A capability model to guide the way

So far in this series, we’ve looked at the key components and stages that make up a transformation project, and have examined the disciplines and people needed. One of the first things we advise our customers to do when planning a transformation journey is to create a capability model. This key strategic tool gives you a big picture view of where your project sits within your organization.  

What is a capability model?

A capability model illustrates all the many things an organization needs to be able to do to accomplish its goals. For example, if your primary mission is to educate students, you need to manage curriculum and run classes, but you also need to pay your faculty and purchase teaching supplies and equipment. 

Typically, these models are organized into domains. You may have one domain related to staff services, another for student services, another for finance, and so on. You then break these down further into areas like staff recruitment, payroll, and staff development. 

A capability model doesn’t include details on organizational structures, operating models, or business processes. It defines what an organization needs to do but doesn’t address the who, why or how. 

What’s it used for?

A capability model provides a structured approach that helps you understand, communicate, and manage capabilities within your organization. You will use it to assess, analyze, and improve your ability to perform functions effectively.

It allows you to look at the what through multiple lenses, such as layering on systems, data quality or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess project delivery opportunities and challenges from multiple perspectives. 

A capability model is an incredibly useful tool for both transformation and continuous improvement activities. You will use it as the scaffolding to structure analysis and business cases, as well as scope definitions, tenders, team structures, and so on.

Sounds scary. Where do I start?

It often seems a daunting task, but you don’t have to start from scratch. There are accelerators out there, like the one UCISA has developed specifically for Higher Education. At Inoapps, we’ve also developed targeted capability models for the three domains serviced by Oracle applications: Student Administration, Human Capital Management, and Finance. 

You’ll start with each of your domains and then drill down into the detail. Remember that you are developing a capability model for your specific working context, which may differ from other universities. The important thing is that the model represents your university’s business and that the differences between functional areas are clearly articulated. This will allow your capability model to do its job of creating a shared understanding for everyone involved.

Your first step is to agree your top level capabilities. Once you’ve scoped that, it’s helpful to write a short statement that describes each of them. For example, for the Application & Admission capability within your Student Journey Process, you might have:

You then continue to break down each domain into its component parts.  We recommend going down three levels, like this:

Who needs to be involved?

Your transformation project is likely to impact functions right across the university, and that should be reflected in the team that scopes your capability model.

Part of the initial project planning is for your Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to decide who will be on a project board for the initiative, and those are the people who will inform your model. The project board should include representatives from all key areas of the university, including:

• A member of the ELT—this may be the person who championed the project in the first place
• Leadership from each of the key academic units
• Representatives from each administration area, including Finance, Human Resources, Students and Estates

The best and most efficient way to scope the plan is for the project board to get together in a workshop, and to have a starting point, like the UCISA model, to hand. You’ll need somebody to run the workshop, capture the results and draft the plan. This could be somebody within the university, like a business analyst, or a member of your transformation team. Or it could be a professional facilitator from an outside organization with experience of creating such models. It may take a couple of workshops to scope the model in full.

Once the outcomes of the workshop are written up, the draft capability model should be circulated to a wider group of key stakeholders for feedback, to help you refine the plan. At this early stage, you can afford to take a month or two to gather feedback and refine, so that your model is robust enough to inform this and future projects.

Plan in hand, the project board is in a position to decide what the project will cover, which capabilities will be delivered, and what project governance would look like. We’ll be discussing governance in our next blog.

Putting your plan to work

Once you have your capability model agreed, you can put it to work to support:

• Strategic planning
• Organizational alignment
• Decision-making
• Risk management
• Performance measurement
• Change management
• Continuous improvement initiatives

It is a big job, but it will help you immensely. I’ll be referring to how it can be used at various stages of the transformation journey as we move through this series, including in my next blog, which looks at project governance.