There is no doubt that developments in technology is presenting huge opportunities for organisations. Who wouldn’t want a driverless car (except taxi drivers) or an intelligent machine that could do everything from improving medical diagnosis to translating languages?
But at the same time, the press is full of stories about IT disasters – from Queensland Health payroll to the Myki card.
Almost every senior executive wears the battle scars of an IT project that did not deliver to expectations. At the same time they cannot ignore technology and hope it goes away. So where do they turn?
There is one sure-fire way to reduce the risks from technology. And if you reduce the risks, you can seize the opportunities!
The approach is not new, not revolutionary and does not rely on an “app”. It is often hidden within the context of business unfriendly terms like enterprise architecture or program blueprinting. But to people who have learned from their battle scars and seen technology success, it can seem a bit obvious.
To get your technology right, you need to get your analysis right!
Implementing a successful technology solution means getting a whole bunch of decisions right. These choices start at the very top of the organization as new technology challenges many businesses operating model. Then there are investment decisions, decisions on approach (e.g. insource or outsource) right down to decisions on what options to present on a screen.
If you haven’t done the analysis, or if you haven’t done it well, every decision is a risk and some of them will fall out wrong!
Of course many executives have also been burnt by poor analysis – usually getting the impression that vast fortunes are being spent on spinning the wheels. Analysis has to be targeted, relevant and joined up to be of use.
The key to success for any executive dealing with technology is to have access to a trustworthy, high quality analysis capability.
Organisations need to reset their thinking, learn from past mistakes and focus on doing technology right. This means analysing the right things to the right level, using the insights to set strategy and then delivering. Excellent program, project and service management teams working with great analysts deliver amazing outcomes.
So executives need to reset their views on analysis. They need to arm themselves with an analysis capability and they need to insist on sufficient analysis at all levels of a technology project.
They could do worse than to restate W. Edwards Deming famous quote “In God we trust; all others bring data”
So how confident do you feel that your organisation is doing it’s analysis right?