When was the last time you fell into the “Trough of Disillusionment”?

It’s a long drop from the “peak of inflated expectations”.

The technology analyst Gartner Group coined these terms in their now infamous “Hype Cycle” representation of technology adoption.

In the same vein, business leaders often observe something I have coined as the “VATOD”. The “Value Anticipation Trough of Despair”, where stakeholder expectations of rapid returns and transformational change are dashed on the rocks of slow, painful program delivery.

We know that substantial work can be delivered in a matter of months with “Agile” approaches.

However, delivering business value does not happen at the point of software delivery. Process execution has to change in reality, and that is a behavioral challenge. We are dealing with complex business and human change here.

It is commonplace to see a “transformation program” that has still not delivered on its business case years later than planned. If at all.

Why is that?

It is not incompetence or vendor malfeasance, surely?

There are SEVEN key causes described here . .

The sad fact is that 70% of digital transformations fail to deliver on their business case.

It doesn’t have to be this way, but we need to understand the factors at play.

I was lucky enough to conduct some research on this phenomenon of “Digitization Disappointment” and I learned a great deal. I think you might too.

The specific domain was in Source/Purchase to Pay, but it is evident that the same dynamics are in play in every initiative and every process.

The synopsis is worth a read here . . . 

This whole experience of missed opportunity and dashed expectations has got me thinking. The result is something I try to reinforce with my own team constantly.

​I call it “Pareto thinking” and I will be sharing more on that soon!

Thanks for reading . . .