The Doppler Quarterly Fall 2018 | Page 77

Launch a Talent Enablement Program Organizations need to create a comprehensive Talent Enablement program to meet the unique demands imposed by the cloud. The program must focus on the roles that are most directly affected by cloud transformations, with skill develop- ment initiatives targeted at each specific role. More so, the learning services need to be constantly available and provide the least amount of impact to the business. The days of being out of the office for days or weeks on end to attend training classes is no longer feasible. Various learning modalities, such as virtual instructor-led training (VILT), pod- casts, webinars and progressive learning management systems (LMSs), are necessary to meet the needs of the learners and the business. Move Beyond Certifications Organizations need to create a comprehensive Talent Enablement program to meet the unique demands imposed by the cloud. If you work in tech, you have probably achieved, or at least looked into, pro- grams that offer certifications on a particular technology. These are table stakes in the cloud game. They give people much needed guidance about the general capabilities of a platform like AWS, GCP or Azure, or the specific uses of a point solution offered by a third-party cloud provider. But a Talent Enablement strategy needs to go beyond certifications. Just because you get trained on AWS does not necessarily expose you to tools for scripting, monitoring, abstraction and provisioning that you might need to manage tasks in a cloud environment. It does not prepare you to manage a project or to understand how other tools fit in with the AWS platform. In our discussions with companies pursuing cloud projects, leaders point to a series of missing knowledge domains they say are holding back their momen- tum. Some are general, like having a baseline knowledge of cloud and under- standing team roles and responsibilities. Others are more specific, such as: knowledge of governance and controls for basic hygiene; financial manage- ment of cloud platform spend; operations of cloud services calendars and scheduling; or application assessment for cloud suitability. These skills are generally not covered in certification courses. But they can be taught inside organizations, targeting specific skill development plans to spe- cific roles. FALL 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 75