Tag: Design Thinking

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What is BizDevOps

BizDevOps is the next “Digital” evolution following DevOps and Agile software development practises. Aimed at including business stakeholders as part of autonomous cross-functional software delivery teams.

It is a practice that emphasizes the ownership, collaboration and communication of both business stakeholders, software developers and other IT professionals. While automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software, can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.

BizDevOps is often combined with Lean Six Sigma, Design Thinking and Service Design methodologies.

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What is Platform Thinking

Platform thinking is best described as a technology driven business strategy.

In construction, a platform is something that lifts you up and on which others can stand. 
The same is true in business: By building digital platforms, other businesses can easily connect their business with yours, creating an ecosystem, build products and services on top of it, and co-create value. This ability to “plug-and-play” is a defining characteristic of Platform Thinking.

From a technology perspective, successful platforms:

  • Remove friction from delivery teams by focusing on high quality, self-service access to foundational technology.
  • Create an ecosystem of technology and business capabilities. Using domain-driven principles, carefully-factored business capability interfaces (APIs) are critical components of an effective, modern Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategy.
  • Enable explicit investment in a foundation for experimentation which ensures every delivery team has access to tools to make testing new ideas and validating learnings easy.
  • Engage your business and technology stakeholders to prioritize building the most valuable capabilities in a lean, incremental manner.
  • Leverage third party IT platforms and services

From a business perspective, the success of a platform strategy is determined by three factors:

  • Connection: how easily others can plug into the platform to share and transact
  • Gravity: how well the platform attracts participants, both producers and consumers
  • Flow: how well the platform fosters the exchange and co-creation of value

Examples of business models rooted in platform thinking are Uber, Amazon, AirBnB, eBay, Bol.com and Social Media.