CIOReview | | 9 AUGUST 2022If you want to transform and deliver digital based solutions with great UI and UX that exceed expectations faster than tradition solution delivery methods, adopt an Agile methodology!looking to introduce a new disruptive product, service, or process , determine what data needs to be leveraged to ensure success. Leverage Internet of Thing (IoT) technologies, instruments, and sensors to collect data. The more data that you can collect via IoT edge technologies the better, but we will still have plenty of applications where manual entry is required. It is always better to ensure data integrity by giving users controlled choices via drop downs or radio buttons.In most of our organizations, especially the more established, there is still a lot of data that is not collected or managed. Gartner reports that "Only 40 percent % of work in large organizations fit neatly into `enterprise' systems. 60 percent % is managed in unstructured formats like email, documentation, and spreadsheets". 60 percent%! That is a lot of opportunity. Previously, organizations would either work to customize their existing applications or develop additional solutions. This traditional approach became cost prohibitive. I recommend investigating and leveraging Low Code/ No Code rapid application development platforms to digitize these unstructured formats. Low Code / No Code promotes citizen developers to automate these unstructured processes and creates a great way to easily digitize the associated data. Citizen developers are your organizations' subject matter experts that now have a platform to build modern applications that automate and digitize without having to engage professional SW developers. Now that you are collecting all this digitized data , you will need to manage it. Most organizations have embarked on a Master Data Management initiative and typically they are never easy. These are important initiatives as the data and how you manage it , secure it, and grant access to it become vital to your success. In most cases the data is more important than the product or service your organization provides. You will want to enable a data lake either in your own data centers (private clouds) or in secured public clouds and manage how data flows. You will also need to figure out your democratization strategy, ensuring that resources can easily access data on demand. The best solutions are based on data, so ensuring your organizations' resources have access to it is critical.Once the data is collected and well managed , you have the power to do anything, from traditional dashboarding and reporting to alerting when unwanted things happen. You will have the ability to build more and better automation and better solutions. As you learn more, predicative analytics becomes easy and you can realistically achieve artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. The result, great Digital. You will have the power to disrupt and radically change current ways. A CIO I once worked for said "we are inherently lazy" - always looking for the easiest path, but we also like challenges. Great Digital achieves both as it automates our tactical work and allows us the ability to focus on our infinite amount of opportunities to improve.Solution / Software Delivery LifeCycle (SDLC):As with "Digital ", "Agile" maybe up there in terms of the most over used words. We all must become more Agile! I agree, we do . Things change faster now than ever, and we need to be agile, aka nimble. For example, I was impressed with how quickly school systems converted to virtual learning. A great example of agility.If you want to transform and deliver digital based solutions that meet expectations faster than tradition solution delivery methods, adopt an Agile methodology! Agile SDLC does not mean unstructured or the agility referred to above. To be successful, adhere to the methodology, don't cheat it: A small fully dedicated team of 5 to 7 talented resources with an empowered product owner and scrum master; Backlog with assigned story points; Priority setting, Defining definition of done (like a contract); 2 week sprints; Daily Stand-ups; Track Burndown; Measure Velocity (scrum team's speed on delivering on backlog); Sprint Demo compared to agreed definition of done; Useable Capability Delivered ever sprint; Retrospectives that are open and honest which enables true improvement; A willingness to accept failure as it promotes teams to stretch, take risks, and learn.Last thought. When building technology: make it easy to use! Invest in great UI and UX. Adopting Agile SDLC dramatically increases your chances for success.For years we have used technology to automate existing processes. Digital Transformation is challenging us to not only utilize technology but to radically change how we provide our products and services and execute our supporting process. A tremendous opportunity that is challenging us in how we organize, design, develop, deploy, go to market, engage our customers, and provide services. Every aspect of our organizations has been or should be transformed by digital capabilities. The opportunities seem limitless. Don't delay, Let's go.
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