clear line of sight to customer experience , value and delightful UX . Experience design is core to meeting this challenge .
DevOps
More than continuous integration and deployment automation , DevOps is about breaking down the silos between traditional IT development and IT operations . It is worth noting that DevOps can be adopted without the cloud , and cloud adoption can occur without DevOps . However , when utilized together they reinforce each other , becoming much greater than the sum of their parts . IT organizations are striving to adopt best practices of organizations such as Netflix , Amazon and Etsy , which are known to deploy application updates hundreds of times per day . When DevOps is combined with agile methodology , applications are built with a much shorter time to market , less issues and with frequent updates . You can ’ t do all of this without true DevOps , which is a radical departure from the reality of enterprises that used to struggle with releases one or two times per year . DevOps encompasses everything from the culture of tearing down silos and automation , to continuous integration and deployment .
Alignment with Business Stakeholders and Business Outcomes
While this may seem like IT 101 , time and time again we continue to see projects misaligned with business needs and stakeholder priorities , resulting in a lack of support and eventual project failure .
An IT organization must know its stakeholders , what is driving its success and its top priorities . For digital innovation efforts that are considered transformative , alignment is not a one-time event . Just as startups often make course corrections and pivot their ideas based on the results of PoCs , an enterprise needs to continually evaluate how its digital innovation efforts are aligning to the business strategy . Finally , enterprise organizations that foster a culture of innovation must continually focus on having a clear understanding of business priorities . Otherwise , the outcome is often no more than innovation for the sake of innovation .
Do Not Lose Sight of IT Ops
At CTP , we often see the IT Ops team and the IT application and innovation team completely siloed from one another when they should be working together to drive innovation and agility . For an IT organization to innovate , a strong operational foundation needs to be in place . Any cloud adoption program must result in reliable , efficient and cost-effective IT operations . This will instill confidence with business stakeholders as they partner with IT on digital
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