Change happens. If you're responsible for it, you're going to want as much help as you can get. For one thing, it means organizing a talented, motivated, group of people, able to work collaboratively together towards shared goals.
Additionally, it means coordinating knowledge and expertise across a variety of subjects. In short, it means aligning all participants to a common business transformation model. The breadth of work needed to achieve transformative change spans being able to identify, define, design, build, implement, and operate individual solutions to meet business objectives.
Sometimes, it's more than just one.
There are a variety of sources available to help. The Iterative Transformation Model one of those sources. To be sure, the amount of time, cost and other limited resources it can save an initiative far exceed its cost.
Introduction
A few scenarios to highlight where the ITM can provide value to your organization:
- ERP, CRM, SCM, HCM, PLM and other COTS / SaaS package product implementations
- IaaS, PaaS, Network, Security, Database and other Technology / Service implementations
- Orchestrating work within single- and across multi-Solution transformation initiatives
- Organizing and managing a portfolio of Solutions and Customer requests for change;
- Helping teams, groups and projects improve productivity and value to customers;
- Help individuals, teams & projects prepare for efficient and effective execution of roles;
- Align internal and/or external teams having difficulty working together.
This page describes how the ITM can benefit organizations, offering reasons for Business Subscriptions.
For a comparable summary for single consumers, see Individuals. Alternatively, if your organization is a Solution Implementer, or if you are a Consultant or Independent Contractor, then refer to Implementers.
The Case for External Help
Many firms seek assistance from Consultants, Solution Integrators, and even Software Vendors, who each bring their experience to the table. Unfortunately, that option can be costly in more than just hourly rates. For example, the chosen partner may lack a proven delivery model. Conversely, there are times when a partner's business transformation model is misaligned, or incompatible, with your firm's own approach. Furthermore, you may wind up paying for inexperienced, or poor fit resources.
Other organizations prefer to go it alone. While "learning as we go" can be something to strive for, reinventing wheels is a terrible waste of resources. Time is money. Not only does it take time to figure things out, it takes even more time to meld the learnings of individuals into something approaching a standard, repeatable approach. It can take years to figure out an effective approach. It can take even longer to get people aligned to it. Most initiatives don't (and shouldn't) have that kind of time.
Others may point out there are plenty of insights for tasks, roles, and objectives, available on the Internet. And that is true. However, there are aspects which set the Model apart from these other sources. One is alignment. Whereas most sources on the Internet provide a topic-centric perspective, the ITM always has a holistic, "Bigger Picture" in mind. A second is consistency. The Model seeks to ensure that, time and again, the same steps, the same artifacts, and the same outcomes, can be expected. A lot of conscious consideration has been given to these key aspects of the ITM, amongst many others. Yes, thousands of opinions are available. Do you, or does anyone in your organization, have time to synchronize them, and pull them together, into a coherent business transformation model?
About the Model
If you are unfamiliar with the ITM, it may be helpful to review About the Iterative Transformation Model before reviewing the rest of this page. Then, consider how the ITM can boost productivity and save money within your organization.
Internal Knowledge Capital and Personnel Development
Have a specific initiative, or pain-point, to address? Help those responsible by providing practical knowledge based on years of experience.
Apply the Model to Improve one or more Functions
No one starts off knowing how to do something. We learn, we make mistakes, we gain experience. To illustrate, college, or training, speed up one's learning curve, making them more productive, and more valuable, in a shorter period of time than someone who is 'figuring it out' for themselves. Comparatively, individual ITM Sections offer similar benefits, for specific objectives within your iterative transformation and solution delivery initiatives.
Lifecycle Functions
The ITM knolwedge base includes Sections which cover the lifecycle of most transformation, or implmentation, initiatives, including:
- How to Organize for Iterative Transformation - roles, teams, and structures to enable successful change.
- Portfolio Management - to get any Solution off on the right foot, particularly when more than one solution is in the mix.
- Solution Strategy & Architecture - provide the foundation each initiative needs.
- Business Process Definitions - capture the right info to enable your COTS or SaaS package solution delivery.
- Iterative Solution Planning - how to plan in the long-, medium- and short-terms.
- Iterative Solution Implementation - how to structure and operate phases, releases and sprints.
- Iterative Solution Testing - how to validate execution activities in parallel.
- Iterative Solution Reporting - the metrics, KPIs and other data to get and stay on track
- Iterative Solution Operations - how to define environments, version control, work- & test-management systems to support solutions.
In general, each Section can be used indepentently, or in conjunction with one, or more, other Sections.
If your initiative is just starting down one of these paths, or if there are problems making progress in a given area, do everyone a favor, and jump-start their ability to provide value sooner, rather than later.
Align Individual Efforts
The ITM provides practical knowledge on each subject above. To illustrate, the nine (9) Sections listed each contain multiple Parts that address topics relevant to the subject. Further, most Parts describe applicable, and actionable, content, beyond the theory. For example, many include step-by-step guides, and practical knowledge capital gained over years of experience.
To be sure, the hourly or daily rate to have someone on-board with knowledge of any one of these topics can be in the $100's, or even $1,000's. Instead, invest less money for the development of your own participants. Making relevant knowledge and experience available to resources speeds their ability to provide value, as well as increases the amount of value each is able to provide. Thus, work is done faster, and it's of higher quality. Win / win.
Take a look at the overview of any Section of interest (follow the link). Then, look to the Parts within to see the materials available. Investing in a little help can go a long way to addressing challenges in one area, as well as enabling other areas to reach their potential.
Successful Implementations
Starting from scratch? Or looking to take your initiative's capabilities to the next level? The ITM's holistic approach can accelerate productivity by months and years, saving significant amounts of both time and money.
Leverage the Model for an Initiative
Two of the biggest impediments initiatives face when adopting an iterative (or 'Agile') model is achieving top-to-bottom alignment (from executives to analysts) and end-to-end consistency (across multiple teams and initiatives). This is due to difficulties establishing a common business transformation model.
Impediments to Overcome
Misalignment causes delays, missed objectives and cost overruns. For example, outputs of one group don't meet the input needs of another. Alternatively, folks think someone else is responsible when it really should be themselves. Similarly, there's an expectation that someone is doing work, when, actually, no one is doing what really needs to be done. Of course, having a single point of reference, accessible to all, of who should do what and when can mitigate these challenges and more.
Inconsistency also causes delays, unmet expectations and increased costs. For example, things that sometimes work, and sometimes don't, require additional (and unnecessary) management attention. Moreover, they also drive re-work, which is neither planned nor budgeted. That's time and money you can't get back. Fortuntely, a holistic perspective, encompassing all of the roles, processes, and artifacts, needed to define and deliver a solution, can address these, and other, difficulties.
The ITM presents a substantial amount of content. Currently, over 250 web pages (330 PDF pages) across nine sections, address specific subjects. And the model continues to grow. Additional content is added on a regular basis. Additionally, requests for specific topics and materials are encouraged. This content can be applied to specific projects and/or specific roles.
Achieve Alignment and Consistency
Achieving alignment and consistency within an initiative go a very long way towards ensuring effective and efficient results. Undoubtedly, alignment across multiple initiatives brings even better results. Results are what customers are seeking. No one is interested who tried their best. In truth, goals were acheived, or they were not. Thus, being able to provide better results, in less time, is what every organization is (or should be) trying to do. A sound business transformation model should provide such results. As an illustration, past projects and programs would have saved $100,000's to $1,000,000's had they applied just a few aspects of the model.
Take a look at the overall model. Then, see how each section contributes to a different, but important, piece of an overall initiative. Certainly, adopting this one model will alleviate weeks and months of negotations between individual contributors, as they try to figure out who should be doing what, when, and why. Comparatively, everyone with access to the model can be working from the same playbook, from Day 1.
Center of Excellence
Prefer help for all initiatives rather than just a few? Need some additional support as well?
Apply the Model to your Organization
For firms that are embracing change, having a sound busines transformation model is important. Similarly, any organization seeking to improve their delivery capabilities should also be looking to a repeatable model. To be sure, having something which all participants can reference, will save an impressive amount of time, money, and frustration.
Value for the Money
It would take months, or years, and $100,000's to compile the content already available within the ITM. For most organizations, it would require several dedicated staff. The right staff, with comparable amounts of knowledge and experience, would not be cheap.
Or, consider not following any model at all. Each wheel that's reinvented, each mistake that could have been avoided, and any lesson learned, drives up cost and lowers value. Indeed, if the savings on just one initiative can be in the $100,000's to $1,000,000's, do the math on what that means for multiple initiatives.
The ITM can provide the source materials needed to establish your organization's Center of Excellence (CoE) for Iterative Transformation, and/or Application and Technology Implementation. Use the model as is, or start with a current Model baseline and tailor it to suit your organization's specific needs. Both are better options than starting from scratch. Or worse, not providing any guidance at all.
Cost / Benefit Assessment
In addition to the processes, tasks, and artifacts available within the ITM, there are tools, templates, and other materials designed to save time, improve quality, and facilitate key activities.
Look to the model and judge how it compares to what's currently available in your organization. Then, consider the costs to create and maintain such materials internally. Alternatively, consider the costs incurred when trying to "figure it out" as you go. Either way, the Iterative Transformation Model makes a compelling cost / benefit case.
Assistance in getting your organization up-to-speed using the Model is something with which we can help.
See options for accessing ITM content, or look into available subscriptions.