Looking for a generic roadmap for your enterprise cloud adoption programme? The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap has finally arrived!

This article is part of the limited preview of the “The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap”, a generic roadmap for any enterprise cloud adoption programme.

1. Executive Summary
   1. The Cloud and Enterprises
   2. The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap
      1. Building the Business Case
      2. Starting the Cloud Programme
      3. Iteratively Building the Delivery Pipeline
      4. Iteratively Executing the Delivery Pipeline
   3. Key Factors for a Successful Cloud Programme
2. The Cloud and Enterprises
3. The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap
4. A Cloudy Future

The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap

Most enterprises use a structured approach to investigating and subsequently adopting the cloud, usually in the form of a dedicated cloud programme with a systematic roadmap.

This article series introduces The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap, a generic roadmap for any enterprise cloud adoption programme.

It incorporates the collective knowledge and the lessons learned first hand by the author in several cloud adoption programmes in a highly regulated industry. Moreover, it serves as a spark that hopefully ignites further industry-wide collaboration.

The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap follows a scientific approach, actively looking for disconfirming evidence, and keeping all outcomes open. This especially includes a cloud-negative outcome!

It is iterative in its very nature and encourages resetting certain sections or even the whole programme. Taking along all lessons learned. While not being foolproof and still requiring a fair amount of adaption to a specific use case, it seriously increases the chances of organisations successfully adopting the cloud.

The Missing Cloud Programme Roadmap consists of four consecutive phases with milestones and key deliverables. These phases incrementally build the necessary foundations and capabilities but also prepare the organisation for the iterative delivery of the cloud programme by

1. Clearly articulating the vision as a business case
2. Starting, staffing, and securing the success of the cloud programme
3. Iteratively building the delivery pipeline of suitable applications, tools, and teams
4. Iteratively executing the delivery pipeline in small and time-bound iterations that are incremental in complexity

After each phase, the following milestone documents are published in print that record outcomes, keep the programme on track, and augment the programme log for a comprehensive audit trail

1. The Cloud Manifesto capturing the outcomes of the phase building the business case
2. The Cloud Guidebook recording the outcomes of the phase starting, staffing and securing the success of the cloud programme
3. The Cloud Handbook documenting the outcomes of the phase iteratively building the delivery pipeline
4. The Cloud Runbooks and the The Cloud Reflections capturing the outcomes of the phase iteratively executing the delivery pipeline

In each phase, controlling the rate of change as well as the run-rate of the programme using hard data is essential. Otherwise, the programme runs the risk of loosing control and becoming ineffective to the point of de facto collapsing under the forces it unleashed.

Building the Business Case

Find out more about it in the next article.

So, How Do You Adopt the Cloud?!

While the above Worx for Me!™ when it comes to designing, planning, and executing a generic roadmap for any enterprise cloud adoption programme, you may have an alternative or better way.

Think this is all rubbish, massively overrated, or generally heading into the absolutely wrong direction?! Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and teach me something new!

As always, prove me wrong and I’ll buy you a pint!