The Doppler Quarterly Special Edition 2019 | Page 21

Key Activity 1: Keep your executive and sponsorship team actively
involved in the cloud creation process
Your cloud initiative will fail without sustained executive and sponsorship alignment.
The politics, resistance to change and focus on maintaining the status quo impact lead-
ership and employees alike. The imperative presented with aligning leadership is that
they control access to the resources and funding required to design, build and operate
your cloud transformation. Funding is ephemeral: key sponsors can change their minds,
especially in the rapidly changing technology space where there’s a new fangled distrac-
tion invented every day.
Here, there are no easy solutions. One approach is to achieve consensus early, to contin-
uously challenge the correctness of the cloud vision and to constantly renew consensus
as to the transformation’s direction. Too often, big programs try to over-mitigate risk
upfront, based on the thinking that a fixed plan leads to fixed outcomes. One lesson
learned from the agile world is you never know all the information upfront, so don’t waste
energy building a plan that pretends you do.
Project name: Company XYZ Change Canvas
Urgency Target Conditions
Drivers for change. What pain is
being felt by the participants? Make
sure to express in language the par-
ticipant can understand and
appreciate. What is the final desired state or work-
ing environment after the cloud/change
initiative? A range of options may exist
at first. Can be narrowed down as the
work team leans.
Urgency 1
Urgency 2
Urgency 3
Vision
Target
Condition 1
Success Criteria/Metrics
Indicators that the change is pro-
ceeding according to initial assump-
tions. The metrics should help to
guide the change agents to ensure
they are moving in the right direc-
tions. Should indicate if a pivot is
needed or they are progressing
towards the outcome. There only
needs to be a few metrics.
Success
Criteria 1
Success
Criteria 2
Investments
What is required to achieve the minimal viable cloud/change?
Constraings around time, cost and effort. Commitment of
stakeholder resources. Commitment of physical resources (and
incremental $$).
Compelling, crisp and concise
statement that describes the
destination of change. That
clear objective that resonates
with the participants. Should
be a bold statement but
achievable given the canvas
context.
Vision 1
Vision 2
Wins/Benefits
Investment 1
The expected benefits to the participants
once the cloud/change happens. Expected
agility, cost savings and efficiency gains.
Should be tangible to participants. Delivered
business value.
Figure 2: Using a white board and sticky notes to develop this Cloud Change Canvas, teams iterate
and brainstorm to maintain and evolve the canvas for the lifespan of the transformation.
SPECIAL EDITION 2019 | THE DOPPLER | 19