I’m about to start doing a piece of consulting work for a non public service client – which is rare for me. It is however very much a ‘digital transformation’ focus and it has been…Reassuring? Worrying? I don’t know…just how similar it all is to the work I have been doing for the best part of a decade in and around Government.

I mean to some extent why would it be different – software is eating the world not just the public sector and the ‘cloud’ is a transition for any organisation that existed on the ‘information superhighway’ (remember that) before the ‘cloud’.

Just how similar became clear when I was writing up some ideas/hypotheses I wanted to ‘test’ based on initial conversations…now maybe this is just my own bias – to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail…after all but I think maybe it is just that outside of a relatively small number of internet-era native companies everybody is struggling with the same problems give or take.

I’m not even talking about agile, devops etc. I’m talking a couple of levels above that. How do you do what you can to give those ways of working and modern approaches a chance!

Here are some things I came up with (and have done time and time again one way or another..)

A clear vision for the digital transformation programme supported by appropriate additional materials (a public roadmap, communications artefacts, open KPIs etc) will allow the team to better set expectations and build support from the business/organisation

An agreed prioritisation methodology – and the tools to enforce it (i.e. spend controls) – will allow the digital transformation team to focus attention, people and finances on the most valuable projects, reduce noise and optimise for success

Ensuring that the ‘Business’* is fully committed to the projects they ‘sponsor’ – through the provision of dedicated product owners and subject matter expertise – will deliver better outcomes for the entire organisation and help break silos

This post was at least partially inspired by this great Twitter thread –>

 

*yea I know – I hate it as well.