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An effective Capability Assessment Management (CAM) capability aims to:

• 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 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.

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

2Basic

• Practice

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

  Outcome

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

  Metric

  # of discrete frameworks in use.

• 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 assessment activities can begin to identify the capabilities needed to address the organization's needs and business goals.

  Metric

  % 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 assignment increases the likelihood of successful improvement action.

  Metrics

  • % of identified capability gaps assigned to IT line managers.
  • IT capability improvement funding as a % 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 in use to this lead framework.

  Outcomes

  • The lead framework acts as a central reference under which any other frameworks can be organized or mapped.
  • Capability assessments have greater transparency, consistency, and comparability.

  Metric

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

• Practice

  Take industry benchmarks and assessment results into account when setting improvement goals.

  Outcome

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

  Metric

  % of IT capability targets that are achieved.

• Practice

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

  Outcome

  Fundamental requirements for implementing improvements are in place, increasing confidence in business value delivery and target realization.

  Metrics

  • % of IT capability improvement initiatives that have adequate resources assigned.
  • IT capability improvement funding as a % of total IT expenditure.
  • % of IT capability improvement initiatives with explicit senior stakeholder sponsorship.

4Advanced

• Practice

  Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the lead framework against the organization's needs, and establish a consistent mapping of all subservient frameworks to this lead framework.

  Outcomes

  • 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

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

• Practice

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

  Outcome

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

  Metric

  % 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.

  Outcome

  Greater employee support increases the likelihood of successful capability improvements.

  Metrics

  • % of employees in each business unit receiving training.
  • % 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 from previous capability assessments.

  Outcome

  The framework continues to support required IT capability evaluations.

  Metric

  Frequency of review/update of the framework integration approach.

• Practice

  Regularly review the support structure for managing IT capability improvement based on lessons learned.

  Outcome

  The support structure continues to enable IT capability improvements.

  Metrics

  • IT capability improvement funding as a % of total expenditure.
  • Distribution of employees with capability improvement responsibilities.

• 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 in capability assessment and improvement.

This capability was introduced in Revision 19.01 as an update to Capability Assessment Management (16).

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

PGMProgramme Management

Executing capability improvement projects.

PMProject Management

Executing capability improvement projects.

PPMProject Portfolio Management

Making investment decisions to close capacity gaps.