A Better Way to Plan Your Next It Innovation

Summary

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To study innovation is to a large extent to study missteps, failures, false assumptions and outright flops. While learning from failure gets great press, in theory, relatively few organizations are good at learning effectively from their failures. In this article, the author will argue that a more sensible and much lower-risk way to plan uncertain, new IT initiatives is to take a discovery driven approach. Discovery-driven plans assume that you need to learn what the right answers are. A discovery-driven approach to projects encourages learning, redirection and flexibility throughout the course of a project's unfolding. A short, powerful summary of what your business strategy is and how you plan to compete as a business should be developed and made available to everyone involved with the system design. A major difference between a discovery-driven approach and a conventional approach is that with the former you only ask for and receive enough funding to move the project to the next relevant checkpoint.

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Extract

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A Better Way to Plan Your Next It Innovation

Large-scale IT projects are highly uncertain and vulnerable to the laws of unintended consequences. But the risks can be contained and the opportunities still realized, as long as uncertainty is respected and taken into account. As this author writes, there are practical, proven approaches that allow you to accept uncertainty and maintain good project discipline.

To study innovation is to a large extent to study missteps, failures, false assumptions and outright flops. While learning from failure gets great press, in theory, relatively few organizations are good at learning effectively from their failures. Even worse, it's often possible to see a flop unfolding long before funds are irrevocably committed and people's hope...

See the full content of this document

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