Optimizing IT Organizations
Helping IT make the leap from service provider or order-taker to business partner is not just a “service offering” at ThoughtWorks. It’s one of our core beliefs. If you’re ready to make the move we have more than a decade of experience in delivering business-value-driven software and the experts who can lead the change.
A process based on the reality of change
Change happens. Nothing stays still - certainly not in today’s business and technology environment. As founders of the Agile movement in software development and practitioners of Lean in IT, we believe that IT organizations can make sustainable productivity and quality breakthroughs by taking on processes and a mindset that embrace change.
For over a decade, ThoughtWorks has successfully and consistently improved competitive advantage, innovation and growth for market-leading companies by helping them adopt collaborative and adaptive methods in software development projects. We created our Optimizing IT Organizations Service based on customer observations that the tools, processes and training that made their software projects resounding successes – often in the face of long odds – continued to deliver results well beyond the individual projects.
It’s not magic and admittedly it’s not for everyone. Transformational change is not for the timid. We aren’t afraid to disrupt accepted company, even industry norms, processes and conventional models. But what we replace them with - adaptive planning techniques, Agile project practices and advanced software tools and training - are much better suited to the needs of users, the business, your customers and the pace of technology today.
Change is hard. Why bother?
Agile and Lean Transformation creates significant, measurable cost-savings and efficiencies within IT. The business becomes a true partner in software projects, and the IT staff are trained to focus obsessively on business value. This collaboration immediately reduces waste - challenging seldom-used features, encouraging prioritizations driven by value. We introduce iterative processes which embrace change, so the combined team no longer gets mired in a drawn-out requirements phase or ends up delivering on ‘out of date’ needs. Delivery starts early, and cycle time is reduced. Testing is no longer a phase, it’s ongoing, so quality is baked in.
The whole process of software creation and evolution is literally ‘on the wall’ for all to see - so both IT and the business have clear visibility – which in turn creates confidence in progress. The long-term result is an IT organization that is a full business partner, delivering bottom-line value on a frequent, highly visible and measurable basis.
How do we get there?
Managing IT change and the individuals and teams involved is complex and demands a systematic approach to control risk, and to target and communicate opportunities and benefits. Our experts will help tailor the transformation using a formal but adaptive process that is based on your unique starting point of staff skills, project mix, business priorities and challenges. Once the whole mix is understood and evaluated, goals and priorities are agreed, and a plan is set out that may involve a mix of pilots, in-flight projects and organization-wide change tracks.
Great emphasis is placed on creating sustainable change with in-house mentors, resource centers for tools and processes, Agile training, and creation of ongoing communities to foster and advocate further adoption of core skills and knowledge as the program evolves, and you take over.
Whether you’re ready to transform your entire IT organization, or want to start with just one team, we can help you become Agile and Lean, with real and measurable benefits.
Agile and Lean Transformation can:
- Amplify the talent already within your organization, with tools and processes to deliver exactly what the business needs, as fast as possible.
- Build trust and make IT a full business partner with bottom-line impact and influence.
- Make projects predictable, transparent and create significant cost-savings and efficiencies.
- Reduce delivery cycle time and eliminate waste.