Finding the right approach for effective serial breakthrough innovation has become the holy grail for today’s companies. However, our survey shows that there is still a long way to go before companies’ efforts match their aspirations. Although nearly 90% of companies recognized the importance of defining specific strategic objectives for breakthrough innovation, only about half of them currently do so. Those that do define specific breakthrough objectives and goals are, on average, nearly four times more satisfied with the results than those that do not, and the more explicit the goals are, the higher the success rate. While there is no single formula for success, it is clear that there are some important key factors. In this Advisor, we share some of those key factors as well as four organizational models that have proven effective in different situations.

The challenge of digitalization (which is the main disruptive force pushing enterprise Agile transformation) requires companies to acknowledge that the rate of learning is more important than the return on investment. So the ability to produce continuous learning is today’s main currency. In this Advisor, we share some thoughts on encouraging a scientific approach to ensuring continuous, long-term learning and improvement.

This Executive Update asks whether teams can use AI to increase the performance of Agile teams. Data collection, analysis, prediction, and reporting tend to make up a large proportion of the AI capabilities used in the project and portfolio management disciplines. Most tools are not uniquely oriented toward Agile delivery; this Update will concentrate on the Agile dimension. (Not a client? For a limited time, you can download a complimentary copy of this article here.)

This Executive Update asks whether teams can use AI to increase the performance of Agile teams. Data collection, analysis, prediction, and reporting tend to make up a large proportion of the AI capabilities used in the project and portfolio management disciplines. Most tools are not uniquely oriented toward Agile delivery; this Update will concentrate on the Agile dimension. (Not a client? For a limited time, you can download a complimentary copy of this article here.)

In this webinar, you'll discover the 4 key questions your organization should consider in order to successfully transform.

Design thinking provides a structured approach to uncover the human factors in smart automation. It is also important to understand the design considerations involved. We explore those as well as the systems/technology and business processes involved in this Advisor.

Many organizations are now focusing on a hybrid cloud strategy: moving part of their IT capabilities to the cloud, while maintaining core elements in-house, hosted on-premises. The hybrid model is becoming immensely customary among orga­nizations, as it enables them to optimally allocate their resources while keeping their current IT infrastructure operating at low risk. A hybrid cloud strategy not only prepares an organization for the future but also protects its investment today. In this Advisor, we explore the benefits of a hybrid cloud strategy.

A major consideration in this world of complex­ity of choice is to figure out how to achieve business agility at scale. This Advisor discusses using a framework to achieve that.

Change often creates challenges. Inherent in many challenges are one or more oppor­tunities. Resolving challenges associated with implementing decision automation and sensors can help identify opportunities for digital transformation and operations renewal. As we explore in this Advisor, managers must assess what is needed, what is cost-effective, and what is most useful with new decision automation technologies.

The growth of automated and cognitive systems drives the need for more expressive and adaptive forms of metadata to enable and underpin such AI, which, in turn, raises questions about the traditional role of such metadata components as the data catalog, the business vocabulary, and the data model. This Advisor explores the data warehouse’s evolving role in digital business.

In this on-demand webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Dr. Patrick Haibach, you’ll find out how RPA is augmenting the workforce in a variety of companies. You’ll learn the ways organizations are using the bot-technology. And you’ll discover what the next era of automation will look like.

In this on-demand webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Dr. Patrick Haibach, you’ll find out how RPA is augmenting the workforce in a variety of companies. You’ll learn the ways organizations are using the bot-technology. And you’ll discover what the next era of automation will look like.

One important indicator of just how far along in the adoption cycle a new technology (or practice) is depends on whether organizations have developed detailed plans or roadmaps for its adoption and dissemination across the organization. In this Advisor, we share some preliminary results from our ongoing customer experience (CX) management survey that offer some insight into current and future trends pertaining to the establishment of enterprise CX strategy plans.

Many IT shops often manage dozens and hundreds of active projects. This project-planning work tends to be distributed well beyond a central project management office. There are only so many project managers in the world, and there are often too many project plans to create and manage. To help both our project managers and those in IT (or elsewhere) who operate as project managers without the deeper training project managers often have, we have drafted a rubric that make clear what we are looking for in a project and a project plan.

As I explore in this Advisor, I believe we are going to witness a major migration to a new spectrum of ecosystem-centric businesses that are not customer first, company first, or employee first, but are instead ecosystem first, which is a new thing altogether.

We have found the keys to using Agile methods in firmware development to be focus, flexibility, collabo­ration, tools, and teamwork. In addition, all participants (customers, product managers and owners, systems engineers, digital designers, hardware and software engineers) need to embrace the approach and work together as a team to get the job done as rapidly as possible. In this Advisor, we explore seven major issues that may come up during the product development cycle while putting Agile methods into action.

Most organizations simplify their implementation of methodologies. The quantity of knowledge in a given methodology is greater than its applied usefulness, so much of the methodology remains, probably very safely, as shelfware. In other more malignant cases where the leaders wish to see more rigor from their staff, the methodology can become overburdening. In statistical project management (SPM), we simplify the project management approach by eliminating many concepts that the dominant project management methodologies consider central. While I caution you to err to the side of adopting a lighter methodology rather than a thicker one, that choice is a local one and yours to make. The SPM ontology is presented in this Executive Update provides you with options.

In digital businesses, fragmentation is a design decision to deal with the fluidity of the business processes and business boundaries. It’s important to understanding the consequences in terms of the energy it takes to keep information con­sistent across a fragmented data landscape. Once you can accept that the beastly nature of working with information is created by your own actions and is an inherent part of the collaboration process that makes information work for you, you can finally start to for­mulate solutions.

Blockchain (in its current and future iterations) will certainly impact various industries and governmental applications. But we will likely derive additional oppor­tunity and value from the convergence of block­chain with other emerging technologies. Data currently created and available from IoT devices, for instance, may very well benefit from some variant of blockchain. Capturing informa­tion from trusted devices and storing it in a distributed model accessible for monitoring and real-time analysis for use by AI packages could dramatically alter the speed and quality of delivery of services and/or reaction.

Agile transformation often starts as a grassroots experiment of “doers” but cannot deliver the most valu­able results — increased business agility — without involving company management to face some bold deci­sions. We invite you to view the “Rubicon decisions” described in this Executive Update as generic milestones on an Agile transformation roadmap.

Product development is challenging for both business people and engineers; one challenge is knowing which features to add and when to stop adding more features. Iterative development solves this problem. With short and repeated development cycles, the product grows. This Advisor seeks to demystify a common myth that surrounds Agile product development: the myth that only the most complete feature set will do. 

The need for efficiency in business is more imperative now than ever; we need to do more with less money, less time, and fewer resources. Yet business must also meet the needs of increasingly demanding customers who now expect 24/7 service. In this environment, businesses must consider automating tasks not only to meet increasing demands but to free up human staff to take on more strategically valuable and fulfilling tasks. Robotic process automation (RPA) can thus take on the repetitive, “non-value-adding,” laborious tasks by manipulating data and triggering actions with other software systems. In this Advisor, we explore how RPA is benefiting a number of verticals.

Here in Part XIII, the final Executive Update in Senior Consultant Curt Hall's series on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the enterprise, we focus on findings surrounding the hype around AI and the potential for the technology to lead to social and economic disruption.

In this on-demand webinar, you’ll hear a case study on one organization’s successful journey to become ambidextrous. You’ll discover 6 major design dimensions (that break down into 72 specific capabilities) that make it possible to derive clear, actionable steps to improve the organization. You’ll learn why mastering the balance between the opposing imperatives of speed/creativity and scale/productivity systems is what makes ambidextrous organizations truly stand out.

Viewing an enterprise as an assembly of various architectures and building blocks allows the development of a coherent vision of how an organization can build the required capabilities to meet anticipated changes in its environment. Enterprise architecture, in particular, helps provide guidance and communicates how the company needs to change to survive. EA brings a shift in focus from technical systems to designing coherent sociotechnical systems that meet strategic requirements and organizational needs, such as those around workforce development, culture, structure, and processes. This Advisor introduces the Service Dominant Architecture (SDA) as a tool to support the digiti­zation of companies by structuring actors and their resources and reducing overall complexity.