Gartner Symposium: Why the chance of digital success is random

Research from analyst firm Gartner has found that just 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets, which means over half of such projects are set to fail.

The company’s annual global survey of more than 3,100 CIOs and technology executives, and more than 1,100 executive leaders outside of IT (CXOs), reported that for a certain cohort of IT leaders, the chance of a successful digital initiative is random. Daniel Sanchez-Reina, vice-president analyst at Gartner, described the findings as “the curse of random success”.

He added: “Your chance to succeed is 50:50. It’s like flipping a coin.”

Speaking to Computer Weekly during the analyst firm’s annual European conference in Barcelona about why the chance of success is random, Sanchez-Reina said one of the most common issues is that all the responsibility for the project rests on the shoulders of the CIO.

He said CIOs who have a high proportion of digital initiative failures believe they are solely responsible for the projects. “The CXOs do not feel accountable and feel it is the CIO’s responsibility,” he said. “The business areas participate at the beginning to give CIOs the specifications for what they need and the deadline, but then they disappear. When, after two to three months, the CIO shows the application, the chances it matches their original expectations are very low because they disappeared during the process.”

Gartner’s survey found that CIOs who co-own the delivery of digital initiatives with business leaders achieve project success 71% of the time. Sanchez-Reina said this more positive outcome demonstrates the benefit of CXOs taking equal responsibility and participating equally with the CIO at every stage of the project. Adopting such an approach, he said, breaks out of the random success stigma inherent in projects that lack shared ownership.

Tangentially, project failure is also associated with CIOs failing to relinquish control of IT. “Many CIOs do not want to break down the walls of IT to allow other technologists beyond IT, such as IT roles in finance, marketing and human resources, to participate in the delivery of digital initiatives.”

According to Sanchez-Reina, they may feel they lose power and influence if they open up access and control of the IT that has traditionally been managed entirely by the IT department.

“This is a wrong expectation because the CEO does not care if you do it only with IT people or with people outside IT. The CEO just wants the digital solution on time and of high quality,” he said.

Sanchez-Reina said business executives should break down the organisational wall with IT and participate more in technology production. Given businesses are becoming increasingly digital, this involves business aligning with IT, rather than treating IT simply as the part of the business that delivers digital functionality.

Gartner uses the term “digital vanguard” to identify a new breed of CIO who is focused on collaborating closely with business executives to achieve success in digital projects.

“Behind every digital vanguard CXO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CXOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT,” said Sanchez-Reina. “Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CXOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CXOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT.”

From an IT architecture and platform perspective, Sanchez-Reina urged CIOs to ensure the platforms their teams develop and deploy are not only designed for the IT specialists within the organisation’s IT function. The platform needs to be usable by technologists outside the IT department, such as those working in finance and human resources.

The digital skills of these people outside of IT also need to be kept up to date, he said, to enable them to collaborate and work alongside the IT department to deliver digital initiatives successfully. Overall, the approach requires agile project management.