In one of my earlier articles on Disruption, Innovation and the Art of Business Architecture, I made the case that the concept of entropy is highly applicable in explaining the evolution of business organizations.
Generally speaking, entropy is the measure of disorder in a closed system, and it is a concept borrowed from thermodynamics – the branch of physics that deals with the relationship between heat, work, temperature, and energy in a system.
We are a year and a half into our Digital Process Automation program and have had some very strong successes as we learn new tool sets, build our enterprise capability center for governance and stand up an Agile way of working. Year one (1) we delivered over $10M in returned value on an investment of $3M. That early success buoyed our enthusiasm and optimism. It also pushed us to strive for bigger and better successes for year two (2).
We knew maturing, scaling and sustaining the new capability was going to be our focus for year two (2). However, that early optimism had us more bullish than perhaps we should have been. We were a bit stymied on the slowing of momentum as new and different challenges presented themselves.
Here are some field notes of our journey to date. This year, as we endeavor to drive forward and unlock business value using RPA/RDA capabilities, coupled with AI for Intelligent Automation, we have stepped back to assess, adjust, and learn.
When transitioning to agile, the key is to shift your thinking. Here are three critical areas that you should consciously work on changing.
Whether I am working on a single process or an operating model, I have found that stakeholder analysis is a good place to start. It is simple to do and often gives insights that are valuable both to the design work and to the transformation work.
Take a page of paper or a flip chart, describe the thing you are designing (process or function or whole organisation) in a circle in the middle, and array the stakeholders on spokes leading away from this central circle. A stakeholder is an individual or group of individuals or organisations who are likely to be affected by the work you are doing or whose requirements will affect the work you are doing.
EDITOR’S NOTE: DBizInstitute.org has released it first research report “Digital Business Adoption: Examining the drivers for digital business success around the world”. Access this members-only report by logging in (existing members) or join DBizInstitute.org today.
There is a recurring myth in the IT industry that Agile projects do not require documentation, that giving stakeholders the opportunity to respond to fully functional software replaces that need altogether. This perception (or, more accurately, this misperception) often stems from a misunderstanding of the following statement in the Agile Manifesto (https://agilemanifesto.org):
” We have come to value…. Working software over comprehensive documentation”
The creators of the Agile Manifesto have clarified this statement numerous times, emphasizing the following qualifying condition at the end:
“That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”
Decision modeling is designed to bridge the gap between business processes and the key decision-making technologies needed to transform traditional processes with digital decisioning, which typically includes both business rules management systems (BRMS) and predictive analytics. Here we’re using the term “predictive analytics” in its broadest sense, including artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
Decision modeling delivers the agility and operational efficiency required for a real-time customer experience while assuring the highest levels of consistency, compliance and risk management.
Why Model Decisions?
2019 is going to be a very different year than the past few years. 2017 was a “pedal to the metal” year where almost all were making forward momentum with digital. 2018 started strong, but there was a shift to “steady speed” over acceleration. Many economic experts are now predicting a slight dip in growth which means businesses will be hovering their foot above the brake pedal just in case the turmoil in the markets takes a sharp turn. What does this mean for business investment in Digital? This blog will be my best shot at predicting the likely trends.
In a previous article, Using Business Architecture to Design Future Industries, I made the case that Business Architects have an important role to play in identifying future-oriented business opportunities in emerging business sectors such as the $350B space industry. The example provided was that of a key business process – the space supply chain management process – which is already being defined and modeled by several organizations. While the space industry and its key sector – space transportation – are still in their infancy, industry players with the foresight to map out the long-term business and IT architecture for the space transportation infrastructure will have first-entrant advantage into what is expected to be a highly lucrative field.
Most of us have found ourselves in the situation where we are assigned to oversee a function or department new to us. Without knowing what we’ve inherited, the honeymoon period kicks off – those critical ninety or so days where we have to demonstrate that the hiring manager made the right decision. During this time, we meet with our direct reports, talk with customers, watch how things are getting done, and diligently investigate areas identified by our boss. But true progress is somewhat elusive – we just don’t really know where to dig in. Not knowing where to focus their energy, many new managers hammer down on the administrative side of the job. Unfortunately, they quickly lose the ability to see with fresh eyes the reality of the situation. They get sucked into the void of the status quo.
Everyone starts here.
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