Examples and playbooks

Use these playbooks as starting points. They align with common Caplo use cases such as Business Design, Application Portfolio Management, M&A, Dependency Insights, Data Sovereignty, and Compliance. Keep each one focused on a decision or conversation.

Pick the deliverable first

Each playbook gets easier when you decide early whether the outcome should be a diagram, a saved repository view, or a report. That keeps the properties and relations focused on the decision instead of collecting detail you will not use.

Business design

1. Create goal, capability, process, and application entities for the decision you are discussing.
2. Relate goals to capabilities and capabilities to the processes or applications that support them.
3. Use a diagram to compare options and show the decision path clearly.
4. Reuse repository entities so workshop decisions stay connected to the shared model.
5. Save the resulting diagram or repository view for follow-up discussion.

Application portfolio management

1. Create or import application entities.
2. Add owner, lifecycle, cost, criticality, and platform properties.
3. Relate applications to capabilities, processes, data objects, and vendors.
4. Use lifecycle timeline, bubble chart, landscape, and cost-per-capability reports.
5. Save views for portfolio review, cleanup, and rationalization.

M&A

1. Create or import buyer and seller applications, capabilities, and vendors.
2. Tag each entity by source organization, domain, or transition status.
3. Build side-by-side landscapes and a merged target-state diagram.
4. Identify overlap, duplicate systems, and retirement candidates.
5. Save shared views for integration planning and executive review.

Dependency insights

1. Create application, API, integration, and data object entities.
2. Add relations that show access, flow, triggering, or dependency.
3. Use a diagram or graph-style view to trace the critical path behind a system or change.
4. Highlight the systems, data objects, and handoffs that create the most risk.
5. Keep relation metadata current when interfaces or responsibilities change.

Data sovereignty

1. Add properties for region, sensitivity, residency requirement, or legal basis.
2. Relate data objects to the applications and processes that create or use them.
3. Use repository views or diagrams to show which systems handle sensitive data in each region.
4. Capture rules such as “PII stays in EU” in properties, descriptions, or linked requirement entities.
5. Review transfer paths and exceptions before approving the model.

Compliance

1. Create requirement, constraint, or principle entities for the standards you track, such as GDPR, ISO 27001, or NIS2.
2. Link systems, processes, data objects, or work packages to the relevant controls or requirements.
3. Add properties for owner, evidence status, review date, or audit notes.
4. Save views that show controls with missing evidence, open gaps, or unclear ownership.
5. Use diagrams or reports to prepare review and audit conversations.

Import an ArchiMate model

1. Export a focused .archimate file.
2. Upload it in Settings > Experimental > ArchiMate import.
3. Review the preview and duplicate handling.
4. Import into the workspace.
5. Clean and approve the imported repository data before using it in shared reports.

Use AI to draft a diagram

1. Complete the company profile.
2. Make sure important repository entities exist.
3. Open a diagram and describe the outcome you want.
4. Ask the AI assistant to reuse existing entities where possible.
5. Review, edit, and approve the generated content.