Minecraft, flying solaris boxes and a telling off.

We had some excellent talks this morning. Started with Michael Stephenson from Northumbria University who talked about using cloud services to implement two speed or bimodal IT. He had some nice demos of using Minecraft to prototype services, and even demonstrated a service status page in Minecraft which sent a firework up when there was an outage. He challenged us to think about what 10 year olds will expect from IT when they come to university. Some are already coding in Minecraft. His talk is here.

Next up was Paul Boag who challenged us to think differently about digital transformation. Paul has been to Sheffield to help us set up a digital transformation team, and as usual was lively, fun, and provocative. If you want to see a room full of IT people being told off, watch his talk.
He talked about students as consumers, and how we're all one disgruntled student away from a PR disaster. They all have a voice and will complain loudly about poor service. He chhallenged us to think about whether we're in denial as a sector about how our business model might need to change because of disruptive technologies. A bit like Blockbuster and Kodak were. Too many of us are dabbling in digital transformation and not doing it properly. One organisation which has it right is UCAS who are really embracing it. To be really digital, we need to stop long term planning the Government Digital Service doesn't plan more than 8 months ahead. It was a great talk, and I think his message needs to heard by all senior managers in Universities. Especially his final question - how much do e spent on our digital estate, compared to out physical?
He has a page of resources about digital transformation in HE, which is really useful.

After the break, Simon Moores on cybersecurity - chillingly entitled, "It's not if but when..." You can watch it here. He started by talking about how much stuff runs on old technology. Apparently  planes are just flying solaris boxes. I didn't like flying before.... He talked a lot about risk, and I particularly liked this apparently real question on Quora:

Something that was mentioned a number of times in the conference, is that in terms of cybersecurity, the emphasis is moving away from prevent and protect, to detect and respond. Analysing patterns of behaviour, machine learning, analytics, all important techniques we will have to ue.

Final session this morning was Paul Feldman from JISC talking about the future direction of JISC. JISC provides many services that underpin everything we do - our network Janet, access to publications, and lots of specialist advice and guidance. As the funding model for JISC changes, and we move to an opt-in subscription service, JISC will be working with us to provide the best possible digital services. His talk is here.

Achieving Digital Agility with Bimodal IT without making a mess

Yesterday was spent in a workshop with colleagues from other Universities and Sheffield on Biomodal IT.

So, What does that mean? Biomodal IT is the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability, and the other on agility.
Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasising safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and non linear, emphasing agility and speed.

That's the text book definition, and we spent a lot of time unpicking what it actually meant.

Gartner estimates that by 2017 75% of organisations will have a Bimodal capability. Half will make a mess.


Bimodal IT is not a nice to have - we will have to embrace it.

So, here are some notes of my key take-aways.

Bimodal is not:
Anything that splits in two.

Agile development

Pace layering

An IT capability, it's a business capability. Requires engagement from the business.

An operating model or organisational chart change

Shadow IT

This slide perhaps illustrates what the differences are between Mode 1 and Mode 2

Key risks in implementing bimodal IT:
Really important that both modes are connected. You need to work in a collaborative style with shared alignment.
You fall into the timid middle   Because second mode can look scary, there is a temptation to  de-risk it. Wrap it in comfort blanket.
Technical debt. Inevitable that you will take shortcuts. Have to monitor and manage it
Create an us and them situation. Need to create equity between teams
Renovating the core. A lot of agility in second mode comes from what you do with your core applications, so need flexibility in those

Need to apply filters to decide which projects you apply Mode 2 to. Customer experience, mobile, social, all are common

Mode 2 is always iterative. Apply the principle of producing the smallest viable product. Then use and iterate.
Have to delegate the autonomy to the team.

Need innovation management as part of governance.  Prune ideas.  Fail visibly and fail fast. 
 If the organisation is not prepared to accept failure, then it won't work.

 Need to identify people who can work in this way.



Start before you think you are ready

Some people start with an innovation lab

Or innovation team


Others start with agile

Then show how you can apply this to your digital strategy
Everyone starts small


Important thing is to start




Answer these 3 questions in order, as you go through a project:

Does this idea has value
?
What shape should this idea take?

How do we scale this idea

?

Mistake is to start with last question, or nothing will get off ground

Bimodal is very experiential, you have to do it to learn it.


You have to find a part of the business to work with you in this way. If they won't, find a different project.


Select projects which have minimal interaction with mode 1 team

Important to avoid tension between teams, Need to make sure there is equity between teams in terms of recognition and reward.  
Be careful with language
.  There has to be more that unites them than divides them -  common goals, values, priorities
 
Some examples from other places:


One University uses students to come up with and develop ideas - they are a cheap resource and enthusiastic.
Provide some money to have a competiton and let them work with you over the summer to develop something.

Another University has created a small innovation team in IT. 2 people - one a developer and one with a web marketing background. Exploring gamification. 
Also have students working on mobile app development.

How do you transfer things into services? Especially if developed by students
Easy to develop a bright shiny object, and then move on to next bright shiny object
Organisation needs a clear understanding of what "done " is
Mode 2 needs to take responsibility for something to be useable.
Going back to 3 questions, when you get to last one, have to decide whether you can afford to scale it or not.


A very interesting workshop, and something I am keen to take forward.