Enterprise Mobility Capability Model

This document provides a capability model for Enterprise Mobility – the use of mobile computing in the enterprise.

It is provided to support the development of an Enterprise Mobility Framework. See the accompanying report.

A capability is the power or ability to perform something of value. A capability defines what something is capable of doing, without stating or limiting how it is done. For example, a list of business capabilities might show what an organization is capable of doing, but doesn’t define how those capabilities are realized.

A capability model should be relatively stable. Whilst the mechanisms that implement or realize the various capabilities will change over time, the capability itself should remain the same. For example, whilst camera technology has changed from film to digital, the ‘ability to capture images’ remains constant.

A capability model provides a decomposition of the capabilities in scope. The purpose is to

• Provide a systematic breakdown of the domain from coarse-grained capabilities into finer-grained capabilities that are easier to conceive, measure and compare
• Identify implementation independent capabilities
• Identify the leaf node capabilities so that independent decisions about their realization can be made

The capability model detailed in this report provides a product and implementation agnostic view of the capabilities or functions required to support enterprise mobility.

As well as aiding understanding of the domain and providing an implementation, product and technology independent way of communicating requirements, the capability model provides a mechanism by which for example;

• Device profiles can be defined  (in terms of the capabilities provided by a device)
• Application profiles can be defined (in terms of the capabilities required by an application or type of application) so that the suitability of a device to support an application can then be determined by matching it to the device profile
• The capabilities required by an organization unit, or a project can be determined
• Roadmaps for the provision and evolution of capabilities can be established
• The suitability of products and platforms can be assessed or compared (do they provide the required capabilities?)

The top level capability areas are as follows;

• Device Capabilities. The capabilities of a device.
• Mobile Device Management. The capability to manage devices.
  • Configuration Management
  • Fault Management
  • Asset Management
  • Content Management
• Mobile Application Management. The capability to provision applications for devices.
  • Mobile Application Development
  • Mobile Application Deployment
• Integration Mechanisms. The capability to integrate and access server-based and enterprise-class resources (and other 3^rd party resources)
• Network Provision. The capability to provide network access to mobile devices
• Security Management. The capability to ensure the secure use of devices, content and the network
• Governance. The capability to ensure the desired outcomes of mobile computing are achieved

The complete Enterprise Mobility Capability Model can be downloaded below.

Note the folllowing licencing conditions:

The Everware-CBDI Enterprise Mobility Capability Model is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Under the terms of this license you are free:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution: This must be made to Everware-CBDI Inc. and CBDI Forum using one of the following statements as appropriate together with a link to http://everware-cbdi.com/cbdi-sae-metamodel :

• “Source: Everware-CBDI Enterprise Mobility Capability Model”.
• “Derived from: Everware-CBDI Enterprise Mobility Capability Model”.
• “Including concepts from: Everware-CBDI Enterprise Mobility Capability Model”.