#376 – IS DETAILED DESIGN ANTI-AGILE? – HOWARD WIENER

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In the Beginning . . .

In days of yore, systems development projects were front ended with laborious requirements engineering and design tasks.  This made sense then because development was labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive.  Changes to the scope or design of a solution mid-development increased the likelihood of errors and incremental time and expense.  In recognition of this, traditional Waterfall project management was applied, which created impediments to modifying the product definition once its development had begun.  Changes were strenuously resisted. Continue reading

#375 – WHY AGILE SOFTWARE OFTEN FAILS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!- HOWARD WIENER

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In the previous articles in this series, we discussed the role that agile digital delivery capabilities plays in your company’s competitiveness and why rapid delivery is so important.  In this article, we will look at the many reasons that Agile adoptions frequently fail to deliver what companies expect and suggest some things that you should do to address them. Continue reading

#373 – THE LINK BETWEEN AGILE AND AGILITY – HOWARD WIENER

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In the previous article in this series, we discussed the difference between Agile and business agility and how Agile 2 addresses some of the omissions and failings of traditional Agile.  Both Agile and Agile 2 focus on accelerating digital development; however, the benefits of any Agile approach can be obviated if it is not implemented within an agile management structure.  Addressing execution issues, as Agile 2 does, will not be sufficient by itself to get you where you need to go. Continue reading

#366 – FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING TRANSFORMATIONS: PART 4 – HOWARD WIENER

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In the previous articles in this series, I asserted the crucial importance of Business Agility to your sustainability.  The Digital Transformation that must undertake is a critical key to attaining it.  But what is Business Agility and how should you understand how it is related to the models I presented earlier?

The common foundation of the three model framework I employ to describe a business consists of these layers: Continue reading

#365 – FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING TRANSFORMATION PART 3 – HOWARD WIENER

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In the previous article, I discussed three models of your company that should inform and guide your efforts to transform:  the four-level Logical Model, the Enterprise Architecture model and the Digital Business Architecture model.  In this article, I will apply them to designing and planning for your transformation.

Models and the Transformation Process

Transformation must be driven by a defined business strategy.  Too many initiatives are driven by a perceived need to master some state-of-the-art or of-the-moment technology, solution or technique and end up underachieving or failing outright.  Once you have articulated strategy, you will employ the models to identify the entities that you will require to enable you to execute on it.  With that inventory in hand, you can perform an as-is vs. to-be gap analysis to create an inventory or portfolio of the changes you will need to make to position your company to do that.  Finally, you will analyze your portfolio and create program and project plans to effectuate the transformation. Continue reading