The Ten faces of the Digital Transformation

Expectation versus reality

Review

Digital Transformation is fashionable. This concept is present, directly or indirectly, in any modern digital strategy of an organization, whether public or private. However, like any transformation, it requires more than good intentions or wishes of the top management or directory.

In a certain sense, the digital transformation evokes a technological transformation. We will take care of this presumption, addressing the various dimensions that should involve a true and profound digital transformation, based on professional experiences, better and bad practices, anecdotes and lessons learned in this intense and motivating way.

This chapter is an introduction to the series: The 10 faces of Digital Transformation

If you want to go to a particular chapter of the series, you can browse directly on each link (when available):

PART I: Organizational Culture
PART II: Human Profile
PART III: Agile Strategy
PART IV: Product RoadMap
PART V: Technological Roadmap
PART VI: Agile Roles
PART VII: Technical Debt Management
PART VIII: Cloud Strategy
PART IX: Migration strategy
PART X: Digital communities

The Digital Transformation, from a more strategic point of view, has different dimensions, which must work harmoniously to generate real changes, which generate a notorious and transcendental impact for the business.

Many of the organizations, which were asleep for quite some time, had to wake up suddenly. Some of them, due to the imminent threat of a powerful competitor or the irruption of a niche startup. In this sense, the digital transformation for some companies will not be so natural. Rather it will be a somewhat forced path; and you can see it!.

This symptom also applies when the transformation and agility is imposed abruptly, generating antibodies in the members of the teams, who feel pressured to participate in this new scenario. For other organizations, on the contrary, they feel that transformational change is more natural, since they have been working on it gradually and with deep conviction.

For better or for worse, not all organizations will manage to give that long-awaited digital leap. First of all, let’s see what are some of the premises, beliefs and/or promises of the digital transformation, according to its scope, with which we must deal daily:

Software and infrastructure

- We will be faster in software delivery
- We will generate better quality software
- We will produce software with greater added value
- We will deploy software with fewer errors in production
- We will have a cheaper, more scalable and self-managed infrastructure

Agility and Ecosystem

- We will be more agile in the processes
- We will become a high performance team
- We will be more autonomous in our decisions
- We will exercise new and challenging roles within teams
- We will have fullstack equipment
- We will reconvert project teams into agile teams
- We will have spaces for collaboration and recreation
- We will have fun during the working day

Organization

- We will offer more professional challenges
- We will be faster than the competition
- We will be more innovative in our products and services
- We will be more aligned between technology and business
- We will have a new organizational culture, more digital and horizontal

The truth is that the processes of digital transformation can become quite traumatic, because of the anxiety and uncertainty that it causes in people. Not all organizations or all people will be able to adapt. In the case of the computer areas, they will be strongly impacted by the process of change, since they will have to be reconverted, both to new professional roles and to new ways of thinking and doing things.

There will be resistance from more traditional groups, which will try to undermine any attempt at a new proposal. There will be powerful technological changes that will require a lot of preparation and courage.

In this way, different types of coaches will arrive, promulgating the change and trying to evangelize the people, teams and leaders. The first Digital Transformation Manager will appear (why not a manager of cultural transformation?), The “Digital” arms (almost a separate company) and “Labs” companies (company+’labs’), to try to change the course and generate a notorius impact.

Dimensions of the digital transformation

The following is a diagram that considers 10 perspectives, which organizations should take into account, in order to address their digital transformation. The Digital Transformation is a medium/long term job, which should be based on a conviction: the new vision of the business.

The ten faces of Digital Transformation

Organizational culture: Corresponds to the habits and values of the organization, which are transmitted from generation to generation, incorporating strongly in the employees of this. Many times the culture is rooted according to the nature of the service that the organization provides to society. It is one of the most difficult facets to address, since it takes years to establish a new culture, with leadership styles and daily rites, and with a pleasant and challenging work environment at the same time.

Human Profile: The organization is composed of collaborators with different experiences, skills and attitudes, which move to contribute to the vision and objectives of the organization. For this, it is relevant to understand how collaborators according to their diverse roles, both autonomously and collaboratively, are able to interact to fulfill said objectives. You should be able to put together a diverse and balanced team, with a positive attitude and with values that encourage teamwork and capacity to adapt to change.

Agile Strategy: It is related to the methodology and tools that the organization will adopt to work as a team. Nowadays, the term “agility” is fashionable. Thus, we relate the interaction of the teams around the concept of Agility and Cells. However, the organization can adopt traditional or hybrid work mechanisms, which could be more effective according to their culture, as long as they know how to adapt them.

Product RoadMap: Establishing the difference between project and product is the first challenge, to then conceptualize the aspects that this change of mindset entails. The product navigation chart is essential from the point of view that initiatives should no longer be addressed as projects, but as evolutionary improvements of a product. The second challenge is to establish the purpose and the new vision of the product.

Technological Roadmap: The technological navigation chart, associated mainly with the reference architecture and the solutions architecture, is key to the evolution of the products. In this context, the solution architecture roadmap must be aligned with the product roadmap, that defines the product owner. The roadmap must be dynamic and should cover the technology stack, definitions and architecture standards (patterns, APIs), among others.

Agile Roles: For some, a methodology; for others, a lifestyle. Certainly, agility is an influential factor in Digital Transformation. In this sense, the agile roles will have to discover them, define them and adopt them and/or adapt them, according to the style of leadership and culture that you want to promote. The next task will be to validate if there are key people to exercise these roles. It will be an arduous task.

Technical Debt Management: The technical debt corresponds to all pending aspects in the software and infrastructure architecture, which are relevant to achieve the technological roadmap and the product roadmap. It is important to define the evaluation criteria and the categorization of the technical debt itself, considering the historical debt of the current systems (on-premises), in addition to the new debt that is generated during the Digital Transformation process. You must be aware and make an effort to sincere and record this technical debt, to track it over time.

Cloud Strategy: The cloud adoption strategy requires the choice of its technology partner, which offers the infrastructure as a service in the cloud. The latter will be required to support the operations and new systems of the organization, in this new era. You can establish a single partner or more than one, the latter being a multi-cloud scenario. You can also define a hybrid cloud strategy, where you will have both, private and public cloud.

Migration strategy: It is related to adopt a smart strategy for the migration process of your on-premises systems to a new solution architecture, on a new cloud infrastructure. The priorities of this process must be defined, according to various technological and business criteria, in order to provide the greatest added value for the organization in the shortest possible time, gradually, considering that there is a natural maturity period.

Digital Communities: Agility requires drivers and evangelizers, who are constantly motivating and generating community, to exchange experiences mutually, to spread knowledge, to promote teamwork, to co-create new products and services, to innovate. All of the above, from a completely digital perspective. It is important to give space to these communities that in many cases will appear spontaneously, with self-motivated people and with great ideas to contribute.

Tips for a comprehensive Digital Transformation

Below are some preliminary tips, which will allow you to guide your way to Digital Transformation, looking at it as an ecosystem:

• Define the new strategic business and technological objectives
• Define your Cloud service provider and your technology partners and move forward with them as a cohesive team. Consider in your decision the possibility that you can implement a multi-cloud or hybrid strategy.
• Simplify your systems. In the path of migration to the cloud, define and manage an obsolescence roadmap of your on-premise systems, which should be gradually replaced.
• Consider all facets of digital transformation, as an integrated ecosystem, which must evolve in a balanced way.
• Prepare a career plan for your employees, focused on new talent and competencies, according to renewed roles, including the evaluation of rents.
• Detect and empower your positive promoters of digital transformation, who stand out for constantly learning and proposing new things. Those who are always one step ahead, will be your best allies.
• Organize your work teams around the concept of Products rather than projects, which should evolve constantly over time, with a focus of high added value for the business. Adapt your processes to enhance this new way of financing and organizing these multidisciplinary teams.

Conclusions

• The digital revolution in the coming years will involve the strategies of practically all organizations, trying to hydrate all the business units of these. However, some will remain attached to their traditional structures and processes, relying only on “technology” for their transformational change. Others will make profound changes, starting with the leaders who lead the organization.
• In front of the competition, some will give the fight face to face, others will seek market niches, others will stay static and resort to laws, others will prefer collusions, some will innovate. In the era of global business and applied artificial intelligence, many organizations will disappear because their visions will become obsolete. Others will have to reinvent themselves.
• In the process of Digital Transformation, technology has a lot to say, however it has little influence within traditionalist organizations, which do not want to place their efforts first in improving the quality of their processes and services, in the face of their clients.

In our next chapter, we will address the first of the dimensions of digital transformation, which we have called: “Organizational Culture”.

Oliver Fierro | Arquitecto de Soluciones

Cloud Native Computing Chile | Meetup