{"id":21594,"date":"2016-04-05T10:31:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T10:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesscloudnews.com\/?p=248432"},"modified":"2016-04-05T10:31:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T10:31:50","slug":"digital-transformation-seven-big-traps-to-avoid-in-implementing-bimodal-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/digital-transformation-seven-big-traps-to-avoid-in-implementing-bimodal-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Transformation: Seven Big Traps to avoid in Implementing Bimodal IT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zumos<\/a>\u2018Bimodal IT\u2019 is a term coined by Gartner. It describes one approach for both keeping the lights on with mission critical, but stable core IT systems (Mode 1), whilst taking another route (Mode 2) to delivering the innovative new applications required to digitally transform and differentiate the business.<\/p>\n

Both streams of IT are critical. Mode 1 requires highly specialised programmers, long and detailed development cycles. Control, detailed planning and process adherence are of priority. Projects are technical and require little involvement from business teams. Mode 2 requires a high degree of business involvement, fast turnaround, and frequent updates; effectively a quick sprint to rapidly transform business ideas into applications.<\/p>\n

According to a recent survey by the analyst group, nearly 40 per cent of CIOs have embraced bimodal IT, with the majority of the remainder planning to follow in the next three years. Those yet to implement bimodal IT were tellingly those who also fared worst in terms of digital strategy performance.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re one of the recently converted, you won\u2019t want to rush blindly into bimodal IT, oblivious to the mistakes made by those who have already ventured down that path.<\/p>\n

Based on experience over many customer projects, here are seven mistakes and misconceptions I\u2019ve learned firms need to avoid when implementing bimodal IT:<\/p>\n

1. Thinking bimodal IT impacts only IT<\/strong> \u2013 In transforming how IT operates, bimodal IT changes the way the business operates too. Mode 2 is about bringing IT and business together to collaboratively bring new ideas to market. This requires the business to be much more actively involved, as well as take different approaches to planning, budgeting and decision making.<\/p>\n

2. Lacking strong (business) leadership<\/strong> \u2013 Strong IT and business leadership is absolutely critical to implementing bimodal IT. The individual responsible for operationally setting up Mode 2 needs to be a strong leader, and ideally even a business leader. That\u2019s because the goals and KPIs of Mode 2 are so completely different from Mode 1. When Mode 2 is set up by someone with a Mode 1 mind-set, they tend to focus on the wrong things (e.g. upfront planning vs. learning as you go, technical evaluations vs. business value etc.), limiting the team\u2019s chance of success<\/p>\n

3. Confusing Mode 2 with \u2018agile\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 One of the biggest misconception about bimodal IT is that Mode 2 is synonymous with agile. Don\u2019t get me wrong; iterative development is a key part of it. Because requirements for digital applications are often fuzzy, teams need to work in short, iterative cycles, creating functionality, releasing it, and iterating continually based on user feedback. But the Process element extends beyond agile, encompassing DevOps practices (to achieve the deployment agility required for continuous iteration) and new governance models.<\/p>\n

4. Not creating dedicated teams for Mode 1\/2<\/strong> \u2013 Organisations that have one team serving as both Mode 1 and Mode 2 will inevitably fail. For starters, Mode 1 always takes precedence over Mode 2. When your SAP production instance goes down, your team is going to drop everything to put out the fire, leaving the innovation project on the shelf. Second, Mode 1 and Mode 2 require a different set of people, processes and platforms. By forcing one team to perform double duty, you\u2019re not setting yourself up for success.<\/p>\n

5. Overlooking the Matchmaker role<\/strong> \u2013 When building your Mode 2 team, it\u2019s important to identify the individual(s) that will help cultivate and prioritise new project ideas through a strong dialog with the business. These matchmakers have a deep understanding of, and trusted relationship with the business, which they can leverage to uncover new opportunities that can be exploited with Mode 2. Without them, it\u2019s much harder to identify projects that deliver real business impact.<\/p>\n

6. Keeping Mode 1 and 2 completely separate<\/strong> \u2013 While we believe Mode 1 and Mode 2 teams should have separate reporting structures, the two teams should never be isolated from each other. In fact, the two should collaborate and work closely together, whether to integrate a Mode 2 digital application with a system of record or to transfer maintenance of a digital application to Mode 1 once it becomes mission critical, requiring stability and security over speed and agility.<\/p>\n

7. Ignoring technical debt<\/strong> \u2013 Mode 2 is a great way to rapidly bring new applications to market. However, you can\u2019t move fast at the expense of accumulating technical debt along the way. It is important to ensure maintainability, refactoring applications over time as required.<\/p>\n

While 75 per cent of IT organisations will have a bimodal capability by 2017, Gartner predicts that half of those will make a mess. Don\u2019t be one of them! Avoid the mistakes above to you implement bimodal IT properly and sustainably, with a focus on the right business outcomes that drive your digital innovation initiatives forward.<\/p>\n

Written by Roald Kruit, Co-founder at Mendix<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Bimodal IT’ is a term coined by Gartner. It describes one approach for both keeping the lights on with mission critical, but stable core IT systems (Mode 1), whilst taking another route (Mode 2) to delivering the innovative new applications required to digitally transform and differentiate the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4094,1989,1297],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bimodal-it","category-enterprise-it","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21595,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594\/revisions\/21595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}