When Do You Get Digital?

It is unlikely that all the many projects that make up a digital transformation programme can be worked on at once. Even if the resources were available, the high level of change involved would likely lead to confusion and change fatigue. Therefore the projects have to be prioritised.

Prioritisation Priniciples

Beyond the obviously necessary consideration of project dependencies and budget/people availability, Paramis Consulting recommend considering four key dimensions when prioritising projects. The first two deal with the business value of change, the second two deal with people's appetite for change.

High ratings for service benefit and savings potential - the two axes in the figure above - would tend to push a project to the head of the queue in order to deliver more benefits/savings earlier.

However, projects with low risk (chance of getting it too wrong) and high cultural impact (inspiration to stakeholders) - shown by the colours and circle sizes in the example figure above - may be more important initially to build confidence in change and get stakeholders on board.

Reality Bites

Depending on the current reputation of IT in your organisation, you might need to invest time and money in more reliably 'keeping the lights on' now before your stakeholders will trust in the promise of a digitally-enabled future. In scheduling projects to deal with this, you will need to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to pursue quick fixes that fit your current IT model, or to look for longer-term, digital-friendly solutions.

Staying Agile

Project prioritisation and scheduling will not be things that happen just the once at the beginning of the programme. Over time, not only will programme delivery capabilities vary, but you will also learn more about how change works for your organisation culturally - either of these developments might justify a modification to project sequencing. The level of transformation being pursued is inherently full of risks, meaning both threats and opportunities. Paramis Consulting believe that the best way to address these risks is to stay agile, supported by a good governance structure.

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