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bfstore · Business Context

Business Capabilities

The outcomes Borough Furniture Store must be able to produce, grouped independently of microservices, cloud products and organisational structure.

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Why Capabilities Matter

Business capabilities translate the Borough Furniture Store story into a stable view of what the retailer must be able to do. Customers need to discover products, keep a basket and complete purchases. The retailer needs to manage product information, availability, payment outcomes, orders, fulfilment and communication.

This view is deliberately independent of implementation. A capability may involve several services, and one service may support several capabilities. Keeping that distinction visible prevents the service list from becoming an accidental business model.

Business Capability
An enduring ability the retailer needs to produce a business outcome, regardless of the organisation, process or technology used to provide it.
Vertical Implementation Slice
A deliberately small group of capabilities proved together through working behaviour, contracts, tests and repository evidence.

What This Page Establishes

This page defines the current capability map, groups related capabilities, records implementation status and explains how capabilities feed the Domain Model, requirements, customer journeys and later service-boundary analysis.

Capabilities At A Glance

Borough Furniture Store Capabilities

The Outcomes The Business Must Produce

Capability model defined

Capability Groups
Customer Experience, Commerce Management, Fulfilment & Communication, and Insight & Relevance
Primary Business Outcome
Enable customers to discover, purchase and receive physical products reliably
First Working Slice
Product Discovery and Basket Management Implemented locally
Catalog Foundation
Product information supports discovery; staff workflow remains separate Partially implemented
Next Slice
Checkout, Inventory, Payment and Order Management Planned
Used By
Domain modelling, requirements, journeys, service boundaries and implementation planning
Does Not Equal
A service catalogue, team topology, database map or deployment inventory
Source Repository
mantrobuslawal/bfstore

The Business Capability Map

The map labels Product Discovery and Basket Management as implemented locally, Product Management as a partial foundation, and the remaining target capabilities as planned. The catalogue below is the authoritative status record on this page; the map, snapshot and delivery sequence summarise it.

  • Implemented locally
  • Partially implemented
  • Planned

Borough Furniture Store Business Capability Map

A capability map with four groups. Customer Experience contains Product Discovery, Basket Management, Checkout and Post-Purchase Experience. Commerce Management contains Product Management, Pricing, Inventory Management, Payment Management and Order Management. Fulfilment and Communication contains Shipment Management, Delivery Coordination and Customer Communication. Insight and Relevance contains Search and Relevance, Reviews and Recommendations. Product Discovery and Basket Management are highlighted as implemented, Product Management as partial and the remaining capabilities as planned.
Capabilities are grouped by business outcome rather than by service. Product Discovery and Basket Management form the first implemented slice; Product Management has a partial backend foundation; the remaining capabilities are planned.

Capability Groups

Customer Experience

Capabilities directly visible in the customer's commerce journey.

  • Product Discovery: Help customers find and understand suitable products and variants.
  • Basket Management: Preserve a mutable selection before purchase commitment.
  • Checkout: Gather and coordinate the information required to complete a purchase.
  • Post-Purchase Experience: Support defined customer interactions after order acceptance and delivery.

2 implemented locally 2 planned

Commerce Management

Capabilities that govern the commercial state behind a customer purchase.

  • Product Management: Maintain governed product, category and variant information.
  • Pricing: Determine the price presented and committed for a purchasable selection.
  • Inventory Management: Understand availability and control stock allocation.
  • Payment Management: Manage payment attempts and outcomes around purchase commitment.
  • Order Management: Create and maintain the retailer's record of an accepted purchase.

1 partially implemented 4 planned

Fulfilment & Communication

Capabilities needed to move an accepted purchase toward delivery and keep the customer informed.

  • Shipment Management: Create and maintain the business record of shipment work.
  • Delivery Coordination: Hand work to a delivery provider and understand progress.
  • Customer Communication: Produce accurate customer-facing messages about important outcomes.

3 planned

Insight & Relevance

Capabilities that improve discovery, trust and relevance without becoming the source of product or order truth.

  • Search & Relevance: Help customers find useful products efficiently.
  • Reviews: Capture and present supported customer feedback.
  • Recommendations: Suggest relevant products using governed inputs and evidence.

3 planned

The Capability Catalogue

Stable capability identifiers allow requirements, journeys, architecture decisions and evidence to refer back to the same business outcome. The identifiers describe the target business model rather than implementation order.

Borough Furniture Store capability catalogue
Capability ID Capability Business outcome Primary participants Status
BC-CX-001 Product discovery Customers can find and understand products and purchasable variants. Customer, Merchandising And Catalog Staff Implemented locally · v1 slice
BC-CX-002 Basket management Customers can maintain a valid selection before committing to a purchase. Customer Implemented locally · v1 slice
BC-CX-003 Checkout Customers can provide the information and confirmations required to complete a purchase. Customer Planned
BC-CX-004 Post-purchase experience Customers can use explicitly supported interactions after order acceptance and delivery. Customer, Customer Support Staff Planned
BC-CM-001 Product management The retailer can govern products, categories, variants, attributes, images and commercial states. Merchandising And Catalog Staff Partially implemented · backend foundation only; staff workflow planned
BC-CM-002 Pricing The retailer can determine and preserve the price associated with a purchasable selection. Merchandising, Finance And Operations Staff Planned · currently represented within product information
BC-CM-003 Inventory management The retailer can understand stock availability and control allocation. Fulfilment Staff, Finance And Operations Staff Planned
BC-CM-004 Payment management The retailer can manage payment attempts and outcomes needed to commit a purchase. Customer, Finance And Operations Staff, Payment Provider Planned
BC-CM-005 Order management The retailer can create and maintain its authoritative purchase record. Customer, Customer Support, Fulfilment, Finance And Operations Staff Planned
BC-FC-001 Shipment management The retailer can create and track shipment work for an accepted order. Fulfilment Staff Planned
BC-FC-002 Delivery coordination The retailer can hand work to a carrier and understand delivery progress. Fulfilment Staff, Delivery Provider Planned
BC-FC-003 Customer communication Customers receive accurate information about significant business outcomes. Customer, Customer Support Staff, Notification Provider Planned
BC-IR-001 Search & relevance Customers can find useful products efficiently without changing product truth. Customer, Merchandising And Catalog Staff Planned
BC-IR-002 Reviews Supported customer feedback can be captured and presented responsibly. Customer, Customer Support Staff Planned
BC-IR-003 Recommendations Customers receive relevant suggestions based on governed inputs. Customer, Merchandising And Catalog Staff Planned

Capability Dependencies

Capabilities collaborate to produce customer outcomes. Dependency does not imply that one capability owns another, and the business sequence does not prescribe the eventual protocol or service call order.

  1. Product Discovery
  2. Basket Management
  3. Checkout Coordination
  4. Availability And Payment Outcomes
  5. Order Acceptance
  6. Shipment And Delivery
  7. Customer Communication

Discovery Depends On Governed Product Information

Customers can only discover useful products when Product Management provides accurate products, variants, categories and commercial states. Search and Recommendations may improve discovery later without replacing that governed source.

Checkout Coordinates Several Capabilities

Checkout is a customer-facing capability that depends on availability, payment and order outcomes. It does not automatically own those responsibilities or determine their final technical boundaries.

Fulfilment Depends On A Committed Purchase

Shipment and delivery work should begin from an accepted business outcome rather than from an uncommitted basket or incomplete payment attempt.

Capabilities Are Not Services

A capability map and a service map answer different questions. The capability map explains what the business must achieve. The service map explains how the application distributes technical ownership and change.

Business capability versus application service
Question Business Capability Application Service
Primary concern The outcome the retailer must be able to produce. The technical responsibility a deployable application boundary owns.
Expected stability Relatively enduring even when technology or organisation changes. May change as architecture, coupling, ownership and operation evolve.
Typical evidence Journeys, rules, requirements and business outcomes. Contracts, code, data ownership, tests and runtime evidence.
Relationship One capability may require several services. One service may support several capabilities.
Example Product Discovery. Catalog, Search and Recommendation responsibilities may all contribute.
  • Do Not Mirror The Service List Capability boundaries should follow business outcomes rather than current repository directories.
  • Do Not Mirror The Organisation Chart A capability remains necessary even when several responsibilities are performed by one person or reorganised across teams.
  • Do Not Hide Status Target capabilities and working implementation must remain visibly distinct.

Implementation Priorities

The capability map supports sequencing without pretending that every target capability has equal urgency. bfstore grows through vertical slices that prove a meaningful customer outcome and the engineering behaviour beneath it.

Capability delivery sequence
Slice Capabilities Business value Status
Browse to Basket Product Discovery, Product Management Foundation And Basket Management Proves that a customer can find a purchasable variant and preserve a valid selection. Implemented locally · v1 slice · smoke-tested
Checkout Checkout, Inventory Management, Payment Management and Order Management Proves that the business can turn a basket into a committed purchase when availability, payment and order steps may complete at different times or produce different outcomes. Planned · next slice
Order fulfilment Shipment Management, Delivery Coordination and Customer Communication Moves an accepted purchase toward delivery and provides understandable progress. Planned
Discovery enrichment Search & Relevance, Reviews and Recommendations Improves product discovery and confidence without replacing governed product truth. Planned
Post-purchase Post-Purchase Experience and defined support interactions Adds only the customer interactions the business deliberately chooses to support. Planned · scope-controlled

How Capabilities Shape Later Design

Capabilities become architectural inputs when they remain traceable to actors, requirements, journeys and evidence.

  1. Business Capability
  2. Business Rule
  3. Requirement
  4. Customer Or Staff Journey
  5. Domain Responsibility
  6. Architecture And Ownership Decisions
  7. Implementation And Evidence

Capabilities Guide Domain Responsibility Analysis

The Domain Model can use the capability map to identify concepts and responsibilities that belong together without assuming a one-to-one service mapping.

Capabilities Give Requirements A Business Anchor

Functional and quality requirements can identify which capability they support, making it easier to explain why a requirement exists and what outcome would be harmed if it failed.

Capabilities Help Control Scope

A proposed feature, provider or service should support an existing capability or introduce a deliberately approved new one. This keeps bfstore from growing through technology curiosity alone.

Repository And Evidence

This documentation is the source of truth for bfstore's intended business capability model. The bfstore repository is the source of truth for the current implementation and its validation evidence. Where the two differ, the discrepancy is recorded and reconciled explicitly. Current evidence for the first slice lives principally in services/catalog-service/ and services/basket-service/.

The repository's service list must not be copied into the capability map. Capability identifiers should link requirements, journeys, architecture decisions, service dossiers and tests without erasing the distinction between intended capabilities and current implementation.

Continue Exploring

The three Business Context index pages now establish the retailer, its participants and its current capability model. The next Business & Domain topic begins the Domain Model.

Actors & External Parties Domain Model Business Context