Over January, we at Enfuse Group have been reflecting on 2023 and the future for 2024. Here’s my top 10 predictions for businesses and their priorities this year. Feel free to agree or challenge, or even call me out in a year’s time on where I got it wrong!

Agile was designed over 20 years ago for software development. Since then, the world has dramatically changed and, with it, the use of Agile. However, there has been a notable resistance…

For many, operating models have a bad name. Consultants come in, design a perfect model and then nothing quite goes right when it comes to implementation. There are the…

When designing Op Models, there is a high risk that the scientific approach used will lead to the assumption that well-defined processes, structures and strategic objectives will be followed as planned.

The pandemic and our response to it means that the norm is no longer the norm. Organisations need to respond by focusing their efforts around three areas: (1) Dealing with today, (2) Planning for the future, and, (3) Transforming for the new norm

Stand more to improve personal engagement and cognitive performance

A few years back when we were all caught up in the Agile euphoria, the phrase “Fr-Agile” was coined to describe projects where Waterfall and Agile delivery were combined. This was initially called “W-Agile”, but then some bright spark said “don’t you mean “Fr-Agile!”.

The term Psychological Safety was coined by Amy Edmondson in 1999 after a study she was involved in unearthed an interesting surprise. Researching mistakes by medical teams in the US, she discovered that the teams seen as the high performers were the ones with the highest mistakes, and in turn, the lower performers had the least…

The biggest mistake many organisation make when seeking efficiency savings is to implement process and governance improvements that deliver efficiencies in one area which creating greater inefficiencies across the whole. This is called sub-optimising. For example, you could streamline the processes for one area by removing certain quality checks. This then leads to additional costs further down the food chain when another department has to deal with the knock-on effect of low quality.

Designing a new operating model should be an opportunity to realise step changes in performance. It should be about reducing unnecessary waste that has built up over time, finding ways to help people be more effective, and to get that extra edge over the competition. However, this goal seems to get lost in the inevitable Op Model process, resulting in poor Op Model design, excessive costs to produce and, even worse, op models that are not fit for purpose.

Agile is a highly confusing term because it refers to more than one thing. For business leaders wanting to embark on ‘Agile transformations’ this is problematic. To help clarify needs and intent, at Enfuse Group we think of ‘agile’ as having three distinct definitions with notable overlaps.

Putting a man on the moon looked impossible, certainly when you consider that the US wanted to do it first and they wanted to return the man to earth safely. The feat is even more impressive when you realise that for nearly 50 years we haven’t managed to do it again. It was the power of the goal that made it possible. It was insane and, most importantly, awe-inspiring.

Blockchain is a technology. It is not a solution on its own, in the same way as electronics, coding languages and the world wide web on their own are not solutions. The solutions come from how the technology is applied. There has been confusion on this point. Too much has been written about how blockchain is the answer, rather than a technology which could be utilised to come up with a potential answer.

Some people claim Blockchain is all hype. Some people claim that Blockchain will change the world. As a CIO you don’t have the luxury of waiting around to find out who is right. You have to do something now. Experiment, review the options, do some sort of pilot so that you are ready. If you don’t, you’re not doing your job.

"I love Agile" Agile is great. It’s dynamic, focuses on value, empowers the workforce. Hurrah – up with the Agile manifesto! "I also hate Agile" I hate Agile for a number of reasons, but probably the biggest right now is how it has become the lazy answer to business needs. We need to become Agile. We need to adopt Agile. We need to think Agile. Agile should be our default answer. No, no, no.

If the UK government really wants to be digital, it needs to transform how it taxes businesses today. Without this many long-standing businesses selling viable products will be forced out of business leaving foreign based digital companies to thrive, with jobs and tax receipts dwindling.

DevOps is a movement, anew way of thinking about what 'good practice' is for IT operations and development. This entails changes to how IT Dev and Ops functions use technology, how teams are structured, and how teams act and think.

Here are some watch points for spotting that a transformation programme is doomed. If you spot any of these, beware!

Scrum is a specific process framework for Agile. It is the most popular of many Agile frameworks which have been created over the years. Due to its popularity, a number of features from Scrum are often confused with being core features of Agile when in fact they are only specific to Scrum.

Agile is an iterative approach and mindset to delivering change dating back to late 1990s/ early 2000s. Agile was originally intended for software development, with a view to addressing perceived limitations of waterfall approaches to development. It has been highly successful in this area, and is now the norm for most development teams.