The Magic pill for Digital Transformation.

Often, transformation consultants are looking for the Magic Pill, to transform the entire Business. Get fully transformed to the New ways of working, Be digitized and thrive the competition.

Does this magic pill exist??? Is there a short cut?

I don’t know, but what exists are market trends & behaviors and the proven practices which can be leveraged for the outcome desired. Let me share my thoughts on the same.

?Digital Transformation is the buzz word and at the core of it is still people, processes, and tools. It all starts with knowing the “Why?”.

It takes more than getting together the experts and leveraging their expertise via processes and tools. Its knowing the purpose and aligning every one with the vision and engage in building the right product, a product/service which the customer wants/needs. Sounds too good to be true. But one can still aim for this “Future State.”

A state where we don’t focus on resource utilization or cost optimization, but focus on Value Delivery and partner with our clients to accelerate their growth. When they grow, we grow too.

We live in a VUCA world which is full of disruptors. It is no longer about surviving the competition but thriving in it. And the pace at which things are changing around, no business can sustain without “Business Agility”, a combination of Technical, Organizational and Process agility. Using a Growth Mindset, using Agile & DevSecOps as enablers & mixing the right set of Technology can accelerate Digital Transformation.?

My take to attain transformation are:

1) Evaluate the flow of work – Every output comes from a sequence of activities. First step is to identify the various activities done in the project delivery environment. It could be technical activities (Define, Build, Test, Deploy/Release), processes (Operational, supporting, management) etc. It will be anything and everything that helps us to provide the product or service that the customers want or need.

The easiest recommended way of doing so is VSM (Value Stream Mapping). The VSM provides a E2E systemic view of how work flows through entire systems.

“Value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing or lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.”

2) Simplify and Uncomplicate – Post, identifying how the work flows, identify the deviations. Look to standardize your infrastructure/processes/policies. Key to any successful transformation is Standardization. This enables lower acquisition costs, scalable and future ready infrastructure, easier faster deployment, streamlined IT management, effective communication and collaborative decision making.

3) Go Lean – Third step is to identify the delays and wastes. The process is as fast as the slowest unit. Make improvements and try to make E2E work delivery efficient. Focus not just to optimize a component, but take a holistic view and look for optimizing as a whole. Leverage the Automation expertise in the team for example: Use RPAs for routine activities, cognitive automation for chatbots, Dynamic automation for event generation, scripts developed to automate manual activities. There are multiple ways to get it done. However, remember to validate that the Solutions are Viable, Sustainable, Feasible and Desirable.

4) Reorganize & Deliver Value– Break the silos and create cross-functional and self-organizing teams. Organize around value. ?This ensures less time on management, increased engagement and ownership, improved problem solving and help develop an empirical mindset. Rather than having departments, organize around the Value Streams and focus on Value Delivery. Leverage best practices from Agile, DevOps, and Systems Thinking and focus to build the product right way. Ensure having iterative and incremental delivery focusing on faster learning cycles. Imbibe the tools of design thinking like Empathy Maps, Journey maps and Personas, to gauge the customer wants and needs and leverage the XP practices like BDD, TDD, Pair programming to deliver the product/service build the right way.

5) Measure and Improve – Define the metrics around outcomes. Observe the trends. Align with market trends and adapt the vision and roadmap. Define and design metrics that quantifies what matters. Useful metrics align with and balance Business priorities, they can be measured accurately and benchmarked. Do not be tempted to be obsessed with metrics as this could generate a skewing behavior.

6) Repeat ??

There may be no magic pill, but consistency and focus are the key.

Best wishes on your transformation journey.