As we seek to find a way out of, and forward from, the devastation that the Covid-19 global pandemic has created, there is some light amongst the heartache and gloom.
Across the UK we appear to have been ‘caught napping’ in many respects. Where we should have been paying attention to the lessons learned in the East, from such as SARS and the 2016 UK Pandemic exercise, we simply let these lessons lie instead of applying them to our readiness and recovery plans.
Having spent 5 years as a CIO in the UK’s third largest Police force, this seems very out of the ordinary to me. One thing I learned there was that the businesses were exceptionally good (and disciplined) at applying change to their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) gained from lessons learned reviewing real-life events and exercises.
Nonetheless the light is coming from that overarching British fortitude that we will not take this lying down. We will not be beaten, and we will pull together to fight back and recover from this.
In a business sense (as opposed to my personal life from which I am too emotional over from not being able to hug my children and grandchildren!!), I am looking at it from a similar perspective. I am already engaged across 2i, and with clients, on how best we can help that recovery and sustain a path that will not only take us into the ‘the new normal’, whatever shape that might be, but look to build a model that will be sustainable against such threats and risks that the pandemic has exposed.
At 2i we were already repurposing and productionising much of our heritage Test and Quality practices. Having recently tested our Due Diligence process with a major UK financial bank, we have applied the lessons learned from that to create our very own bespoke Risk Mitigation Framework service - AssureRMF - and combined this with the ability to utilise our best-in-class Test Engineering and Automation Frameworks and Practices.
If you are looking to lead your firm or company out of this pandemic crisis and rebuild your business portfolios with a real degree of certainty, then you should seriously consider taking the short time this requires to review and assure your current approaches to delivering new and changing technologies.
AssureRMF will enable you to manage risks in line with your risk appetite and deliver the outcomes your re-emerging strategy demands. Moreover, the framework will give you, your teams and your key stakeholders the confidence that you can and will deliver successful, prioritised outcomes on time and to budget.
To be successful today your strategy and recovery roadmap will have to prioritise;
- The things that are truly most important to you
- The risk appetite that you are prepared to accept and manage
- The framework you will utilise to ‘heatmap’, track, maintain and sustain the delivery portfolio
Crucially, to underpin a successful journey and outcome it will be vital to ensure that you have focus on actions such as the following;
- Embed your Quality Assurance and Test Engineering validations at the earliest opportunity when identifying your Project and Transition Requirements
- Create and empower the best blend from your business representatives, technical teams and partners
The delivery culture they bring will be just as key as the technical knowledge required to deliver the planned outcomes safely and at pace.
Act now to influence situations you know you’ll eventually have to face into. No one wants to repeat mistakes that have been made in the past.
