3 key roles for driving digital success

To address these gaps, product and delivery leaders must rely on domain experts, including solutions architects, user experience (UX) specialists, Six Sigma analysts, information security leaders, and data architects. Most organizations can’t afford to staff domain experts with active roles on agile teams, so they consult with teams on their requirements and solutions.

More importantly, CIOs should challenge their domain experts to propose, define, communicate, and evolve self-organizing standards. These are bottom-up standards crafted in partnership with agile teams, have applicability to how other teams operate, and ensure that best practices continuously evolve.

It’s these self-organizing standards that help organizations build digital transformation core competencies. Examples include:

• User experience specialists provide team brand, design, information architecture, and style guides.
• Six Sigma specialists interview end-users, document existing business processes, and guide teams on what business workflow areas benefit from automation, tooling, and other modernization efforts. 
• Solutions architects create standardized stacks, microservices, and reusable patterns.
• Information security specialists guide agile teams on shift-left security practices.
• Data architects, who partner with data scientists and data governance specialists, ensure new data sources are cataloged, comply with enterprise naming conventions, and adhere to data security requirements.  

CIOs should meet with domain experts regularly, and a best practice is to establish KPIs demonstrating the adoption and value delivered by self-organizing standards.

Agile PMOs: Connecting execution with digital strategy

CIOs must also present to their leadership teams and board directors the status of their digital transformation initiatives, the financial impacts, and roadmap changes. For larger enterprises with multiple running initiatives, relying on product and delivery leaders to perform consistent reporting can be time-consuming and distracting.

CIOs should look to revitalize their program management offices (PMOs) from top-down compliance drivers to bottom-up service providers. It’s a similar and not-easy transition program to how program and project managers had to learn when transforming from waterfall to agile methodologies.

Agile PMOs close the loop on digital transformation as a core competency through several activities. CIOs can tap PMOs to communicate compliance requirements, drive learning objectives, and promote hiring practices that meet diversity objectives. When working with teams, they should simplify vendor management and reporting, including financial and other KPIs. Agile PMOs take on these responsibilities and reduce the frictions that slow teams down.

Digital transformation isn’t dead — it’s becoming table stakes. Boards and business leaders expect CIOs to continuously guide and deliver competitive technology and data capabilities. What teams delivered last year is old news and will require ongoing modernization. Digital transformation as a core organization competency is an evolution of the IT delivery model, and creating a team of digital trailblazers paves the way for delivering innovation and continuous improvement.