7 Types of Vital Professionals for Digital Transformation
Talent is essential for the success of digital transformation initiatives in large business organizations.
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As a technical and technology leader, I work with many technical and semi-technical professionals involved in digital transformation initiatives in large business organisations. For example, I closely work with architects, designers, technical specialists, business analysts, implementers, testers, and support administrators.
At the highest level, I work closely with the enterprise architects applying a rigorous enterprise architecture approach to help me with digital transformation initiatives. Critically, if the business and enterprise architecture process go wrong in dealing with a digital transformation initiative, everything else goes wrong in the program.
All other architecture types, such as solution architecture, system architecture, integration architecture, and other architecture domains, are all dependent on the quality of business and enterprise architecture. Apart from architecture, the subsequent activities in the digital transformation lifecycle are also adversely affected.
After a validated, business-focused, and pragmatic architecture supporting the digital transformation strategy, the design - both high level and detailed level - is the next vital aspect to be considered in the lifecycle.
As a technical and technology leader, I participate in various forums such as the Architecture Review Boards and Design Authority forums. These forums are consisting of many architects, designers, and technical specialists.
For example, a Design Authority maybe consist of multiple architects with diverse expertise in different domains. Usually, enterprise architects orchestrate the activities with their broad knowledge and understanding of the strategy, architecture, technical matters, and business.
Enterprise Architects govern the Design Authority by using their organisational skills coupled with other architectural skills and business understanding.
Enterprise Architects heavily rely on business architects to understand business stakeholder dynamics. Let’s understand the role of enterprise architects as we must work with them day to day basis in our digital transformation programs.
Let me introduce the seven critical professionals I deal with in my daily job for digital transformation initiatives.
1 - Enterprise Architects
Enterprise Architects have strategic, architectural thinking, and design thinking skills. These highly capable architects need to articulate the current enterprise environment to the sponsoring senior executives, set future enterprise environment goals, and show how to bridge the gap for digital transformation goals between these two environments.
At a high level, Enterprise Architects understand the overall digital transformation scope, requirements, and use cases of the solutions. Besides, Enterprise Architects perform Viability Assessments which are critical to our digital transformation programs. These architects must regularly assess risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints considering strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Enterprise Architects are responsible and accountable for architectural and technical governance. Technical governance is an essential aspect of digital transformation initiatives. These programs require a particular governance model due to their complexity.
A dynamic and flexible governance model is essential for digital transformation initiatives. The traditional stringent and extreme rule-based oppressive governance models can be roadblocks to the progress. Agility principles are required for dynamic governance models.
Enterprise Architects usually perform the role of technical governance head in sizeable digital transformation programs. They can have formal governance roles. For example, these architects are tasked to run the architecture review boards or design authority forums.
2 - Domain Architects
Domain Architects usually assigned to a specific business domain and play various roles and responsibilities in digital transformation programs.
Domain Architects can architect a component or integrated component in their business units. Even though they are business focussed, they can also have a strong technical background covering various aspects of architecture such as infrastructure, applications, data, and security.
When I am working for a specific business unit problem, these domain architects can be instrumental in providing required guidance to our initiatives.
3 - Infrastructure Architects
Infrastructure Architects are responsible for the underlying infrastructure such as network, servers, storage, platforms, physical facilities such as data centres and communications.
Infrastructure architects are responsible for the plumbing of the digital world.
As a technical transformation leader, I closely work with Infrastructure Architects as they are astute about the infrastructure components of our digital initiatives.
4 - Application Architects
Application Architects are responsible for applications and middleware across the enterprise. Enterprises can have many standalone and integrated applications spanning across multiple servers, domains, and geographic locations.
Application Architects understand the functionality, operability, supportability, integration, and migration of applications.
As a technical transformation leader, I closely work with Application Architects. They are critical resources in our programs as these programs deal with multiple business applications.
5 - Specialist Architects
This may sound like a misnomer, but there are undoubtedly specialist level architects. Even though architects cover breadth, some architects cover depth by specialising in particular areas in the enterprise due to the extensive scope of the domains.
The most common specialty roles for architects are Security Architect, Data Architect, Information Architect, Network Architect, Mobility Architect, Workplace Architect.
Some of these architects can also serve as a subject matter experts or technical specialists which I cover in the next subtitle.
6 - Technical Specialists
Technical specialists can have distinct technology expertise covering a broad spectrum of technologies in many technical domains. These specialists are technically eminent professionals in their chosen field. In some organisations, they are called distinguished specialists.
The terms technical eminence and distinguished refer to outstanding technical expertise recognised internally and externally to the business organisation of a technical leader who is influential and high impact to both technical and business communities.
Some technical specialists can have strong industry skills, demonstrate thought leadership, and possess multiple domain expertise. These specialists are highly regarded and sought after for their views and contributions to digital transformation initiatives.
Leading digital transformation programs requires distinguishing technical factors in multiple technology domains with in-depth understanding to some extent. These groups of people are ideal talents contributing to the success of digital transformation goals.
These technical team members also need and depends on some business-focused team members as a bridge with technical and business domains. The best example of this role is a Business Analyst.
7 - Business Analysts
Even though Business Analysts are not technical, technical leaders closely work with the Business Analysts in architecting and detailing the solutions.
Business Analysts are critical resources to translate business requirements to technical requirements working with business stakeholders, domain architects, and technical specialists.
Exceptional communication skills are essential for Business Analysts dealing with digital transformation initiatives. Their communication skills are well respected and sought after by their peers, managers, and customers.
Business Analysts are expected to communicate at all levels with confidence and ease. They must articulate the most complex situations and technical matters to all stakeholders in a language that those people can understand. Business Analysts must customise their messages based on audience profile.
High performing technical leaders can create learning opportunities not only for themselves but also for team members in the program. They can also teach other people actively and on-demand. By teaching team members, these technical leaders even learn more and better. This new way of learning is critical to meet the demands of transformation goals.
Conclusion
I introduced seven critical roles in digital transformation programs.
High performing professionals can turn every possible interaction with a potential learning opportunity.
Orchestrating these professionals with a novel and bespoke approach can ignite innovation in demanding, frenetic, and complex digital transformation programs.
These professionals also serve as leaders. Most of them act as an intrapreneur in large business organizations. Intrapreneurship of business leaders plays an important success factor for digital transformation programs.
However, the startup companies can replicate this bespoke culture in a smaller volume and size to create a high-performance team for entrepreneurial activities.
I helped many intrapreneurs to transition to entrepreneurial roles for startup companies.
Skill transfer for intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs is something I focus on as part of the success of extended teams in large digital transformation programs. Talent management is the most critical for for these initiatives.
Thank you for reading my perspectives.
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