Can you still remember it?
If you wanted to open a bank account, you filled in a form, you got periodic paper statements and for a change you had to go to a bank branch. Now, as users, we are blessed to have the bank, and all the shops, in our pockets. With the Corona crisis, location-independent (collaborative) working has become an added benefit. As a user, I see only advantages.
It is the era of Digital Transformation where digitisation promises golden futures for businesses and government.
CIOs of Dutch companies, however, also tell me other stories. Because of all the new techniques and links between systems, both internal and external, building IT applications is becoming increasingly complicated. In addition, they have to contend with failed and overpriced ICT projects, and these are always on the front pages of the media.
These CIOs have made this a priority. The CIO of a large listed company told me that they are working on many improvements within his organisation to increase the success of their IT projects and to keep the costs under control. Another example is that of the CIO of a bank. He is organising his organisation differently, Agile, in order to be able to react faster to changes, both organisational and technical.
The CIOs indicate that the predictability of change processes with an IT component is their greatest challenge. They are therefore looking for solutions to make change processes more predictable and are considering many aspects, such as other change methods, project management, Agile methods, BusDevOps and the deployment of existing roles in a different way. They indicate that they especially want to give the Enterprise Architect (EA) a new role to implement successful change projects. The old role was, in their opinion, too much based on processes and technology, while they now indicate that the architect2.0 will have to become more of a connector and change agent.
From the EA's point of view as a connector and a change agent, they also indicate that this new role goes beyond the organisation and technology, but should also form a view on all aspects of an IT project. They are therefore looking for what the EA brings to the decision-making process.
This is the starting point for my Master research, to answer this last question. Are you an IT decision maker and do you recognise this image, then I invite you to participate in my research. I can be reached at andre.veelders@strategy-alliance.com.
Through this blog, I will of course keep you informed of the results of this research.
