How agentic software development is changing the relationship between ideas, domain expertise and working software
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting BICon Portfolio Steering to Manuel Geitz from Forrester. It was an insightful discussion about strategic portfolio management, digital transformation and the evolving role of technology in managing organisational change.
One suggestion particularly caught my attention: Business Capabilities – and how a portfolio of transformation initiatives impacts an organisation's Capability Map.
I found the idea fascinating. And with today's agentic software development capabilities, what do you do with a fascinating idea?
You build it.
Less than 24 hours later, the functionality was implemented, tested and integrated into BICon Portfolio Steering.
From Managing Initiatives to Managing Capabilities
Traditional portfolio management focuses on initiatives: their strategic value, costs, risks, dependencies, resources and delivery status.
But there is another important question:
How does our transformation portfolio actually change what our organisation is capable of doing?
This is where Business Capability Management comes in.
A Capability Map describes what an organisation does – independently of its organisational structure, processes or underlying IT systems.
Connecting transformation initiatives to these capabilities creates an additional perspective on strategic portfolio management.
Rather than simply asking whether initiatives are progressing according to plan, management can assess whether the portfolio is moving the organisation towards its desired capabilities.
What was Implemented
The new functionality in BICon Portfolio Steering covers the entire process:
1. Business Capability Map
Organisations can define and maintain their capabilities, structured into business domains. Excel import and export simplify the initial setup and ongoing maintenance.
2. Initiative-Level Capability Impact
Each transformation initiative can be linked to the capabilities it affects, including an assessment of its expected contribution to capability maturity.
3. Portfolio-Wide Capability Analysis
A dedicated overview consolidates the impact of all initiatives, showing current maturity, projected maturity and strategic targets.
This makes it possible to identify capabilities receiving significant investment – and, perhaps more importantly, strategic capabilities that remain underserved.
4. Integrated Portfolio Reporting
Capability impact is incorporated into the existing portfolio reports, connecting strategic priorities, transformation investments and organisational development.
The demonstration portfolio already includes 15 initiatives linked to 18 capabilities across five business domains, allowing visitors to explore the functionality immediately.
The More Interesting Story: 24 Hours
While the new functionality adds another dimension to portfolio steering, I find the development process itself even more remarkable.
Consider how such a feature might have been developed just a year or two ago.
A promising idea would have triggered requirements workshops, specifications, backlog prioritisation, architecture discussions, development sprints and testing cycles.
Even relatively modest extensions could easily have taken weeks.
This time, the process was fundamentally different.
A conversation generated an idea. My experience in banking, IT architecture and transformation management helped translate it into a functional concept. AI coding agents supported the implementation, integration and testing.
Less than 24 hours after the conversation, the functionality was working.
This does not mean that software engineering principles have become irrelevant. Quite the opposite: architecture, data consistency, security, testing and maintainability remain essential.
What has changed dramatically is the effort required to translate a well-understood business requirement into working software.
Domain Expertise Becomes the Differentiator
After more than 30 years working at the intersection of business and technology, I increasingly believe we are witnessing a fundamental shift.
For decades, implementing software was expensive and time-consuming. Organisations accumulated enormous backlogs of potentially valuable ideas because development capacity was limited.
Agentic software development is rapidly changing that equation.
But faster development does not automatically produce better products.
Someone still needs to understand the business problem, evaluate whether a proposed solution makes sense, recognise its implications and determine how it fits into the overall architecture.
And, importantly, someone needs to challenge the results.
The bottleneck is shifting from building software to knowing what is worth building.
That is why conversations with experienced practitioners, customers and industry analysts are becoming even more valuable.
A single insightful suggestion can now translate into a tangible product improvement almost immediately.
From Implementation to Validation
Of course, implementing a feature within 24 hours does not prove that it delivers business value.
That requires feedback from actual users.
Does the Capability Map provide meaningful management insights? Are the impact assessments practical? Does the consolidated view help decision-makers identify strategic gaps?
These are the questions that matter next.
I particularly welcome constructive criticism. Compliments are appreciated, but critical feedback is often what makes a product substantially better.
My thanks again to Manuel Geitz and Forrester for the inspiring discussion and the suggestion that triggered this development.
It was another fascinating demonstration of what becomes possible when domain knowledge, good ideas and agentic software development come together.
And perhaps the most exciting part is that we are still at the beginning of this transformation.
Explore BICon Portfolio Steering
The new Business Capability functionality is already available in the public demonstration.
No registration or login required. The demo portfolio is populated with example data, including the new Capability Map and initiative impact assessments.
For the best experience, I recommend using a desktop browser. 🖥️