Problem is, not defining the Problem
Technology has firmly established its place in our daily lives, be it during office hours or our personal time. The world is moving towards a more digital future, and so more and more use cases are being automated or digitized. In the heart of it lies a problem, a problem which we are trying to resolve, be it for a person, an organization or a community.
Narrowing down the scope to digital transformation in corporate world. The problem lies in not explicitly defining the problem, a lot of time the problem is defined implicitly or assumed part of a person's statement, and little or no effort is spent in tracing back to the origin of the statement.
Looking at a very simple example. A business user comes to IT and specifies a need for a report, IT reacts by defining the requirement for the report, what columns, selection fields etc. and starts developing the report. The report is created, tested by user and deployed for usage, but what was the problem? Was the problem a missing report? Or the problem was something which user thought this report will fix? we never explicitly defined that.
This can hold true for any other use cases, be it an automated workflow, a mobile application, an analytical dashboard or an IOT or AI based requirement.
May be the report was never required? May be a workflow was a better solution? which could eliminate the need of even running a report and following up. These questions can only be answered when we go down into writing down the problem.
Direction less digital transformation can be very costly in term of money as well as time spent. Defining the problem helps us in defining the objectives we want to acheive, a problem is what we want to fix and objectives tell us what will be considered a successful solution to my problem.
IOT, AI, mobility, Robotics and all the technology available at our disposal, enables us to digitally transform our organizations by solving our problems and helping us meet our objectives.
Very well said in addition deficiency in the market is also injecting a skilfull resource who understands business and technology to the core other than just depending on miracles from IT and Business Unit, thus generating and efficient solution in a cost effective manner in combination with highly committed, keen & objective oriented management that oversees,guides or directs towards meeting objective as well open to adapt to changes in a timely manner. Organizations facing such deficiencies are victims of loosing ROI interms of productivity, agility, scalability and resources by 70%.
The problem is the problem. Too often the wrong problem is identified or the wrong problem is solved or the solution IS the problem. Often in a rush to solve problems one grabs for the closest thing at hand. While it may ease the symptoms the problem remains to fester to create other symptoms.
Very true...defining a problem is a art..and it's very subjective. Users are afraid of defining a problem thinking of the operational consequences.... Consultants are scared of defining a problem if there is no classic solution.... it should be analysed with open mind without thinking any consequences ... witout any fear... as it will be more riskier not to take risk... !!:-)
While I completely agree that digital transformation suffers, as a whole, from poorly defined problems, and therefore poorly set expectations, I find little value in the comparison to a report generated by IT. That is like comparing a Tesla electric car to a golf cart. I'm sure you can create a better comparison in size and complexity. That said, your point is absolutely true. The term "digital transformation" is a buzzword. By itself, it means nothing and everything. To be successful, your project(s) that are part of your digital transformation have to have specific focus, value, methodology, and expected return on investment. Each one must have a reason.
Right on the head, and let me tell you something very interesting- if you can find a problem out there and can come up with a digital way to fix it you will be making lots of money. Trust me on this...i did.