Over the course of 2015 I was exposed to many companies going through Lean software delivery transformations – some very successful, but many less so. Having this visibility into the software lifecycle architecture of such a broad range of the world’s leading organizations was eye opening.
Here’s what I found: most leading IT organizations are going through some kind of Lean transformation. The ones that succeed in accelerating software delivery will thrive. Those that fail will fall behind. And those that take no action, but continue down the complacent road of delivering software in the slow ways of yesteryear, will be displaced by their nimbler enterprise counterparts, or by startups. This will happen much more quickly than they realize. One of the most interesting things I learned was just how fast the return on investment from a successful transformation is, which spells market-changing dynamics for the Have and Have Nots of software delivery transformations in 2016 and 2017.