5 success factors for your digital projects

Even today, many organizations fail to distinguish between two categories of projects:

• Implementation projects, whose success is measured by the delivery of technical solutions that meet requirements within budget and on schedule;
• Organizational projects, whose success is measured more by the adoption of new beliefs and ways of doing things, with or without technology.

Often, this divergence of perception is the source of internal disputes about who should lead and oversee a digital transformation project: the business lines or the project office of IT departments.

A digital transformation project falls into the latter category, because human issues far outweigh the technological ones:

• A digital transformation must find its meaning at the heart of a new business model that often generates a disruption with existing beliefs and ways of doing things. As promising as it is, technology remains only an enabler;
• The primary goal is to rethink the business model and let go of habits. Leadership, executive sponsorship and coaching are crucial;
• The organizational climate, the absorption capacity and the obstacles to adoption condition the pace of change. The respect of deadlines (plan) is secondary to the expected effect on the business lines (results).

To maximize the chances of success of your digital transformation, here are 5 factors to keep in mind:

1. Make your business lines accountable for your digital transformation. Approach your transformation first and foremost as a business project. Technology must support the realization of desired changes, not the other way around!
2. Focus on stability within your management team. Your proposed changes must be clearly justified and your executive sponsorship must be strong, mobilizing and credible, especially if you challenge entrenched beliefs and ways of doing things;
3. Instill credibility in your governance and solutions by involving influential, peer-recognized contributors. Explicitly and continuously manage stakeholders’ expectations, concerns, questions and issues;
4. Make risk management and management by results predominant. Listen and foster a climate of mutual trust and respect. Use collaborative and iterative approaches that allow you to see the effects of planned activities and adapt quickly;
5. Aim for 80/20 and deploy through action! Experiment and focus on what is essential, necessary and sufficient. Avoid doctrine and the quest for perfection.

These factors are based on my own observations in the field. Of course, other factors come into play, but the 5 previously mentioned seem to be particularly instrumental in the success of ambitious projects.

And you, what other success factors have you observed?