Here are some good resources about Agile integration:
The concepts you’ve learned about in this chapter provide a basis on the key aspects that drive business. Relating these concepts to strategic and tactical digital planning is what you’ll learn next.
Business transformation to a digital transformation framework
At this point, you’ve learned about some of the history and marketing tactics that establish reasons for the business’s transformation. As you have probably recognized by now, being successful in your business transformation involves taking advantage of the digital capabilities that are a part of today’s everyday life.
Let’s summarize some of the key business changes that you should be aware of:
- New startups are going digital at inception.
- Customers/consumers are changing and so are their expectations. Customer loyalty is waning.
- How information and customer feedback affects your products.
- Innovations are changing rapidly. You need to surpass or be left behind.
- Delivery of goods has drastically improved, which affects pricing.
- Similar products have made innovation and pricing differences indifferent. Best of Breed is no longer a consideration.
So, how do you get started and how can you ensure you are successful? All too often, digital transformation initiatives fail.
Avoiding failure
So, how can you move thoughtfully toward transformation? Prior business models and processes may cloud your direction. If you recall the key business changes in the previous section, you should be aware of how old methods could be a roadblock to your digital goals. As an architect, it will be contingent on you to thoughtfully set goals and guidelines to ensure continuity and compliance with your strategic endeavor. It should be a holistic view that considers all the departments or lines of businesses and how each contributes to the overall digital transformation.
What you should attempt to avoid is allowing a single silo to be implemented digitally, and then another, without first establishing a digital integration plan between the two and recognizing the benefits this brings to the company. Always review alternatives before launching each new effort. However, you need to coordinate these efforts; the incremental steps should be appropriate and should follow a logical path.
Getting off to the right start should begin with establishing a digital startup checklist:
- Are all the executives on board and supportive? An executive demanding change and expediency may easily destroy the framework. It must be a sponsored endeavor.
- Consider a design thinking session where multiple parties participate and contribute their insight and experience. This should include parties from compliance/governance, marketing, content delivery, analytics, architecture and development teams, and executive input. The team should be open to change and radical ideas.
- Identify stumbling blocks and technical challenges.
- Determine how you measure success. Not all implementations by department or line of business will be measured the same.
- Take stock of your existing resources. Are they sufficiently trained? Are there business cultural barriers? Are you organized by silos? Is there a DevOps team?
- Look at yourself. Are you engaged and excited? Do you feel supported by executives?
- Are you considering frameworks to assist in your digital vision and provide guidance as you begin your journey?
You should now have a good idea of how the business ties in with digital transformation and have been given some simple guidelines on how not to fail. If failures do occur, revisit the checklist and see what you could have done better or if there was something you didn’t consider.
The last item in the checklist was considering frameworks. Having an architectural picture will provide your company with some guidelines and potential solution additions to help you achieve your goals.
Digital framework considerations
So far, you have been provided a business background on why to consider various factors when improving your business. You have also been introduced to a startup checklist to begin to formalize change and improve the process so that you can measure success. You know that your customer has changed and demands more, changes often, and seeks better experiences. With all this information, establishing or adopting a digital transformation framework will help you ensure you thoughtfully consider all the aspects covering the facets of customer experience, operational improvement, and the modernization strategy.
The following table helps organize everything we have discussed into categories. These categories will transition to digital practices and implementations:
Figure 1.2 – Categories of digital transformation
The three categories shown in the preceding table highlight tactical directions within the digital transformation adoption. We’ll have a look at each in the following subsections.