capability improvement responsibilities across business units.

• Practice

  Reflect contributions to improving IT capability in employee performance reviews.

  Outcome

  Capability assessment and improvement is recognized as an important aspect of employees’ work.

  Metric

  Distribution of employees with defined roles and responsibilities in capability assessment and improvement across business units.

• Practice

  Regularly include relevant business ecosystem partners when reviewing and updating IT capability planning activities and improvement targets.

  Outcome

  Capability planning activities and improvement targets reflect insights of the business ecosystem.

  Metric

  Frequency of IT capability planning reviews. Percentage of total expenditure allocated to capability improvements.

This capability was introduced in Revision 16 as a new critical capability.

It was deprecated in Revision 19.01, being updated by Capability Assessment Management (19.01).

The following CCs cover topics that are related to CAM in some way:

BPBusiness Planning

Planned initiatives and the likely capabilities required to deliver those initiatives

IMInnovation Management

Themed innovation campaigns to support a continual improvement programme across the IT function

ODPOrganization Design and Planning

Information about the capabilities embedded in the IT function’s current organization design

PPMProgramme and Project Management

Executing capability improvement projects

PPPPortfolio Planning and Prioritization

Approving business cases for individual capability improvement initiatives

SPStrategic Planning

Strategic priorities and objectives that serve as the foundation for long-term capability planning