The Doppler Quarterly Special Edition 2019 | Page 20

roles, processes, tooling and teamwork. The change affected dozens of roles in the
operations group. By applying well known agile change management principles and
techniques — such as building a coalition of leaders, getting early results, engaging
stakeholders and managing execution — the CI/CD automation was adopted success-
fully, and significantly improved the company’s aggregated software development cycle
times.
Transformation is a more encompassing problem domain. Unlike change management,
it doesn’t focus on discrete, well-defined change outcomes, but rather on a portfolio of
projects, which are interdependent or often closely coupled. More importantly, the over-
all goal of transformation is not just to execute a defined change, but to recast the orga-
nization’s capabilities and to discover a new or revised operating model based on a
future vision. Transformation is much more unpredictable and iterative, and requires a
lot of experimentation, aka “learning fast from trial and error,” as the Lean Startup busi-
ness books explain. Transformation also entails much higher risk. And, even if smaller
successive change initiatives lead to certain accomplishments within the transformation
portfolio, the overall success of the transformation is not guaranteed.
Reinventing oneself as an ISV to a SaaS provider is a transformation example. When an
incumbent global software company realized that small startups potentially threatened
their leadership position, they realized their current on-prem software solution was los-
ing its competitive advantage and evolving too slowly. To respond to the emerging
threat, the leadership team launched a cloud transformation strategy, with the goal of
building a new SaaS-based product offering. This included a number of major “must-do”
activities: implementing public cloud platforms, refactoring the core software architec-
tures, introducing over 23 new technologies, and rebuilding, from the ground up, a new
customer support model. The transformation also required leadership to align all initia-
tives to a new DevOps and “Customer-First” mindset.
Understanding that you are dealing with more than change is the first step in scoping
your cloud transformation. In essence, a true transformation requires a shift in people,
mindset and culture, not just a new set of cloud technologies and some process changes.
Planning Your Sustainable Cloud Transformation Initiative
Transformation is Focused
on Tools & Skills & Minds
Change is Focused
on Tools & Skills
• Communication
• Project Management
• Training
• Process Design
• S
 takeholder and
Leadership Alignment
• Communication Plans
• Workforce Management
• Organization Design
• HR Strategy and Support
Figure 1: Transformation vs. Change
18 | THE DOPPLER | SPECIAL EDITION 2019