1.3.2 Enterprise Capability Assessment and Prioritization

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's missions in nuclear and energy research, science, and national security. This paper describes the development of a qualitative approach (and tool) for assessing and prioritizing capability gaps of an enterprise (i.e., based on similar effort for a U.S. Army Brigade Combat Team) along with the assessment of potential solutions for reducing or closing those gaps. It discusses the effort to create a common information model (i.e., within a qualitative process and toolset) that can assist an enterprise to capture and visualize relationships between its mission(s), required capabilities, performance objectives, gaps and potential solutions. Key to this effort was the establishment of an analysis framework containing unique (i.e., mostly independent) capabilities organized within a hierarchy which allows for appropriate visibility into problem areas while eliminating redundancy that would bias assessment results. Finally, the paper presents the tool developed to manage and display relationships between multiple required capabilities, their gaps, and the solutions proposed for gap closure, such that the enterprise can better fulfill its mission(s).