IT was the name given the technology department back when people wanted to make the point that the department was not simply about the ‘tin’ – it was about the processing and provision of information such as HR and finance data. However, since then the world has moved on and the moniker of IT is no longer useful. Increasingly IT departments are rebranding themselves and with good cause.

More and more companies are looking to events like hackathons to drive innovation and tap into the entrepreneurial flair from their people. Having shaped and run hackathons for my clients, here are my top 5 tips for ensuring you get maximum value from your organisation’s hackathon investment.

In part 1 we talked about how digital transformation is about a complete operating model change for a company. We ran through how the change is focused on building a business which can succeed in today’s digital age. This is not a small ask, particularly for long-standing businesses who may be required to change things which have (and could still be) making them successful. So where to start and how to know what should change? Here’s one approach which could be used.

Digital transformation is about transforming an organisation so that it can succeed in today’s digital age. The mistake many make is in thinking it is about just one thing like building digital products, or adopting Agile, or making use of digital channels. In truth it is about all these things and more. Digital transformation is about transforming the whole business, including how the company thinks, acts, operates and competes.

Docker is a big thing in the DevOps community. It’s one of those technology enablers which has really enabled the DevOps ways of working. It has helped simplify the building and deployment of software, particularly moving the software from one environment to another. So this all sounds good, but what exactly is Docker?

Are we really ready for big data? As we watch the world rapidly change around us with decisions being based on gut rather than facts, I find myself questioning the intelligence of humanity and its readiness to make sense of big data.

Doing Agile in small pockets is relatively easy to kick off and make work - the real challenge is doing this at scale. Just like waterfall project delivery, there are significant challenges in ensuring alignment and the right focus when you have multiple initiatives running simultaneously with cross dependencies, impacting the same users and systems, all calling out for funding.

To get the full benefits of Agile you need multifunctional teams and to be organised around products. These require fundamental organisation redesign. Companies who choose to ignore or water down this fact will always struggle to realise the full benefits of Agile.

There’s a big push currently (notably from the likes of Gartner) for IT departments to create a bi-modal capability. This dual-mode of operating is in response to the digital shift we’ve seen in recent years which has repositioned the role of IT in the organisation.