A capability can exist today but may require changes in order to meet the needs of the future or achieve an objective. Likewise, introducing a new capability will require changes in order for the new capability to be effective.
An action is a description of a change that must be implemented to a capability in order to bridge the gap between where it is at today and where it needs to be in the future. An action should describe the people, process and physical changes to a capability.
Although it is possible to define actions for all the capabilities on your map, your focus should be on defining actions for the capabilities which you have prioritize with a priority rating (high, medium or low) and the capability that delivers to a tagged objective. If you have decided that a capability is not a priority (no priority rating tag) or does not deliver to an objective, then you would be wasting time and effort defining actions for these as they are unlikely to be relevant when formulating your strategic roadmap.
Defining actions in Jibility
In the Actions step, you are presented with your capability map showing the capabilities tagged with priority rating and objectives. Focus your effort on defining actions for the capabilities that requires a change, tagged with a priority rating and an objective first.
Tips: All capabilities that are marked as requiring change and have a priority rating and objective tag are automatically highlighted with a red tick (this is explained further in this article).
To define an action for a capability, you can:
Drag/drop a New Action onto a capability on the map - this will add the action to your list for that capability; or
Drag/drop a New Action to the actions list for a selected capability - this will allow you to position the new action in the list.
Once you have added a new action, you can change the name of the action to describe it. For example, an action could be "Implement a risk management system".
Tips: You can drag/drop an action in your list to re-order your list, but you can also drag/drop an action that you have defined onto another capability in your map. If you have already created an action for a capability, but then realised that the action is better suited for another capability, just drag and move it to the capability you want.
Deleting an action
To delete a action, select the action and click on the delete button (trash can icon circled in red in the diagram shown below).
Note, deleting a action here will also remove the action from an initiative if it is assigned.
Multiple linked objectives
Jibility supports the ability to link a capability to up to three objectives. We recommend linking to only one (the primary) objective to keep things simple.
When defining actions for a capability that has more than one linked objective you need to consider what actions are required for the capability in relation to each objective. There should be at least one action that delivers to each linked objective for the capability.
Categorizing actions
In Jibility we categorize our actions as people, process or physical. Doing so will prompt you to consider (for completeness):
What action do I need for this capability which are related to people change?
What action do I need for this capability which are related to process change?
What action do I need for this capability which are related to physical change?
Tips: You can rename or add your own actions categories in the Canvas Properties. Refer to the Action Categories article for more information.
Naming an action
The naming of an action should be broadly based on the following convention:
<Verb> <Item>
where;
<Verb> is the action undertaken by the action (such as Define, Build, Configure, Implement, Improve, Reduce etc).
<Item> is the people, process or physical object requiring action.
Some examples of actions are:
Define Business Execution Model
Build Customer Service Management System
Implement Help Center
Improve Staff Recruitment Process
Note, each action name for a capability must be unique.
Tracking which capabilities you have completed
To help you track which capabilities have actions defined and which ones you have completed, Jibility provides a visual status indicator. Notice, the colored ticks on the Risk Management, Compliance Management and Policy Management Capabilities below.
In the action editor, you will see the Definition Status bar as shown below
The dash is the default status for all capabilities that do not require change, and therefore actions are not required. This is not visually shown on the capability map.
The red tick is automatically shown for capabilities that requires change and is linked to a priority rating or an objective. This indicates that you should define at least one action for the capability.
The yellow tick is selected automatically as soon as you add an action for a capability. This indicates that you have started but not completed defining your actions for the capability.
The green tick is selected (manually by you) when you want to indicate that you have completed defining actions for the capability.
Note, you can move back to a yellow tick from a green tick if you decide that you haven't completed defining actions for a capability by clicking on the yellow tick on the status bar.
Also, if you delete all actions or move all of them to another capability then the status will automatically switch back to a red tick if it was previously green.
Finding an action
Suppose you want to find an action but you are not sure which capability it belongs to, then you have two options:
Go to the Initiative step and look for the action using the search function, select the action and then go back to the Action step. Jibility will automatically find and scroll to the selected action from the Initiative step.
Go to the Publish step and open the Capabilities & Actions document. Look for the action here (you can use the browser search - Crtl-F) then you can see the capability it belongs to. Once you know the capability name you can go back to the Action step, find the capability and you should then see the action listed.