Principles and Practices for Orchestrating Digital Value Chains

Summary ISO and many other certifications are an increasingly expensive ritual dance. Every year, the auditor and client company go through the same motions with the sole outcome a stamp on a piece of paper. Even worse, with every new version, the ISO standard expands in scope and required paper trail. The only benefactor is this trend are the consultants, trainers, auditors and standardization bodies. In real life, it is the attitude and skills of the individuals responsible for a product or service that drive quality, security and performance. So why do companies continue to use these wasteful practices?

Summary All but a few pitch the Agile Manifesto as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Consultants and trainers earn large amounts of money by selling Agile as the solution for all development-related problems. To them, the Agile Manifesto is like the Bible. In reality, many Agile projects take forever to complete or are abandoned after failing to deliver the desired results. I see companies rehiring the project managers and architects they fired a couple of years ago as part of implementing Agile. These companies went through the Peak of Inflated Expectations and are now crawling out of the Trough of Disillusionment.

  Summary Leaders are considered a source of innovation, passion, vision, personal development and trust. They enable the other team members to turn technology into a source of value. The topic leadership is part of the first principle: less defensive, more defensive from my book Digital Manifesto: Principles and Practices for Orchestrating an ITValue Chain .