Digital Transformation Planning: Start With One Process

Dessinez le chemin actuel.

Suivre une tâche à travers les personnes et les systèmes impliqués. Enregistrez les transferts, les saisies répétées de données et les exceptions. Demandez aux parties prenantes de vérifier la carte. Une description partagée du processus actuel aide l’équipe à décider quel changement est important et quelles dépendances elle doit respecter.

Séparez le problème de l'outil préféré.

Décrivez le résultat que le flux de travail doit prendre en charge avant de choisir une plate-forme. Déterminez si le problème est une intégration manquante, une responsabilité peu claire, une interface obsolète ou une combinaison des deux. Gardez les options ouvertes jusqu'à ce que les exigences et les contraintes soient comprises.

Choisissez une première phase avec des limites claires.

Définir ce qui change dans la première phase et ce qui reste en dehors. Acceptez les utilisateurs, les systèmes et les données inclus. Planifiez la manière dont le flux de travail modifié sera examiné et ce qui se passe si une dépendance n'est pas prête. Cela donne au projet un point de décision pratique.

Inclure la propriété et la transition.

Discutez des personnes qui utiliseront, approuveront et maintiendront le flux de travail révisé. Incluez la documentation et toute formation requise dans la portée. Un changement technologique nécessite toujours une transition réalisable pour l’organisation qui l’entoure.

Define a first phase with a visible boundary

Choose a process with an identifiable trigger, outcome and owner. Observe a real sequence of work and record where staff wait, clarify information or copy details between tools. Include exceptions, since the normal path alone may hide the decisions that create difficulty.

Describe a first phase in terms of request types, users, systems and locations. Agree what remains outside it and how the new process interacts with existing work. Test the proposed flow with the people who submit, review and support requests. Use their feedback to refine the scope before deciding on a wider programme or a particular platform.

A first-phase transformation canvas

Use this canvas to explain the change to both business and technical reviewers. Each statement should be specific enough for someone to challenge it.

• Current process: trigger, outcome, users and systems involved in the work.
• Problem: observed friction and the evidence available to describe it.
• First-phase boundary: included request types, teams and explicit exclusions.
• Dependencies: policy decisions, data quality, permissions and connected systems.
• Acceptance: representative tasks and exceptions the changed workflow must handle.
• Transition: training, support, ownership and a decision point before expansion.

Separate workflow change from tool replacement

Moving a form into software does not resolve an unclear approval rule. Decide which decisions belong to policy owners and which require implementation. Otherwise the new tool may preserve the same ambiguity in a different interface.

Avoid making the first phase depend on every proposed improvement. Record future ideas without silently including them in the commitment. Review the pilot’s limits before describing its results as representative of the entire organization.

How do we choose the first process?

Look for a meaningful problem with an available owner, accessible evidence and a boundary the team can test. Do not choose only the most visible idea. A smaller process may be a better starting point when its dependencies and review responsibilities are clear.

ILLUSTRATIVE PLANNING EXAMPLE

Example: digitizing purchase approvals

Follow a purchase request from submission to approval and receipt. Note where staff re-enter details, wait for an approver or resolve missing information. Choose one request type for the first phase. Agree how rejected and urgent requests are handled before drawing a new screen or selecting a platform.

Use a process map and a scoped first-phase brief to compare options. Keep wider departments and request types visible as later decisions rather than implied commitments.

FURTHER READING

Official resources to explore

Explore the related official guidance below. The templates and examples are practical starting points to adapt to your own project.

• GOV.UK Service Manual: how discovery works