Governance, Data Management, Digital Revolution! Yeah, Right

May 29, 2020

The digital revolution is not going as planned if the information in a recent Beta News’ article is correct. The headline tells the tale:

Three Quarters of Organizations Fail to Complete Legacy System Modernizations.

The statement is surprising to DarkCyber. The write up explains:

New research from Advanced shows that 74 percent of organizations have started a legacy system modernization project but failed to complete it.

Plus there is more:

The report also suggests a disconnect between business and technical teams could be to blame. CIOs and heads of IT are more interested in the technology landscape of their organization as a whole, whereas enterprise architects are more internally focused.

How does one complete modernization projects? Wave a magic wand? Hire retired people who built the system? Use a mobile app? Organize via Microsoft Teams? Hold Zoom meetings? No, the answer is:

“Collaboration is absolutely essential to successful modernization,” says Brandon Edenfield, managing director of application modernization at Advanced. “To achieve this, technical teams must ensure that senior leadership see the value and broader business impact of these efforts in terms they can understand. Without full commitment and buy-in from the C-Suite, these projects run the risk of complete failure.”

DarkCyber wishes to offer a handful of observations. You may interpret these as reasons for dead end digital renovations:

Cost. The estimates are incorrect and the bean counters choke off funds.
Complexity. The 20 somethings and the MBAs afflicted with spreadsheet fever have under estimated how difficult the rework actually is.
Craziness. The manager with the bright idea leaves or gets fired and in the chaotic aftermath, the project goes away.

Yep, the three Cs and probably the reason for the dismal performance of the modern data management, governance, and digital revolution in most companies. Change is somewhat more difficult that some people armed with PowerPoints and consulting babble wish to know.

Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 2020

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Governance, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.