Are You Modernizing Your Digital Products to Enable The Business?
Digital enablement and application modernization are core elements of a successful digital transformation in all organizations.
Technology teams need to focus on ensuring that the continuous improvement and currency of technologies are deployed to effect business results for the enterprise.
Best practice architectures are emerging in both open stack, and previously proprietary, stacks.
Digital transformation is the use of technology to radically improve the performance or reach of an organization. In a truly digital business that is digitally enabled, new technologies enable process improvement, talent engagement, and new business models.
The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation, MIT Sloan Management Review
3 Core Components: Innovation, Strategy, and Reskilling
The output of successful innovation is the creation of best practices. In technical teams, this means iteratively improving productivity, performance and speed through modernization of the technology utilized. Currency of the strategic asset - technology - will enable growth and the ability of the enterprise to compete and thrive.
Strategy is underpinned by a set of effective tactics that can be repeated and honed. Technology leadership need to create, revisit and update the technology architecture and blueprint to ensure planning aligns with changes in the technology landscape. Examples include emerging practices like microservices, containerization, and the cloud. New directions are not the hammer for every nail, so a sound technology model based in a view of people, process, tools, technology and customer experience (strategy) are essential.
Reskilling is essential in today's ever evolving technology landscape. The achilles heal of every tech team is complacency and contentment. In today's technology-driven environment in which technical craftsmen and women are ever learning the next evolution of a particular technology or architectural direction, providing a means to achieve and maintain knowledge currency and proper application to the business are mandatory.
Take Aways
Organizations require talent that are on board with the notion of creating, iterating and evolving, as a matter of practice. Innovation and strategy require a fundamental shift in mindset in order to translate to best practices and tactics. Culture will become the glue that facilitates the change in successful organizations.
Change does not happen without leadership. Executives, managers, and future leaders in organizations must catalyze the change in order to effect digital enablement.
Technology stakeholders must own the application modernization and plan for a currency in a technology landscape that is ever evolving. Remaining forward-friendly requires adaption to changing trends and a willingness to pivot while also being disciplined in the face of change.