Enterprise Architecture_Business Capabilities to Business Capabilities Relationships via Data Flows

[hwldkmarc]

Does the current CSDM support Business Capabilities to Business Capabilities relationships through CRUD data flows?  If not, is this on the roadmap for future releases?  We're looking for a way to create a CRUD relationship between Business Capabilities to other Business Capabilities to create a business model without business applications or technologies.  Essentially, a Business Capability can be the source (CRUD) for one or more Information Object and also a target (R) other Information Objects.

[kmohammed]

Short answer: no — the current CSDM does not provide an out-of-the-box Business Capability-to-Business Capability relationship typed as a CRUD data flow.

Business Capability to Business Capability is modelled as a hierarchy (a capability contains, or is the parent of, sub-capabilities), which is for decomposing capabilities, not for data flowing between them.

CRUD is modelled one level down, between a Business Capability and an Information Object: a capability Creates, Reads, Updates or Deletes Information Objects. So the CSDM-aligned way to express your model is:

- Capability A — Creates/Updates → Information Object X

- Capability B — Reads → Information Object X

The shared Information Object is what carries the flow between the two capabilities, and you can build that business model without involving Business Applications or technology CIs at all.

If you need a direct capability-to-capability edge with a CRUD label, you can create a custom relationship type for it, but be aware it is a deviation from CSDM, and the out-of-the-box Enterprise Architecture capability views will not interpret it as a data flow.

On the roadmap question: I am not aware of any published CSDM roadmap item that adds a native Business Capability-to-Business Capability CRUD relationship. It is worth raising as a Product Idea so the EA product team can weigh in.

If this helped, please mark it as Helpful — and if it solved your issue, I'd be grateful if you accepted it as the solution.

[hwldkmarc]

Thank you! Please advise how I submit a Product Idea - native Business Capability-to-Business Capability CRUD relationship. - so the EA product team can weigh in?