Most CIOs still feel scared when faced with the need to develop new applications. Management also worries about costs, delivery times and achieving business objectives. Why is it still a difficult task to develop a new application despite all the technological advances of recent times? It comes down to complexity, lack of direction and poor development practices. This article I will discuss the ‘core context’ model that Geoffrey Moore described in his book ‘Dealing with Darwin’.
In doing so I will provide you with three keys to improved app development efficiency. This article I will discuss the ‘core context’ model that Geoffrey Moore describe in his book ‘Dealing with Darwin’. In doing so I will provide you with three keys to improve application development efficiency.
The first thing that stands out about Moore’s model is the difference between the core and context sides of the horizontal axis. The core side relates to processes and applications that differentiate a company from its competitors. These are applications that automate processes that make the way you do business unique and differentiate you from your competitors. I like to call this the differentiation side of the model.
Business Processes that are Necessary for Business Operations
The context side represents the business processes that are necessary for business operations. But are present in all companies that are active in your industry. I call these commodity processes and applications. It is not possible to do business without these processes and applications. Examples include the payroll processing process and financial processes.
What about the vertical axis within Moore’s model? Here the author makes a distinction between processes that are and are not of business-critical importance. I call these ‘department-specific’ and ‘company-wide’ processes respectively. The interesting thing about this model is that it offers a wonderful framework for describing the way in which application software develops within companies. In addition, this model provides three keys to improving ICT efficiency.
Processes typically start in the lower left corner in what Moore calls the “innovation quadrant.” Processes in this quadrant are unique because they were created by people on the periphery of the business. Such as logistics or salespeople to solve a specific problem or to tap into new revenue opportunities (making it a differentiating or core process). The process is non-business critical because it was recently created. From a technology and systems perspective, these processes are typically support by spreadsheets, documents, and emails.
What you see happening in practice is that over time. These processes evolve into department-specific apps develop by a mobile app development company working within or on behalf of the department.
The key to efficient application development:
Ensure that the shadow IT team within your department has the ability to develop custom applications base on technology that enables the enterprise IT organization to deploy these custom applications for other business purposes. Without the need to completely rewrite them. In this way, you invest in a development platform that is based on a ‘build for change’ approach and enables your IT organization to use these growing department-specific applications elsewhere in the organization and to further manage and control their lifecycle.
According to Moore’s model, some of these department-specific processes will grow in importance to the enterprise as a whole and in some cases even become strategic. In that case, they move to the upper left quadrant, which Moore calls the ‘build to scale’ quadrant. These are core applications that are of business-critical importance to the enterprise.
Once these processes are in the ‘build to scale’ quadrant, the (central) ICT organisation will take ownership of them and try to implement them in the form of business applications. Since these are newly develop and business-specific processes, they must be implement using custom software. Due to their unique nature, there will be no suitable commodity solutions available on the market.
