Advanced Digital Transformation – Integrate IT, drive IT in real-time and do IT right.
Inspire and motivate human ingenuity to thrive in the face of complex social, economic and environmental issues.
Introduction
The initiative is rooted in the crucial necessity to harness innovation and creative change for the future well-being of our economic and social landscape. The convergence of factors, including emerging technologies, population growth, geo-political instability, climate change and challenges related to human and technological aging, emphasises the importance of proactive adaptation to meet future needs.
“A more effective, efficient and equitable way of applying computer science to complex societal, environmental and economic issues is imperative. We must strive to overcome status quo bias and high risk, limited capability alternatives”.
Essentially, before focusing on any other goals or innovations, the primary objective should be to update and improve the methods and processes used to apply computer science. This involves ensuring that the use of computer science is as effective and current as possible, making it a foundational step before pursuing further advancements or transformations.
The core challenge lies in the intricacies of digital transformation, exacerbated by the lack of an integrated strategy to navigate the processes within; the business units responsible for creativity, transformation, service delivery and value management. The resulting misunderstandings, assumptions and omissions lead to ambiguity, project failures, and in some cases, disasters.
The suggested modern, digitally integrated architecture is grounded in the principles of good governance. It includes a business process framework for effectiveness, a best practice information architecture for efficiency, a standard data interface for the seamless capture of workflow events and an activity monitor dashboard for real-time reporting.
Fixable Inefficiencies
Undoubtedly, Information Technology has played a pivotal role in enhancing productivity across various corporate functions. However, in the realm of large-scale digital transformations (exceeding $20 million USD), these projects have evolved into intricate and challenging endeavors. Reports consistently highlight that initial optimism often transforms into costly and troublesome failure tempting power dynamics, hidden agendas and a lack of accountability.
Current norms and high-risk, limited transformation capability have not only led to substantial annual financial losses but have also resulted in a far-reaching macroeconomic impact.[1] The Economist emphasises that correcting inefficiencies is contingent on addressing incentives, while IBM reports that economists believe rectifying “fixable inefficiencies” could potentially reclaim wasted resources equivalent to 7 percent of global GDP.
Implementing change is easier said than done. While an iterative, agile approach was initially hailed as a panacea, it faced vigorous challenges.[2] The question arises: what comes next?
Creative Thinking Inspires Ideas, Ideas Inspire Change
Richard Feynman initially asserted, likely in his book “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out,” that IT emerged from the imperative need to perform complex calculations within the unforgiving timescale of the Manhattan Project. However, the term “Information Technology” was formally introduced in a 1958 Harvard Business Review article by authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas C. Whisler, who stated, ‘The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it Information Technology.’
Drawing inspiration from the evolution of economic principles in 1933, where microeconomics and macroeconomics were introduced, a similar approach can be applied to Information Technology. Introducing micro IT and macro IT domains may offer a solution.
Micro-level IT is concerned with how individual computers create, process, store, retrieve and exchange all kinds of electronic data and information and is driven by a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks.
Whereas, Macro-level IT is concerned with the overall planning and control necessary for successful digital change. It demands the cultivation, evaluation, selection and prioritisation of innovation and creative change, the transformation of system requirements (or characteristics) into safe and secure digital services, the monitoring of service performance against agreed standards and the reporting of business intelligence for project costs and benefits.
The Time for Change is Now
Recognising inefficient business practices and suboptimal project management as a priority issue is crucial. Merely applying computer science is not the answer, as indicated by recent reports of digital transformation failure. Preventing such failures or effectively mitigating their impact must become a priority.
The progressive development of organisational design, in alignment with the business and technology ecosystem, demands the implementation of efficient solutions marked by transparency and fairness. A collaborative approach through stakeholder capitalism, socially motivated investing, say, considering purpose as a key driver of profit can contribute to creating functional markets, good societies, and importantly, environmental protection.
Integrated Process Architecture
Presenting a prototype for a modern, solution-focused, integrated process architecture offers a real-time-driven basis for a proof of concept.
The architecture seamlessly connects relevant business-IT activities within a PROCESS FRAMEWORK, triggering event data transmission to ACTIVITY CONTROL and WORKFLOW AUTHORISATION. A set of rules integral to the solution, the Digital Transformation Transfer Protocol DTTP is used to interpret this event data.
A digital transformation forum is proposed, where stakeholders collaborate to create a client-centric vision for IT practice improvement. The foundation aims to establish QUALITY GOALS to rectify ineffective practices, fostering a future supply chain for IT innovation and creative change, including advancements like the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Note: Technically advanced users can delve deeper into the integrated process architecture by following interactive instructions accessible from the footer below.
1. Using Kim and Orzen data, a 70% reduction in the economic impact of IT failure represents added worldwide organisational potential value of over $2 Trillion, and the Consortium for Information and Software Quality reported that the cost of poor quality software for 2020 in the US was approximately $2 Trillion. In 2018 the Project Management Institute revealed around $1 million is wasted every 20 seconds collectively by organisations around the globe due to the ineffective implementation of business strategy through poor project management practices. This equates to roughly $2 Trillion wasted a year.
2. A report published by 6point6 in May 2017 suggests that British business was set to waste an estimated £37 billion on failed Agile IT projects over the course of the following 12 months. The research also uncovered that over half of CIOs regard Agile development as “discredited” (53%) while three-quarters (75%) are no longer prepared to defend it. Almost three-quarters (73%) of CIOs think Agile IT has now become an industry in its own right while half (50%) say they now think of Agile as “an IT fad”. In the face of formidable challenges, the axiom “you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time” is self-evident. However, perhaps greater foresight is needed when applying computer science little by little. Put another way, before embarking on large-scale digital transformation, determining the solution category, characteristics, critical success factors and the project transformation strategy and standards profile is a must.