Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 6 (Program Management)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Leading IT Transformation is provided by Ms. Drabenstadt MBA BBA Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 24 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
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Learning Provider Profile
Ms. Drabenstadt is a Certified Learning Provider (CLP) at Appleton Greene and she has experience in Information Technology, Information Governance, Compliance and Audit. She has achieved an MBA, and BBA. She has industry experience within the following sectors: Technology; Insurance and Financial Services. She has had commercial experience within the following countries: United States of America, Canada, Australia, India, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Her program will initially be available in the following cities: Madison WI; Minneapolis MN; Chicago IL; Atlanta GA and Denver CO. Her personal achievements include: Developed Trusted IT-Business Relationship; Delivered Increased Business Value/Time; Decreased IT Costs; Re-tooled IT Staff; Increased IT Employee Morale. Her service skills incorporate: IT transformation leadership; process improvement; change management; program management and information governance.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
IT transformation is not limited to a single department or a single business function. It usually involves and impacts several areas of business. People from multiple departments of the organization come together in teams to help with the digital transformation. Since This transformation has such a wide scope, there are generally several projects ongoing simultaneously covering different areas. Program management is the process of managing several such related projects with an aim to improve the efficiency of the digital transformation process. In IT transformation, there will always be certain projects that are interrelated or interdependent. Such related projects can be grouped into a single program. Say, one project deals with the design of the company website, and another team is working on creating content for the company’s online portal. Both of these projects would be closely related. So they can be clubbed into a program. Programs deliver ongoing outcomes, unlike projects that usually deliver a specific output. Program management is the management of all the related projects that make up the program. There are four key aspects of program management. To start with, it oversees complete governance of the projects such as defining the roles and responsibilities, processes, and metrics related to the projects. Next, it is supposed to manage the entire program monitoring the progress, conducting regular reviews, and ensuring stakeholders’ engagement. The third key aspect is cost management that tracks and controls the spending on a project. Lastly, it ensures that the available infrastructure supports the specific projects and the overall program.
Objectives
01. Establish Baseline: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Supporting Infrastructure: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Stakeholder Engagement: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Cost Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Resource Allocation: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Roles & Responsibilities: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Project Prioritization: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Quality Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Benefits Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Risk Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Issue Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
Strategies
01. Establish Baseline: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Supporting Infrastructure: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Stakeholder Engagement: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Cost Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Resource Allocation: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Roles & Responsibilities: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Project Prioritization: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Quality Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Benefits Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Risk Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Issue Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
Tasks
01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Establish Baseline.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Supporting Infrastructure.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Stakeholder Engagement.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Cost Management.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Resource Allocation.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Roles & Responsibilities.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Project Prioritization.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Quality Management.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Benefits Management.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Risk Management.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Issue Management.
Introduction
Leading IT Transformation initiatives transform how businesses utilize people, processes, technology, and physical infrastructure to generate capabilities that help them achieve their goals. These initiatives are motivated by a sense of urgency, have a broad scope and influence, and are usually carried out in tandem with continuing operations. IT transformations necessitate customizing typical project and program management methodologies to address the unique problems of managing the human side of change and fostering ownership among key program stakeholders. This workshop highlights key success elements for implementing successful program management that yields long-term effects. This workshop also demonstrates how management processes and structures may aid in the achievement of these crucial success characteristics.
Leading IT transformation programs, as you may know, are often developed to produce a step function rise in organizational performance and to develop new capabilities that did not exist previously in the firm. These projects usually have a strong feeling of urgency and a compelling case for action. They usually cover a large part of the company and have a substantial influence. Major organizational reorganization, considerable changes in business processes, major technology or application installations, and consolidation or streamlining of facility infrastructure are all examples of transformative endeavors. All of these efforts may be addressed by IT Transformation programs.
The majority of transformation projects are categorized as programs because they necessitate centralized, coordinated administration in order to accomplish the strategic advantages and objectives. To achieve the desired results, transformation programs often include many efforts that require priority, sequencing, and coordination.
Special Challenges
Effective program management is made more difficult by the nature of IT transformation programs. The first challenge is frequently referred to as “rebuilding the airplane while flying it.” Transformation efforts run concurrently with continuing operations, which invariably take precedence in terms of staffing and resource allocation. Understanding and managing the impact of the transformation on the organization’s personnel, many of whom will be participants in the transformation process, is a second difficulty. Changes to the organization’s structure, human capital system, workforce, business processes, technology used, or workplace location or approach are all possible outcomes of IT transformations. Humans have a natural aversion to change, particularly when it is viewed as frightening. Addressing the human side of change is critical to assuring the transformation’s long-term success. The scale and magnitude of transformation programs is a third barrier. They are bound to have a variety of stakeholders, both within and external to the company, who have varying and occasionally conflicting interests.
The structures and methods used to manage the transformation program, as well as the approach utilized to carry out the change, can help to solve these issues. The benefits management, program stakeholder management, and program governance topics of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) Standard for Program Management are employed as a framework for presenting and comprehending the important success elements for successful transformations.
Benefits Management
Benefits management is defined as “activities and techniques for defining, creating, maximizing, and sustaining the benefits provided by programs”, (PMI, 2006). Establishing a burning platform for change, articulating a clear end-state vision, addressing all aspects that build an organization’s capabilities, and developing a change roadmap utilizing a life cycle approach are all critical success factors for IT transformation efforts.
Establish the Burning Platform
Understanding, validating, and conveying the “burning platform” for change must be developed early in the transformation program to lay the groundwork for benefits management. The term “burning platform” (Conner, 1995) conjures up the sense of urgency associated with most transformation efforts, much like a person caught on a burning oil platform at sea must decide whether or not to risk diving into the water. The nature of the burning platform will differ from company to company, and it may contain both external (consumer happiness, market share) and internal criteria (needing to reduce costs, technology obsolescence, and employee satisfaction). The events of September 11th, 2001, and the ensuing anthrax attacks, for example, presented a fertile ground for the development of new national capabilities (i.e. the forming of the Department of Homeland Security). The presence of a compelling burning platform should be considered a pre-requisite for starting a transformation effort. If there isn’t a compelling justification for action, a transformation program is unlikely to be necessary; instead, a succession of less intrusive (and less expensive) improvement projects may be the better option. Once the burning platform has been defined and validated, it should be incorporated into the program charter and used as a constant theme in stakeholder communications.
Set a Clear End-State Vision
Early in the program, a clear end-state vision for the total IT transformation endeavor should be defined. This end-state vision should include a high-level description of the end-state organization’s capabilities as well as the predicted overall advantages of the transformation process. This end-state vision will be used to inform program governance and decision-making (e.g., which of the numerous design alternatives will best achieve the end-state vision?), as well as to communicate program advantages to stakeholders. Once defined, the end-state vision should be incorporated into the overall program charter and used to create a work breakdown structure for the program.
Address People, Processes, Technology, and Physical Infrastructure Concurrently
The transformation program’s advantages, vision, and overall scope should be developed to address all important variables that enable the organization’s capabilities. Because the scope of the transformation program was set too narrowly to focus on a single dimension of change, such as technology upgrades or process modifications, the expected advantages from transformation initiatives are frequently not realized. Too often, the human side of change is either ignored or inadequately addressed. The transformation program’s scope should include the set of changes that need to be made in the organization’s people, process, technology, and physical infrastructure dimensions, as well as the relationships between these dimensions. People, process, technology, and infrastructure changes should all be assessed and matured at the same time, so that trade-off decisions may be made as the transformation program develops, avoiding costly rework (for example, if a technology solution is implemented without adequate consideration of changes to staff roles and responsibilities). The overall program charter, as well as the work breakdown structure, and the design and scoping of specific projects, should reflect the requirement for multi-dimensional thinking in transformation programs.
Use a Life Cycle Approach to Develop a Roadmap
A roadmap should be prepared to indicate how the organization will move from its “as is” state to the desired end-state vision once the clear end-state vision has been established and the scope of the transformation program has been outlined. The broad life cycle phases that will be utilized to structure the overall transformation effort (e.g., imagine, define, design, develop, deploy) as well as the sequencing of the various initiatives or projects that make up the program should be included in this roadmap. Because individual roadmap tasks are likely to have an impact on one another, and each has its own requirements and timeframe, the life cycle approach is essential to time-phase benefits realization. Early creation of benefits should be given special consideration when developing the roadmap in order to build support and ownership for continued program implementation. The roadmap should be written in such a way that program stakeholders can understand the overarching strategy. It should guide and inform the development of the program’s overall Integrated Master Schedule, as well as detailed work package schedules, as the program progresses through the phases.
Program Stakeholder Management
Program stakeholders are “individuals and organizations whose interests may be affected by the program outcomes, either positively or negatively.” (PMI, 2006) Stakeholder ownership, communication, and supporting organization involvement are all critical success criteria for effective stakeholder management in transformation efforts.
Create Ownership
As previously stated, IT transformation programs face a unique problem in dealing with the human side of change. By guaranteeing knowledge and understanding of the burning platform for change, the end-state vision, and the roadmap for getting from the present state to the future state, successful transformation initiatives foster ownership. Change management, communications, and training are common work streams for establishing ownership. However, the structure and methods of program management play an important role in promoting ownership. Individuals and organizations will have a natural feeling of ownership for the program strategy and outcome if key program stakeholders are included in governance/decision-making bodies. Another strategy to increase ownership is to involve front-line employees and managers in the transformation’s design and implementation. Many successful transformation programs incorporate the work of a designated transformation program office, staff from the business owner organizations’ engagement, and inputs from external transformation experts. While the requirement to “keep the plane flying while rebuilding it” will limit employee availability to participate in the transformation, active participation should be regarded vital and may be a limiting factor in an organization’s transformation capabilities.
Communicate with Stakeholders
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of excellent communication in IT transformation efforts. Throughout the change, effective two-way communication with each key stakeholder group is necessary. Key program stakeholders, as well as their interests and concerns about the transformation end state goal and path, must be identified early in the program. Two-way communication should be developed, including outbound communications from the program to its stakeholders as well as incoming communications from program stakeholders to the program. Early in the program, a communication plan and stakeholder engagement strategy should be devised, and communication activities should begin as soon as the end-state vision is determined.
Involve Support Organizations
In the implementation of transformation, all aspects of the business should contribute and have defined roles. Too often, only the business owner organizations and/or the Chief Information Officer organization are actively involved in transformation projects. Treating internal support organizations like Policy, Human Resources/Personnel, the Chief Financial Officer, Facilities Management, and Security/Assurance as key stakeholders and involving them directly in transformation planning and implementation will help to create broad ownership of the transformation vision, align the transformation with ongoing operations and other initiatives, and possibly reduce the need for duplicate support capabilities within the transformation office. Staff from support organizations can be members or leaders of design/implementation teams or issue/risk management teams, and they can be given membership in governing bodies.
Program Governance
Program governance provides a “framework for efficient and effective decision-making and delivery management focused on achieving program goals in a consistent manner, addressing appropriate risks and stakeholder requirements.” (PMI, 2006) Engagement of senior leadership, the role of leadership (as opposed to management), and a data-driven approach are all critical success elements in promoting good governance for transformation efforts.
Engage Senior Leadership
For a successful IT transformation, senior leadership sponsorship and involvement are required. Senior leadership input is required to guarantee that the final vision meets the organization’s objective and addresses the transformation’s “burning platform for change.” Leadership sponsorship is required to guarantee that the program obtains the resources it need to achieve its objectives and that it is aligned with other corporate priorities. Leadership engagement is required to guarantee that the program is on track and that ties with key stakeholder groups are maintained. A significant duty of senior leadership in large organizations with scattered budget responsibilities is to “discipline the organization” by rejecting programs or activities that do not align with the transformation end goal or roadmap. Senior leadership involvement in the transformation program management method can be achieved in a variety of ways. Senior leadership should write and approve the overall program charter as well as project team charters, define and own the program vision and roadmap, and serve on a program governance board/executive steering committee.
Lead and Manage
To manage the transformation and assure integration and coordination of the numerous projects and initiatives that make up the program, a competent and dedicated program management office and/or program office is necessary. There are no shortcuts to adhering to the PMI Standard for Program Management’s framework and processes. Successful change requires effective program management, but it is insufficient on its own. When there are competing stakeholder interests, resource disputes, or performance difficulties, successful transformation management necessitates leadership to make difficult decisions. To guarantee that the anticipated benefits are delivered, the transformation program office must drive the transformation while staying faithful to the end-state goal. They must also aggressively manage risks and concerns. Many program management processes, including formal governance decision making, identifying employees and resources to participate in the transformation, and monitoring and controlling transformation program development, are used to fulfill this leadership function.
Use a Data-Driven Approach
One of the most difficult aspects of effective IT transformation governance is ensuring that the appropriate decisions are taken, particularly when different stakeholder groups advocate for different options. The huge number of decisions that must be made might put a burden on the governing system. Requiring that the foundation for important decisions be recorded and data-driven would encourage good decision-making, and the consequent transparency in the governance process will encourage general ownership among program stakeholders. Diverse stakeholder groups may not always agree with decisions, but they will at least understand why they were made if they have access to the decision foundation and evidence. Furthermore, recording the choice will facilitate its implementation in subsequent phase transformation activities, and documenting the decision rationale will allow for changes in position if circumstances alter or new information becomes available.
Summary
Organizational transformation is a common theme and requirement nowadays. Transformation initiatives confront unique obstacles in terms of effective management; nevertheless, these issues can be solved by improving the management procedures and structures, as well as the program’s methodology. This training will focus on variables that have shown to be effective in IT program management. While addressing these factors will not guarantee future performance, they should be taken into account where possible.
The Role of a Program Manager In Digital Transformation
Despite the fact that the role of a program manager in IT transformation has always been critical to business digitization, many organizations are stumbling due to a lack of planning and management for their efforts.
Companies have progressively sought to improve their operations and competitiveness by integrating new technology and procedures over the last decade, and this importance has only grown.
Businesses have been demanding to put up IT transformation programs in order to replace aging systems with future-proof technologies, which are generally cloud-based.
But what about a program manager’s responsibility in leading an IT transformation?
How significant are they to the success of your transformation?
This is what we’ll look at in this workshop to help you understand why having the correct direction isn’t just helpful, but essential for successful change management.
Most Businesses Fail at IT Transformation
It’s an unfortunate reality that many firms that try to implement digital transformation (DX) fail.
This isn’t for a lack of trying: business technology investment is at an all-time high, and the current situation, following a tumultuous pandemic and its economic consequences, has prompted even more adoption of technology to fill the gaps as large numbers of the population are confined to their homes.
How Does a Program Manager In Digital Transformation Help?
To succeed in IT transformation, you simply must have your project management up to par with the influx of technologies that are coming into your firm.
Many businesses make the mistake of believing that IT transformation is a decision that begins and ends with the CEO or the IT department.
While executive buy-in is critical, most digitization projects should prioritize project management to guarantee that your objectives (which should be defined ahead of time) are met.
Clear goals and communication are one of the most important parts of your IT transformation program management to ensure that your company stays on track.
What Does Effective Program Management Look Like?
We’ve discussed how companies desire change but fail to achieve their goals; now it’s time to examine why the position of a project manager is so critical and what should be expected of your project management strategy if you want to succeed.
Clear strategic objectives and reporting
A project manager’s primary responsibility is to define the change agenda, how it will be implemented, and what determines success.
You must be able to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Your program manager should be able to offer you with reports on your implementations and whether they’re fulfilling their goals once you’ve defined your tech goals.
If your executive leadership and program manager aren’t on the same page about what determines your success in terms of a timeframe and budget target, you’ll be left in the dark about what you’re getting out of what is, after all, a long-term project.
Using the right tools to get the job done
To expand on the preceding point, alignment and communication between the PMO and other relevant stakeholders are critical, and as part of an efficient IT transformation program management strategy, the proper technologies should be used to make the process go more smoothly for everyone.
These tools should include:
• Planning: Plan schedules and timelines all in one place with tasks, templates, workflows, and calendars
• Collaboration: Assign tasks, add comments, organize dashboards, allow proofing and approvals
• Documentation: Editing, documenting, and storage of all files
• Evaluation: Track, assess, and report success through resource management and reporting
This will allow your business stakeholders to understand where they are in the implementation project and provide them with the necessary information without the need for lengthy meetings.
Understanding change management
Regardless of how you look at it, IT transformation is a long-term project.
As a result, the program manager must be able to adapt to changes in an industry or a market in order to meet the changing business objectives. In this way, program management in IT transformation relies heavily on flexibility and scalability.
To summarize, you must be able to respond and grasp the function of change management in your transformation strategies.
We’ve already seen how the business sector has been disrupted in recent years in ways that no one could have predicted.
Many businesses were caught off guard and unprepared for the events of 2020 and 2021, resorting to improvised digital technology solutions to keep their operations running as smoothly as possible.
A program manager’s job in IT transformation comprises putting together a complete strategy for tech deployments, as well as a strong reaction and communication structure within the firm, to guarantee that every measure has been taken to get the company to its targeted outcome.
Takeaways
• The majority of businesses want to see digital change in their businesses, yet a lack of vision and clarity typically leads to failure.
• By setting defined objectives, lines of communication, and metrics for success, project management is critical in getting innovations deployed.
• Because digital transformation is a long-term project, managers must be ready to adapt to changes, revise goals, and assist in the achievement of new objectives—DX is not a one-and-done operation.
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Establish Baseline
True transformation and program management need the establishment of baselines in the context of systems. The goal is to obtain the highest potential return on investment as rapidly as possible, and in order to accomplish this lofty goal, a strategy must be devised. Answering questions about your current systems, such as what’s working and what isn’t; what’s worth retaining and what’s not; and what’s missing, will help you make better decisions.
What should be the starting point?
When it comes to baselining, there are three things to think about: The foundational infrastructure system, also known as classified systems and framework, is the first. Then there are the backend programs, which assist firms in performing their tasks more effectively and with less effort. These are the productivity-boosting systems, workflows, and automations. Finally, the front end is where your data systems, dashboards, clever algorithms, and personalization live. In the retail context, this consumer-facing system is very crucial. All of these technologies must interact in a fluid, user-friendly manner in order to improve the end customer’s journey.
Consumer-facing benchmarks
Customer facing is the simplest of the three components to define. There is a distinct difference between the before and after. For example, there are metrics and measurements for engagement and conversion. These metrics can be compared to those before a tool is established or invested in.
However, before any of this can happen, the first step is to determine which important metrics the new system will affect once it is implemented. Identifying such indicators and determining what their previous readings were offers a picture of the new system’s success. That’s what’s referred to as a starting point.
Baselines in the backend
Internal efficiencies are driven by the backend. Because today’s personnel are always on the move, excellence management can be challenging. Keeping track of receipts, photocopying them, uploading them, filling out forms, and submitting for reimbursement is time-consuming. Conquer, for example, is a technology that automates the entire procedure. In this instance, establishing a baseline and measuring effectiveness is simple. A three-hour process now takes less than 30 seconds.
Baselines for infrastructure
We’re left with infrastructure if we work backwards. This one is the most difficult to establish a baseline for. It entails a complete redesign of the company’s platform. Your home’s infrastructure is its basis. You pour the concrete first, then build the house, and then adorn the walls. The foundation, while necessary, has little intrinsic worth on its own.
Baselining the framework entails considering more abstract elements. How do you figure out your return on investment (ROI)? You must take a step back and analyze how much value you lost due to the old infrastructure’s inability to accommodate new systems and add-ons. What kind of value could you have gotten from a new infrastructure? How quickly can I achieve meaningful transformation if I put the new infrastructure in place? To determine how to measure this particular investment, qualitative and quantitative aspects must be analyzed and integrated. Metrics must be established based on this prior to the start of the foundational project.
The value and return on investment are calculated throughout time. For example, after revamping the infrastructure, it can take two months to offer a personalization feature that wasn’t previously conceivable. The foundational project is worth X percent of the total project value. It’s a bit of a gray area that isn’t as well defined as the other two buckets, which is understandable. Creating baseline measurements, on the other hand, is certainly achievable. It simply takes more triangulation and consideration than the other two.
Chapter 2: Supporting infrastructure
Transforming IT infrastructure into a highly efficient and strategic business foundation can boost technology-driven performance while lowering expenses dramatically.
The benefits of IT infrastructure transformation
A high-performing IT infrastructure has become increasingly crucial as digital activities and technology have become more prominent. From back-end capabilities and customer-facing innovations like in-store Wi-Fi to internal staff advancements like access to social collaboration tools, bring-your-own-device programs, and the expanding use of cloud services, the infrastructure’s strength has a huge impact on corporate performance. The majority of these capabilities are outsourced, and their annual market worth is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Building a firm foundation
Many clients have been dissatisfied with their IT infrastructure for years, due to obsolete technology, expensive expenses, and poor service provider performance. Most are afraid that their infrastructure, which is less than ideal in terms of cost and capabilities, would not be able to satisfy the increasing business requirements of the digital age.
The technology foundation that supports a company’s business strategy, ability to innovate with technology, and digital skills is IT infrastructure, which includes data centers, communication networks, IT security, and end-user technology services. The majority of infrastructure environments are outsourced in huge, complex contracts that last five to ten years. An annual budget for a Fortune 500 business might range from $30 million to more than $100 million. Many businesses, on the other hand, neglect the strategic value of a solid IT infrastructure. Despite the fact that fundamental services are treated as commodities, successful organizations are gaining a competitive edge through sophisticated infrastructure capabilities, such as faster time to market, increased productivity, improved customer experiences and engagement, and cheaper costs.
Because of the complexities and high costs of switching providers, upgrading an IT infrastructure necessitates planning and experience in order to minimize interruptions, reduce costs and effort, and shorten deployment time. Companies have a variety of common difficulties when it comes to IT infrastructures, including poor performance, high expenses, restricted innovation, poor human performance and high turnover, old technology, inadequate structure and management of the technological environment, and a lack of flexibility. The benefits of getting IT infrastructure right, the perfect conditions for making a change, and the path to a successful transformation are all discussed in this Course Manual.
Creating a strategic partnership
Most IT infrastructure setups offer great potential for increasing value, lowering costs, and improving service. IT infrastructure, on the other hand, is frequently overlooked due to its complexity and operational hazards. Neglecting to analyze this infrastructure increases the risk and expenses over time, since IT infrastructure services and capabilities deteriorate quickly. Trying to save money and time by avoiding the costs and time required for a transition and transformation can be a costly mistake.
Complexity may be reduced into clear-cut choice criteria for proactive technology leaders who are prepared to test what they find with the correct framework and awareness of where to look. When outsourced infrastructure contracts have a year or two left on their term, it’s the greatest time to look. High costs and an unmotivated vendor are frequently encountered. If this is the case, the environment is perfect for competition to drive the necessary level of innovation, with the ultimate goal of replacing a tactical, profit-maximizing vendor with a strategic partner.
Chapter 3: Stakeholders Engagement
Why IT transformation fails: ignoring staff and stakeholders
There is a wide range of research on why digital transformation programs fail. Below, I’ll discuss one piece of research.
However, based on experience and several discussions over the past few years, there is a significant reason why transformations fail: a lack of communication and involvement of people who are considerably more important than expected and who are all too often disregarded.
It occurs at the level of a business function, processes, a company’s overall business model, and, most importantly, societal evolutions. In every digital transformation strategy, having the (voice of) the proper people is critical.
Digital transformation and globalization: leaders need to communicate better?
As previously stated, this disregard for people and stakeholders extends to various levels, including the societal level. Here’s an illustration. Why, if the reality is one of globalization and digitization, is the current political climate in many nations one of a return to nationalist instincts, opposed to globalization and change as it occurs?
Part of the solution rests in politicians’ failure to communicate about societal changes or their choice to look away from global changes. Instead, we’re seeing an increase in disconnects between governments and politicians, not in the sense of ‘digital’ transformation, but in the sense of ‘changing.’
Too many politicians (ab)use the simple approach of either 1) dictating new rules to adopt and adapt without truly listening to and involving all stakeholders (in this case citizens) or 2) profiting from the fact that many citizens feel excluded or misinformed for personal political gain and ever more votes. It’s simpler to be popular than to be realistic, open, involved, and resolute, even if being less popular means being less popular. Without actual involvement and communication, it’s simpler to make choices in ivory towers.
Obviously, one can debate the benefits and consequences of globalization as a whole, as clearly not all citizens are on board (the majority being older generations and those with a “lower” education/class), but that is a completely different discussion and decision to make as a country or group of people in a world that is de facto changing.
Forget a digital culture – start with ‘true’ communication
Change management is often an afterthought or not a thought at all.
Obviously, this does not apply to all large businesses, but I’m sure you can think of a couple of examples. We realize that IT changes are impossible to achieve without paying attention to and involving employees and other stakeholders in a way that is tailored to their unique needs. Almost everything you read about leadership and digital transformation, on the other hand, focuses on generic processes, digital skills, and a digital culture, to name a few.
The importance of listening to workers and teams who frequently know the difficulties better than the C-suite because they face them every day, as well as the essence of what concerns individuals and drives them to change and collaborate, is all too often overlooked.
While the fundamental motivation for IT transformation is to become more customer-centric, customers in the broadest sense (from real customers and other stakeholders to internal customers – employees – who make or break your business regardless of your huge strategic plan) are sometimes disregarded. In the business world. In politics, too.
The following is a quote from eWeek, which reports on the previously mentioned research: “The survey indicated that the main obstacles for businesses seeking rapid digital transformation relate to company culture, organizational complexity and the lack of processes that enable employees to engage, collaborate and innovate”.
Chapter 4: Cost Management
Digital transformation initiatives have exploded in the previous 18 months, with cloud expenditure increasing substantially.
As a result, organizations are now dealing with a ‘data flood,’ with CFOs and CIOs battling to manage cost data from numerous vendors linked with both cloud and existing on-premises expenditures. Now, more than ever, businesses need to have a complete, detailed, and transparent perspective of all IT expenditures as they round the corner in terms of growth, with pressures around sustainability acting as additional push for cloud adoption. Not only to find the best investment opportunities, but also to improve the efficiency of existing processes and technology.
Global insights from regional cost surveys
Cost management is evolving into a strategic enabler with the capacity to disrupt entire industries and profoundly transform how business is done, thanks to disruptive developments like robotic process automation, analytics, and cognitive technology. Cost control, on the other hand, remains a challenge.
Based on surveys of more than 1,000 senior executives in four major regions – US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific — Deloitte found:
• Cost-cutting is a global necessity. Cost cutting has become common corporate practice in every location, with 86 percent of global respondents indicating that their organizations will implement cost-cutting efforts in the next 24 months.
• Low targets. Failure rates are high. Nearly half of all firms polled are attempting to cut costs by less than 10%, but nearly two-thirds (63%) are failing to meet their targets.
Cost management practices to thrive in uncertainty
Because tactical cost management procedures often provide cost savings of less than 10%, many businesses might benefit from more strategic approaches that are more likely to yield higher savings.
Companies that are attempting strategic cost reductions fall into one of three categories: distressed, positioned for growth, or continuously growing. However, in today’s corporate environment, a new competitive scenario has evolved that focuses on three strategic levers at the same time: growth, cost, and liquidity. This new scenario is dubbed “thriving in uncertainty.”
However, different playbooks are required for different markets. Macroeconomic dynamics appear to be pushing organizations toward increased uncertainty and distress in some markets, favoring value creation levers that are more defensive in character. Other markets appear to be shifting toward a more optimistic perspective, which favors a growth-oriented strategy.
Chapter 5: Resource Allocation
According to Ventana Research, successful IT transformation necessitates the highest level of effort and resource management in order to maximize return on investment. IT transformation is generally one of the most difficult undertakings that organizations undertake, regardless of the reasons for failure.
Why is it so difficult to promote IT transformation, given its centrality and value to an organization’s long-term survival?
According to PMI research, “underperforming” firms (those who completed less than 60% of projects on schedule and on budget) were often unsatisfied with their IT transformation outcomes. Only 36% said their IT transformation had a significant impact on performance.
When top-performing firms with project success rates of 80% or above were asked the same question, 52% said their IT transformation initiatives had a significant impact on company performance.
To put it another way, these findings back up Ventana Research’s claim that superior work and resource management techniques help companies get more out of their digital transformation approach.
Let’s take a closer look at how work and resource management can help with IT transformation, according to Ventana Research.
Why IT Transformation Needs Resource Management
While technology is important in IT transformation, the primary goal is to change the way a business functions, with a focus on efficiency, communication, and customer-centric processes. This is where effective resource management comes into play.
The purpose of resource management, like IT transformation, is to assist firms in adapting to an ever-changing business landscape. Managers and team leaders can achieve this through improving how they prioritize tasks and projects, manage resources, and deploy technology.
Ventana Research emphasizes that strong work and resource management techniques are a vital aspect of IT transformation while designing a failproof IT transformation strategy. These techniques enable organizations to successfully prioritize IT transformation activities, ensuring that the most critical stages of IT transformation are performed first, ensuring a smooth transition across the organization. As a result, a well-planned IT transformation strategy that improves workplace productivity, resource management, and customer-oriented activities produces optimal returns on investment.
So, what is it about that strategy that makes it so successful? This varies according on the organization’s goals and expectations, but there are a few fundamental components that every initiative must have in order to succeed:
• Collaboration: Every employee in your company, regardless of department or hierarchical structure, should be working together to reach a common goal.
• Responsibility: When it comes to planning and implementing projects, employees should have a say and be involved in the decision-making process.
• Flexibility: IT transformation isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it effort. To stay up with the ongoing changes in business and technology, you’ll need a dynamic strategy that encourages your company’s growth and development.
In other words, the management of your teams and resources is critical to the success of your IT transformation activities. Work and resource management should always be a priority while pursuing IT transformation—or any big initiative—because global firms squander nearly $3 million every minute due to poor project management and performance, totaling a stunning $2 trillion every year.
Chapter 6: Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
Senior executives frequently ask for assurance that a project is on schedule and will achieve the benefits outlined in the business case. This is especially significant if the project is critical to the organization’s success.
Typically, the request is made because:
• A project is in jeopardy, and the organization wants an unbiased review.
• The sponsor is concerned that the current status of the project does not reflect the true state of the project.
• Senior management is concerned that the Sponsor and project are not providing accurate information.
• The project sponsor and team want an independent evaluation to make sure they haven’t overlooked anything.
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If you have a critical project for a company, you should take the necessary steps to guarantee that it is completed. As a result, enlisting the help of a third party with the necessary expertise and neutrality is a great method to see possible or actual problems early on and rectify them.
Using a third party can be costly, and it may not be a viable solution for all projects. There is no reason why a PMO equipped with strong personnel with proven delivery experience cannot undertake the review on behalf of management or senior management if the organization has one.
Peer reviews by experienced, trusted project or program managers working on other projects can also be arranged through the PMO.
Real-time data is used to track the development of digital transformation
The use of real-time data and analytics to generate metrics and measure progress is an important, but frequently overlooked, component in analyzing the effectiveness of an IT transformation strategy. This is critical given the high failure rate among modern businesses, since many IT transformation programs fail to meet their objectives.
IT transformation necessitates a rethinking of how businesses use technology. Organizations now have access to massive amounts of data, which should be at the center of their decision-making, as well as new technology aimed at enhancing the customer experience.
IT transformation, on the other hand, is about employing technology to remodel a company’s internal structure as well as its external appearance. Companies appear to be failing to use data to assess the success of their digital transformation programs.
The need for metrics
Organizations that want to thrive in IT transformation must rethink the criteria that their executives use to evaluate performance. “Leaders make capital accessible, and sprints or projects that are completed pull down on that capital,” Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of Everest Group, advises utilizing a venture capital strategy to increase development.
Companies may track how much they’re spending on IT transformation and how well these projects are functioning by using this method to IT transformation and breaking the process down into discrete projects. Companies can even build journey teams made up of top executives to track success across the board using agreed-upon KPIs.
These metrics could consist of:
• The data sources that are involved in a combined search.
• The total number of entities merged throughout the transition.
• The rate at which transformation programs are operationalized.
• The total amount of money spent on a project.
• After the automation of repetitive tasks, staff employees will have more time to focus on greater goals.
Naturally, these indicators must be unique to each firm, but they should serve as a solid foundation for IT transformation.
Chapter 7: Roles & Responsibilities
Definitions
Job
A job is a position within an organization that is typically described by a job description that explains what is expected of the individual who will execute the job, as well as his or her abilities and attributes. Marketing director, software developer, executive assistant, and other positions are examples.
Role
At least one position must be assumed in each job. Depending on the needs and stage of the program life cycle, there are often many responsibilities connected with each position in project and program management. Program manager, planning coordinator, senior user, and other roles in program management are common.
Responsibilities
Every role has a set of obligations that go along with it. However, not all connected responsibilities must be met on a consistent basis. Responsibilities are different depending on the type of initiative and the stage of the program’s life cycle. Quality control, management reporting, risk planning, and other tasks are examples.
A skill or collection of skills is required to accomplish a responsibility satisfactorily. Training, experience, or a combination of both are typically used to acquire skills. Communication, planning, and leadership are examples of skills.
Certain characteristics are sometimes required to aid in the effective use of talents. Training and experience could also be used to develop such qualities. These can, however, be personal characteristics that were ingrained in us during our formative years. Confidence, logical thinking, and charisma are examples of traits related to these skills.
Understanding the relationship between a job, the role(s) involved, the duties carried, and the abilities required to complete the work is critical. It will be difficult to put together an effective program management team without a clear understanding of these.
Leaders for digital teams are often C-level executives with budgets, clout, and respect. They have titles like chief digital officer or chief strategy officer in some firms, and their sole responsibility is to digitally alter the company. They have names like chief information officer (CIO), chief technology officer (CTO), or chief operating officer (COO) in other companies, and they have tasks other than directing digital transformation.
The person in charge of all IT transformation initiatives is usually appointed by the CEO. The CEO’s perspective on digital transformation and what it implies will influence the decision. For example, the CEO may believe that technology is at the heart of all transformation programs, hence the CIO is hired. Alternatively, if the CEO considers business process to be the most important aspect of IT transformation, the COO may be in charge.
Once the leader is in place, putting together a team with the correct combination of talents is critical to the success of the digital transformation. Finding team members with the necessary talents, as well as having the correct senior leadership, is one of the most difficult aspects of digital transformation projects. Not only do team members’ professional qualifications matter, but their personalities also matter when it comes to establishing the correct change culture.
Chapter 8: Project Prioritization
Organizational transformation through digital activities is a slow and gradual process. It is difficult to persuade leaders or companies to invest in transformation. This is especially true for old economy businesses, but strangely, this shift is required for them to adapt to 21st-century market demands.
According to a Gartner study conducted in 2020, 87 percent of senior business leaders believe digitization is a firm priority, however only 40% of companies have expanded digital efforts. The gap between aspiration and achievement is expanding for firms seeking digital business transformation. Unless there is a clear vision across the organization, digital transformation plans will continue to lag.
Executive executives may find it challenging to select the most significant issues and initiatives since a digital transformation plan has so many moving pieces. So, here are a few pointers to help you stay focused and make significant progress toward IT transformation.
Choose one broad target for digital transformation
To begin, choose one major goal that will offer considerable value to the firm. This value can be expressed in a variety of ways, including new markets, cost savings, and other areas. Choosing a target for which firms may plan investments is the most challenging element.
Businesses may believe they can accomplish multiple goals at once, but this is rarely the case. No matter how thoroughly a corporation defines its principal aim, it will frequently interfere with other parts of its surroundings. These distractions can quickly build up a long list of duties, distracting focus away from the main goal.
It is important for CIOs to remember that not all of these projects must or can be completed. In order to prioritize their principal aim, organizations may have to forgo some duties.
Make mid-sized ventures a priority
It’s difficult to know which tasks to skip or do. To determine which smaller tasks would have the biggest impact on their major goal, organizations should ask themselves the following questions:
Will the primary goal be in jeopardy if the mid-sized initiative fails?
Consider an aging file server that still works but no longer receives maintenance. Businesses may be able to get distant employees to connect to the server through VPN to access the file system, but it’s actually better to store the data in the cloud, even if it involves taking on another mid-sized project.
Look for easy wins
Keep an eye out for low-hanging fruit – tasks that may be completed quickly, comfortably, and with little cost. Choose implementation strategies whose return on investment (ROI) can be easily measured in terms of project value over time, so that companies may use this information to meet their goals. This includes behaviors that are frequently reproduced as well as tactics for improving performance that they already employ, such as onboarding and offboarding.
Setting priorities for program management is never easy. Companies, on the other hand, will be well on their way to success if they stick to a single major aim, focus on just mid-level tasks that support that goal, and search for simple ways to increase performance.
Chapter 9: Quality Management
Processes, transactions, relationships, technology developments, evolutions, external and internal causes, and many other variables all play a role in the IT transformation path. As a result, it’s a difficult task.
Simultaneously, the need for shorter cycle times and superior customer service is growing. As a result, when it comes to ensuring quality throughout the IT transformation journey, a variety of metrics as well as a new set of expectations must be considered. When the customer experience and full-throttle performance are at the forefront, the penalty of a quality lapse will have far-reaching consequences for the product and brand.
Companies have several common issues in this scenario when it comes to maintaining and verifying the quality of software or hardware for their goods and applications. These issues will be discussed in this Course Manual, as well as potential solutions.
Almost every company looking to expand in this very competitive market is embracing digital. IT transformation is one of the top goals for every business leader, regardless of the size of the company. Panel discussions, keynotes, research papers, and articles have all focused on how a firm may stay relevant and competitive in an increasingly digital world.
Because every business’s IT transformation looks different, it’s challenging to describe the notion in a way that’s appropriate for all of them. Simply said, IT transformation is the integration of digital technologies with the goal of establishing a link between the digital and physical worlds. It’s the coming together of operational and information technologies. It may be used in practically any industry to increase operational efficiency, generate new revenue streams, and provide a better customer experience.
Are the products and apps aligned for IT transformation? This is a crucial question to address. When a company goes on an IT transformation path, it faces numerous hurdles, including software, devices, and system interfaces. The fundamental difficulty is to achieve transformation while retaining product/solution quality and connected system compatibility while also providing a pleasant user experience.
Excess rework as a result of unforeseen changes in product functionality or design is not uncommon for large firms to spend a lot of money. Quality assurance (QA) can be quite helpful in addressing such obstacles. Automation of test methods can help minimize the quantity and frequency of human errors, enhance test coverage across systems, and shorten product time-to-market.
Businesses are increasingly focused on decreasing the cost of improving product quality and associated rework time throughout the product growth phase, both of which can be accomplished with more effective testing. To stay competitive in the market, the corporate focus turns to higher productivity and quick innovation once the product has matured.
We will examine how quality assurance is a critical component of overall program management for your IT transformation in this Course Manual.
Chapter 10: Benefits Management
Although there is a global push to build increasingly large-scale health information infrastructures, the results have been uneven, with many initiatives failing to deliver on their promises of increased efficiency, quality, and safety of care.
Benefits realization management (BRM) strategies have been pushed and are increasingly being used in such projects to demonstrate that investments in health information technology are yielding expected results. Two similar goals are muddled here:
1. To exercise accountability and demonstrate due diligence by showing that money is properly spent and delivers returns on investment; and
2. to manage change and ensure that benefits are realized.
There are various definitions and interpretations of benefits, as well as a lack of consensus on BRM methodologies, but the overarching goal is to maximize value and collect evidence for it. In business environments, BRM is commonly used in IT solutions. It is an instrumental management method that assumes that benefits can be linked to specific causes, that organizational goals can be precisely defined, that progress toward these goals can be seen in short periods, and that change can be measured quantitatively. When initial computerization displaced discrete administrative tasks (e.g., bookkeeping and routinized administrative roles), these types of retrospective cost–benefit analyses were effective in capturing benefits, but they became problematic when complex organizational functions were being computerized and substantial investments in renewing core information infrastructures did not yield immediate visible returns.
What is benefits management?
“The measurable improvement coming from an outcome viewed as an advantage by one or more stakeholders, which contributes to one or more organizational objectives,” according to the definition of a benefit. Essentially, this means that you will get the following advantages:
• should be measurable – if they cannot be measured they cannot be claimed as ‘realized’;
• are the improvement resulting from the outcome (the end result) of the change, they are not the change itself;
• are in the eye of the beholder – in other words different; stakeholders will value the same benefits differently. Additionally, in some cases, a benefit to one stakeholder may be a disbenefit (an outcome perceived as negative) to another;
• create the link between tangible outputs and strategic goals, and;
• ensure there is alignment of effort, resources and investment towards achieving organisational objectives.
‘Benefits management’ and ‘benefits realization management’ are concepts that are becoming increasingly frequent in the area of program management, amid efforts to sell large-scale IT transformation programs and control their performance. However, once the sponsor has approved the business case, these activities frequently come to a halt.
How is this possible in a highly competitive company climate when change is ubiquitous, investments are micromanaged by financial controllers, and unsuccessful IT transformation programs can jeopardize executives’ and managers’ careers?
The ability to adapt to change or the proper investment in new markets or products do not guarantee a company’s success. Instead, the entire benefit obtained by adopting change through a transformation program is what determines success, and potentially even the existence of a business.
Chapter 11: Risk Management
In the good old days, “risk” in the IT world was primarily concerned with security. Is your network protected? Is your information safe? Would you be able to stop a breach if it happened? When it comes to digital transformation, however, risk is a factor in every decision you make—every app you select, every cloud where your data resides, and every consumer experience you design. As a result, risk management is required for digital transformation.
First and foremost, risk is not something to be feared. Any savvy investor understands that the greater the risk, the greater the potential gain. The ability to recognize, anticipate, and treat risk are all crucial aspects of risk management. Many organizations today have failed in this area.
You can’t read the news these days without hearing about some sort of technological disaster. For SAP expenses, the city of Anchorage, Alaska, is $50 million over budget. Oracle and the state of Oregon have filed lawsuits…against each other. Several companies have admitted to being hacked using various sorts of technology. Not to mention the number of failed technologies or products released in the last five years—Google Glass, anyone? These headlines do not indicate that technology is ineffective or that IT transformation is not worthwhile. It’s that today’s businesses are pushing headlong towards IT transformation without a clear understanding of where things could go wrong—and how to fix them. For these reasons, IT transformation requires risk management as part of its program management.
The foundation of a successful digital risk strategy is laying out the building pieces. Organizations should take urgent steps to implement robust cybersecurity safeguards, and the simplest option is to conduct standard information security and/or cyber security evaluations of systems. ‘Is this enough?’ are the questions that must be answered. Is cybersecurity the only danger that a digitally enabled company faces?’
It is necessary to examine risk areas outside traditional risk in order for a digital environment to achieve the intended goal. Social media, for example, is becoming an increasingly important aspect of marketing, posing threats to brand value and reputation. Customer profiling is also important for a better customer experience, but the process should be aligned to preserve customer data privacy. Another key factor to consider is digital resiliency–due to the high reliance on technology, system uptime is unavoidable. There are several other scenarios that cover other risk domains that could be examined across various businesses and operations.
Chapter 12: Issues Management
Any project, no matter how well planned, has a large number of unknown factors. It would be naive to believe that a few chats about potential risks at the start of your project will be enough to ensure that you don’t run into any roadblocks or stumbling blocks. All managers, from senior executives to project manager trainees, should anticipate difficulties and develop issue management abilities that will enable them to address them quickly and effectively so that the project may continue.
Issues that develop during a project may be unforeseeable, but they could also be the result of risks identified during the project’s planning phase. You need to have your action plan kick in soon and get the issue handled before it evolves into a severe problem in order to gain closure on the issue and limit the impact it has on the project.
When a problem arises, the first thing you should try to do is thoroughly analyze and appreciate the situation. You must determine what has occurred and who or what has been impacted. You can’t successfully deal with a problem if you don’t know what the consequences could be. You should also check to see if this issue was recognized as a potential concern during the planning stage. If that was the case, what, if anything, has already been done to try to lessen the problem’s impact? Only until you have a complete understanding of the problem can you begin to address it in the most efficient way.
One of the most efficient methods to deal with an issue once you’ve discovered it and grasped it is to bring the team together to work through it. Presenting the problem to your team as you perceive it guarantees that everyone is on the same page and that there are no misunderstandings or crossed wires that could escalate the situation. Then you and your team may work together to develop a solution to the problem that is acceptable to everyone. Working through difficulties as a group helps you to hear perspectives and ideas that you may not have considered, allowing the problem to be solved more quickly or in a way that yields unanticipated benefits. Keep in mind that both risks and challenges might present possibilities.
Once you and your team have come up with a solution that works, the following step is to make sure that your entire team, stakeholders, and customers are aware of it. You won’t be working against false expectations if you let everyone involved know you’ve met a problem for which you have a solution. If your clients and stakeholders know you’re working on a solution, any delays are more likely to be tolerated. You must subsequently put your plan into action; you will most likely assign ownership of the action plan to someone who can ensure that it is carried out in the manner that you have all agreed.
You can’t just put the problem behind you and move on once you’ve dealt with it and put your strategy into effect. It’s critical to check in with the person, team, or process who was impacted to see if your plan of action was successful in fixing the problem. If the issue has been remedied, it is equally critical to comprehend the consequences in case they pose a new risk to the project. Returning to the issue and how you resolved it gives you information for future issue management methods to avoid repeating the same mistakes in future projects.
Curriculum
Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 6 – Program Management
- Establish Baseline
- Supporting Infrastructure
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Cost Management
- Resource Allocation
- Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
- Roles & Responsibilities
- Project Prioritization
- Quality Management
- Benefits Management
- Risk Management
- Issue Management
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.
Study environment
You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.
Study tools & rules
Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.
Successful distance-learning
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
Self-assessment
Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.
Accepting responsibility as a student
Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.
Planning
By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.
Management
Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.
Study objectives & tasks
The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.
Study forecast
As a guide, the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.
Performance management
It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.
With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.
With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.
Keeping in touch
You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.
Work colleagues and family
You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.
Making it relevant
The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.
Distance-learning check-list
Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.
Tutorial Support
Programs
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.
Support available
You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.
Support Process
Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Leading IT Transformation program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.
Distance Learning Guide
The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.
How To Study
The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.
Tutorial Support Tips
Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.
Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails
Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.
Think about the impression that you want to create
Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.
Remember that quality is preferred to quantity
Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.
Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers
Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.
Keep a record of your tutorial support emails
It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Tutorial Support Email Format
You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.
Subject line of your email
Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.
Main body of your email
Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)
Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.
Question 1
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 3
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 4
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 5
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.
Procedure
* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.
How To Study
Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.
Planning your study environment
Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.
Planning your program objectives
It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.
Planning how and when to study
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.
Planning your study tasks
You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.
Planning your time
You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.
Keeping in touch
Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.
Charting your progress
Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.
Making it work
To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.
Reading methods
Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.
Speed reading
When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.
Content reading
Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.
Making structured notes on the course manuals
When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.
Organizing structured notes separately
You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.
Question your understanding
Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.
Clarifying your understanding
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.
Question your interpretation
Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.
Clarifying your interpretation
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Leading IT Transformation Specialist (ALITTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.
Leading IT Transformation – Grading Contribution
Project Study – Grading Contribution
Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%
Qualification grades
A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.
When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:
Pass with merit
A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory
Pass with distinction
An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory
Preliminary Analysis
Research Paper
“The digital transformation program management in medium-sized businesses: A network approach
By Alla Z. Bobyleva,
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Abstract
The article deals with the process management’s issues of digital transformation in companies. The emphasis is made on the consideration of program’s projects as interrelated components with the features of emergency system, not as a weakly interconnected complex (linear set) of projects. Authors propose the organizational model of transformation’s program management and the new approach to prioritizing projects based on the use of network analysis. The suggested method allows to evaluate the role of the project in the transformation program and its impact on the other projects, as well as its impact on the planned benefits of the program. It also allows to distribute resources between projects and to assess the risks of the program as a whole. The article focuses on the differences of medium-sized companies’ management methods, on the one hand, from companies in small business, and on the other hand, from large companies. The application of the method was tested at a medium-sized poultry farm. The analysis of projects of the real program was made, the network model of the program was built, and the probability of projects’ and the program at all success was estimated. The evaluation of the program indicators allowed the authors to make conclusions about priorities of separate projects. The proposed approach can be used in various companies, regardless of industry affiliation.
Introduction
Issues of digital transformation are usually considered with regard to certain industries. The primary areas of digital transformation are high-tech industries associated with the production and distribution of software as well as the fuel and energy sector, oil and gas sector, military-industrial complex, the banking sector. The difference of our approach is that the object of the research is not large business or IT companies, but medium-sized businesses. Digital transformation is not an area of activity for them, but a driving force for development.
The logic of considering the digital transformation at medium-sized businesses separately is validated by the difference between their management systems and management at large companies. In medium-sized businesses digitalization is in its infancy: manual mode and reactive measures prevail in management models. Especially it is necessary to emphasize the following management features in medium-sized businesses:
• Top management or owner of the company often has to solve both strategic and current issues and has no chance to focus on the main problems;
• There are no regulations for accepting new projects, projects are not considered as elements of a program. Decisions are made by the owner, and they are based not so much on calculations and systemic vision, as on intuition and experience;
• Internal processes are focused on coordination with the owner or top management, not on interaction between employees. This can lead to an increase in time to perform tasks;
• A number of employees has to combine various and sometimes not corresponding functions in areas in which they are not proficient;
• Owners and employees often rely on intuition, common sense, past experience rather than on professionalism. Such circumstances lead to low adaptability of companies.
Thus, as a rule, managers in medium sized companies do not use modern opportunities. Nevertheless, medium-sized enterprises are often referred to as the backbone of the European economy, providing a potential source for economic growth. In this regard, the management of digital transformation in medium-sized businesses is a very urgent problem. Its solution will structure and formalize strategic decision-making, will ensure the consideration of the company’s projects as interrelated components of a program. This will help to evaluate the role of each project taking into account its impact on other projects and the program as a whole.
Literature Review
A considerable amount of scientific publications have been devoted to the issues of the medium-sized business (MB) development. In particular, the works of BosBrouwers (2010), Klewitz and Hansen (2014), Koe et al. (2015) are dedicated to the influence of MB on the sustainable growth. The systemic empirical investigations of MB development are presented in the works of Bobyleva et al. (2011), World Bank (2015), Bykovskaya et al. (2018). As a whole, there is a significant amount of papers studying certain aspects of MB development and factors influencing its growth but there are not so many comprehensive works researching the matters of internal strengthening of sustainability, the opportunities of SME self-development.
Regarding our research area, change management is considered by Franklin (2011) and in Practice Guide of Project Management Institute (2013). The problems of program management are deeply studied by Thiry (2015). Also these issues are presented in such practical guides as “The standard for portfolio management” (2017), “The standard for program management” (2017). More specific issues, for example, the prioritization of projects, were raised by Cooper et al. (2002), Anshin and Ilyina (2013). Risk management was examined by Ghasemi et al. (2018), and Sanchez et al. (2008). Interconnection of projects was analyzed by Neumeier et al., (2018) and Bilgin et al. (2017).
The article by Reis et al. (2018) differs from previous literature as it strictly focuses on the concept of digital transformation. The paper delivers a general overview of the literature but it is limited by comparison of various definitions of digital transformation. Empirical studies of digital transformation are made by Gimpel & Röglinger (2015). Such research areas as digital business enterprise architecture are raised in the works of Chen et al. (2016), McDonald and Rowsell-Jones (2012). Attempts to integrate “digital” into the DNA of the business models were made by Hess et al. (2016), Kane et al. (2015), and Matt et al. (2015).
However, the prevalence of illustrative case studies in these works is a clear indication of the lack of maturity of methodology. Moreover, most of the existing publications do not consider medium businesses separately and do not reveal any special digital transformation program management for them. Thus, the insufficient use of the potential of medium-sized businesses in many countries, the lack of comprehensive scholarly works on medium sized businesses management, the low level of methodological support for digital transformation programs based on the system approach have led to the choice of the topic and the range of issues that require priority consideration.
Potentiality of Digital Transformation in Medium Sized Business
Digital transformation is one of the main directions of transformation in the modern economy. It is often understood in the narrow sense, as the implementation of automation without changing the processes themselves. But the digital transformation goes beyond merely digitizing resources and results in value and revenues being created from digital assets.
We consider the digital transformation as a fundamental change in the company’s strategy and its implementation. It affects the main areas of management: relations with the external environment; internal business processes; resource base, including material resources, human capital and corporate culture, finance. The substance of digital transformation in a broad sense is a change in the logic and content of processes. This means the company’s transition to project (program) management based on clear goalsetting, systematic review and evaluation of processes and projects, big data analysis and the implementation of digital technologies.
Such an understanding of digital transformation provides the following possibilities:
• Establishment of regulations for accepting new projects and considering their combination into programs. This will increase the systematicity of management and help to focus on results;
• Development of employee interaction algorithms, simplification of their interaction, reduction of business processes duration, increased transparency of management;
• Implementation of predictive analytics technologies;
• Processing a large volume of systematized data, which allows to optimize business processes by timely identifying problem areas and growth drivers;
• Management of businesses in different regions based on remote monitoring system. It gives the possibility of growth by means of mergers and acquisitions.
A separate task of digital transformation is the implementation of the appropriate corporate culture in the company. This may be the most difficult change for medium sized companies, since in many cases it is not professional skills that are valued, but informal relationships, including family ones. Therefore, it is easier to build a business in a digital style “from scratch” than to rebuild an existing one. However, the proposed organizational model for a managing of a transformational program may be useful both for a newly created company and for a company that is restructuring its activities.”
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Research Article
“Digital Project Management in the Era of Digital Transformation: Hybrid Method
By Rachida Hassani,
Younès El Bouzekri El Idrissi,
Abdellah Abouabdellah.
ABSTRACT
Integrating digital into the DNA of their business model is an essential part of business success for companies across industries today. The digital transformation has become a critical management issue and requires new ways of managerial thinking. In this context, we address the specificity of digital projects compared to IT projects in general, to propose a specific project management method for digital projects while respecting the life cycle of IT projects. To do this, we adopt a methodology based on describing the digital projects characters as a type of IT projects, defining the existing methods and making a comparative study to propose a hybrid method that will be helpful for digital companies to conduct and succeed their digital projects.
INTRODUCTION
The management process of digital projects follows the basic rules of IT project management but also includes particular features. A digital project manager has to deal with challenges and setbacks that are proprietary to the digital transformation and IT industry. Also in digital projects there are benefits and strong points that help ease the burden of management. Digital projects are notorious for frequently changing initial specifications without impacting planning, which represent one of the most constraints of digital transformation. Also, changing specifications to follow the digital transformation speed has a negative impact on the project management process as it reduces predictability and exercise pressure on the budget and deadlines.
When beginning a new project, one of the most important questions a digital project manager must answer is which methodology the project will follow. There are many different project management methods to choose from, and each one requires a different approach to planning, team structure and communication [1].
Very few digital agencies use a single IT project management process for every digital project. Every method has certain benefits, so project managers need to be able to apply the appropriate methodology for each project despite that they belong to the same type of projects, which have their own constraints.
Digital projects have been hamstrung by numerous issues over recent years: cost, complexity, cavalier management . . . all have endangered project completion [2]. So what is the difference between waterfall and agile methods? What is the most suitable method for the management of digital projects? What is the best model for managing this type of projects?
DIGITAL PROJECT IN THE ERA OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
In 1998, we talked about NICT (New Technologies of Communication and Information). In 2013, fifteen years later, some of these technologies continue to be seen as “News” while others have appeared and the “Digital” has stolen the spotlight.
Digital projects use the internet and web technologies to deliver anything from websites to mobile apps, videos to games, ecommerce to emails, social media campaigns to search engine optimization (SEO), rich media advertising to digital outdoor advertising; We deliver projects in a connected, online world where brands and organizations interact directly with customers [3].
Projects can be classified based on a number of different ways. For instance, based on the methodology used, or based on the process it is implemented in the industry, or based on the exact objective being accomplished. There can be many more. For instance, the term “Agile project” is used to define the projects that use an agile methodology. “Data Migration” projects on the other hand have an objective of getting some sort of data migrated as an objective of the project. Similarly, Digital Projects are projects done in the digital domain, sometimes centered specifically in digital media space.
Some examples of digital projects:
– Website Development/Redesign/Migration.
– Mobile App Development/Redesign/Migration.
– Desktop Application Development/Redesign/Migration.
In fact, if we summarize what precedes, we realize that Digital is the whole business of technology for individuals. Here is a perimeter (not exhaustive) of digital project characteristics:
– Supports: Computer, mobile, tablet, smart TV, …
– Space: internet, cloud, object internet
– Tools: Blog, search engine, mobile apps, extranet,…
– Analytics: Big data, tracking, geolocation…
– Security: payment…
Digital projects revolutionized democracy and empowered the people, helping them to carry out democratic revolutions and develop social activism. To summarize, they gave power to the final client, which must be in continuous contact with the project manager to limit risks of changes.”
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Research Article
“Digitalization as a Game Changer in Project Stakeholder Management
By Kier, Christof and Huemann, Martina
Executive Summary
As project management comprises more than just managing scope, time, and budget, appropriately identifying, managing, and involving stakeholders has played an increasingly important role in projects over the last several years. Stakeholders, as those affecting or being affected by a project, can influence project outcomes and have a major impact on defining project success. New technological trends, such as virtual and augmented reality and digital gamification stemming from digitalization, are means to facilitate stakeholder engagement, enabling value creation for all involved parties. Representing project deliverables in the digital world not only enables higher acceptance due to involvement and functions as a medium to discuss ideas and expectations, but also uncaps the multiple dimensions of complexity.
This research work aims to discuss contemporary project stakeholder engagement and examines how digitalization shapes and affects the field. Therefore, the main research question stated in the thesis proposal is:
• How does digitalization affect project stakeholder management in infrastructure projects?
In this thesis comprising three articles, a qualitative research approach was adopted. The first article conceptualizes the phenomenon of digitalization of project stakeholder engagement, exemplifying digital gamification in a large infrastructure project. The second article discusses project stakeholder discourse in the International Journal of Project Management with a systematic literature review (SLR), starting with the roots of this rather mature research topic, alongside the evolution of the discourse and future research streams. The third article examines how boundary work can enhance value creation regarding project stakeholder engagement based on an in-depth case study of the renewal of a Finnish hospital.
Introduction and Research Question
Although digitalization has become more relevant in infrastructure projects for many years now (Succar, 2009), forcing cooperation between project partners (Jaradat et al., 2013; Lobo & Whyte, 2017; Whyte & Hartmann, 2017) and determining how digitalization influences project stakeholder management are understood to only a limited degree.
In practice, we find that digitalization can become a game changer in project stakeholder management, as emerging digital technologies allow for new ways of stakeholder engagement. Digital technologies, such as augmented reality (Gheisari & Irizarry, 2016; Meža et al., 2015) and digital gamification (Goulding et al., 2014; Rüppel & Schatz, 2011; Yan et al., 2011), are bringing potential to project stakeholder engagement (Wang et al., 2014).
Since influential work in Freeman’s stakeholder theory (1984), the concept has found its way into project stakeholder theory (Cleland, 1986) and has been cultivated into a mature research topic. Recent approaches differentiate between managing for stakeholders and managing of stakeholders (Freeman, 2010; Freeman et al., 2007), representing a continuum with different perceptions, underlying values, and ranges of stakeholders to be considered (Huemann et al., 2016). Managing for stakeholders reflects the stakeholder as a source of value creation, taking a more long-term and sustainable view, coming with the challenge of including varying stakeholders and adding complexity as such.
Nevertheless, how digital infrastructure influences and interplays with project stakeholder engagement remains partially explored, and a theoretical understanding, theoretical linking of stakeholder theory to digitalization, and digital boundary work regarding infrastructure projects are all missing.
Therefore, the main research question stated in the thesis proposal is:
• How does digitalization affect project stakeholder management in infrastructure projects?
In this thesis, a qualitative research approach was adopted. The methodology included a systematic literature review (SLR) and an in-depth case study with qualitative interviews and data collection. The research question stated in the proposal therefore addressed this gap to identify technologies, such as augmented reality and gamification, which can be applied in practice to manage and engage stakeholders and identify and analyze practical cases that use digital infrastructure for project stakeholder engagement. This thesis discusses the evolvement of project stakeholder discourse, explains the emerging themes in project stakeholder research, indicates the potentials of integrating different stakeholder groups into these projects, contributes to the further development of project stakeholder theory, and reveals the potentials and challenges of digitalization for project stakeholder engagement.
Methodology
The methodology in the thesis and within the three articles was based on a qualitative research approach (Creswell, 2017; Yin, 2011), including a systematic literature review (vom Brocke & Lippe, 2015) and qualitative, in-depth interviews in a single case study design (Yin, 2009). The following chapter will overview the general process and methodology.
Systematic Literature Review
For the SLR, a step-by-step approach was followed (Denyer & Tranfield, 2009; Harden & Thomas, 2010), comprising the following:
1. Defining the literature review scope and developing the review protocol, including deciding the objectives and scope of the research and defining keywords, databases, publication dates, and selection criteria based on the research questions. This was done between the researchers of this contribution.
2. Searching the database(s).
3. Screening, documenting, and selecting articles.
4. Assessing, reviewing, and coding by all researchers based on the title and abstracts.
5. Analyzing, reviewing, full article reading, snowballing, and synthesis.
6. Documenting and reporting.
Case Study
For the case study, we analyzed the stakeholder engagement of future end users regarding a renewal project of a Finnish hospital. The in-depth case study enables a rich analysis of stakeholder engagement in a case with digital and analog boundary objects and boundary spanners, therefore facilitating the understanding of complex organizational relationships. Case studies are also considered suitable for theory elaboration purposes (Ketokivi & Choi, 2014) as they are particularly useful for providing an understanding of the interaction of a phenomenon and its context (Meredith, 1998). The case was selected via theoretical sampling logic (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007).
We conducted interviews with several project team members. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and imported into NVivo, which facilitated the analysis.”
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Conference Paper
“Approaches to Project Management in the Process of Digital Transformation in the Company
By Tatiana Corejova (University of Zilina), Zilina, Slovakia Peter Bielik Slovak (University of Agriculture), Nitra, Slovakia Tatiana Genzorova (University of Zilina), Zilina, Slovakia
Abstract
As digital technologies evolve, proven business practices are disrupted and companies need to respond to the benefits of digitization. Most often it is said to have a great impact on the traditional business model and its change. Based on the analysis of the current situation and experience in the practice of changes caused by digitization, the aim of the paper will be to compare and point out the possibilities of different approaches to project management in the process of digital transformation in the company. Especially waterfall and agile approaches will be tested. The aim of the proposal is to find a link between the waterfall and agile model of project management in systematic response in the digital transformation process. The classic framework is maintained externally, other techniques that ensure continuous creation in a shorter time frame will be used to find a solution to the problem. If a company wants to change its business model, first of all, it must start inside, without the momentum and potential that it has in its employees, it is not able to easily and correctly in the given conditions to handle. According to the World Economic Forum (2016), waterfall project management no longer meets the requirements of digitization and the company should focus on management that is agile.
Introduction Every company that has decided to face digital transformation looks at it in its own way. It also defines it according to the effort it exerts within and outside the company, which means that the characteristic of this concept can be a thorny point. Generally, we can define digital transformation as the need to integrate digital technologies into many or all business areas that extensively interfere with how customer value is created and delivered (Gregor et al., 2006). Digital technology brings a cultural change to an organization that has to face change and endure it constantly. Employees should be committed to working with their company to define the importance of digital transformation (Bloomberg, 2018; I-Scoop, 2019).
Bilefield (2016) outlines the key steps to be successful in the transformation process and what to think about when a business approaches it. Awareness of the need for change must begin with the mindset of employees who must be aware during the course of the fact that companies are facing a problem that we may face in the near future. One example is to raise the profile of senior managers inside the company and give junior positions the opportunity to become part of decisionmaking processes. Not only the digital leader and his team are important in the transformation, but in the meantime, they themselves are responsible for the future of the business (Hellard, 2018). According to McQuivey (2013), any company that wants to prepare sufficiently for digital market disruption in its favour should answer three basic questions: (i) RQ1: How can we adapt our company to change?; (ii) RQ2: Who are we doing this for?; and (iii) RQ3: What should the digital disruption of our society look like?
First, each company should identify the essential needs of its customer (McQuivey, 2013). Digital market disruption brings change within supply chains with all the consequences. Digital market distortions bring about changes in industry classifications, product markets, competitors and many other areas. This situation not only brings new companies as new competitors, but there are companies in the traditional markets that have never done business in those markets before (Štofková et al., 2015).
Implementing changes in companies or institutions as a result of digital disruption is associated with managing these changes and managing individual projects. At the same time, the projects set ways of reacting individual parts of the company, management and employees themselves to digital disruption. The changes associated with digital disruption and especially digital transformation are extensive. They evoke questions related to managing transformation. Is it possible to use classic project management, or does it need to be changed, combined with other procedures and methods? The following parts of the paper will be devoted to the comparison of approaches to project management in the processes of the digital transformation of the business model as well as pointing out a suitable combination of approaches.
Theoretical background
Different procedures are defined and characterized in the literature on project management and change management. From the point of view of the institution and the possibility of its use in the process of managing the changes brought about by the digital transformation, it is possible to use the models that were formulated in the area of information and communication technology or for software development processes. These include the waterfall model, the agile model and the elements associated with design thinking and customer experience etc. In the beginning, each project has a lot of planning, a lot of work and tasks to be done at the right time and in the right order. The project manager must ensure that all project steps create a structure of logical and manageable steps.
The waterfall model is a linear, sequential product life cycle model. The model is based on a logical sequence of steps and as the waterfall flows gradually over the rocks, the software development goes from one phase to the next phase of the project (Chari & Agrawal, 2018). The formulation of requirements begins the whole process and is recorded and analysed in the technical documentation, which serves as a basis for future development. The direct result of this phase is a document containing specific requirements, functionalities, interface and so on.
The waterfall model is not the only method used to develop software or solve projects. Royce (1970) published an article on large-scale development management where he first described a new methodology for managing largescale software projects so that all steps were as effective as possible. This publication outlined the idea of gradual development because he considered the greatest problem to be the lack of developers in the early stages where they could evaluate the most logical and useful solution.
The Manifesto for Agile Software Development was published in 2013 (Beck et al., 2013). Agility based on this idea is the ability to create changes and then react. Agile methodology argues that it is best to deal with an unknown and uncertain environment by preparing for it from the beginning. The authors describe the whole methodology as agile because its task is to play with and respond to the idea. The methodology was initially based on an open basis and the ecosystem that emerged began to spread very easily (Wade, 2015). Several adopters of this idea have begun to insist that some practices have to be carried out in a specific way (Mahadevan et al., 2015).
Agile project management is based on iterative delivery over the project lifecycle. Agile project management aims to achieve the maximum value influenced by the company’s business priorities, time and budget. Agile project management also requires team members to work together at a high level in short stages and face to face meetings. Basic principles of agile project management include: (i) response to customer requirements must be proactive and iterative; (ii) establishing a closer relationship between all stakeholders; (iii) the scope of the project is adaptable according to established rules; and (iv) the team decides together and is responsible for the success or failure of the project together (Rose, 2016; Rypak, 2018).
Kelley (2009) published a new design methodology that represents a different problem management process. Design Thinking is a design methodology that is based on problem-solving and not solution design. This methodology is particularly useful for solving complex problems that are difficult to define or unknown (Camacho, 2016). Thinking design begins with observation, it involves understanding the context and culture behind the problem, with an emphasis on what people need, more than just trying to name the problem.
The last, separate part of Design Thinking is implementation. In this step, it is important to find out whether the solution can assert itself in practice and bring the desired benefits for customers. It is therefore directly related to measuring user satisfaction with a new solution or application using User Experience Questionnaire or UEQ (Laugwitz et al., 2008). UEQ aims to provide a quick assessment by end-users, providing a comprehensive impression of the user’s experience. This method was designed to allow users to express the feelings, impressions and attitudes that arise when researching a product.”
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Course Manuals 1-12
Course Manual 1: Establish Baseline
Reality vs. ideology
Reality isn’t always positive. Some firms have a data-driven culture, with processes and tools in place to capture before and after data, but many businesses aren’t there yet. More fire, ready, aim is a common scenario. In these situations, baselines can and should still be done. The goal isn’t always to land on the moon, but rather to be extremely accurate. Simply knowing you’re moving the needle in the right way and by an order of magnitude has a lot of benefit.
Are you making the progress on X investment that you anticipated? Simply start where you are to answer the question after implementation. Identify and measure your critical KPIs as-is. Consider the coming months to be a test ode. Keep an eye on those KPIs to watch how they change. You’ll have observable data on how they’ve moved over the course of those few months. When you observe that movement, you can go back and say, “OK, in the previous few months since I put this in place…I took a measurement of this.” This is the progression from point A to point B. Back-of-the-envelope math can sometimes be used to backdate the data even further. Of course, in that situation, the information is intended to be directed rather than exact.
These estimates provide a picture of where the company should cut down and where it should go all-in. The goal is to be as precise as possible without being obsessed with it. Only when metrics and baselines lead to decision-making and good change are they powerful.
Creating a Foundation for Your IT Transformation
Your company has began the process of IT transformation. You’ve created a roadmap and a strategic vision for the project. You’ve gotten top leadership’s buy-in and support. Perhaps you’ve even started to think about which applications or infrastructure you’d like to modernize first. We understand how tempting it is to jump right into the project, but you must first complete one more critical step: establishing a baseline for your IT transformation.
The advantages of using a digital baseline in your program management
A baseline is the present status of your current digital environment before you’ve taken any measures toward modernization in a digital modernization project. Setting a baseline is the act of carefully examining your digital ecosystem—and its data—to identify what metrics you’ll use to evaluate it and how it’s already performing in those measures. Your baseline serves as a point of comparison against which you may objectively analyze the success and impact of your digital modernization efforts.
Setting a baseline for your digital modernization project can provide you with a number of advantages.
1. Assessing Outcomes and Impact: You can objectively report on the project’s outcomes by comparing performance in key metrics before and after the modernization project. When you examine the outcomes and impact, you’ll see where the modernization investment didn’t produce the desired benefits and where further work is needed. On the other hand, it also showcases your successes, which you may use to build a case for further digital modernization funding.
2. Measuring Progress: Once you’ve established a baseline, you may assess how far you’ve progressed toward your modernization objectives. This allows you to see how far along in the project you are. Progress tracking is useful for comparing results to the project’s initial budget, scope, and timetable. It will assist you in determining whether any course corrections are required.
3. Establishing a Baseline: Determining exactly what data and metrics are necessary for analyzing your digital ecosystem is an important component of establishing a baseline. Digital modernization should constantly be used to help the organization achieve its goals and address challenges for its employees. Going through the process of determining these might help stakeholders agree on what those goals and concerns are.
4. Reducing Bias: When you create a baseline, you choose the success metrics at the beginning of the project. When analyzing how successful your digital modernization initiatives have been, it’s difficult to escape the subconscious error of picking the indicators that indicate the largest improvement. You can decrease bias by ensuring that performance is objectively measured in the key areas you determined were critical for achieving your organization’s objectives by establishing a baseline
What is the best way to establish a baseline?
Mapping your present ecology as the first step in building a baseline. Make a list of the systems, tools, and processes that your company use. Determine who uses each system and how they go about doing so. What information or conclusions have you drawn from each? What percentage of your revenue do you spend on licensing, fees, and other expenses?
After that, take a look at your digital ecology. How well do the systems function? What are the objectives for each component of your digital ecosystem, and how well are the procedures in place to achieve those objectives? Take a look at your systems, meet with and discuss them with the individuals of your team who use them on a regular basis. What are the inefficiencies or annoyances that regular users face? Which modernizing enhancements would have the most impact?
Finally, and most significantly, the baseline must be established. The most difficult element of the procedure is establishing a baseline. It’s a good idea to start by examining your organization’s overall vision, goals, and priorities, and considering how your digital environment may help you achieve them. Examine the most pressing issues or regular aches and pains in your ecosystem’s current state. Select a manageable amount of indicators that represent performance in advancing your organization’s goals and resolving issues that your employees experience. When you’ve determined which metrics to include in the baseline, double-check that you have accurate data for each of them. Digital modernization is a continuous process, but now that you understand the advantages of establishing a digital baseline and how to do so, you’re putting your company on the path to long-term success.
Baseline Revisions
Changes to the timeline and scope of work will occur during project execution, affecting your performance, resource plan, and baseline. A fresh baseline for your project should be established at regular intervals, but only when permitted. A baseline revision is another term for this.
Baseline adjustments may be necessary as a result of performance issues or changes in the scope of work. A proper change process and a project management solution with change management features are necessary for the latter.
Only the changes from the current time onward should be shown in the baseline changes. It is impossible to modify a person’s past performance. This preserves the integrity of past performance data and does not change the history of your agreement.
Typical Baseline Issues
When a variance happens, many people make the mistake of replanning the baseline. When this occurs, the original or previous baseline is gone, and little information about actual performance can be gleaned. This missing variance information can help future project schedules be more accurate.
Another common issue is that when a change is accepted, new scope is routinely included in the baseline, making the baseline a changing target.
A third issue arises from a lack of sufficient functionality in the supporting software, which results in automatic replanning of previous periods when a new baseline is established. Both the project’s history and the project agreement are altered as a result of this.
Many software products also don’t keep account of scope of work or changes to scope of work, and just look at the baseline in terms of time. When defining and changing baselines, it’s critical to choose the correct project management software.
Make A Firm Foundation For Yourself
Remember:
1. Establish a baseline and compare performance to it.
2. Only modify the baseline if you’ve been given permission to do so.
3. Don’t lose the original baseline or your performance history when a baseline is altered.
4. Make a permanent record of the original baseline and any subsequent baseline changes.
The baseline can be established if you have the project sponsor’s, financing source, or customer’s authority, as well as the project’s scope of work, a revised source plan, and an updated timetable.
Course Manual 2: Supporting Infrastructure
Why is IT infrastructure so important in the IT transformation process?
According to a recent poll performed by Brocade, 80% of UK business leaders say their organization’s ability to assist IT change is limited. This is a worrying result, considering that so many businesses are spending in software and services aimed at transforming them into digital businesses when they should be focusing their efforts on improving the underlying systems.
A good digital transformation approach requires good IT infrastructure. It’s the bedrock of an organization’s whole IT infrastructure. Those that fail to realize the importance of network and data center infrastructure will undoubtedly limit their organization’s agility and risk spending more money on infrastructure than necessary while attempting to optimize their IT for digital transformation.
It’s not easy to implement an IT change. In truth, if companies want to future-proof their operations, they must invest in cutting-edge technology. Flash storage or an all-flash data center, which will drastically reduce data center response times, as well as Gen 6 Fiber Channel network technologies, which will provide the digital enterprise with nonstop availability and the incredible performance required for tomorrow’s modern data centers, are prime examples.
It’s all about quickly and efficiently connecting businesses to their most vital apps and data while also providing a platform for growth, development, and innovation.
What are the primary advantages of having a all-flash data center?
The goal of an all-flash data center is to improve speed and reduce latency across the board, not just in one area. It’s a relatively new phenomenon; corporations have just been installing flash across the data center in the last five years or so, but it’s already having a significant influence by dramatically increasing the speed with which organizations can access their apps and data.
The difference between an all-flash data center and one based on spinning disks is like to comparing a sports car to a sedan: they’ll both get the job done, but if you need to get there quickly, the sports car is the better option.
What do you believe the future of data centers will be like?
To put it another way, time is money. More businesses want to handle data in real time as a result of IT transformation, which all relies on the data center. The convergence of four trends is a fundamental driver of data center direction:
• Data processing in real time
• Innovation in solid-state storage
• The decline of Moore’s Law
• Analytical infrastructure
These four trends are intertwined and define a society in which data access is critical. Solid state storage plays a role in real-time data processing because it is related to business objectives and is underpinned by consistent and rapid access to data.
Fast data access also aids in the resolution of the Moore’s Law problem, as a percentage of CPU time is spent waiting for data from legacy technologies. Finally, infrastructure analytics provides information on platform performance, allowing for better optimization.
The future of the data center, in this view, lies in the shift from deploying and managing (both of which are becoming increasingly automated) to analysis and optimization. This necessitates a change in mindset, abilities, and tools. Performance is important in real-time processing and data streaming, yet many organizations are focused on speed of delivery on outdated platforms. The focus of capacity planning is on virtualization and workload density rather than system performance.
Providing continuous performance necessitates skills and methods that go beyond those used to enable virtual machine sprawl across large amounts of hardware. Infrastructure analytics will continue to increase as a result of a resurgence of capacity planning skills and technologies. Vendors will need to help with this transformation by providing better tools and greater visibility into their infrastructure’s behavior and performance.
Do you sense an increasing trend toward modernization in your dealings with customers, or are firms still lagging behind?
Many businesses are already recognizing the need to modernize; they understand that relying on outdated technology is no longer an option. However, we’ve seen several organizations move forward with data center modernization without taking into account the need to modernize their network as well.
Unfortunately, this implies that some businesses are falling behind their competitors, because modernizing one area when the other is so intertwined means that these businesses will never see the true performance or economic benefits of modernization.
For example, if a company deploys flash in the data center to boost speed, but they are still using a conventional network, they will not be able to reap the full benefits of flash deployment. Regardless of the rate at which data is provided to the network from the data center, a legacy network will merely operate as a bottleneck for the information travelling through it to the end point.
Do you think we’ll ever get to a point where organizations’ infrastructure is more adaptable, and we don’t have to deal with these issues again?
A useful definition of flexibility in the realm of digital transformation is the capacity to create apps and services and evolve their use and importance in the business without having to re-engineer the infrastructure at each stage. The main challenge here is the tension between, on the one hand, quick service creation/fail-fast and, on the other, keeping new services dependable and consistent as they become more vital to the business – production as usual.
A good illustration of how to do this is the technique taken by a number of All Flash storage manufacturers. Service level guarantees and exceptionally high levels of availability support simple interfaces and sophisticated APIs. Such techniques demonstrate the importance of upgrading old infrastructure in order to build an environment that can support the next generation of key applications and services. Many All Flash providers are developing infrastructure components and solutions that bridge the gap between the two worlds, allowing for rapid deployment and high availability.
Moving services from prototype to production with flexibility requires optimization. To ensure that service levels for performance do not deteriorate as the application progresses through its business lifetime, visibility and tools are required. This is especially crucial when there are common underlying resources. The key question is how to sustain day-1 performance on day-364 and beyond while growing with the company. Analytics and optimization technologies enable the creation of shared infrastructure that serves the requirements of the many while also serving the needs of the few. As a result, IT organizations eliminate compromise and avoid the need to build application-specific infrastructure, giving them far more flexibility.
Do you believe automation has a place in this?
Even at the largest organizations, IT departments are frequently overworked and underfunded. The ability to use automation, particularly at the network layer, has tremendous ramifications for IT teams in terms of freeing up valuable time. Automation allows them to focus on providing faster, more efficient, and smarter IT services to the business, which can then help drive digital transformation; otherwise, IT departments will spend all of their time doing things like raising tickets and provisioning compute resources, which can be easily automated.
Organizations must focus on automating the network, starting with traditionally manual tasks, to save time and resources, reduce human error, and increase business and IT agility, in tandem with integrating automation solutions with other IT tools and processes throughout the organization, in order to maintain a competitive edge.
In order to address this, network automation is essential for modernizing data centers, which is essential for IT transformation.
IT infrastructure benefits
The advantages of having a competitive and flexible IT infrastructure for program management are enormous, with several chances for cost reductions and process improvements, as well as the ability to gain an advantage by having a competitive and adaptable technology environment. Companies that examine their infrastructure on a regular basis reap a slew of advantages (see figure 1).
Transparency and cost savings. Many vendor relationships experience cost increases for a variety of reasons that are difficult to explain. The transformation process provides visibility into IT infrastructure spending and identifies areas where the organization may spend less for the same or better service. Advanced technology may save a lot of money by supplying more computer power at a reduced cost, and alternative delivery methods like relocating employees or moving to the cloud can save even more money.
Improved service levels. When no one detects them, IT infrastructure services are working well. The infrastructure is constantly available, responsive, and of the highest quality thanks to best-in-class service levels. Customers and staff are both affected by service quality. Support tickets are addressed faster, and network and system availability is consistent, thanks to a superior IT infrastructure.
Greater flexibility and faster time to market for innovative services. A transition gives you the chance to boost your processing and storage capabilities. Pay-as-you-go methods allow servers and other gear to be deployed more quickly, and storage can be raised or lowered on demand. More modern technology can get into the hands of users sooner by adding a new contract with accelerated tech refresh cycles.
Innovation. Legacy systems necessitate ongoing monitoring and can waste important staff time due to significant issues and unanticipated outages. Companies may spend less on putting out fires and more on developing inventive methods to work with business counterparts to give solutions that will drive revenue growth in a refreshed environment that is running smoothly.
Bolstered network security. Security tools have improved their ability to detect real-time threats, detect potential data leaks, and stop viruses from spreading. Advanced tools can boost network security and cut down on unplanned downtime.
The circumstances in which a change can be made
Making significant changes to your IT infrastructure is a difficult and time-consuming task. Modifications must be carefully planned because badly planned changes can create major business system and operational interruptions, resulting in revenue loss.
Many tech executives conclude they can’t take the risk. And for other people, making a change may not be the greatest option. So, how can you tell when it’s time to upgrade your IT infrastructure? When is the best moment to confront your current supplier and maybe replace them? Before moving forward, certain conditions must be met:
There is a strong business case to be made. The case was clear for one client: the financial repercussions of making the adjustment were too great to overlook. However, for some, the business case for change is less evident since the gap between market-level service price and current pricing may not be as large as it appears, implying that now is not the best moment to make a significant change.
Senior management is supportive and eager to implement change. Changing the atmosphere and working methods can be tough, and overcoming the status quo’s inertia necessitates strong leadership. There will be challenges along the way, as well as short-term problems. A successful transformation requires senior leadership from both within and outside of IT.
Technologies are outdated or fail to take advantage of new, cutting-edge capabilities. Old contracts may not motivate vendors to perform responsibly, especially when it comes to keeping the environment updated and technically sound. The rapid rate of technological innovation and evolution need frequent refresh cycles in order to adopt the most current technology. When it comes to constantly upgrading and updating, the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it” no longer applies, and all too frequently, enterprises and their providers both succumb to fatigue. Keeping up with technology is difficult and risky, but it is critical from a strategic standpoint. If technology, for example, can strengthen the link between IT and business strategy or has beneficial implications for the company, it’s worth looking into whether contractual adjustments can help.
The present vendor isn’t a good strategic fit. IT infrastructure vendors have a reputation for sticking to their contractual obligations to a tee. Strategic partners, on the other hand, go above and beyond the agreement to assist businesses get more value out of their IT infrastructure. These companies are ahead of the game when it comes to spotting systemic hazards before they become outages. They offer research and development labs where new technologies can be tested, as well as ideas on how to improve the business’s IT infrastructure. They also have a stake in the game since they share the financial risk of price hikes and service interruptions.
There is a change-oriented culture. A culture that embraces change and is eager to explore and learn new technologies and innovations is required for a successful transformation. Furthermore, a culture based on results-driven accountability is more likely to facilitate a smooth and quick transition and realize the benefits of a modernized IT infrastructure. When the firm, the exiting vendor, and the new vendor are all held accountable for success, this strategy works well.
Course Manual 3: Stakeholder Engagement
Internal customers are overlooked.
We may also term it a lack of leadership, but in a non-traditional sense: the ability to ‘lead’ or, better yet, develop a shared purpose with unambiguous buy-in and participation of all stakeholders, not just leadership buy-in.
Most businesses recognize that customer-centricity and customer experience, on the one hand, and digital transformation, on the other, are frequently linked.
Employees and all stakeholders are rarely truly involved in fundamental transformation.
When you look at the top-down mandates that we see a lot, and the lack of involving, much alone informing and directing ‘internal customers,’ that realization seems to vanish.
Employees who deal with customers believe their bosses don’t care about them. Employees and other key stakeholders are frequently left out of transformative projects because of uncertainty, leadership changes, a lack of basic involvement, and unidirectional “internal” communication and management processes.
You’ve probably heard of the “Iceberg of Ignorance” notion, which is represented below. Never mind the numbers; we all know there’s a price to be paid for not being connected enough to the front-line employees who, in the end, are responsible for making transformations and customer-centric projects a reality. In digital transformation, we need to be exactly there – and thus close to the client.
The iceberg of ignorance – Copyright: Phonlamai Photo
Get to know your employees and what motivates them
Management in many firms drives the digital transformation agenda from the top down and communicates only after the facts have been established. You’ve most likely heard the term ‘ivory tower’ in the context of business.
Knowing that in some firms where transformation is critical, leaders come and go frequently, confusion and uncertainty reign even more, and the need to clearly include employees, communicate honestly, and pay attention to the emotional dimension is critical. Like the large underwater section of each iceberg, there is an emotional depth that is generally unseen. The challenge is that, while digital transformation might provide immediate benefits, it is a medium- to long-term commitment. Because there is no one-size-fits-all answer and, contrary to popular assumption, company management is not a science, you get a different perspective on how to achieve the board’s goals with each change of leadership.
If you put five different CEOs in front of the same problem, you’ll get five different approaches, perspectives, and teams of trusted experts. Additional challenges: boards are also separated from employees, and they don’t always get transformation objectives right, focusing too much on replacing (or upgrading) legacy IT, changing processes, cutting expenses, and so on. If leadership views change in this way, individuals will eventually become emotionally disconnected.
Even if leadership remains relatively stable, it’s rare – and so we’re mostly talking about larger organizations – that fundamental change occurs with true employee and stakeholder involvement (who feel left out and are asked to be more agile or productive to execute on the “big” top-down plan without having been heard) and with proper attention to their needs and views as they go through these transformations, with change management often being an afterthought).
Individuals should be at the forefront of cultural change
Processes and leadership are preceded by including your workforce and truly listening, as an inclusive form of listening and involving in an adaptive way, talking freely and not imposing the grand plan, just as enablement is preceded by involving your workforce and truly listening.
Cultural change is a collection of elements that includes the ability to understand people and teams, involve them, and ensure they are truly in. It is not about nurturing a state of constant change, pushing digital processes, or simply enablement and skillsets. It is about the ability to understand people and teams, involve them, and ensure they are truly in. In the context of business and digital transformation, culture is neither a starting point nor a goal.
You may talk all you want about culture, leadership, and employee engagement, but engagement isn’t the same as satisfaction or the desire to work together efficiently toward a common objective.
If people truly feel excluded or unheard, they will consciously or unconsciously sabotage the outcome, using one of the psyche’s many mechanisms to do so. This is true even if they have stated that they will collaborate – and you believe they do. How often have you been in a meeting when everyone eventually agrees on a shared goal, and then it’s back to business as usual when the meeting is finished, and everyone participating goes back to doing their own thing? Such events occur for a variety of reasons: you have the wrong people, you didn’t pay enough attention, it’s simply too difficult to grasp and implement in today’s organizational complexity, inclusiveness is done in a generic way (forgetting that not everyone is the same when it comes to collaborating and being ‘included’), you overlook dynamics that aren’t visible yet, and so on.
Complex systems necessitate a system viewpoint, which depicts all dynamics rather than simple linear perspectives, allowing the linkages that cause us to change, belong, and connect to be seen and addressed.
The requirement for stakeholder buy-in for a common goal
Your workforce is becoming more made up of people who don’t put up with nonsense and expect to be met and heard on a variety of levels, both as workers and as consumers or citizens.
A workforce made up of a generation (not defined by age but by conduct) looking for fundamentally different leadership qualities such as excellent interpersonal skills, inspirational leadership, vision, and strategic thinking.
Or, as the infographic on leadership and the generational construct we refer to as “millennials” (excerpt below) shows, they are less interested in hierarchical leadership.
It will become more difficult for C-level executives with a long track record of success in hierarchical organizations and a strong personal agenda and control mentality to win the hearts and minds of workers, particularly the newer generations, with whom they are often de facto disconnected for starters. Keeping the older ones who have been numb to change will have no trouble sticking, posing a risk to your company’s progress if you don’t guide them properly.
Leadership takes not only guts, vision, and decision-making ability, but also an open attitude, no-nonsense communication skills, an honest perspective, and a knowledge that people matter and must be heard and properly educated before they buy into a sense of common purpose. “People leave managers, not organizations,” as the saying goes, yet the end result is that people leave companies. It applies to both customers and employees.
Always communicate and be clear, credible, and inclusive in a customized way. And don’t forget about the psychological aspect. In the business world. In politics, for example. Anywhere.
Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
This is known as Stakeholder Engagement or Stakeholder Management in project words. It is a key aspect of any change program, and it is doubtful that your program will succeed without strong communications.
What is the significance of communication?
As with any shift, it’s critical to have open and honest communication. It gives everyone participating the assurance that the organization, the program SRO, the chief executive, and the program team are behind them.
The goal of program communications is to make sure that everyone receives consistent and timely messaging. By informing employees of the situation, they will be more willing to help. People are more likely to embrace changes if they understand what’s occurring and why it’s happening.
However, communication should not be a one-way street; in order to be truly effective, it must be reciprocal. Accepting input and encouraging employees to express their issues will assist you in determining whether or not there are going to be any disruptive impacts.
Allowing employees to express their concerns and ideas can assist you in determining how to make the transition from the current to the future state go smoothly. Staff are more likely to embrace change if you assist them through the process by asking for their input and considering their viewpoints.
Here are some important steps to consider:
Step 1: Confirm that the communication is owned by someone.
You must ‘sell’ your presentation to your audience, regardless of its size. You will effectively promote the modification and its benefits to the user base by urging them to join and support the improvements that will be implemented. You’ll need someone who can plan the communications strategy as well as deliver the message to do this.
As a result, your Communications Lead must be a competent communicator who is assertive while still being empathic, and who can talk intelligently at all levels of the organization. This individual will be the public face of your program.
They’ll create the messages, present and demonstrate the product, and route any risks or difficulties reported by employees to the program manager. The communications lead will almost certainly require help from a team, so make sure to secure financing for suitable resources in your business case.
Ascertain that there is a fully funded work stream dedicated to the entire program. Effective communication takes time, and sufficient resources are required to get the correct messages to the right individuals. As a result, a pre-defined communications plan should be included in the business case.
Furthermore, describing the communications plan in the business case will create expectations that this isn’t simply a gimmick, but a proven means of decreasing the kind of change resistance that can derail many IT and change projects.
As the program proceeds, messages will change, so you’ll require resources for the length and into the Benefits Realization phase when the change is live and business can resume.
Step 2: Create a strategy based on the advantages.
Create a stakeholder map that divides employees into groups based on their responsibilities. Each group may receive a different message. Case notes that were not available at the point of service, for example, posed major complications for doctors and nurses at a northwest NHS Trust.
This issue resulted in longer clinic wait times and a higher clinical risk for patients. The communications team was able to demonstrate that the change would always ensure that a patient’s information is available at the touch of a button by leveraging this problem and linking it to the new system benefits.
Create a stakeholder matrix that connects user groups, present frustrations, and anxieties about the change or new system to the advantages. This will enable you to send out targeted messages to specific groups of employees.
Step 3: Make a decision about what you want to say.
Make a decision on what you want to say and to whom you want to say it. Continue to employ the same staff groups to determine the ideal channels, wording, and frequency with which you send out your message. Always begin from the very top.
A clear, simple statement from the CEO or Medical Director, for example, goes a long way toward initiating the buy-in process. Bring in some major doctors, lead nurses, or therapists, as well as the communications team, to deliver the message.
A presentation from a doctor to a doctor or a nurse to a nurse is more effective than one from an IT or communications department member. Consider the benefits; what is vital to a doctor may not be important to a nurse, and vice versa.
Below is an example that can be modified.
Step 4: Complementing your skills
The Communications Lead, who should be a member of the program board, will be in charge of delivering and leading user engagement. However, having one of the primary clinicians, such as a doctor or a nurse, to support the efforts is a good idea.
They send a clear message to their peer group by taking ownership of and delivering a positive, benefits-driven message to the larger clinical audience.
When messages came from another doctor, there was less pushback from employees, and word-of-mouth discussions proved to be a very effective method for talking positively about the project.
Providing visual representations of the new system is also quite effective: physicians become engaged very immediately after seeing a demonstration since they can understand how many of their daily problems will be alleviated by the change.
It’s critical to choose the correct combination of abilities for the communications team and manage their availability to ensure consistency and continuity throughout the program. In our future blog, we’ll go over how to resource your entire application in greater depth.
Course Manual 4: Cost Management
Businesses must now, more than ever, ensure that they are effectively managing IT costs – not just in terms of cost cutting, but also in terms of optimizing investments and reinvesting in the tools and technology that will enable them to keep up with the overall business strategy. Fortunately, there are ten basic actions that firms may take to ensure efficient and simplified IT expense control.
Step 1: Make a complete list of IT services
The construction of an IT service catalog is the beginning point for IT cost control. This catalog provides a complete overview of individual IT services, including information about their purpose, location, and pricing. A concise and comprehensive description establishes criteria for offered services and helps to bridge the gap between departments.
Step 2: Keep a close eye on IT expenses
The control of the value chain, from the lowest cost units to final business units, is one of the most significant tools for efficient IT cost tracking. Comprehensive access to this data can be ensured with the use of service catalogs, benchmarks, and IT Financial Management (ITFM) or Technology Business Management (TBM) solutions, resulting in a ‘cost-to-service flow’ that identifies and manages the availability of IT costs.
Step 3: Determine IT budgets
Even if IT expenditures are completely transparent, there are three techniques to allocating IT budgets: centralized, decentralized, and iterative. The budget is decided in advance and dispersed to operating cost centers and projects in a top-down procedure with a centralized approach, allowing for easy and tight budget allocation. However, if you take this strategy, you run the danger of missing out on projects that could help you expand. The procedure is reversed with the decentralized approach. Before budgeting and deciding on initiatives, operating costs are meticulously calculated. On the negative side, budget demands may outstrip available resources.
Finally, the iterative technique aims to combine the two approaches. Set budgets, overhead, and potential initiatives are all combined to create a complete analysis of the best course of action. Although the most rewarding approach, it also demands the most resources. None of these approaches is inherently better than the others. Instead, it is determined by the available resources and the structure of the company.
Step 4: Organize the IT budget in order to expand the company
It’s critical to divide costs into two categories before allocating IT budget: ‘run’ and ‘grow’ costs. ‘Run’ expenses are typically running costs, but ‘grow’ costs are all services and products designed to improve, transform, or develop the firm. Benchmarks and standard definitions can aid categorization, although they are not required to be followed as long as cost allocation is constant. The IT budget must be allocated and decisions made on how to split the budget once definitions have been properly defined and projects assigned. While most businesses use a 70/30 split, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, and decisions will be based on a variety of criteria such as resource availability and the overall goals of the company.
Step 5: Maintain a profit margin that is positive
Organizations can achieve complete transparency in terms of which products and services are supplied, where IT costs originate, and where budgets are allocated by following the procedures outlined above. This makes determining how much of the IT budget is spent and where costs contribute to profits and losses considerably easier. If the profit margin is positive, the controlling processes can be improved further; if the profit margin is negative, appropriate and timely remedial measures can be implemented.
Step 6: Comply with tax laws
Tax compliance is another crucial aspect of complete IT cost control. The more a company’s business operates worldwide, the more important it is to keep up with changing international tax legislation. IT products and services sold in other countries are subject to local tax rules, and it is vital to produce accurate transfer pricing documentation to guarantee that these laws are followed correctly. This, in turn, is contingent on three factors:
1) Analyze and calculate IT services based on the value chain in a transparent manner.
2) A review of the services used and the billing processes that go with them
3) Management of service contracts between providers and consumers, which serve as the legal foundation for IT services.
It is possible to demonstrate worldwide tax compliance by achieving the transparency offered by the preceding procedures.
Step 7: Determine the value of IT services by benchmarking and pricing them
Collecting benchmark data is the first step in pricing IT services. Existing ITFM solutions that can obtain them automatically from several – interconnected – databases can be used to research or determine them. Then, in order to specify clearly and effectively how much specific IT services – and their preliminary products – cost, a unit cost calculation is required. Before making pricing decisions, organizations can readily compare internal unit cost computations with benchmarks and competitive prices.
Step 8: Determine the cost drivers
A well-modeled value chain reveals which IT services or connected preparatory goods, as well as cost centers, suffer the highest expenses and why. This analysis enables cost adjustments to be made quickly and avoids misunderstandings regarding cost drivers, such as the relevance of infrastructure in the development of IT expenditures. Then, techniques for efficiently reducing IT expenditures and determining more careful use of expensive resources can be established.
Step 9: Charge back IT costs
The value chain allows for effective usage-based billing and invoicing of IT services and goods. IT costs can be simply attributed to IT customers if they are visualized publicly. This increases the openness of the invoicing process and allows for more in-depth analysis of the value of IT. Managers and users can be informed about their consumption in one of two ways: through the showback process, which highlights expenses generated and how they are incurred, or through the chargeback process, which sends costs directly to customers and subcontractors.
Step 10: Manage supply and demand
Excel spreadsheets’ manual nature poses a danger to data integrity and should be avoided because they are impossible to keep up to date all of the time and demand a large amount of effort to maintain. A more comprehensive analysis and higher cost transparency yields a broader, more detailed overall picture of IT service consumption, allowing timely conclusions to be reached and the supply and demand for IT services in various business sectors to be optimized.
Controlling the situation
A safe, transparent, and long-term IT cost control environment can be developed by following the procedures above. Budgets can be better used, IT costs reduced, and overall productivity increased dramatically. Ignoring this advise may not necessarily cause a firm to collapse, but it will seriously impede overall business performance and growth if you do not keep up with the ever-changing conditions of the present market landscape.
Cost-cutting goals and success rates
• Expectations for growth are high. Despite economic concerns, 80 percent of respondents anticipate an increase in revenue during the next 24 months.
• Thriving in Uncertainty is a strategic conundrum. Globally, the top two cost-cutting drivers are both tied to growth. The next five cost-cutting factors, on the other hand, are all defensive in nature, demonstrating that, while growth is the top strategic priority, businesses across the globe are also preparing for unpredictability by getting various areas of their cost structure into fighting form.
Cost-cutting catalysts
• Improving cost-cutting abilities. Forecasting, budgeting, and reporting (55 percent); new rules and procedures (51%); and IT infrastructure, IT systems, and business intelligence platforms (51 percent) are the top three emphasis areas (49 percent).
• Approaches to cost management haven’t changed dramatically. Companies anticipate to apply the same cost-cutting strategies as in the past, such as “targeted measures” and “intensified productivity programs,” although zero-based budgeting will drop from 15% to 11% globally.
• The most difficult aspect is implementation. According to 53% of respondents, this is the most significant impediment to efficient cost management.
• Tactical actions are still the most prevalent. Many businesses questioned continue to prioritize tactical cost-cutting measures (40%) like optimizing business operations and lowering external spending over strategic cost-cutting measures (33%) like outsourcing, centralization, and business reconfiguration. The magnitude of cost savings that can be obtained is limited by this tactical approach.
The Cost Management Evolution
In the age of digital disruption, margin improvement is possible.
Given the present low success rates for cost reduction, digital disruption — and the exponential technologies that drive it — are going to be major issues that firms must consider in the future as they attempt to decrease costs and boost margins in a sustainable manner.
Digital disruption is already regarded as a key external risk in the United States, according to our survey findings. It does, however, open up hitherto unimagined possibilities. While digital disruption is now less of a priority for organizations in other countries, given the exponential speed and effect of digital technology, their viewpoints could change very fast.
Digital disruption is regarded as a potential threat from the outside.
Companies in every corner of the world should grasp the potential impact to capitalize on the opportunities, particularly in the areas of automation, analytics, and cognitive technologies, to avoid falling behind. Unlike traditional tactical and structural cost approaches, which may be nearing or past their peak, exponential cost solutions are just getting started and have the potential to produce increased savings over time.
Companies may be able to generate sustained cost savings of 30% or more as digital technology enable more innovation in business and operating models, disrupting entire industries. Disruption is unavoidable in an increasingly digital society. Instead of allowing other companies to disrupt them, businesses should become disruptors themselves.
Case Study: IT Cost Optimization (UK Insurance & Investments)
The Challenge
TORI was asked by the client to assess their current Software Asset Management (SAM) renewals process. The Head of Service Improvement had initially chosen 11 priority suppliers. TORI was hired to help with the overarching goal of cost reduction by:
• Cost savings of 10-15% of the IT cost base must be identified.
• Simplify the vendor ecosystem, as well as the underlying Software Asset Management (SAM) renewal processes and business model.
What was done
• Renewed vendor contracts and reviewed high-level contracts Duplication of Vendor Services was discovered.
• For Salesforce, Microsoft, and ServiceNow, suggestions were made for key vendor contracts and service reviews.
• Process reviews were conducted, resulting in the identification of transformation and project cost reductions.
• With the SAM and Procurement departments, meetings were held and evaluated pertinent documentation.
• Reviewed and established an IT Asset Management (ITAM) and BAU TOM methodology, including a high-level implementation roadmap.
• Reviewing and defining a strategy for implementing a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) operating model, as well as identifying potential first-pass cost-cutting opportunities.
Outcomes & Results
• TORI evaluated current operating models (especially for SAM procedures) and made improvements, highlighting potential savings of £500k.
• TORI identified further savings of £1.38 million to be realized over a 12-month period after completing an in-depth review of suppliers to validate the cost reduction measures and overall strategy. TORI provided recommendations on how the organization’s efficiency can be significantly enhanced by implementing the appropriate Operating Model, Process, People, and tooling within ITAM and also within key business functions.
• TORI devised a plan for implementation (initial execution plan)
Course Manual 5: Resource Allocation
Organizations undergoing IT transitions rapidly discover that the software developers entrusted with developing their solutions are their most valuable resource. A three-pronged approach is one effective way to allocate resources:
1. Concentrate your engineers’ efforts on developing market-leading features and capabilities.
2. Hire outside help to create and integrate non-differentiating services that aren’t available off the market.
3. For the rest, use low-cost SaaS solutions.
These hybrid approaches are more differentiated, faster to create, and of higher quality than those developed exclusively in-house. Businesses gain from better budget alignment with market needs, as well as increased internal staff satisfaction and engagement.
Allocating Resources to Compete and Succeed
IT Transformation, Cloud Migration, Containerization, and DevOps are all parts of a larger corporate strategy to improve agility in hyper-competitive industries. Businesses must constantly sharpen their differentiators and respond quickly to market risks to stay competitive.
Successful businesses have redirected their resources in response to market developments. Internal teams have been working on developing distinct differentiators as well as overseeing and evolving the overall solution. Customizations such as integrations and non-differentiating features have been outsourced to complementary technical firms that can collaborate closely with in-house teams. Finally, SaaS solutions were leveraged to deliver the remaining conventional services, which are commoditized and will not differentiate the offering but are required table stakes.
Optimize Your Resources to Fit Your Project Needs
Most firms have begun to outsource fundamental capabilities to SaaS providers as part of their IT transformation, and many have reached the stage where they have outsourced the majority of the services they can reasonably outsource. This, however, is not the conclusion of the change process. The next stage is to outsource the development of services that aren’t available as SaaS but don’t require in-house development. This is not only conceivable, but desired and advantageous with the appropriate partner.
Not every development project is a good candidate for outsourcing to a partner. However, there are several common project features that make determining when an outside team can assist easier.
• Commodity Services: Off-the-shelf, commercial software services delivering basic application functionality.
• Customized Services: Necessary custom microservices that tie together commodity services and link them with differentiators.
• Differentiating Services: Distinctive services that deliver the major unique features and functions of a business offering.
The left-hand pyramid depicts the proportion of features in a typical solution that fall into each of the three categories—the majority of attributes are commodities, and just a handful are actually distinguishing. A proprietary ad buying system for a digital music service, for example, is necessary, but it will not differentiate the whole business, whereas a recommendation service may. Similarly, a data analysis and insight pipeline would be beneficial to a healthcare service provider, but it would not distinguish their service from that of a patient-centric mobile application, which could be the difference between market success and failure.
The normal staffing allocation for the three categories is depicted in the inverted pyramid on the right. Most firms currently devote a considerable portion of their in-house technical resources—the people who know your company inside and out—to the distinctive services that drive revenue and growth. There are, however, more effective methods to employ the 15% of your development team dedicated to non-differentiating features.
Don’t Try to Do Everything Yourself
While a few large companies perform all of their development in-house, most companies should take a more cost-effective approach. Businesses risk falling behind more focused competitors and diluting their total value if 15% of software engineering resources are committed to developing services that are significant but not differentiators. To achieve a successful IT transformation, custom features that link off-the-shelf cloud services and internal systems while satisfying specific business demands are frequently required; this work is usually a suitable fit for outsourcing.
Even for organizations with efficient and mature procedures, outsourcing is an expensive and time-consuming solution. Hiring, onboarding, and training new workers can take months and cost a lot of money (how many interviews will your hiring managers have to go through?). Independent contractors face the same recruiting and training challenges as employees, and someone must be responsible for retaining and overseeing them.
Hiring a new team and training them to the same level of competency as present non-differentiating services workers would take months and cost a lot of money. Backfilling these current positions with an embedded outsourced workforce will immediately free up your own expertise, allowing them to work on higher-impact projects. Developing distinctive and differentiating features is also some of the most rewarding and demanding technical work you can do to keep your best employees interested and dedicated to your company. This is really valuable: how else can you get a highly-skilled team of your own employees to start working on new, high-value features right now?
Outsourcing Service Development
If you think you have the right project and want to outsource microservice development successfully, keep the following ‘Must-Dos’ and ‘Challenges’ in mind.
Must-Dos:
• Identify service demands that are critical to your business’s performance, can’t be purchased as a SaaS off the shelf, but don’t set you apart from your competition.
• Make sure the project’s timetable, budget, and scope are all well stated. Insist on a preliminary rough design that will result in firm agreements from all project participants.
• Look for a development partner who is familiar with your industry and technology stack; respectable companies should be happy to share references and case studies.
• Hire a firm that can deliver in-person, high-touch participation, particularly during the project’s early and late stages. Remote and distributed teams are fine, but getting to know the people who will be working with you is crucial to establishing trust and ensuring the engagement’s success.
Challenges:
• Having a dedicated internal team lead (often a product manager or engineering manager) is critical to knowledge sharing and program success. Moving the majority of your in-house team to focus on differentiators while maintaining a project lead with the development partner team can give the best mix of outsourcing, knowledge transfer, and cooperation.
• Development firms are usually paid out of capital budgets, whereas in-house teams are compensated out of operating budgets. When hiring a development firm, make sure there is budget flexibility and that you know who to work with in your finance department.
• Be wary of open-ended engagements in which consultants “keep the meter running” without being held accountable for deliverables with set deadlines. Because we make the effort to set expectations up front and then deliver on them, we have many satisfied clients that rehire us numerous times at SPAN.
The benefits of resource allocation
There’s a reason resource allocation is a major priority for businesses of all sizes, from large corporations to small firms. As previously said, things can quickly spiral out of control, resulting in staff burnout, poor performance, and missed deadlines.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of resource allocation.
Create resource and cost efficiencies
Although hiring and maintaining resources is costly, it should not break your budget. But that’s what happens when you hire people you don’t require. Or, even worse, overworking your team and having to deal with underperformance and missed deadlines.
You can monitor the availability of resources and timelines for projects in the pipeline if you have the tools.
Resource allocation can help you avoid splurging on resources you don’t need in the long run. And it avoids overworking teams, which can cause members to resign due to fatigue.
Software for resource allocation also provides you with a better picture of your skill pool. It makes it easier to choose the finest personnel for each project and activity, increasing the chances of success. What’s the bottom line? More revenue for your company.
Improve team wellbeing and morale
A burnt-out workforce can be the result of poor resource management. When that happens, everything else falls apart: productivity plummets, performance levels plummet, and happiness vanishes. According to reports:
• Employees who are burned out are 63 percent more likely to call in sick and 2.6 times more likely to look for new work.
• Employees agree that workplace stress has an impact on their mental health, with 76% agreeing.
• Workplace stress is predicted to cost employers $500 billion in lost productivity and 550 million wasted workdays.
When allocating resources properly, it’s important to consider actual availability rather than what’s written on paper. Instead of calculating 40 hours per week per full-time employee, you take into account possible sick days, vacation time, and other work activities on their to-do list.
Taking this technique reduces the risk of overburdening personnel while also maintaining their health and morale.
Keep stakeholders in the loop
Your stakeholders want to know what’s going on with their initiatives. This usually entails receiving regular progress reports on assignments, issues, and milestones.
If you’re utilizing manual tools, you’ll waste time and be more likely to make mistakes.
You can, however, limit the number of errors and increase transparency by using resource allocation tools. It tracks work progress and sends reports to stakeholders via automation.
Perhaps this will reduce the number of daily meetings you have—and make them more efficient when you do have them.
Conclusion
Major shifts in solution development methodologies are being driven by IT transformation, cloud migration, containerization, and DevOps. With targeted assistance from outside specialists, smart firms can focus their finite resources on their most critical and distinguishing software development activities while maximizing throughput.
Course Manual 6: Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
The need for businesses to embrace all things digital is increasing in a time when digital disruption appears to be constant. Companies recognize that data, technology, and analytics are critical to their long-term success, but they don’t know how to use them effectively. Business leaders can discuss all of their IT transformation efforts, such as developing a new software app or upgrading their infrastructure. When you ask for further information about how these projects influence the bottom line, they are speechless.
The purpose of IT transformation is to streamline operations and replace manual labor with technology-based solutions. When judging success, however, many corporate leaders primarily look at high-level data like overall timeframes and project costs. The actual test of an IT transformation’s success is how the initiative affects the business. Plus, what’s the point if it doesn’t effect the bottom line at numerous levels?
Business and functional leaders, such as the C-suite and team personnel immediately affected by the changes, are responsible for monitoring and driving the detailed metrics. IT transformation is frequently a horizontal change that affects multiple teams and processes within the organization. Tracking cross-organizational metrics at multiple levels is necessary for measuring the progress of IT transformation.
Measuring IT Transformation Progress Is Critical
IT transformation entails more than simply replacing outdated technology with newer technology or automating a human operation. It’s all about shifting a company’s thinking and reimagining how it provides value to its customers.
When it comes to IT transformation, business leaders and operations teams have different perspectives. To secure support and continuous financing for further projects, leaders must demonstrate a convincing ROI on the initiatives. They want to be known as “doing” IT transformation, and they frequently point to competitors who are “doing it now.” Operations teams, on the other hand, are usually focused on putting the idea into action and meeting deadlines. They’re less concerned with how it affects their company goals or how they compare to their competition.
This is why many businesses attempt to assess the performance of their IT transformation efforts. They’ll keep track of financial and operational efficiency rates to see if the effort was successful or not. In actuality, however, these measures aren’t always accurate in determining an IT Transformation program’s true performance. According to McKinsey’s Digital Quotient report, only about 15% of organizations that use financial KPIs can effectively calculate the ROI of digital transformation efforts.
The Foundation for Progress Measurement
An IT transformation initiative, with its far-reaching implications, necessitates meticulous planning. Business leaders may be adamant about getting the project up and running soon. However, it will only succeed in the long run if you take your time and think about it properly. You’ll be able to better connect it with your overall business objectives and calculate a reasonable return on investment.
Here’s a five-step checklist that your organization may use to lay the groundwork for measuring progress.
1. Determine a specific business issue or opportunity for which the IT Transformation program can provide assistance. Improving customer service operations or raising data analytics tool adoption rates, for example.
2. Align the problem or opportunity with the company’s objectives. This ensures that all stakeholders are aware of how the changes will effect the firm and that the affected personnel are informed.
3. Calculate the initiative’s investment or cost. Include any technology and services, such as network infrastructure, applications, monitoring solutions, security, project staffing, customer support, marketing, and consulting, in as much detail as feasible.
4. Determine the value measurements that will be used to illustrate the investment’s return.
5. Establish a project timetable based on baseline figures as a starting point. Once the project is finished, you can use them as a comparison point.
This foundation is merely a part of the process for tracking your IT transformation project’s progress. Tracking certain metrics will allow you to keep track of and measure the project’s progress so that you know where it stands. Even just considering the metrics you want to track puts you ahead of the game compared to other firms undergoing digital transformation, according to Gartner, who discovered that nearly half of them have no way to track it.
How to use metrics to assure and defend the effectiveness of IT transformations
Companies may be able to make interim benefits without extensive measurements, according to a McKinsey research of digital transformation success, but they will be unable to sustain them in the long run. According to the report, the first step toward long-term success is the adoption of digital solutions that improve information accessibility across an organization, which doubles the chances of a successful transformation. When this is combined with more frequent data-driven decision-making and the visible use of interactive technologies, the odds of a successful digital transformation initiative increase.
According to the research, firms who were able to set clear goals for key performance indicators based on precise data were twice as likely to succeed in transformation as those that did not. Furthermore, firms with well defined goals for using new technologies increased their odds of success by 1.7 times. These indicators must be backed up by real-time data so that organizations can keep track of their development.
Real-time analytics show that changes can be made quickly.
Metrics must be based on real-time data as much as possible to enable for quick modifications. It only makes sense to use data for internal progress in a world where data is rapidly driving decision-making in every imaginable realm. Companies, on the other hand, frequently fail to leverage their data for this purpose.
While many companies are investing in digital tools and other technologies to improve their customer experience initiatives, just a few are effectively using real-time data to inform their decisions. The most important performance metric for businesses is the influence on customer experience, which leads to increased revenue and retention. Non-revenue and non-cost essential metrics such as brand value and Net Promoter Scores can also be used to provide a performance indicator. Real-time data is critical for ensuring that these types of indicators are accurate and useful to the company.
A recent Harvard Business Review article discusses how a CFO’s experience at Li & Fung led to the company’s success with digital transformation. Li & Fung devised a three-year transformation strategy to increase its global supply chain’s utilization of mobile apps and data. After creating precise goals and deciding which digital technologies to use, the organization used real-time data to track progress. They were able to cut the time from design to sample by 50% as a result of utilizing virtual design technology.
In addition, the company set up real-time data tracking management systems for its suppliers, which helped enhance production efficiency, and built a digital platform that combined data from customers and vendors. As a result, the company’s finance department was able to cut month-end closing time by more than 30% and boost working capital efficiency by $200 million. This highlights the several advantages of a digital transformation approach that incorporates real-time measurements.
What Metrics Should You Use to Track Digital Transformation?
The metrics you use to track the development of your company’s digital transformation are determined by your objectives. At its most basic level, any company’s primary purpose in investing in digital assets is to become more efficient and grow its business. Because it’s all about business at the end of the day, the KPIs should reflect that.
You have the power of data at your disposal, but you must choose the most important metrics and present a true image of the change. Obviously, such measures would only be conceivable if the data was real-time, allowing you to watch the shift evolve. If a change isn’t yielding the desired results, it’s easier to take control early.
But, since all of this is just rhetoric, what are the most significant KPIs to watch when it comes to digital infrastructure transformation?
Internal Productivity
A measurable internal success is the best measure of development for most businesses. Internal success refers to how the digital teams are affected by the transformation and integration of new technology. Is the process more efficient now? Is it true that fixing infrastructure issues takes less time? In the first place, how preemptive is the detection?
These questions should provide you with a reliable overview of the internal implications, which will, of course, have an indirect impact on outward success. If internal teams perform better, service delivery to customers will almost certainly improve.
Saved time
We return to the cliched adage that “time is money.” Time is one of the most useful measures for tracking your digital transformation. How much time do you save by doing the same things you always did? Money saved is the same as time saved. Manual operations can be tough to track, but not so for automated activities.
Customer Experience
Customer experience evaluation is another crucial component of any digital transformation journey. This measure varies depending on whether the business strategy is B2B, B2C, or hybrid. To track consumer contact with the new technology you’ve introduced, you’ll need real-time data. Technology can influence consumer decision-making, according to a study published in Computers in Human Behavior.
Rate of Innovation
If you’re undergoing a digital transition, you’re probably incorporating new technologies into your infrastructure. So the easiest way to gauge how significant the changes are is to look at the rate of innovation. It’s essentially a metric for how innovative a company’s procedures, services, and products are.
Efficiency in Operations
When businesses shift digitally, manual operations are frequently automated. With automation, the usual expectation is that the operation will become more efficient and cost-effective. But you won’t know unless you have the evidence to back it up. As a result, it’s critical to assess how productivity has improved overall and for specific operations.
Why Should You Use Real-Time Data?
Now that we’ve talked about which indicators matter, it’s time to talk about data, specifically real-time data. Whether you use the measurements and KPIs listed above or create your own, they should all be based on real-time data. You can appoint a team to use and analyze this information.
Given how modern businesses rely on data for essential decision-making, it should be a standard. However, if you want to make quick adjustments in the context of tracking digital transformation, the data must be real-time. When metrics don’t go your way, instead of sticking to the initial plan, you might pivot your strategy and change.
This real-time data-based transformation analysis revolves around monitoring. Teams in charge can keep an eye on the development with adequate monitoring tools installed at various layers of the infrastructure. All of those tens of thousands of data points will help executives see information.
To put it another way, real-time monitoring is critical to digital transformation, and this is where many businesses go wrong. With the recent modifications, if you haven’t employed powerful monitoring for your infrastructure before, you should. You can’t measure some critical metrics until you monitor system performance.
From servers to applications, the VirtualMetric monitoring tools set covers all aspects of the IT architecture. It can detect flaws in your security protocols while focusing on performance. This brings us to another crucial aspect of transformation monitoring: security.
Real-time data, particularly concerning network technology, might aid in the detection of security flaws that may arise as a result of the digital transformation. You don’t want to take one step forward and then back two. As a result, monitoring doubles as a security assessment of the new infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
IT transformation spending is estimated to reach approximately $2 trillion by 2022. You can understand the damage if we return to the first statistic, which states that 70% of businesses fail. Make sure your company isn’t one of them by relying on powerful metrics that are based on real-time data.
Monitoring performance will be critical to achieving the transformation’s objectives. Of course, your approach and timing are equally important. However, you must determine this before executing the adjustments.
Course Manual 7: Roles & Responsibilities
What are the roles that an IT transformation team requires?
Eight important positions are required for a successful IT transformation. That isn’t to say the team is just made up of eight persons. Each IT transformation project team has 12 to 20 individuals on average. Each of the following job descriptions is filled by numerous persons in most companies:
1. Business-technology liaisons
Business-technology liaisons are essential to the success of IT transformation programs. These are individuals who are knowledgeable in business concepts, customer service difficulties, and technology strategies. To discover challenges or possibilities, they constantly contact with business unit executives in areas such as sales, corporate marketing, product development, and customer experience. They make the connections between whether technology can be used to address issues or take advantage of opportunities. They present the challenges and suggested solutions to the technology leaders if there is a link.
2. Technologists
The technologists get to work after the business issue that has to be transformed is discovered. They are experts in cutting-edge applications, services, and solutions that will assist in achieving the objective. They’re vital for deciding on the correct technology and providers, as well as determining whether the IT transformation project will be a technical success or failure.
3. Experts in security and compliance
IT team leaders frequently prefer to wait until the end of a project to consult with security and compliance experts. Unfortunately, doing so puts the project in jeopardy because their advice could bring the project to a halt if the technology, design, or applications break security regulations. Include them from the beginning so that you can work together to handle any issues that arise that are security or compliance-related.
4. Evangelists
When the aforementioned positions give their approval to a project, evangelists create excitement and raise funds for it. They have clout and excellent communication abilities. Perhaps they maintain a popular corporate blog or create a weekly video that is well welcomed by staff and/or customers. Those in charge of budgets want the evangelists to provide an objective evaluation of the initiative.
5. Financial stakeholders
They control the money for IT transformation initiatives and can usually persuade other budget holders to provide additional funding if necessary. They don’t have to attend every meeting, but they do have enough IT knowledge to demand weekly, monthly, or quarterly updates to ensure the project stays on track, depending on the scale of the project. Finally, they want to track the project’s business advantages to determine whether their budget was effectively spent and the estimated ROI is feasible. C-level executives are often the ultimate financial stakeholders; at Metrigy, we’ve discovered that 70 percent of funding choices are decided by people in the C-suite.
6. Project supervisors
Now it’s up to the project or program managers to create specific project plans. They are in charge of keeping the project staffed, on track, and within budget. They plan meetings, create calendars, raise early warning signs when something is going awry, and reset expectations.
7. Marketers
Too often, IT departments provide new technology to improve customer experiences, but employees are unsure why they should utilize it. Because IT professionals are not marketing experts, don’t underestimate this crucial job. Marketers are aware of the project’s business aim, the technology’s impact, and the most successful ways to communicate all of this to employees, customers, and/or business partners. They can promote the transformation in a way that excites customers and makes them ready to interact with the organization if they understand the customers — those affected by the IT transformation endeavor.
8. Implementation leads
These are the people who put the IT transformation plan into action. They are in charge of technological and process changes. The technology implementation leaders concentrate on the technology’s actual installation. The process implementation leads concentrate on the transformation’s change management. Of course, in both scenarios, additional personnel are responsible for the daily implementations.
In addition to the specialized team responsibilities, Metrigy discovered that 38.6% of businesses have an IT transformation advisory board, which consists of 11 people with an IT or technical background and nine people with a business background on average. The board meets on a monthly (44.8%) or quarterly (2.3%) basis to provide guidance on transformation projects, aid in identifying key personnel to assist in the next project, and ensure that consumers benefit from the improvements.
In reality, many of the transformation initiatives are customer-centric. Projects have focused on improving the customer journey as the C-suite has become more aware of the power of the consumer via social media and rankings. Organizations get a competitive advantage by utilizing technology to improve customer experience. By the end of 2021, 58.5 percent of businesses will have completed or are in the process of completing a customer experience transformation project.
Responsibilities, Roles, and Skills
A project, or a series of projects, will be part of any program, regardless of its structure, objective, or end (or a mix of projects and other programs). That is to say, projects are there by default in every program, and as a result, certain project management responsibilities must also be present. Project manager, customer, senior user, planning coordinator, and other roles fall into this category. Managing Successful Programs focuses on the major roles inside a program that differ from those of project management; specifically, what is referred to as the program board (OGC, 2007).
The Sponsor
The sponsor is the highest-ranking member of the program’s management team. There are frequently multiple sponsors or sponsoring groups in large programs. The sponsor has a number of important obligations, some of which are sometimes overlooked to the program’s detriment. Seniority, however, is frequently the reason they are overlooked.
Sponsor responsibilities include:
• Authorizing the program based on its mandate and business case;
• Appointing a senior responsible owner (SRO) to represent the sponsor’s interests;
• Approving and authorizing the program’s funding;
• Working with top stakeholders to resolve cross-program and strategic concerns;
• Evaluating the program’s progress in relation to the organization’s strategy and goals;
• Showing “visible” support for the initiative and its management;
• “Leading by example” the program’s revolutionary shift; and
• At the program’s conclusion, confirming successful delivery and signs-of.
Skills and attributes of the sponsor
The sponsor is a very senior member of the organization due to his or her position. He or she should have a clear strategy vision, excellent entrepreneurial abilities, high organizational credibility, and a thorough understanding of the business.
The Senior Responsible Owner is in charge of everything (SRO)
The sponsor or a member of the sponsoring group is frequently the SRO. The sponsors designate them to represent them in the program organization, and they are ultimately accountable for ensuring that the program achieves its overall goals. The SRO must have the authority to act on behalf of the sponsors.
The SRO’s Responsibilities
• Keeping the vision and business case viable;
• obtaining funding from sponsors;
• leading the program to completion;
• managing important “strategic” risks; maintaining strategic alignment between the program and the organization; and
• interacting with senior stakeholders
The SRO’s abilities and characteristics
The SRO is a senior member of the organization, just like the sponsor. He or she must be a strong leader with the ability to make crucial judgments. The SRO should be able to maintain focus on the program’s strategic objectives.
The Program Manager
The program manager can be thought of as a “super” project manager. Since this person is in charge of planning and governance, as well as overseeing the effective delivery of the program’s output/product, his or her position is mostly operational.
Although business knowledge is crucial, his or her program management skills are emphasized more. The program manager must have prior experience managing big and complicated projects as a project manager.
The program manager’s responsibilities
• Defining the program governance (controls);
• Planning the overall program and monitoring progress;
• Managing the program’s budget;
• Managing risks and issues and taking corrective measures;
• Coordinating the projects and their interdependencies;
• Managing and utilizing resources across projects;
• Managing stakeholders’ communication;
• Aligning the deliverables (outputs) to the program’s objectives
The program manager’s abilities and characteristics
The program manager must have extensive project management experience, preferably earned via the administration of large and complex projects. He or she must possess the following qualities:
• Strong leadership and management skills;
• Good understanding of the program’s overall objectives;
• Ability to work positively with a diverse group of people involved in program management;
• Strong leadership and management skills;
• Good knowledge of budgeting and resource allocation procedures; and
• The ability to come up with creative solutions to problems.
The Business Change Manager (BCM)
The management and achievement of benefits is one of the key contrasts between program management and project management. That is, the clear and measurable added value that the integration and use of the newly supplied capacity brings.
Unlike project management, which is concerned with outputs (products or deliverables), program management is concerned with outcomes, or the final result achieved through the use of such outputs.
The BCM’s duty is to plan and manage the benefits realization process by integrating the new capacity into existing business processes. The BCM is an important member of the “business,” and while program management experience is beneficial, the BCM’s knowledge of business processes and the organization’s strategic goals is more important.
Where the program has an impact on more than one business area, a BCM for each of these areas should be chosen, with one serving as the senior BCM.
The business change manager’s responsibilities
• Defining and tracking the key performance indicators for benefit realization;
• Managing “business continuity” during the change;
• Advising the program manager on whether the outputs and outcomes will lead to the realization of the benefits;
• Optimizing the timing of the delivery of new deliverables into business operations; and
• Possibly introducing new business processes.
The qualities and skills of a company change manager
The BCM must have a solid background in the relevant business areas affected by the program, as well as continuous operational responsibilities in those areas. He or she should have a solid awareness of the organization’s management structure, politics, and culture, as well as good change management skills and enough expertise to manage extremely complicated situations while staying focused on the program’s goals. In addition, the BCM should have strong negotiation, interpersonal, chaos management, and prioritization abilities.
The Program Management Office (PMO)
The program management office performs similar tasks to the project management office, but on a bigger scale, at a higher level, and with a broader view.
If the program is distributed nationally or globally, the PMO can range from one person functioning as “program support” to a huge team of people, and it can have multiple locations. It can be set up to serve a single program or it can be a long-term structure that supports all of the organization’s programs, in which case it is linked to the organization’s permanent project management office. The program office manager is the person in charge of the PMO’s functions.
The Program Management Office’s Responsibilities
• establishing tools and standards for program management;
• planning, tracking, and reporting on outputs and outcomes;
• information and logistics management;
• financial planning and tracking;
• risk and issue tracking;
• cross-project interdependency management;
• establishing quality control standards and tracking implementation;
• establishing and tracking change control procedures; and
• developing stakeholders’ maps, defining each group’s interests.
Additional responsibilities for a permanent PMO include:
• strategic oversight and reporting on all programs to senior management;
• in-house consulting for projects and programs;
• training for project and program management teams;
• and project and program auditing and health checks.
The program office manager’s(POM) skills and qualities
The skills required for the program office manager differ significantly from those required for the program manager. The program manager position is a hands-on position that necessitates excellent leadership and interpersonal abilities. The POM’s role, on the other hand, is a hands-off one that necessitates strong management discipline and communication skills. The role of the POM is to assist the program and its management team.
The skills and attributes of the POM should include:
• Long expertise in effective program management should be among the POM’s abilities and qualifications;
• Solid competency in program and project management approaches;
• Strong knowledge and experience in the use of numerous tools to enhance program management;
• Ability to put theory into practice;
• Clarity during chaos; and
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
Course Manual 8: Project Prioritization
Every company must make the decision to embrace technology. Digital natives make up a substantial section of the population, and their numbers are only likely to grow in the future. Better, smarter, digitally empowered tools are being used by your competitors to improve the consumer and employee experience. The question for company leaders is no longer IF they should go digital, but HOW they should go digital.
So, here’s the deal: Prioritization.
We shall cover how to deal with the inevitability of competing priorities in this Course Manual. Even if you have a list of goals for your digital transformation (which is difficult enough), a common area of contention and discussion is the priority of which initiatives are most critical at any given time. Of course, everyone wants to tackle all of the problems and increase their profits, but which of the issues is the most pressing right now? How can we rank the problems and their remedies in order of importance?
It’s data, which is a pleasant surprise.
In a research conducted by Forrester in 2020, less than half of companies said they made decisions based on quantitative data rather than gut feel, experience, or opinion. While such things are still important, businesses in the digital era (which includes everyone reading this) may add data-driven insight to the mix.
Do you ever think to yourself, “I don’t have the data!”? Actually, you do; you just don’t make collecting and analyzing it a priority.
So, what’s the first thing you should do? Collecting valuable data should be a top priority. Then, using that information, determine what steps 2, 3, and N should be.
Let’s imagine a company that might not be the first to spring to mind when it comes to technology – an adult social care provider – to demonstrate how this notion applies to any business in any industry.
In the following six months, John, the company’s director, aims to build ten new offices. He is well aware that his recruitment processes are laborious and lengthy, and that he receives numerous complaints from employees about a legacy scheduling system. He knows he’ll have to hire a lot of people, so he wants to set up systems to automate as much of the process as possible. He’s also aware that the scheduling system’s workload would expand, potentially jeopardizing the organization’s ability to supply services. But which is the most important?
The data will determine the answer. Neither of these tasks should be John’s top priority. His top focus should be determining which factors will have the greatest impact on his company’s scalability.
IT transformation is a journey, and the beauty of it is that you can stop at any moment and change your course. There’s nothing wrong with having a lot of projects on your plate. However, you must make effective data prioritization a priority.
Prioritization of IT Projects: How to Choose What to Work on and When to Work on It
When it comes to IT initiatives, there is usually a big list of to-do tasks, all of which appear urgent to stakeholders. When you don’t have the time or resources to do everything at once, prioritizing tasks becomes critical. Effective prioritization can assist IT teams with time management, allowing all members to work more efficiently, and ensuring that the most vital projects are tackled first.
Prioritizing IT jobs, on the other hand, is not an easy undertaking. It can be frustrating and inefficient to try to prioritize tasks appropriately when there are so many various stakeholders involved, all of whom seem to have different perspectives about how projects should be handled. Implementing some project prioritization tactics and developing a prioritization system, on the other hand, can make this work more efficient and effective.
Project Prioritization Techniques
The following are a few items your company might consider adding as part of its priority system:
Evaluating Projects in the Light of Strategic Planning
Before you start prioritizing, take some time to gather all of the information your team will need to effectively arrange tasks. Working with the leadership team to acquire a complete grasp of the company’s overarching vision, the path it plans to take, and the timing for any major shifts should all be part of the information gathering process. Consider involving all project managers in strategic-level planning to have a better understanding of these difficulties. The IT staff will be better positioned to prioritize projects by having a better awareness of and keeping in mind the company’s strategic-level planning.
Identifying the Motivating Factors for Each Project
Similarly, it’s useful to know what motivates each project as part of the information gathering process. Is a project, for example, aimed at acquiring a competitive advantage, financial gain, process improvement, legal or tax regulations, quality improvement, risk reduction, or business growth? Understanding the dynamics that drive each project is critical information for your team to have before placing orders.
Identifying Any Issues That Could Jeopardize The Project’s Completion Or Success
Another aspect that must be considered is anything that may have an impact on the project’s completion. Do you have a project that can only be completed after another team completes a task, for example? Or one that is reliant on variables that are outside the company’s control? If that’s the case, it’s critical to recognize those concerns so you can keep them in mind while deciding which projects to tackle first.
Creating a Matrix Based on Criteria
Create an objective system for weighing and assessing projects once you’ve acquired all of the essential information. Making a criteria-based matrix is a good approach to do this and create a model that can be used again and again. This will allow your team to score each project based on predetermined criteria, resulting in an objective, data-driven method for job prioritization.
Sharing the Prioritization List with the Leadership and Management Team
Before you start working on a project list, make sure to share it with management and the leadership team. In addition to sharing this list with stakeholders, it’s a good idea to go over the matrix with them so they can see how projects were evaluated. This ensures that everyone is on the same page about which projects will be prioritized, and it helps to set clear expectations. It also provides an additional opportunity for feedback and input before the stated plan is implemented.
Creating and Using a Criteria-Based Matrix to Prioritize Projects Effectively
While acquiring and sharing information is vital, developing and using a criteria-based matrix is likely the most significant technique to ensuring that prioritization is done strategically, objectively, and successfully. All IT stakeholders must be involved in the development of the matrix.
With all of these people at the table, the first step is to decide on the criteria that will be used to evaluate initiatives. These criteria will be unique to each company and should be tailored to the priorities and needs of your organization. However, it’s critical to make sure that these criteria can be tested accurately and quickly when creating them. The following are some examples of common criteria:
• Competitive advantage
• Customer satisfaction
• Implementation ease
• Revenue potential
After you’ve defined your criteria, assign a weight to each one on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least important and 5 being the most significant.
You can use the matrix to evaluate specific projects once the criteria have been set and weighted. Rate each project on the impact it will have on each criterion given, using a comparable 1 to 5 scale. A rating of 1 indicates that a project will have the least positive influence on a specific criterion, whilst a rating of 5 indicates that the project will have the most positive impact on the criterion.
Simply multiply the rating and weight to achieve a score for each criterion after grading each project based on its influence on each criterion indicated. To establish the order in which projects should be addressed, tally up the scores for each project.
Implementing Prioritization Strategies Easily and Effectively
The process of prioritizing IT jobs can be tedious and difficult even with solid techniques and procedures in place. After all, it entails a large number of people, many of whom have differing objectives and viewpoints on how projects should be handled. Keep these suggestions in mind to help alleviate this stress and make planning more productive:
• Make the process data-driven. Make sure you have all relevant facts and data with you before you meet down with a team to prioritize projects. Using statistics to assist contextualize issues and the impact that projects will have can help limit the amount of time that opinions and “gut feelings” drive or distract the process.
• Be consistent with your criteria. Consistency in the criteria used in the planning matrix is another technique to lessen the impact of individual ideas and wants. This guarantees that organizational priorities, rather than departmental aspirations or an individual’s unfounded judgment of how projects should be handled, remain at the forefront of the process.
• Come together around a common objective. Another strategy to make sure the prioritization process is focused on the proper issues is to make sure that everyone participating agrees on and is united around the same organizational goals. Prioritization will be more focused and effective if everyone is aligned on the same top-level goals.
• Set priorities with a deadline in mind. It’s helpful to provide a time frame when working with teams to prioritize initiatives. It’s easier for a department or team member to comprehend that a project won’t be completed “this month” or “this quarter” than it is to hear that it won’t be completed. This minor adjustment can have a significant impact on the prioritization process and the reception of the prioritized list.
Prioritizing IT projects is neither simple or quick, but it is a necessary step in assuring the success of IT teams. Taking the time to go through this process ensures that the team gets the knowledge it needs to prioritize jobs and that the most critical projects are tackled first. It also aids in the establishment of cross-organizational communication, clear expectations, and transparency regarding project rankings. If your company doesn’t already have a project prioritization system in place, start working with IT stakeholders and the executive team as soon as possible to develop one that can be used consistently.
Course Manual 9: Quality Management
A Digital Quality Management Framework
The ultimate purpose of Quality Management is to ensure data integrity while ensuring product quality. Organizations must maximize their quality function in light of the major regulatory and technological changes that continue to occur. To that aim, we believe there are six fundamental imperatives that should be considered.
1. EQMS
Any digital quality framework must include an Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS). The goal of an EQMS is to ensure that content and business processes are managed for quality and compliance throughout the value chain. It’s a quality management platform that works with the IT architecture and data model, allowing cross-functional communication and cooperation.
It is critical that the EQMS is not compartmentalized. To make educated decisions, quality data should be collected and exploited across the enterprise.
The EQMS must also have a connection to other corporate systems, such as ERP, PLM, supplier quality, vendor management, and other enterprise systems. Those interfaces are crucial because they are where data is stored, and having access to that data is essential for making decisions.
The EQMS must also be transportable. It cannot take place in a single location, region, or area. The EQMS must allow users to access data from any location, at any time, and in any way.
2. Transition
The company and quality organization must also move from a “deliverable mindset” to a “data mindset” in order to achieve optimal digital quality transformation. Quality groups have long been known for focusing solely on deliverables (hunting for elusive “approvals” on deliverables). Although this is an important component of the quality organization’s goal, when considering transition, the focus should be on the data that drives many of those deliveries rather than the deliverables themselves. By shifting to a data mindset, you can identify and focus on a large number of efficiencies and improvements. Once a centralized data model has been created and implemented, the data will be available. Organizations must transition to a centralized data model from data stored in multiple silos across the quality organization (i.e. business quality data, IT quality data, product quality data, and supplier quality data). This unified data format allows for more and better access not only for internal usage, but also for customers and vendors.
3. Connected
It is necessary to connect all of the company’s systems. Silos between systems must be broken down with the purpose of achieving data interoperability, not just for one type of data – supplier data, product data, process data, metrics. Everything must be connected and accessible at all times. The lack of a comprehensive image or view of that data could lead to erroneous business judgments.
Organizations should aim for 90 percent of items to be compliant with their EQMS. This goal has a direct bearing on lowering the cost of poor quality. According to recent studies, once an EQMS deployment is initiated and connection across critical systems is established, the cost of poor quality drops by at least 2% to 5%.
4. Availability
Many businesses treat data as though it were a valuable asset that can only be accessed by those with a need to know. To be effective in any digital quality optimization initiative, this must alter. Data must be available depending on a person’s role, process area, location, or other criteria. That data must be accessible to everyone. When data silos are reduced or eliminated, efficiency and process compliance skyrocket, owing to employees making judgments based on the facts they need to make key decisions.
5. Empowered
Employees and other support workers are empowered by the data’s availability across the firm. Providing them with the technology and resources they need to make the best judgments, as well as access to data from across the business, aids them in making the best decisions. This leads to better decision-making and lower quality-control costs by optimizing current processes.
6. Analytics
Analytics is a critical component of the framework for extracting insights from a company’s data. Analytics enables organizations to move from a reactive to a proactive strategy by allowing them to comprehend the data structures and locations. Decisions are made based on data that is available for processes that can assist avoid quality problems with a proactive approach. This could prevent a CAPA or nonconformance, for example. Being proactive also entails being able to recognize and understand trends.
Conclusion
Data must be at the heart of company decision-making in order to build a successful digital quality framework. An EQMS can aid in the quality and compliance management of content and business processes throughout the value chain. Everyone who needs access to the data should be able to get it, and employees should feel empowered to use it. Data duplication and, as a result, errors can be avoided if all systems are linked together. Finally, analytics should be used to help the quality organization go from a reactive to a proactive state.
Why it Matters to You
The digital transformation of the quality function is a high goal for many firms. The reason for this is that it gives enormous benefits to the company.
• Organizations are able to improve product quality and data integrity.
• By leveraging new technologies, the quality function can focus on other important priorities.
• By empowering its people, the quality function can have improved and faster results.
Quality assurance in the different areas
1. DevOps Testing
DevOps is becoming an important aspect of every organization’s strategy since it allows for faster, more frequent, and more reliable development of goods, apps, and solutions. With continuous integration and continuous deployment, the focus is on business agility and rapid release cycles.
DevOps improves an organization’s efficiency by facilitating effective execution, minimizing repeated work, and automating manual operations.
2. Cloud Testing
As more companies migrate to cloud solutions such as public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, the demand for cloud testing is growing. As a result, some cloud functionalities such as performance, scalability, and redundancy must be verified and validated.
The process of assessing the performance and reliability of web applications distributed in the cloud is known as cloud testing. Online applications installed in the cloud are tested using simulated real-world web traffic.
It’s critical to meet the cloud’s functional and non-functional requirements during cloud testing. These tests are carried out to ensure that the business fulfills the intended requirement and that the cloud solutions provide the services that the user has paid for properly.
3. IoT Testing
We are aware of the benefits that the Internet of Things (IoT) can provide to enterprises; nevertheless, its potential drawbacks must also be considered. When discussing the implementation of an IoT project, security concerns invariably come up.
Testing these devices – ranging from a smart refrigerator that can automatically order milk to self-driving cars that can spot impediments on the road – will be the most difficult element, as the number of IoT devices is predicted to expand considerably in the coming decade.
IoT testing is done to ensure that IoT devices work as they should and can communicate efficiently with other devices on the network. It will be very different to test these devices in a controlled lab environment than it will be to test them in the actual environment where they will be deployed.
4. Cognitive QA
The push for innovation is being led by cognitive computing. Siri, smart retail stores like Amazon Go, Facebook’s face recognition tool, and even Google’s autonomous automobiles are all supposed to think and behave like people. All of these systems rely on data-driven algorithms. The more data that can be used to train or test the system, the smarter it becomes, and the more accurate the findings become.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning advancements have aided in the development of prediction in the QA process. This necessitates a shift in the organization’s culture and approach to consumer testing of digital experiences. Machine learning, predictive, and prescriptive techniques are all used in cognitive QA. The cornerstone to cognitive QA is a self-learning and self-adaptive environment.
5. Chatbot Testing
Customers will interact with brands and enterprises in new ways thanks to conversational interfaces or chatbots. Many industry experts believe that conversational interfaces will eventually replace webpages and applications because they employ the most natural form of human communication: conversations.
According to HubSpot, 55% of consumers are interested in interacting with a business using messaging apps to solve a problem.
Chatbots and their applications across multiple industrial sectors are generating a lot of buzz in today’s digital world. It’s difficult to create a chatbot that will remain relevant and effective when the initial buzz has died down. It is vital to guarantee that chatbots accomplish their tasks accurately and seamlessly while also being interactive in order to make them user-friendly.
What is the best way to make a chatbot that remains relevant over time? The objective is to create one that works as intended and provides a positive user experience.
A chatbot, like any other software or application, should be thoroughly tested before being deployed. Chatbot testing, on the other hand, may necessitate a different method and procedure.
Conclusion
Testing is a crucial function that guarantees your products or solutions are able to satisfy the expectations of your end consumers after brainstorming product/solution/application ideas and building a functional prototype that reflects those ideas. Smart QA, which maintains product reliability and enhances the user experience, is the only way to meet the business aim of developing a digital enterprise. In a competitive market where a single bad experience can significantly damage your product or application’s brand, quality assurance takes precedence. Ascertain that your quality assurance approach assists you in developing and releasing flawless solutions that provide the appropriate response to consumer issues while remaining fast and simple to use.
Course Manual 10: Benefits Management
When done correctly, benefits management demonstrates why a project should be undertaken and, as such, should be controlled with the same discipline as spending. Benefits realized show that a project was useful to stakeholders and that the time, money, and resources committed were well spent. Project success should be measured not just by on-time, on-budget, and on-quality deliverables, but also by positive, measurable improvements for stakeholders.
Benefits management is achieved not only during investment decision-making, but also throughout the project lifecycle and into operations/business-as-usual. Benefits should be determined before to the commencement of any project, based on a well stated problem, strategy, or policy. These benefits are then created during the length of the project’s life cycle, and they’re frequently measured during project delivery and after it’s over.
As a result, benefits management follows a project’s lifespan from start to finish (before the project, during the project and after the project). Benefits management is most successful when this technique is followed. Before the project is scoped, benefits should be examined, and starting with the aim in mind ensures that the most relevant and appropriate solution is found. Considering the impact on benefits across the project’s lifecycle ensures the project’s viability and value.
Another key aspect of benefits management is managing the disbenefits. A disbenefit is a monetary loss produced by a poor consequence that one or more stakeholders perceive. Project risks are not the same as disadvantages. Risks (both positive opportunities and negative threats) may arise and are handled and controlled at the program or portfolio level during or after the project, whereas disbenefits are a negative outcome of the project. Once the project is completed, the disadvantages are usually addressed and mitigated.
Disadvantages should be managed in the same way that advantages are. They should be identified, classed, quantified, and assessed in the same way that benefits are recognized, classified, and quantified. When it comes to unintended consequences, project teams are often unwilling to communicate them. Disbenefits management, on the other hand, is essential for determining what your stakeholders see to be bad consequences of change and shaping messaging and implementation strategies. Most efforts will have unintended consequences, whether they are true negative consequences of change or a benefit that is viewed favorably by most stakeholders but perceived as unfavorable by another stakeholder group.
Megatrends Necessitate IT Reforms In Order To Reap Future Benefits
Businesses will be forced to adjust swiftly due to existing megatrends as well as those that may emerge in the future (for example, the shift in global economic power, expanding urbanization, resource scarcity, and so on). Long-standing advantages and unique selling propositions (USPs) in present markets will be invalidated or challenged by new competitors, resulting in unprecedented uncertainty and pressure.
As a result of these global economic pressures, organizations must confront their current settings and transform themselves, which may include a significant shift in strategy, operating model, structure, personnel, and procedures. To ensure their survival, organizations must make these far-reaching adjustments today more than ever. As a result, they are spending heavily in transformation programs while still having a good financial position, allowing them to devote the time and resources necessary for such a significant undertaking.
Despite the fact that the goal is to ensure an organization’s survival, many people make business transformation strategy selections without fully comprehending the projected benefits or how to realize them once the program is completed.
Measuring a transition’s success or failure has become a game of chance rather than an opportunity for change. Why? Because many sponsors and managers of large-scale transformation programs only work on a few of these projects over the course of their careers. Furthermore, they are typically allocated to their new role as a program sponsor or manager without having received the requisite training, skills, or resources from their line organization to steer or manage such a program.
Even If A Transformation Program Is Successful, The Projected Advantages May Not Be Realized
Despite the heightened importance and urgency of executing successful transformation initiatives, the majority of transformation efforts fall short of their strategic objectives. Statistics show that up to 75% of IT conversions fail to meet their stated objectives, whether in terms of benefits, timing, or both.
Why is it that benefits management is so often ineffective in large-scale transformation programs? According to science, the main root cause is that traditional project management methodologies focus primarily on project execution efficiency, particularly the ‘iron triangle’ of cost, quality, and time. This focus on program performance and production overlooks the end result, which is the attainment of the strategic goals for why the program was formed in the first place.
Of course, continual scientific endeavors are focused on this unsatisfactory state, particularly with regard to IT-based programs and prospective approaches to improve their effectiveness. Practitioners and researchers have agreed that methods that ensure the achievement of the desired goal, rather than just the short-term program outcome, are required.
Model And Tools For Managing Benefits Realization In A Holistic Way
In order to overcome the gap in methodology, procedures, and technologies, project benefits management has grown into its own topic of international research efforts during the last two decades. This discipline’s purpose is to look at the factors that contribute to the successful realization of project benefits, with a focus on organizational change throughout a transformation endeavor, which is a crucial precondition for reaping benefits from following program investments.
Ward and Daniel’s Cranfield Process Model of Benefits Management is widely acknowledged as the most prominent of the several strategies for successfully realizing benefits, both scientifically and practically. The method is divided into five stages, similar to PMBOK and other well-known project lifecycle models.
The first step is to identify and organize the anticipated benefits. This normally necessitates a thorough and extensive presentation of the business case, outlining the anticipated and qualified benefits. It also requires determining the interdependencies between business change and IT investment that facilitates it.
Benefit realization planning is the second stage. Following the decision to pursue the initiative outlined in the business case, benefit planning is largely concerned with the allocation of owners to each desired benefit, as well as the methods required for organizational transformation.
The third step focuses on implementing the benefits realisation strategy and implementing the anticipated transformation.
Evaluation and review are the fourth and final stages. The expected and actual levels of benefit realization should be monitored throughout the project’s life cycle, not only at the end. However, a final assessment should be carried out, notably comparing the business case to the project’s actual production. However, because benefits typically take a long time to show, this final review will often be conducted with a time lag.
Identifying potential future advantages is the fifth and final stage. This is one of the most sometimes overlooked parts, but if done effectively and on a consistent basis, it can yield significant additional and unexpected benefits.
Figure 1: Cranfield Process Model for Benefits Management (Source: Benefits Management – Delivering Value from IS & IT Investments; Ward, J./ Daniel, I. (2006))
In recent years, benefit matrices and templates, as well as the benefits dependency network, have been developed to make implementation and benefit realization easier (fig.1). The benefits dependency network, in particular, can help program sponsors and managers by demonstrating the transmission and interdependencies between the business drivers, i.e. the causes for change, and the planned reaction.
It also shows the connections between overall investment objectives, required benefits (the ends), required business changes (the ways), and the IT capabilities (the means) to enable these changes.
Figure 2: Benefits dependency network (Source: Benefits Management – Delivering Value from IS & IT Investments; Ward, J./ Daniel, I. (2006))
Face The Facts: Benefits Management Is Still Seen As A Buzzword
Integration of benefits management principles across all levels of an endeavor, including the portfolio, program, and project levels, is crucial when it comes to transformation initiatives. There’s a good probability that the strategic objectives and efforts to achieve them won’t be properly aligned if you don’t use a holistic strategy like the one stated above.
These strategies and theories have yet to acquire widespread adoption among private enterprises and government bodies since the benefits management approach is still deemed new. As a result, in day-to-day operations, there is a scarcity of mature, dependable benefits management standards, methods, and policies. In actuality, many businesses have yet to fully incorporate these ideas in their portfolio, program, or project management, or are striving to achieve acceptable levels of maturity in these areas. As a result, benefits management has become more of a buzzword among them.
Implementing a proven benefits management methodology, on the other hand, is now crucial for achieving benefits across the lifecycle while avoiding endangering predicted business goals and ensuring an organization’s ongoing existence in the post-change environment.
Course Manual 11: Risk Management
To avoid project failure, risk and issue management are essential. Many businesses place a premium on these procedures, although the processes themselves are poorly defined. People do not perform an ill-defined process consistently or at all as a result of it.
One of the ten knowledge areas in which a program manager must be proficient is risk management. “An unpredictable occurrence or situation that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives,” according to PMI.
Issue management is concerned with the negative consequences of your program. A risk that really occurs is a problem, but a risk may never occur.
A risk has a chance of happening, a plan to mitigate it, and an impact if it does. A risk can be that you’re preparing an event and are anxious about the possibility of rain canceling it. A risk that has been mitigated has a strategy in place, such as “in case it rains, we’ll have tents to keep everyone dry.” Risks that are unaddressed can lead to project failure.
Understanding the risk areas is essential for identifying and addressing all of the hazards that a company can face in a digital world. This section summarizes all of the risk areas that the framework considers.
Consider the following ten risk areas as the risk landscape in any digital ecosystem: Strategic, Technology, Operations, Third Party, Regulatory, Forensics, Cyber, Resilience, Data Leakage, and Privacy. Different control methods must be created based on the pertinent risk categories for digital efforts, according to leading standards and industry practices. The nature and level of digitization in the operations must be considered when defining the controls, as most of these areas are still in the early stages of development and are tightly coupled with systems or manual processes, posing implementation challenges.
Navigating Digital Risks
Discover: Aligned to the organization’s Digital vision, study the selection of digital enablers, and analyze the context so as to assess the digital footprint and its impact.
Develop: Based on Deloitte’s Digital Risk Framework, develop a risk based digital architecture customized to the organization’s digital needs and operating environment.
Implement: In the context of business, implement the risk based digital architecture for the selected digital enablers supported by an overall risk governance.
Monitor: Embed a continuous review process that evolves in response to disruption and new developments across the digital estate, legal and regulatory requirements.
Conclusion
IT transformation has resulted in a fast changing corporate environment with ever-increasing potential for new capabilities and initiatives across industries.
Organizational agility is one of the most important success aspects in this digital era. A well-defined digital strategy, an appropriate business case, and a tailored and flexible approach may help businesses establish a scalable and adaptive digital trip. Along with IT transformation, businesses must also manage the risks that are introduced into the environment and their impact on the current ecosystem in order to get the most out of their digital activities.
Despite the obstacles and threats that the changing environment poses, businesses cannot ignore the potential that “moving to digital” delivers, as well as the significant influence it will have.
Sustainability
Understanding the organization’s digital footprint and building a digital risk register should be the first steps in a digital risk management strategy.
1. Assist Risk Management by holding workshops and trainings on risk awareness. Instead of treating it as a reactive exercise, make it a proactive one by incorporating it into the organization’s plan.
2. Monitor, review, and update the digital risk framework on a regular basis.
3. Using a technology to enable risk management will be appropriate for systematically identifying and managing the evolving digital risk.
Implementing risk management in your program management
The following are a few pointers to assist you start incorporating risk management into your program management and, as a result, achieve greater overall IT transformation success.
Expand your view of risk. It’s not enough to complete a digital transformation project on time and on budget. It’s about making sure you’re choosing technology that will function at the right time, on the appropriate budget, and in a way that those in the trenches will fully appreciate. Failure to consider any of these factors will always result in disaster. Consider the case when your firm decides to modernize Salesforce. You get a fantastic rate, and the company guarantees that your sales systems will be synced in record time. Your project will fail if you fail to involve your sales staff in utilizing Salesforce—if you fail to discuss what they need or how they’ll utilize it with them—if you fail to figure out how Salesforce will interface with other systems in your network. Every time, consider risk in terms of both infrastructure and culture.
Make strides in infrastructure and culture. Because legacy-era infrastructure and culture are still running amok in today’s business world, IT transformation requires risk management. Let me be clear: with outdated infrastructure and ideals, you will not be able to achieve successful IT transformation. There is no amount of risk management that will help you if your firm is unwilling to move the needle in each of those areas with every digital transformation project it undertakes.
Consider virtual elements of risk. Risk affects every area of your organization, including your reputation and brand, according to a recent Deloitte analysis. What impact will it have on your reputation if you accept a new technology—or if you don’t adopt a new technology? How will failure to accept a new technology affect your reputation? Risk management is significantly more than just staying in the black. It’s all about elevating your company on all levels, since that’s what it takes to succeed in digital transformation.
Remember the Big Three: Context, implementation, governance. Risk must be handled in terms of how you chose new technology, how you choose to implement it, and how you ensure that it is long-term sustainable. It might be disastrous if risk is not managed in any of these steps or phases of project development. Before you embark on any new transformation project, take the time to brainstorm each phase.
As previously stated, as part of a defined “digital risk framework,” we looked at the ten key areas where firms must manage risk in IT transformation. Strategic, Technology, Operations, Third Party, Regulatory, Forensics, Cyber, Resilience, Data Leakage, and Privacy are the main focus areas. While their list is extensive, it is far from complete. The reality is that IT transformation necessitates risk management at every turn, in every department, and at every stage of the customer journey. Managing risk in silos is just as problematic as thinking in silos when it comes to IT transformation. Risk management isn’t a job that belongs to a department or a project. It’s a full-time job that must be integrated into every part of digital transformation for your business to succeed.
While IT transformation has the potential to be a miracle worker, there is no technology that can guarantee success. For IT transformation to thrive at the highest level, you’ll need strong leadership, executive support, a tech-friendly culture, data-driven decision-making, and a silo-less enterprise, much like any other type of digital transformation your firm does. There is no easy way out, and no “risk management” program that can do the job for you. Because risk management gives the structure we need to understand the areas where our digital transformation projects can go wrong, IT transformation requires risk management. Risk management, on the other hand, does not guarantee project success. Only we, the movement’s leaders who are committed to fostering a tech-driven culture, can do it for ourselves.
Case Study – 451 Research
Managing Risk through Digital Transformation
Based on a global study of more than 1,400 enterprises, 451 Research’s respondents include both IT professionals and line-of-business managers across multiple vertical and geographic sectors. The report: ‘Managing Risk Through Digital Transformation’ is the result of this primary research.
In collaboration with CenturyLink, this 451 Research report highlights how enterprise strategists and practitioners with a working knowledge of digital transformation perceive the relationship between the digitization process and issues of risk management and security.
Research Findings
Risk is an integral part of the digital transformation process. Organizations are well advised to incorporate risk management thinking into the digitization process right from the start, and through all stages of planning and execution.
Risk management can be divided into three main spheres:
• Data security
• Proactive mitigation and threat prevention
• Impact of system and infrastructure reliability
To be effective, a digital transformation strategy must focus on all three.
As organizations progress along the path of digital transformation, proactive risk mitigation becomes a higher priority. This implies that as business leaders manage the priorities of security, agility and operational efficiency, they become better placed to embed risk mitigation into the entire stack.
Better management of risk associated with cybersecurity, data privacy, and systems reliability is a fundamental driver of digital transformation, with 40% of organizations rating this as a desired transformational outcome.
Risk related goals for digital transformation projects are broadly similar for line of business and IT professionals. Overall, these are:
• 49% – Secure customer data
• 44% – Secure internal data
• 36% – Foster proactive risk mitigation
Perceptions of risk management vary between regions. Asia-Pacific based business leaders appear to be more attuned to risk, perhaps reflecting the earlier stages of incorporating risk into their planning. In contrast, regulatory requirements have forced European companies to consider privacy and data security from the beginning.
The majority of C-level executives do not pose a barrier to embedding risk mitigation and security processes into their organization’s digital transformation. In fact, the opposite is true, and it is often necessary to incorporate risk policies into initiatives in order to win executive buy-in.
Risk management may not be a central problem an organization sets out to fix when making digital transformation plans, but business leaders are increasingly aware that risk-related thinking needs to be entwined into their wider digital transformation strategy planning.
Organizations that have progressed their digital transformation plans are more inclined to work with third-party service providers than companies in the early stages of transformation. This suggests that with digital maturity, a greater appreciation exists for external expertise, especially when managing risk.
Fintech is a catalyst to accelerate digital initiatives in banks across all regions. But regional disparities on the perception of risk are evident from the survey. In Asia Pacific firms, business leaders have a higher recognition than in Europe or North America of risk as both a driver and a barrier to digital transformation.
Notable differences exist in how business leaders perceive risk management priorities. Those working in government express concern about meeting regulatory obligations. In retail and financial services organizations, respondents prioritize ‘what if’ scenarios of reputational damage and corporate liability.
Compliance and security are not the same. Compliance corresponds to a set of needs that change slowly, not daily as seen in the security landscape. To protect sensitive data, an active, smart and thorough security plan coupled with a solid compliance plan is what organizations need.
Takeaways
Business leaders should strive to get the message out across their organization that security needs to be built into digital transformation from start to finish, across the whole technology stack, and from datacenter to edge.
Increased complexity, scale and operational risk go hand in hand with digital transformation; a challenge not only to the IT team but with potentially serious repercussions for the business as a whole. Silos or walls need to be torn down, particularly between security and operations, with cross-functional teams focused on reducing security gaps.
To shift from a risk-averse organization to one that embraces risk, business leaders need to communicate their vision, think and act more courageously and foster a culture that allows experimentation without fear of failure.
Four approaches of digitally successful companies managing risk:
1. Overcome aversion to risk
2. Embrace risk
3. Strengthen understanding of risk
4. Monitor each individual risk
To digitally transform your organization, innovate continually. Take advantage of existing and new digital technology, services, and business practices. But from the start, invest in security and consider leveraging the experience, shared knowledge and data of external cybersecurity experts.
Course Manual 12: Issue Management
An issue can have any of the following attributes:
• Priority – the relative importance of an issue in relation to other issues for the team
• Severity – the relative impact of an issue, as compared to other issues reported
• Status – the disposition of an issue; is it opened, resolved etc.
In an ideal world, all of this extra risk management focus would result in project risks never materializing and becoming issues. Of all, even the finest program managers are occasionally forced to deal with hazards that they cannot avoid. Issue management at the corporate level, like risk management, necessitates a structured, well-thought-out methodology.
Here’s an overview of issue management, as well as how today’s most effective corporate program managers handle risks and issues.
Enterprise Issue Management
A project issue, on the other hand, is a problem that is actively disturbing a project or jeopardizing its success, whereas a project risk is a problem that may or may not emerge at some point throughout the project.
It’s vital to remember that not every problem can be predicted in advance. Project managers, on the other hand, should have a framework in place that allows them to approach any problem logically and successfully.
Issue Management Tips
• Include an issue management plan in your overall project plan, explaining the steps you’ll take to assess and resolve any problems that arise.
• Communicate with your team on issue status, responsibilities, and outcomes using your organization’s project management tools.
• Prioritizing issues is critical, just like prioritizing project risks. While some may have the potential to derail the project entirely, others may just demand a little response.
You should be able to spot project risks and concerns before they become a serious issue using these suggestions and excellent team management tactics.
5 top challenges to IT transformation and its solutions
A paradigm shift occurs as a result of IT transformation. As a result, various roadblocks prohibit businesses from smoothly integrating it. We’ll look at the top five difficulties that firms face when conducting IT transformations, as well as their solutions.
Poor strategy and lack of leadership
Due to a lack of clarity of thought, many firms struggle to achieve IT transformation. According to a CIO survey, the majority of IT transformation failures occur because CEOs lack a clear vision. Furthermore, according to a Harvard University study, big companies such as P&G, Ford, and others have requested their top executives to go since they are unwilling to embrace the shift.
Because IT transformation necessitates a large number of activities, top C-level executives are hesitant to embrace it. Furthermore, some of them are unable to communicate a clear notion of IT transformation to their staff. As a result, their staff aren’t on the same page, which has an influence on their efficiency and productivity.
Another significant impediment to IT transformation is the executives’ inability to see the big picture. Because they are unaware of this evolutionary shift, they will not take a decisive move ahead and will instead accept the change.
Solution
The strategic plan required for IT transformation should be clearly defined by the company’s leaders. Furthermore, they should have a comprehensive knowledge of the impact this shift will have on their business.
CEOs will be able to communicate effectively to their personnel since they are aware of IT transformation metrics. Employees will joyfully react to improvements that have a favorable influence on their efficiency since the communication process is seamless.
The curious case of customer experience
It is not an exaggeration to argue that we live in a “experience economy.” Consumers today place a higher value on their purchasing experience than they do on everything else. It suggests that if a firm fails to give the finest customer experience, customers will leave.
Aside from customer retention, a better customer experience (CX) will assist your organization in developing a new brand image. Furthermore, brands that are hesitant to alter in response to the IT transition may find it difficult to keep their customers.
Companies must recognize that poor customer service is the biggest silent killer. Customers that leave your platform owing to a negative experience are unlikely to return.
Solution
The drawback is that you must start over with your customer experience process. To gain a clear sense of your target audience’s buying tendencies, try focusing on their journey. Furthermore, following your clients’ journey will assist you in touching different other touch points. You will have a higher chance of retaining users if you embrace IT transformation.
Another crucial aspect is to master the ‘art of client experience.’ The caveat is that you’ll have to rework your current brand image. As a result of the IT transformation, your product will be more simply accessible to customers.
IT transformation will help your business to develop more customer-centric products and keep you ahead of the competitors. And once you reach this pedestal, you will have aced the IT transformation challenges.
Improper data gathering
Customer data is the motto for success in today’s world, where every organization is digitally connected. Regardless of your company’s size or market position, you must use consumer data to its full potential.
Companies’ difficulty with data is that, despite having a lot of it, they don’t know how to use it efficiently. As a result, firms are unable to make full advantage of the client data they have. If the available data is not adequately utilized, IT transformation will lose its essence.
Because new generation businesses have a lot of unstructured data, they can’t use it for a defined purpose. Furthermore, many firms now have a collection of systems that contain a variety of data. It’s difficult to use the data to its full potential because it’s not from a single source.
Solution
Companies should attempt to start over in order to solve this challenge. They should also try to figure out what factors influence their target customer’s purchasing tendencies. Because using the data, they will be able to cater to them in a more tailored manner.
You can keep your data organized and use it appropriately once you’ve outlined the important features. This straightforward technique will enable you to communicate with your target audience through a variety of channels, such as social media. Furthermore, because you know what your customers desire, the data will add value to your company.
Maintaining high levels of security
Having top-level security is one of the major obstacles in successful IT transformation. There have been numerous instances around the world where major corporations have succumbed to cyber-attacks and failed terribly. Furthermore, according to Gartner, businesses are aware of 99 percent of security concerns for at least a year before taking action.
Furthermore, the rapid expansion of new-age technology makes life difficult for businesses, and they are unable to keep up. Inadequate security leads to a failed IT transformation, resulting in uncertainty and instability.
Solution
Businesses must migrate to the cloud to tackle this IT transformation difficulty. Cloud computing will play a critical role in boosting security and making IT transformation easier for organizations. If the software systems are housed on a unified digital adoption platform, the cloud will be crucial.
Furthermore, firms can use cloud computing to accelerate the execution of IT transformation programs. Following the devastating pandemic of 2020, many businesses have opted for cloud migration to protect their data.
The bottom line is that after a mishap, no leader likes to claim, “We could have done much more.” Choosing cloud computing allows you to prioritize security and increase the trustworthiness of your company. Furthermore, in today’s unpredictable times, a safe business is essential for gaining and maintaining client trust.
Not having proper business models
In some cases, organizations desire to embrace the change that IT transformation brings but are ill-equipped to do so. Furthermore, some businesses are so adamant about their history that they refuse to adapt. And this is where their legacy becomes a liability rather than a benefit to them.
For example, we saw what happened to Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone firm, when they failed to digitally modernize. Another case in point is Kodak. Kodak invented the digital camera before it was ever known to the general public in the twentieth century. Instead of seizing the opportunity to be first to market, they chose to bury the invention because it jeopardized their legacy.
Bell Atlantic is another example, but it is slightly different. The corporation saw that landline phones were on their way out and had no future. Rather of being on the fence, the corporation took the initiative and made the move to mobile phones as smooth as possible. Verizon is a name we’re all familiar with.
Solution
To abandon your old system and embrace a new one, you’ll need a razor-sharp mental process. Furthermore, in order to ride the IT transformation hand-wagon, you must be precise in your timing.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the IT transformation problem. It necessitates well-thought-out inventive measures as well as a willingness to take chances. In addition, business leaders should go beyond quarterly profits to break free from their past and embrace IT modernization.
Workshop Exercises
Program Management Exercises
01. Establish Baseline: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
02. Supporting Infrastructure: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
03. Stakeholder Engagement: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
04. Cost Management: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
05. Resource Allocation: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
07. Roles & Responsibilities: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
08. Project Prioritization: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
09. Quality Management: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
10. Benefits Management: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
11. Risk Management: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
12. Issue Management: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
SWOT & MOST Analysis Exercises
01. Undertake a detailed SWOT Analysis in order to identify your department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in relation to each of the 12 Program Management processes featured above. Undertake this task together with your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
02. Develop a detailed MOST Analysis in order to establish your department’s: Mission; Objectives; Strategies and Tasks in relation to Program Management. Undertake this task together with all of your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
Project Studies
Project Study (Part 1) – Customer Service
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 2) – E-Business
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 3) – Finance
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 4) – Globalization
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 5) – Human Resources
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 6) – Information Technology
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 7) – Legal
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 8) – Management
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 9) – Marketing
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 10) – Production
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 11) – Logistics
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 12) – Education
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Program Management process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Establish Baseline
02. Supporting Infrastructure
03. Stakeholder Engagement
04. Cost Management
05. Resource Allocation
06. Monitoring Progress & Defining Metrics
07. Roles & Responsibilities
08. Project Prioritization
09. Quality Management
10. Benefits Management
11. Risk Management
12. Issue Management
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Program Benefits
Information Technology
- Agile IT processes
- Improved value delivery
- Decreased defects
- Continuous improvement
- Modernized infrastructure
- Re-tooled staff
- Increased morale
- IT Business partnership
- Meaningful metrics
- Effective sourcing
Management
- Decreased costs
- Aligned strategies
- Servant leadership
- Clarified priorities
- Improved effectiveness
- Improved transparency
- Reduced risk
- Measurable results
- Satisfied customers
- Vendor partnerships
Human Resources
- Empowered teams
- Servant leaders
- Re-tooled staff
- Improved teamwork
- Enhanced collaboration
- Improved performance
- Reduced turnover
- Improved loyalty
- Leadership development
- Employee development
Client Telephone Conference (CTC)
If you have any questions or if you would like to arrange a Client Telephone Conference (CTC) to discuss this particular Unique Consulting Service Proposition (UCSP) in more detail, please CLICK HERE.