Businesses know they need to adapt with IT change to respond to business, consumer and compliance demands, but taking that first step can be a daunting prospect. And with Standish Group research that the potential for software development to fail never being greater (failure rate has remained at around 70 per cent for the past 20 years), there are three key areas that businesses need to address before embracing IT change and taking that vital first step.

1. Ensure the business and IT aims are aligned

It might seem obvious, but a critical step in making software projects a success is to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal. What a business needs and what IT can provide can be mismatched, and unless stakeholders and users are integrated throughout the entire process, the end result may not reflect the needs of the business or, worse, could fall at the final hurdle and fail at go live.

The focus should be on mitigating risk at every stage and using IT to meet the business need and goals. This can be done by: assessing the quality of each business area to be implemented, establishing a road map for each area, embracing agile techniques, and ensuring transparency across the business.

2. Embrace agility

Organisational agility is a key aspect in managing successful IT change. The advent of cloud-based technologies has forced companies to become more agile in their approach to taking on new technology in recent years.

With cloud becoming a leveller, small and multi-national companies alike are able to take advantage of new technologies, with budgets no longer a barrier to adoption. Consumer-led demand is increasing at an unprecedented rate, organisations must be able to react more quickly and deliver IT change at a faster rate, lower cost and at little or no risk to the business. 

When all three of these aspects are aligned, businesses can put themselves in a great position for a successful IT implementation. By breaking up the process up into small stages that are tested at regular intervals this will ensure a smoother transition process and successful outcomes. 

IT transformation and the pace of technological change might seem like a daunting prospect but, by breaking it down into manageable chunks and putting quality assurance at the heart of the project, businesses can reap the benefits of today’s technology to ensure they remain one step ahead of the competition.

Written by SQS‘s Ben Fry and David Rigler.

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