# Create a Reusable Capability Pattern

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:

- Select a method plug-in to hold your process. For more information, see Method Plug-in.
- Find or create a process package.

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. For more information see Capability Pattern.
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:

- By incorporating individual method elements by dragging the elements onto an activity in the process.
- By including already defined capability patterns.
- By including parts of already defined capability patterns.
- By creating descriptors directly in the process, which are either unrelated to any method content or related to method content at a later point in time.

To create a capability pattern:

1. Once you have selected or created a process package, right click the Process Package.
2. Click New –> Capability Pattern. The New Process Component dialog box appears.
3. Type a name for the capability pattern into the Name field and then select a default configuration from the drop down list.
4. Click OK. The process is created and the process editor is opened.
5. 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 a twisty symbol . Simply click the symbol to access the Rich Text Editor. Click the symbol again to close the Rich Text Editor. For more information see Rich Text Editor
6. 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 then populate your activities by applying tasks from your method content. For more information see Develop a Work Breakdown Structure.
   - Team Allocation: Define which teams and roles shall participate in activities and then find responsible work products and tasks from there. For more information, 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 see Develop a Work Product Usage Structure.

   Once you have created your capability pattern, you need to apply it. For more information, please see Apply a Capability Pattern.

- Capability Pattern

Related concepts
Process
Process Authoring Overview
Related tasks
Create a Delivery Process