Anti-patterns in Strategy Formulation

Some common anti-patterns in strategy formulation may hinder the success of cloud transformation, and even result in waste of enterprise resources and service interruptions. Identifying and avoiding these anti-patterns is crucial to a successful cloud transformation. Below gives some common anti-patterns and corresponding optimization suggestions.

• The cloud transformation strategy is not aligned with the business strategy.

  This anti-pattern indicates that cloud transformation is not closely integrated with the company's overall business strategy, which turns cloud transformation into an isolated initiative within the IT department. The cloud transformation objectives are not aligned with business objectives, and senior executives lack understanding of the significance and value of cloud transformation. This results in insufficient support or low engagement in cloud transformation. All of these will further lead to insufficient resource allocation and transformation direction deviation, making it difficult to achieve the expected business value. For example, an enterprise blindly pursues cloud migration and adopts the latest cloud technology without considering whether it can truly address business pain points or improve efficiency. Instead, this will increase costs and complexity.

  The optimization suggestions for this anti-pattern are as follows:

  • Closely integrate the cloud transformation strategy with the business strategy:

    • Specify how cloud transformation supports the achievement of business objectives. For example, cloud transformation can help accelerate business innovations, reduce costs, improve customer experience, and explore new markets.
    • Use business language to explain the value of cloud transformation and avoid using pure technical terms.

  • Obtain support and participation from senior executives:

    • Report the value and expected business benefits of cloud transformation to senior executives to win their support and resource investment.
    • Invite senior executives to participate in the formulation and execution of the cloud transformation strategy to ensure that the transformation direction is aligned with the company's overall strategy.
• The cloud transformation strategy focuses on technical benefits but ignores business benefits.

  This anti-pattern is manifested in the excessive focus on improving technical metrics, such as resource elasticity, storage capacity, or service level objectives (SLOs), while ignoring the actual impact of cloud transformation on the business. Although it is important to improve technical metrics, the ultimate goal is to improve the business value through technical improvement. If only technical benefits are concerned, the ROI may be low, and there may even be negative effects on the business. For example, after cloud migration, an enterprise excessively pursues technical benefits such as performance, elasticity, and reliability, but ignores cost optimization and operations. As a result, the cost increases rapidly.

  The optimization suggestions for this anti-pattern are as follows:

  • Set business-centered cloud transformation objectives:

    • Determine the objectives and direction of cloud transformation based on business requirements.
    • Link the improvement of technical metrics to business benefits. For example, enhance service continuity by improving system resilience, scalability, and security. For details, see Setting Cloud Transformation Objectives.
  • Quantify business benefits: Analyze the benefits based on cloud transformation objectives and convert them into financial revenues to evaluate the project ROI, helping managers make strategic decisions. For details, see Analyzing the Benefits of Cloud Transformation.
  • Continuously track and evaluate business benefits: Regularly evaluate the business benefits of cloud transformation and adjust the cloud transformation objectives if needed.
• The cloud transformation strategy is not aligned with stakeholders.

  Cloud transformation involves multiple departments and teams inside the company, such as the IT, business, and finance departments, as well as external partners and customers. A lack of communication and alignment with all stakeholders can lead to obstacles or even failures during the transformation. For example, if the IT department starts migrating service systems to the cloud without sufficient communication with the business department, the service systems will be interrupted and business operations will be affected.

  The optimization suggestions for this anti-pattern are as follows:

  • Analyze stakeholders' interests: Identify all departments, teams, and individuals that are involved in cloud transformation decision-making or affected by cloud transformation. Understand the interests of different stakeholders and develop corresponding strategies to meet their needs to reduce potential resistance. For details, see Analyzing Stakeholder Interests.
  • Conduct proactive communications: Develop a detailed communication plan and specify the communication objectives, content, methods, and schedule. Communicate with stakeholders in multiple ways, such as meetings, trainings, emails, and internal websites, to ensure that all stakeholders can understand the progress and impact of cloud transformation and what support they need to provide.
  • Establish a feedback mechanism: Encourage stakeholders to provide comments and suggestions, and actively adopt reasonable suggestions.

Cloud transformation is complex and full of challenges. A successful cloud transformation requires careful planning, sufficient communication, and continuous optimization. By identifying and avoiding the preceding anti-patterns, enterprises can better avoid cloud transformation risks, ensure the alignment between transformation strategies and business strategies, achieve expected business values, and lay a solid foundation for future development.