Digital strategy, innovation and investments

The creation, iteration and maintenance of a strategy in order to align organisational actions, plans and resources with business objectives and the development of plans to drive forward and execute that strategy. Working with stakeholders to communicate and embed strategic management via objectives, accountabilities and monitoring of progress.

The capability to identify, prioritise, incubate and exploit opportunities provided by information, communication and digital technologies. To develop and implement processes, tools and infrastructures to support innovation. To involve internal and external communities, employees, commercial partners, customers, users and other stakeholders in the innovation process. To provide governance, monitoring to, and reporting on, the innovation process.

The identification of new and emerging technologies, products, services, methods and techniques. The assessment of their relevance and the potential impacts (both threats and opportunities) upon business enablers, cost, performance or sustainability. The communication of emerging technologies and their impact.

The identification of users' behaviours, needs and motivations through ethnography, observation techniques, task analysis, and other methodologies that incorporate both the social and technological context. Taking an approach that incorporates significant involvement of users in research to generate deep understanding and uncover new opportunities for systems, products and services.

The quantification of different user populations and their needs, identifying target users and segments in order to maximise the chances of design success for systems, products and services.

The inclusion of a range of users in research activities to capture the diversity of users of the organisation’s systems, products and services and the imperative to make these usable and accessible for everyone.

The process of iterative design to enhance user satisfaction by improving the usability and accessibility provided when interacting with a system, product or service. The design of users’ digital and offline tasks, interactions and interfaces to meet usability and accessibility requirements. The refinement of designs in response to user-centred evaluation and feedback and communication of the design to those responsible for design, development and implementation.

The creation of new and potentially disruptive approaches to performing business activities in order to create business opportunities; deliver new or improved products/services; or to improve supply chains. The identification and implementation of improvements to business operations, services and models. The assessment of the costs and potential benefits of the new approaches. The analysis and design of business processes in order to adopt and exploit technologies to improve business performance. The development of enterprise process management capabilities to increase organisational agility and responsiveness to change.

The analysis and proactive management of business demand for new services or modifications to existing service features or volumes. Collaborating with the business to prioritise demand in order to improve business value. Developing and communicating insights into patterns of demand. Proposing responses to meet both short-term and long-term demand and facilitating decision making and planning. Integrating demand analysis and planning with complementary strategic, operational and change planning processes.

The development and application of a systematic management framework to define and deliver a portfolio of programmes, projects and/or ongoing services, in support of specific business strategies and objectives. Includes the implementation of a strategic investment appraisal and decision making process based on a clear understanding of cost, risk, inter-dependencies, and impact on existing business activities, enabling measurement and objective evaluation of potential changes and the benefits to be realised. The prioritisation of resource utilisation and changes to be implemented. The regular review of portfolios. The management of the service pipeline (proposed or in development), service catalogue (live or available for deployment) and retired services.

The creation, iteration, and maintenance of structures such as enterprise and business architectures embodying the key principles, methods and models that describe the organisation's future state, and that enable its evolution. This typically involves the interpretation of business goals and drivers; the translation of business strategy and objectives into an “operating model”; the strategic assessment of current capabilities; the identification of required changes in capabilities; and the description of inter-relationships between people, organisation, service, process, data, information, technology and the external environment. The architecture development process supports the formation of the constraints, standards and guiding principles necessary to define, assure and govern the required evolution; this facilitates change in the organisation's structure, business processes, systems and infrastructure in order to achieve predictable transition to the intended state.

The active management of products or services throughout their lifecycle (inception through to retirement) in order to address market opportunities and customer/user needs and generate the greatest possible value for the business. The adoption and adaptation of product development models based on the context of the work and selecting appropriately from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches.

The research, analysis and stimulation of potential or existing markets for IT and related products and services, both to provide a sound basis for business development and to generate a satisfactory flow of customer enquiries. The management and development of strategies, campaigns and day-to-day marketing activity delivered through appropriate channels