How to Build a

Digital Initiative
Transformation Office?
Program and Portfolio
Management Post COVID-19
 • IT metrics: The approach to measure the success
of IT initiatives is shifting away from traditional
cost-center driven metrics such as on-time and
on-budget delivery towards more evolved means
such as release frequency, risk mitigation and
Digital Initiative Transformation time-to-market.
Office, a combination of people,
• Product centricity: Internally, many organizations
processes, metrics, are moving away from a project-oriented delivery
methodologies and tools, model towards a more product (or service) centric
centrally drives and manages organization. New roles such as the product owner
are emerging and other roles like the traditional
the diverse set of digital project manager are becoming less prominent.
initiatives in your organization
• Technology shift: The technology landscape is
changing rapidly, especially trends around cloud
computing4 have significantly impacted not only
how infrastructure and software is delivered
and hosted but also how IT organizations
are structured.

• Customer first: Besides agile, related

Have you recently wondered if your program and
methodologies such as design thinking are
portfolio management (PPM) capability has kept up
shaping how products and services are delivered
with the ever accelerating pace of digital change
in the future and therefore, have a major impact on
during the pandemic? If yes, you are thinking right.
PPM capabilities.
As other digital practices mature, it is now the time
to kick-start a PPM upgrade that scales along with As-a-service models: On one hand, many
your upcoming initiatives and gives you a head start organizations discover as-a-service as an additional
out of the COVID-19 crisis. lucrative source of income for their own business
models. On the other hand, they intensively leverage
the whole bandwidth between infrastructure and
COVID-19 accelerates software as-a-service offerings to increase
scalability, flexibility and drive down costs.

existing program and While the traditional role of program management

will eventually disappear, there is a great
portfolio management opportunity for the PPM capability to reposition
itself as a key enabler and driver for digital change in

trends a post COVID-19 world. This is what can be referred

to as a Digital Initiative Transformation Office.
The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic is a pressure
cooker for business and IT capabilities alike. While
organizations with a low digitization maturity risk
falling behind the curve even faster, competitors will
Why act now?
excel and come out of the crisis stronger than ever. During COVID-19, every organization realized that
Increased pressure on an organization as a whole being digital is paramount for survival and therefore,
and PPM comes via the following trends: many new digitization initiatives have been started.
Organizations are now building the foundation for
• Agile methodology: Companies have invested in
future growth.
upskilling their teams in agile methodologies and
started to adopt frameworks like SAFe1 or LeSS2. Operating in this new-normal world with a “survive -
The future will therefore see fewer traditional grow - transform” mindset requires a stable
v-model based programs and projects. foundation for planning and execution that can scale
quickly and reliably. Scaling only works though with
• Remote collaboration: Offices and delivery
the right people, processes, methods, metrics and
centers are closed, forcing colleagues to work
tools in place.
from home. With COVID-19, agile teams must
therefore be well equipped to deliver initiatives This is where the implementation of a Digital
remotely across the globe in a seamless way3. Initiative Transformation Office (DITO)
2 becomes relevant.
Form a mission Ensure that all digital initiatives are using
a coherent delivery management
methodology (catering for both v-model,
statement agile and hybrid approaches).

To provide guidance on setting up a DITO, it is Establish a common understanding

important to understand the overarching objectives regarding the dependencies between all
and mission statement of this entity. Typical digital initiatives.
objectives are:
Ensure that best practice delivery methods
and technology platforms are established
Make digital initiatives comparable to across all products / business lines.
each other in terms of cost, quality, agility,
delivery speed, benefits and risks.
Remove overheads, which is typically
necessary to set up the right set of
Track every initiative from its first ideation management tools and assets for new
stage, up to the productive use in a initiatives.
consistent way.
Those objectives need to be tailored for each
Ensure that the right set of information is organization. Based on the identified objectives, a
available at the right point in time to make mission statement for a DITO could be the following:
informed digital related investment /
divestment decisions across the
organization.

Mission statement: The Digital Initiative Transformation

Office is the central umbrella view across all digital
initiatives from ideation to go-live and operations. It will
a) Provide transparency on how well we perform towards achieving our business
objectives and

b) Accelerate and mature our digital delivery capabilities by

c) Foster a strong alignment between business and IT. It will do so by providing the right mix of
people, processes, metrics, methodologies and tools.

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Introducing the Digital
Initiative Transformation Office
The DITO is an integral part of the end-to-end digital decision-making cycle. Only then can it provide the needed
holistic support throughout the digital investment lifecycle. It enforces a structured approach that all stakehold-
ers can adhere to. The key capabilities of a DITO are depicted in figure 1.

Digital Initiative Transformation Office (DITO)

PLAN CAPABILITIES EXECUTE CAPABILITIES

Identify
Demand digital Define Target
management opportunities digital landscape design
transformation
roadmap
Portfolio Delivery
management management
Evaluate
digital Digital Initiative
Roadmap Implement Product
maturity Transformation
design digital management
Office
initiatives
Technology Change
evaluation enablement
Shape
business Harness
Business strategy digital Performance
case design capabilities monitoring

People Processes Metrics Methodologies Tools

Legend: Digital Initiative Transformation Office key capability

Digital Initiative Transformation Office building block
Figure 1: Key capabilities of the Digital Initiative Transformation Office

The supported digital investment lifecycle typically Define how success will be measured and who will
consists of the following six phases. Those phases be accountable.
might vary for each organization and the model • Define digital transformation roadmap: Define the
should be adjusted accordingly. right mix of initiatives and resources that best
• Shape business strategy: Reinvent or update the align to the identified business ideas. Take into
business model and challenge every aspect of an consideration the current organization’s
organization. Design how an organization will capabilities and architecture.
interact with customers and its ecosystem and • Implement digital initiatives: Execute the
how that affects processes and structures. implementation of agreed initiatives. Setup the
• Evaluate digital maturity: Conduct an honest right governance and delivery methodologies.
assessment of an organization’s digital Move quick and maintain the needed agility to
capabilities in comparison to competitors. react to an ever-changing environment.
• Identify digital opportunities: Identify, which ideas • Harness digital capabilities: Rollout products and
have the highest potential and how does that services to end users as quickly as possible. Get
stack up to an organization’s capability. feedback early and adapt accordingly. Conduct an
outcome-based assessment of what your
4 organization is delivering to customers.
PLAN capabilities EXECUTE capabilities
Figure 2 shows the five core planning capabilities Once an initiative goes into execution mode, the
where the DITO can position itself to support the set of capabilities given in figure3 play a
wider organization. crucial role.

PLAN EXECUTE PLAN EXECUTE

Demand management Target landscape design Demand management Target landscape design

Portfolio management Delivery management Portfolio management Delivery management

Roadmap design Product management Roadmap design Product management

Technology evaluation Change enablement Technology evaluation Change enablement

Businessase design Performance monitoring Businessase design Performance monitoring

Figure 2: Core planning capabilities DITO supports Figure 3: Core execute capabilities DITO supports

A big paradigm shift impacts most organizations From a delivery viewpoint, having the right processes
during their digital transformation: the need to and tools for scaling in place is paramount for a
break open existing silos and move towards a more successful IT organization.
product/service centric organization.
An organization must balance the need to move
Therefore, all planning related capabilities must be quickly with the best fit-for-purpose technology
adjusted. Agile cross-functional teams can be while at the same time not piling up additional
formed and eventually the definition and approval of technical depth across the organization.
demand is conducted within the different products.
The product is where IT and business colleagues Especially larger, established organizations rely on
work close together and where an impulse for future existing programs and applications that are best
growth is sparked. delivered via a traditional v-model approach. At the
same time, agile teams have become the norm.
This itself has an impact on how IT budget is Hybrid approaches must be designed that allow
allocated. Rigid IT budgets no longer suffice. Instead, agile teams to release features in short time
organizations are moving towards flexible budget intervals while still adhering to an organization’s
guardrails to give teams the needed level of agility. quality gates and release windows.

Decision making metrics must be rethought and Change never comes easy: every organization needs
engrained in the demand and portfolio management to adapt to the new ways of working. True digital
processes. In a digital world, it is even more leaders understand the networks within an
important to find the right mix between traditional organization and can bridge the gap across formerly
business and investments made for rapidly growing divided silos. They understand that innovation
or emerging business. happens at the intersection of different disciplines
and they can apply systems thinking. The
As technology is a significant enabler for innovation organization should always work towards the global
and therefore business growth, mechanism must be optimum instead of looking for the local optimum.
put in place that ensure that enough time is
allocated for technical innovation and experiments. The performance management process and
To avoid waste, it must be incentivized to share associated metrics must be rethought so that the
insights on new technology across teams and envisioned way of working is incentivized. In case an
products. organization wants to become more agile and
flexible, KPIs must be reworked and the right tooling
To not lose sight of the big picture, activities across needs to be in place to measure them.
products and services must be streamlined based on
a clearly defined set of rules that a) have the built-in
flexibility to react to change and b) provide the
long-term guidance needed in larger organizations.

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How can you start? Scenario 1: An integrated tool suite for target
landscape design and delivery management

Take a minimum Tooling is a great starting point to drive behavioral

change within an organization. With this scenario, it

viable product is important to pick tools that already come with

preferred-practice processes, data model, reports
and workflows. It is important to choose a trusted
approach! implementation partner to avoid upfront design
decisions that will hinder wider adoption when ready
for scaling.
Any of the five DITO building blocks (people,
Delivery management and target landscape design
processes, tools, metrics and methodologies) can be
are two capabilities that are well suited due to the
taken as an on-ramp scenario.
high tool maturity and relative ease of tool setup.
As a rule of thumb, pick one or multiple building Those type of tools also have an immediate impact
blocks and implement them across one (at most two) and can be deployed quickly for agile teams doing
capabilities as a starting point. This results in a product development or cloud transformation
maximum of ten initiatives that will be targeted in initiatives.
parallel (see figure 4). The less items you focus on for
your MVP, the more likely you are to set yourself up
for success.
People
Digital Initiative Transformation Office (DITO)

People Tools Target Landscape Processes

Design

Delivery
Management

Tools PLAN EXECUTE Processes

Methodologies Metrics

Methodologies Metrics
Figure 5: Tools for target landscape design and
delivery management

Scenario 2: Introduce a common agile

Legend: DITO building block methodology for delivery management
DITO key capability
Typically, an organization has already deployed a
Figure 4: Creating on-ramp scenarios
variety of agile teams without ever developing a clear
vision on how their work can scale and blend in with
Here are four potential on-ramp scenarios that have the rest of the organization. This is where agile
proven successful: frameworks such as SAFe come in.

The DITO can become the leading unit to streamline

agile initiatives and, together with the agile teams,
define the ways-of-working that should be adopted
by all agile teams. It is advisable to listen to the
lessons that successful teams have learned
previously.

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The added value that the DITO can bring on top of the Scenario 4: Agile demand and portfolio
mentioned frameworks is the fact that hardly any capability
organization will make a 180-degree turnaround to
fully adopt one of the frameworks. Instead, different If portfolio visibility is your biggest pain point, then
components of the framework(s) must be leveraged try to go with scenario 4. You will leverage the DITO to
in perspective. establish common processes and metrics for
demand requestors and portfolio managers that
combines v-model and agile initiatives.

It is advisable to target a certain project or product

People
and use it as a prototype to establish new ways of
working, tooling, etc. Once operational, this model
can be scaled and rolled out across the wider
organization.
Tools Processes
Delivery
Management
People

Methodologies Metrics
Tools Demand Processes
Management

Portfolio
Management
Figure 6: Agile methodology for delivery management

Scenario 3: Move towards product-centricity Methodologies Metrics

True agile organizations must move towards a more
customer-focused setup and form cross-functional
teams. One solution is to reorganize around products
and services and set up the respective agile teams. Figure 8: Agile demand and portfolio capability

The DITO can become the entity to give the right

impulses and provide guidance on this endeavor.
3600 digital
transformation
People
management
This article has introduced the concept of a Digital
Tools Processes Initiative Transformation Office.
Product
Management The DITO forms a central umbrella view to manage
the diverse set of digital initiatives in your
organization.

Methodologies Metrics The DITO is a combination of people, processes,

metrics, methodologies and tools (building blocks).
The on-ramp scenarios can be used to discuss
potential starting points in your organization.

Figure 7: Product-centric approach

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About the author
Nils Ackermann
Managing Consultant, Wipro Digital CIO Advisory

Nils has more than 15 years of experience in

delivering the whole bandwidth from smaller
strategic IT assessments up to multi-year systems
integration initiatives.

He has implemented agile and v-model aligned IT

Governance processes and tools across a wide
variety of global organizations.

Nils is based out of Frankfurt, Germany. If you want

to find out more on how to set up a Digital Initiative
Transformation Office.

References
1
SAFe Scaled Agile Framework official website: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/
2
LeSS Large Scale Scrum official website: https://less.works/
3
Adopt “Agile Anywhere” for Seamless Software Delivery:
https://wiprodigital.com/2020/04/01/adopt-agile-anywhere-for-seamless-software-delivery/
4
Wipro Cloud services: https://www.wipro.com/cloud/

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