Deakin University’s CIO William Confalonieri’s paper The CIO Reborn. Emerging from a profound identity crisis to seize the future sets a number of challenges for enterprises, including the following:

• How do we pioneer new customer engagement strategies?
• What delivery models best fit the challenge of digital disruption?
• How can workforce enablement make us more able to adapt to this new, still forming digital environment?
• How do we build a culture of sustainable enterprise change?
• How can we assist the business to reinvent itself from the front-end?

I would add to that list, how can we offset the financial risk associated with predicting our digital future?

ADOPTION OF AN AGILE LEAN MODEL

An Agile Lean model sees enterprises utilising the following principles:

• That business value based prioritisation will get rigorous consideration into planning
• That self-managing cross functional teams are the engine room of adaptive delivery
• That embedding a build-measure-learn cycle allows more attentive response to customers
• That a mindset of continuous improvement will drive enterprise change
• That incremental delivery will offset the financial risks of big bang delivery

HOW THIS MODEL SUPPORTS TACKLING CHALLENGES HEAD ON

New delivery models = better engagement with business

The key strength of Agile methodologies is intensive business engagement. In traditional projects the business provides requirements and then exits until the project is delivered. Using an Agile approach, the business works hand in glove with technology teams. The business is available on a daily basis to plan, answer questions and approve the incremental delivery of work.

Incremental delivery = offsetting financial risk

The risk of the big bang approach to technology delivery is twofold:

1. Digital disruption may have changed the landscape by the time the project delivers
2. Return on investment is not realised until the end of the project

Agile incremental delivery offsets these two risks by:

1. Providing early delivery of features to fit an ever changing market
2. Immediate return on investment through deploying the most highly prioritised features first

Improved customer engagement strategies = success

The following Lean Startup principles closely engage customers to enable enterprises to succeed:

• Validated learning through testing our assumptions about our customers
• More innovative accounting to set the right milestones and measure progress
• Implementing a build-measure-learn cycle to understand how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. This accelerates the customer feedback loop.

Workforce enablement = greater engagement

Agile teams are self-managing and more productive than non-Agile teams. Teams are comprised of the following roles:

• Product Owner – who defines what is going to be built and is the conduit to the business, primarily responsible for prioritising delivery of assets based on their business value
• Scrum Master – the servant leader, who removes obstacles on behalf of the team, monitors in-build activity and manages the flow of reporting information
• Developers – the engine room of the team who are empowered to suggest improvements to product features or team processes

Agile is a pull model, where teams commit to sustainable delivery of work, rather than a push model, where a Project Manager delegates work. This model of workforce enablement leads to greater engagement, idea generation and ability to respond to a still forming digital environment.

Building a culture of sustainable change = continuous improvement

Building a culture of sustainable enterprise change is a mindset change for many organisations. Organisations can foster change by:

• Supporting teams in adopting the Agile practice of reflecting on how to become more effective, then tuning and adjusting accordingly
• Creating opportunities for individuals and teams to learn about Agile best practice through brown bags and guest speakers whose ideas may rock our own
• Encouraging continuous improvement, and investing in the technology and expertise to support it

Supporting business reinvention = creating new job roles

Enterprises need the right level of support to introduce the Agile Lean practices that will see them tackling challenges. Agile Lean Methodologies cover many concepts and principles and are not something simply learnt by attending a course. Key to supporting business reinvention is creation of job roles that fill the following gaps:

• Provision of Agile coaching, to support practitioners in the delivery rhythm, until they become self-organising to deliver independently
• Support for the Senior Leadership team on coming up to speed with Agile practices
• Identification of gaps and opportunities for improvement in Agile practices
• Development of an Agile framework that will fit both operational and project delivery teams
• Examination of what program management means in an Agile context
• Investigation and implementation of a model for scaled Agile delivery
• Adoption of a successful model to encourage practitioners to share ideas through communities of practice within win outside of the organisation
• Support to develop a greater emphasis on building the ability to measure into everything we build