Overview
“Without specifying expected outcomes, you will not get value out of cloud”
Migrating to cloud is not a purely technical exercise but, throughout the process, this is often forgotten. As the transition progresses, interpretations of the why often start diverging. Keeping focus on what drives the transition is crucial to doing the right things, the right way, and for the right reasons. Exploring and specifying the expected outcomes facilitates this aspired focus.?
Strategic value identification requires specification of what value and outcomes to expect at what point in time. The strategy map captures the why and the what of the cloud transition. Organisations often struggle to answer the question: how do we know that we are materialising the expected value? For example, we may wish to become more flexible, and we know that adoption of public cloud is required to achieve this. What would be the best way to prove that we are indeed more flexible after adopting public cloud? ?
Outcomes are lagging indicators. They report on what already has happened. Leading indicators predict expected outcomes. Cloud transitions typically take several years. Therefore, not only define lagging KPI’s, but also leading KPI’s. But keep in mind that leading indicators usually are less accurate than lagging indicators. Only lagging indicators can prove that actions have led to the required value. ?
The execution of a cloud strategy will take several years. After a while, specified expect outcomes may turn out to be unachievable or should be more ambitious. Therefore, the Cloud Leadership Team must review and update the outcomes occasionally.
Activities checklist
Initial:
- Concretising expected outcomes (KPI’s) of the identified business drivers?
- Determining who “owns” which KPI
Recurring:
- Occasionally, reviewing and updating the expected outcomes
RASCI
| cloud consultant | responsible | transformation consultant | consulting |
| cloud architect | supporting | cloud partners | |
| cloud security specialist | DevOps team | ||
| cloud developer | business stakeholder | consulting | |
| cloud engineer | architecture | consulting | |
| cloud analyst | security | consulting | |
| product owner CCoE | finance | consulting | |
| management | accountable | procurement |