Why is Digital Transformation Essential?
Digital transformation is essential for companies in order for them to compete in the future marketplace. Long established companies need digital transformation technologies to experience exponential growth. New emerging companies have utilised advanced technologies leading to a trajectory of growth that would not have been possible before.
For the last few years, it has been quite evident that to survive in the marketplace, a digital edge and uniqueness are required, particularly in the way companies function and operate.
You Have to Think, but How?
As companies embark on the journey to enter the realm of digital transformation, a number of questions arise about how to bring about such a transformation. This is as important as the final outcome.
Digital transformation contributes to improved processes, customer experiences and will be successfully enacted with the correct company processes. For this approach, Agile is the ideal methodology.
Who Can Help?
Digital transformation is managed by experts within companies as well as by external consultants who set up the process. Many companies are already aiming to improve their processes for better agility.
External partners experienced in digitalisation, who work with an approach for better agility and know what digital transformation entails are the best option for companies that are seriously looking for a progressive model for change.
Approach Matters
The end goal of digital transformation, whilst adopting agile methodology, leads to far better outcomes than other approaches. For a successful journey, and for time and money to be utilised most efficiently, a tried methodology must be embraced when embarking upon digitalisation.
The work done beforehand, such as discovery sessions, start the ball rolling. Companies either have a clear concept and path in regard to digital transformation, particularly regarding where they want this process to lead them or they are unclear and need to think deeper about this matter.
If a project is not clear, and a lengthy, costly and incoherent approach is taken, the outcome will be a failure to digitally transform. This does not mean that digital transformation is bad for a company, it just requires rethinking.
Best Practise
The following are 5 best practises for digital transformation projects:
- Define The Scope at Day Zero
From Day ‘Zero’ to Day ‘End’, clients or companies may add new ideas or change their initial plan. For a non-technical person, the ‘small’ additional changes do not amount to much more work. But, for engineers and project managers, these changes often alter the plan substantially.
The scope of digital transformation has to be defined. This is true for all projects; budget, the duration of work, flexibility or no flexibility and the exact nature of the work, all have to be decided before the actual digital transformation takes place.
Project managers have options to use Scrum or Kanban in the execution of a digitalisation project. This will depend on knowing the scope of the project.
For example, with a tight timeline, Scrum is ideal for dividing a project into a few sprints. Where there is no pressure to deliver work, then Kanban is the better option, where work is assigned in accordance with priority.
If work is not completed to a defined timeline then budgets are impacted and digitalisation will inevitably be seen as a black hole for expenses. This change may be seen as too costly, amid other financial commitments. In reality, digital transformation will result in saving money in the long run. During sprint planning sessions, it is vital to focus on the project’s timeline and budget, this prevents losing track.
As the costing for any software is estimated in the number of man-hours (this could also be calculated in man-days) utilised to develop an application, it disturbs the budget heavily if a timeline exceeds what was originally planned. Thus, it is important to plan and monitor sprints properly.
A retrospective session is handy at the end of every sprint. This is where one meets the team or partner working on developing new software. In this session, one will find out what went well and what went wrong during the last sprint(s).
Mistakes from the past must be taken as lessons so that they are avoided in the upcoming sprints.
- Know a Customer’s Pain Points
One of the failures of digital transformation is the lack of transparency for stakeholders. Employees, managers and customers must all be considered when digital transformation is planned.
In the software industry, a large number of clients are uncertain about what their exact software needs are when expressing their initial thoughts. As a result, iterations are communicated from time to time.
Learning the many benefits of digitalisation as the process begins, leads to discovering the problems that need solutions. But the scope of work still has to be kept very focused for a successful transformation.
Remember that digital transformation is not a one-time process, but it is ongoing.
This is an important idea that each stakeholder must understand. Project managers or CTO’s must communicate this across the company.
Getting to grips with specific problems that must be solved is the first step, but vital.
The pain points that clients or customers need to solve will guide companies to what is needed. There will be many solutions and software that need developing, but for success, it is a necessity that projects are defined and easy to manage and evaluate.
- Keep All Stakeholders In The Loop
Having a plan, presenting it and then delivering it seems a natural course of action. For radical or even basic digital transformation, such as simple automation, the plan must be presented in smaller chunks.
Keeping partners or clients in the loop will save time, effort and money that arise when the client has only a vague idea of where the project is headed.
It’s highly recommended to use project management software for creating Project Plans or Gantt Charts and sharing them with clients while initiating development work.
A project plan should have proper milestones set with intervals to provide transparency concerning meeting targets. A weekly email/meeting with clients regarding project progress is good practise. This will generate confidence among clients and senior managers about where the software stands in its development timeline.
Project Sign-off is a must when any project ends. This allows the project life to be defined and new projects can be initiated. The current project can also be evaluated better.
A good level of transparent communication provides confidence in digital transformation projects. This serves as a positive follow up for clients, customers and external partners for future digital transformation projects.
- Start a Process by Asking: “How About This?”
In addition to the importance of presenting ongoing work to clients or senior managers, knowing about the general obstacles that can emerge for any company when it carries out a digital transformation process can help in saving a project.
Before starting a process, clients or senior managers should be asked: ‘How about this?’
This approach allows a client to see potential areas of digital transformation, which he or she may not have imagined before. Experts in digital transformation will know
software and tools which will serve clients better.
Clear communication for the duration of a project ensures a client is satisfied and minimises unforeseen hiccups.
Digital transformation has so many components and a successful project requires expertise to know which component will serve a company best for it to be successful.
- Use Tools to Make Work Easier
Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology not only helps in organising work but also makes it easier for an iteration to be applied in the software that a client might have failed to communicate at the start of the project.
If Agile project management is properly implemented, it should deliver good results for both customers and internal stakeholders. One of the major benefits of Agile is the way communication takes place within internal teams.
The fact that deliverables are divided into several pieces makes it much easier for a project manager to manage a project.
Steps are visualized, so there should be few unexpected surprises. The process of digital transformation has natural stages and steps. As technology advances and companies need change, digital transformation will address many needs.
Final Thoughts
Digital transformation is not an option or afterthought for companies. Everyone needs to think seriously about how to embark upon this path, who to involve and what tools are needed.
