A recent survey produced by Appian (and conducted by DevOps.com) of of 463 business and IT leaders indicating that a sizeable proportion of businesses are struggling to put in the effort that digital transformation requires. The Appian/DevOps.com survey concludes that organizations are too “overwhelmed by mounting technical debt and the number of software applications needed to support changing IT environments.”
Headlines from the survey, in relation to why companies feel understaffed and overwhelmed, ate:
There is a talent shortage: 82 percent of businesses surveyed report how they cannot attract and retain the software engineers needed to work on digital projects.
Overwhelming customer demands: 72 percent of firms do not believe they can scale to keep up with business demand in the coming years.
Application backlog: Some 1 in 5 companies have 50 or more major app development requests in their backlog, which is inhibiting digital transformation growth.
Pressure to fix issues quickly: This was the biggest stumbling block, with 91 percent of enterprises stating they are struggling with their so-termed “technical debt.”
Summing this up, the main hindrance is inability by many companies to link technology initiatives with business growth.
A review of the survey by Forbes, looks at what executives can do to steer a path forward in digital transformation. This is foremost through artificial intelligence and machine learning, and secondly by developing the Internet of Things. The third area of importance is in implementing robotic process automation. While these matter, an editorial in Computer Weekly warns about the a dangers of digital transformation projects becoming siloed, locked into functions rather than being cross-organizational.
These initiatives in themselves are probably not enough. According to analyst Sean Winter, the human factor also needs to be taken care of. He writes: “Digital transformation is not just an IT project. If done well, it drives a massive shift in human behavior that reshapes the way we live, work and what we expect from our daily interactions with friends and colleagues.” This represents another important area of business focus.
