Creating reusable capability patterns

A capability pattern is a special process that describes a reusable cluster of activities in a general process area that provides a consistent development approach to common problems. Capability patterns can be used as building blocks to assemble delivery processes or larger capability patterns.

Before creating a capability pattern, do the following:

A capability pattern does not relate to any specific phase or iteration of a development lifecycle, and should not imply any. In other words, a capability pattern should be designed in a way so that it is applicable anywhere in a delivery process. This enables the pattern's activities to be flexibly assigned to whatever phases there are in the delivery process to which it is being applied.

You do not need to develop your process from scratch; you can reuse existing capability patterns or even capability pattern parts. There are several ways to populate a process with method elements:

  1. After you have selected or created a process package, right-click Process Package and click New > Capability Pattern The New Process Component window opens.
  2. In the Name field, type a name for the capability pattern, and select a default configuration from the drop-down list.
  3. Click OK. The process is created and the process editor is opened.
  4. In the process editor under the Description tab, document your process using the available text fields.
    Note: You can use the rich text editor to edit or enter the text for any field that has the rich text editor icon rich text editor icon. Click the icon to access the rich text editor. Click the icon again to close the editor.
  5. Decide on your primary process authoring view. You develop a process using three different views:
    • Work Breakdown Structure: Define a work breakdown structure in your process. Create iterations and activities first, and populate your activities by applying tasks from your method content. For more information about defining a work breakdown structure, see Develop a Work Breakdown Structure.
    • Team Allocation: Define which teams and roles will participate in activities and find responsible work products and tasks from there. For more information about teams and roles, see Develop a Team Allocation Structure.
    • Work Product Usage: Define which work products should be created in activities and find tasks and roles from there. For more information about work products, see Develop a Work Product Usage Structure.