The world is experiencing a new era of innovation that is driven by digital transformation. Businesses must embrace the rise of technology to remain relevant, efficient, and effective. Success of digital transformation may be substantially reinforced by a clear Delegation of Authority for effective scoping and management of the transformation journey and engaging the adoption and retention.
Delegation of Authority (DOA) is a process by which tasks and responsibilities are assigned to individuals or teams. This process distributes decision-making power to the appropriate person or group, allowing for more efficient and effective decision-making.
In the context of digital transformation, DOA is vital to identifying and empowering:
the business owner who would scope the work of what to be digitalized and its respective benefits to the organization, approve the outputs and enable the adoption
the working teams including workstream leads who would manage the delivery of the journey
process owners who would then manage adoption and retain the use of digital changes to deliver the expected benefits
Identifying the business owner
Before beginning any digital transformation initiative, it is critical to identify the business owner. The business owner is the individual within the organization who is responsible for the initiative’s success. This person is typically a senior executive who has the authority and influence to champion the initiative and ensure that it is adopted throughout the organization.
Scoping the work
The business owner follows his authority to scope the work involving defining the objectives, goals, and deliverables of the initiative. This process ensures that everyone then involved in the initiative has a clear understanding of what is expected of them and what outcomes are desired.
The business owner can also utilize DOA to delegate responsibilities and authority to specific individuals or teams staffed to the initiative to empower effective delivery of the scope as they are able to access to skills and resources needed for implementing the initiatives.
Approving the outputs
The outputs are the products or services that will result from the digital transformation initiative. Approval of the outputs ensures that they meet the organization’s goals and objectives and that they are aligned with the overall strategy.
DOA ensures that the business owner and the person or team responsible for the initiative, or the process owners, have the necessary authority and expertise to make appropriate decisions and ensure that they are aligned with the organization’s goals.
Implementing the changes
Once the outputs have been approved, it is time to implement the changes. Implementation involves putting the outputs into action and ensuring that they are integrated into the organization’s operations. Implementing digital transformation initiatives requires collaboration, communication, and a willingness to adapt to change.
DOA updated to the new processes provides process owners and end users with appropriate level of authority to adopt and utilize the initiative and effectively manage the respective risks.
In conclusion, embarking on digital transformation initiatives requires clear ownership of business owners, working teams, process owners and end users. DOA plays an important role in this process, as it allows for more efficient and effective decision-making, delegation of responsibilities, and management of resources.
