Business Architecture Software Evaluation Matrix

1
Business Architecture and Capability Modeling
Software Evaluation Matrix Provided by
Capstera.com
What are the criteria one should use to evaluate
a business architecture and capability modeling
software? This matrix lists 16 criteria for
evaluation. Please feel free to add or modify the
matrix to fit your needs. We hope you will make
an informed and intelligent in selecting the
business architecture and capability modeling
software vendor.
Evaluation Criteria
Description
Does the business architecture tool vendor offer
the features that are relevant and important to
your business architecture efforts? Features to
consider are ability to 1. Breadth of Features
and Depth create and manage capability maps,
draft value stream of Functionality
flows, create and analyze
process flows, generate key functional
requirements to evolve capabilities, render heat
maps, capture rich semantics and compose
projects/initiatives using underlying
capabilities.
Is the vendor focused on business architecture
and capability modeling as a core feature and the
anchor of its mapping features just a check box?
2.
Focus
software? Or is business architecture and
capability
How easy is the business architecture and
capability modeling software? In particular, if
your wish is to bring 3. Ease of Use
along business users to
not only consume, but participate, contribute and
use the tool, the threshold of complexity needs
to be very low.
What type of modeling capabilities does the
business
4.
Modeling Capabilities
architecture tool offer?
How easy is it for the business architects,
enterprise 5. Collaboration
architects, business analysts and
product managers to collaborate on creating,
managing, extending and evolving the business
architecture and capability modeling artifacts?
How well and how easy does the business
architecture software allow you to generate
nested capability maps, footprint analysis and
other visually appealing artifacts
6.
Presentation
marked up value streams and processes, heat maps,
What configuration options are available to tweak
the 7. Configurability
business architecture and capability modeling
software to your enterprise needs?
What type of technology stack is the business
architecture 8. Technical Stack
and capability modeling tool built on?
Does it use open standards as well as open source
components?
How easy it is to implement and rollout the
software? If a business architecture and
capability modeling tool takes users, not
necessarily business users.
9.
Implementation
more than a week to implement, it is perhaps a
utility for IT
2
How open is the business architecture software
vendor in terms of intake and export of data?
Does the tool vendor formats like CSV, Tab
Delimited or XML?
10.
Openness
offer APIs? OR import/export functionality in
common
How well does the business architecture tool
vendor support the software? What type of
training programs and philosophy of the vendor?
11.
Customer Service
online help are available? What is the customer
service
How well does the business architecture tool
vendor play
12.
Interoperability
well with other tools in the adjacent realms?
Does the vendor offer a cloud-based offering as
well as an
13.
Deployment Options
option to deploy the software inside a firewall?
Does the roadmap of the business architecture
and capability modeling tool vendor conform to
your future evolution?
14.
Product Roadmap
needs? Is their product vision compatible with
your own
What is the pricing model for the business
architecture and capability modeling tool? In
addition to total cost of friction/cost of moving
to another tool?
15.
Pricing
ownership, what is the lock-in period and also the
What is the financial strength and business
viability of the vendor? What steps are the
business architecture tool vendors willing to
take to mitigate the risk? For example, ensure
that in case of their challenges to the vendors
core business, the enterprise can have a path to
continuing to use the software and make
appropriate customizations.
16.
Financial Viability
some vendors will place the source code in escrow
to
Disclosure This business architecture software
evaluation matrix is a part of a series of
insights published by Capstera.com, a
capability-based enterprise transformation
framework and software. Capstera.com helps
enterprises better define their business so as to
link execution to strategy and help build
optimal IT solutions. Capstera leverages
capabilities as the capstone of business
definition and combines best elements of business
architecture, capabilities mapping, process
analysis, and requirements management. This
enables companies to establish a common language
and foster alignment across business/IT, it helps
reduce redundancy and rework, and it helps
aligns execution with strategy.