In the age of digital transformation where enterprises have to look into many moving threads to achieve their goal, prioritization becomes pivotal to make this shift. When it comes to planning, most business owners are not short on ideas for defining goals. They set goals and identify what they need to do to get there. But as you set goals and create your action plan, you need to prioritize business goals and activities.
Prioritizing initiatives is fundamental to successful downstream execution. Over the years, our research, interviews and discussions with leaders at all levels, and interactions with workshop participants, have revealed that a systematic approach to prioritization helps the leader and his team to successfully execute and change course, if required.
You only have so many resources – people, time, and money. You still have a business functions to manage and users to serve. Be realistic about what you and your team can accomplish each month and quarter. Set priorities. What’s first, then second, and so forth.
To help prioritize “what’s next”, the MResult team uses a tool called mMatrix.
The mMatrix process allows the team to prioritize and phase the business initiatives and projects into more tangle objects including and not limited to architecture, scalability, performance, and other areas of functionality according to the benefit they bring to achieving the success criteria’s. The end result of this phasing is the creation of a short term and long term roadmap to achieving the desired goals.
During the Prioritization workshop mMatrix is compiled by receiving user, executive, and IT needs and then filtering them, using the following criteria:
- Business-benefit justification
- Organizational readiness
- Technical complexity
The desired functionality is first grouped in rows (identified by the column on the left) and then expanded into cells. These cells are prioritized and phased by business benefit,
organizational readiness, and technical complexity. This sample is a small subset of a typical mMatrix.
The purpose of the mMatrix is to easily understand the functional “cells” that make up the overall solution. As a combined team we will then prioritize and manipulate these cells to create the short-term phase and long-term roadmap.
The objectives of the prioritization workshop are to:
- Define the mMatrix with the assistance of the end user, executive, and technical communities
- Build consensus around the solution, identifying areas of benefit for multiple business groups and owners
- Utilize the user community to prioritize the mMatrix by Business Benefit, Organizational Readiness, and Technical Complexity utilizing the success and prioritization criteria defined
- Input industry best practices along the way
- Phase the mMatrix in order to build a short-term needs and long-term roadmap
If you need help in creating a prioritized digital transformation or modernization roadmap to execute your initiatives, we are here to help you leveraging our mMatrix. Contact us now to schedule a Prioritization workshop for your team.
Author :
Srini Rengarajan, Dec-2022
Srini Rengarajan leads the Data Analytics and Digital Engineering Practices at MResult. Srini is a globally experienced leader specializing in data and digital engineering and a change leader with experience across Technology and Business domains successfully creating, transforming, scaling digital businesses across multiple industry domains and geographies covering US, Europe, India & Asia Pacific. Led businesses delivering Revenue, P&L growth in large, mid-sized companies, and start-ups. Driven multiple organisation level change initiatives around cultural transformation from traditional to a progressive & empowered mindset. A proponent of Diversity, commitment to CSR and modern work practices.
