A 5-minute Introduction to UAF: Capability

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to our 5-minute UAF (Unified Architecture Framework) Introduction series.
In my previous post, I mentioned that UAF mainly offers two core aspects:

Definition of viewpoints
Definition of the Domain Metamodel

Today, we will explore what the Domain Metamodel is.

The UAF Domain Metamodel provides foundational and essential constructs for modeling an enterprise architecture. It provides the definition of concepts, relationships, and UAF Grid view specifications.
One of the key concepts is “capability,” defined as follows:

Capability:
An enterprise’s ability to achieve a desired effect realized through a combination of ways and means (e.g. CapabilityConfiguration) along with specified measures.

Simply put, it refers to the abilities of the target enterprise system. While “ability” may sound abstract, think of it as functions of a system. “CapabilityConfiguration,” an example of ways and means mentioned, is also a concept within the UAF Domain Metamodel, but we won’t delve into it here.

Capability itself is independent of ways and means, and the inclusion of “specified measures” indicates that capabilities can also be quantitatively assessed. In the UAF Domain Metamodel, concepts are defined not just textually, but also visually, as in the class diagram below.

* Diagram based on Figure 9:145 – Domain MetaModel::Strategic::Taxonomy – from the Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) Domain Metamodel Version 1.2, illustrated using Astah Professional.

While I won’t go into detail here, it’s noteworthy that capability characteristics could be defined by abstract concepts such as “PropertySet.” Therefore, when you are going to use the UAF in a full-fledged manner, referring back to these definitions for confirmation will be essential.

Exploring a Capability in Action:

Let’s examine an example of capability. Consider a hypothetical ‘Forest Fire Management System’ as a model of an enterprise system. While forest fires may not be a common concern in Japan, they are a significant challenge in other parts of the world. The emergence of diverse solutions, such as drones and ground unmanned vehicles, in addition to traditional methods, necessitates effective integration to achieve strategic objectives. This underscores the importance of a comprehensive enterprise architecture.

The capabilities of the forest fire management system, as presented in Reference [1], are structured as follows:

This figure is illustrated using the SysML (Systems Modeling Language) block definition diagram (The tool I used is Astah SysML) where each element is a block with the “Capability”, indicating that they represent capabilities.
Here, capabilities are defined hierarchically, with “Forest Fire Management” as an overarching capability. Such a comprehensive capability, while not initially essential, becomes critical as the enterprise system evolves, and there’s a need to model the overall required capability set and its corresponding solution configurations.

The next level defines “Fire prevention,” “Fire suppression,” and “Mission Management” as three separate capabilities, suggesting that the forest fire management system’s abilities are broadly categorized into these three areas.
Within these, “Fire suppression” is further divided, including “Fire extinction” as a specific capability to put out forest fires. By defining it using the model, it could reduce the misinterpretation. For example, when someone says “fire extinction”, it might be unclear whether it simply refers to putting out the fire or if it includes detecting and predicting the fire as well. The model helps clarify the scope of “fire extinction” with this example.

Such capabilities are utilized and refined during activities such as:

Verifying if they are sufficient for the mission or business
Reviewing if solutions achieve all these capabilities and
Defining quantitative criteria for each capability

Capabilities play a central role in enterprise architecture. In our upcoming post, we will explore the Strategic Viewpoint. This viewpoint focuses on defining the capabilities necessary to fulfill mission objectives and business goals.

Looking forward to the next one!

References:

[1] Lalitha Abhaya: UAF (Unified Architecture Framework) Based MBSE (UBM) Method to build a System of Systems Model, Presentation Slides, 31st Annual INCOSE International Symposium, July 2021.

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