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October 10 - November 25, 2020
Scaling agility may be a problem, but it’s not as important as the challenges of learning and adapting fast enough.
Focusing on external customer outcomes and value rather than internal business benefits such as return on investment (ROI) is central to the EDGE message.
This change means believing that improving customer value is the key driver that will lead to improved ROI. But ROI isn’t the objective; instead, it is a constraint. You
ROI is a business benefit (internal) but not a measure of customer value (external).
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin, English naturalist
Table 1-1 Changing Fitness Functions Fitness Function Pre-Digital Digital Business Return on investment Customer value Technology Cost/efficiency Speed/adaptability
“Only 16 percent of respondents say their organizations’ digital transformations have successfully improved performance and also equipped them to sustain change in the long term.” —McKinsey & Company, “Unlocking Success in Digital Transformations,” October 2018
As George Westerman, principal research scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy, says, “When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”
This diagram is used by ThoughtWorks staff to illustrate the transition to Tech@Core.
The fact that these spreadsheet apps often addressed only a single person’s needs, didn’t scale, weren’t maintainable, and created a security risk never crossed the users’
Agile Manifesto says, “individuals and interactions over process and tools.”17 Having the right people involved in your technology strategy is imperative.
In a complex environment, following a plan produces the product you intended, just not the product that you need. —Jim Highsmith
when the process goes right what you attend is what you need.
