We believe existing organizational development approaches are not far-reaching or holistic enough when it comes to the scope of the issues they address. Most methods either focus on strengthening the scale/productivity dimension (often within the context of Lean models) or push the speed/creativity dimension (commonly referred to as the Agile model). However, choosing either the Lean or the Agile path does not provide the right mindset and tools to address the complexity and competitive challenges of most large organizations. Moreover, those frameworks that are ambidextrous are not operationally focused enough to enable day-to-day management and lack a link between strategy definition and organizational development. From our experience, these missing qualities are essential to making well-informed business decisions.

We are increasingly hearing about the rise of the “Chief Customer Officer” (CCO), who has the position and the authority to ensure that the organization provides a unified and seamless customer journey/experience (CX) across all customer channels. But just how standard is the role of the CCO among organizations? According to preliminary findings from our ongoing CX management survey, current use of CCOs — or someone with an equivalent title formally charged with overseeing the adoption of CX practices into the organization — is relatively popular, with approximately 27% of the organizations we have surveyed indicating that they have made such an appointment.

Nowadays, companies are struggling to deal with a more and more sophisticated customer. Online and offline touchpoints are generally unbound, failing to create the unique and continuous journey customers expect. Companies must embrace a new approach in order to give strategic relevance and a clear purpose to the digital marketing practice. As described in this Advisor, this approach is based on seven major activities grouped into three areas, which recur iteratively to achieve progressively more accuracy and commercial success.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) — is it hype, a new industrial dawn, or simply a means to increase leisure time? We are putting AI into nearly everything, including our refrigerators and other domestic appliances. So what about Agile teams — how should they use it? AI in project management tools is not new; indeed it has been a decade since global enterprise software company Planview introduced the optimization engine for capacity and demand. However, it is only now that this AI feature is becoming more widely used. This Advisor explores how organizations can use AI to increase the performance of Agile teams by supporting the product owner.

Robotic process automation (RPA) has emerged as a popular technique to automate routine and repetitive human-system interactions across functional domains such as finance, marketing, human resources (HR), and other transaction-processing areas. Adopting such intelligent automation techniques allows businesses to enable efficiencies without major system transformations. Business leaders may find it compelling to invest in RPA tools and resources but should be aware of the foundational work required before rolling out the initial robots. This Advisor explores some of challenges facing organizations looking to adopt RPA.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly enhance team performance regarding the collection, analysis, and presentation of data to teams for record keeping or trend analysis. This theme of indirect assistance continues with the use of AI by Agile coaches to assist with the continuous performance improvement of Agile teams. Most organizations use Agile coaches to support their Agile teams, along with AI tools to synthesize large volumes of benchmark data. The use of robotics is also a great way to automate repetitive and predictable tasks, such as the creation of status reports or the calculation of key performance indicators.

We can characterize the fourth stage of automation, smart automation, by intelligence embedded across customer channels (stores, call centers, websites, etc.), processes, systems, and platforms. Smart automation builds on the previous stages and uses intelligent means to bring automation to all aspects of a business value chain, from customer experience (CX), worker experience, internal processes, and operations to partner collaboration, covering all types of systems. As we explore in this Advisor, however, it is important that smart automation design carefully consider the subtle interplay between humans and machines to understand the nuances of those activities humans are good at and those for which machines are efficient and reliable.

Almost every organization has some room for grassroots Agile initiatives; projects for which no mandatory process has been defined or organizational units where managers are less interested in how their teams work than in whether they deliver expected results. Launching an experiment with an Agile delivery process is therefore relatively simple. It takes a project, a team motivated to try (or demonstrate) how an Agile approach works, and a project sponsor willing either to play the role of product owner or to appoint one. Such a project does not really challenge the status quo; its results are uncertain, so even naysayers tolerate it. In this Advisor, we share some of the challenges of taking such an initiative.

In light of the changing landscape of cyberattacks, it is critical that organizations change the way they address cybersecurity. Relying only on traditional methods of blocking attacks with firewalls, antivirus software, and passwords will be a mistake. Organizations instead need to implement cybersecurity measures that are capable of handling the new breed of cyberattacks. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. AI-based cybersecurity solutions use machine learning (ML) techniques, which are a subset of AI. In this Advisor, we explore two broad categories of ML algorithms: supervised learning and unsupervised learning.

With so many variants of the core components of the blockchain definition — like validation, distribution, opportunities, and challenges — it becomes clear that exec­utives may need a matrix or rubric to decide if/how to adopt blockchain based on industry and objectives. Even if your company is not considering automating processes via blockchain, your competitors may be doing so, and government entities may even force your hand. Therefore, it is important to start the internal discussion now. In this Advisor, we’ve shared some questions to help your organization quickly engage in deep discussions.

We are now in the “post-Agile” age. In this Advisor, we introduce some of the cutting-edge ideas from the Agile community featured in this month's CBTJ, including Heart of Agile, Modern Agile, the GROWS Method™, BOSSA nova, and solutions-focused thinking. This issue also digs further into stories of politics in Zimbabwe, entrepreneurship in Pakistan, and running “agile classrooms” in several countries.

Industry proponents have been pushing the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) is set to have a major impact on customer experience (CX) practices. But how do end-user organizations feel about AI’s potential for facilitating CX? After all, they are the ones who will or will not utilize the technology. In this Advisor, we share some initial results from our ongoing CX management survey offer some insight into organizations’ attitudes toward AI’s potential impact on CX practices.

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.

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.

The ability to effectively and efficiently digitalize an organization’s value stream is, unquestionably, a source of future competitive advantage. Identifying and integrating the most appropriate digital technologies into the value stream requires a profound understanding of all related business processes, as well as a sound understanding of what the technologies offer and their relative maturity. To achieve success and overcome traditional barriers, companies need to ensure that Lean principles are well integrated into their digital transformation. To do so, and to fully exploit their digital potential, companies should perform the four actions described 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.

We believe that Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon is a useful metaphor in describing the challenge of rolling out an innovation that fundamentally changes the way an organization works. An important (and often fancy) transformational concept successfully tried on a small scale, in some kind of sandbox environment, is to be implemented through a large-scale change effort, engaging many new stakeholders. Achieving truly transform­ative changes means reevaluating skills as well as shifts in priorities, resources, and power. 

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.

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.

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.