By Mario Trentim

Hyper-agility seeks to drive an agile culture further, beyond the walls of any one product team or project, embedding it into the organizational DNA. To do that, it is necessary to combine new ways of work and to redefine how we think about application development since all value streams depend heavily on software in every industry.

In this article, I will describe the PMI Citizen Development Canvas, a definitive map for organizations looking to adopt and scale citizen development. The PMI CD Canvas was developed to:

1. Bring clarity and guidance to the methods by which citizen development occur.
2. Define the structures and competencies required to make it happen effectively.
3. Establish the approach needed to introduce, scale, and manage citizen development within an enterprise.

Clarity and Guidance

Digital transformation and citizen development have been around for a decade or so now. Despite of technology advancements, the full potential of citizen development has yet to be realized. The challenge is that the organizations are not structured in ways needed to adopt and scale citizen development.

To embrace low-code and no-code is a fundamental shift to a mindset focused on empowering users. However, to empower users we need a new software development life cycle that is flexible and based on agile principles. We also need a framework to help citizen developers safely and securely build better applications.

Figure 1 – PMI Citizen Development Canvas (PMI.org)

The PMI CD Canvas has five key areas: Project Delivery, Capability Development, Operating Model, Organizational Alignment, and Maturity Model.

Ideation 2.0 provides orientation to start new initiatives by exploring ideas and generating mockups and enabling rapid application development. The citizen developer will be guided to channel value from real-time feedback and engagement with stakeholders.

As a quick and simple example, imagine you wanted to build a website a decade (or more) ago. You would sit with a project manager or business analyst to define requirements and scope that would be translated into a schedule to ultimately deliver your website some time later to be tested. By the end of the project, making changes would be a huge effort.

Now, imagine doing the same now. You would sit with a product owner to develop and prioritize features and stories. An agile team works on the prioritized features and stories in sprints, and you would have a chance to review the results on regular intervals, which is way better than the waterfall approach. What if you could get results even faster? That´s Ideation 2.0, and hyper-agility.

Structures and Competencies

“I understand citizen development works, how can I scale it?” is a question I hear more and more frequently. People are adopting Design Thinking, hackathons, and all types of inception and prototyping experiences. It works fine. But it is confined to a few areas in the organization. Why? Because there is no governance, and the capabilities are not in place.

To succeed in adopting and scaling citizen development, your organization needs to:

1. Redefine rules of engagement with IT departments and TI personnel.

(Check out my previous articles about “The Doing and the Management of Doing”, “Shadow IT is not the Solution to Agility”, and “Digital Transformation Offices”)

2. Reskill and upskill your workforce to equip them with the new competencies for the future of work, including digital literacy and citizen development proficiency.

(Check out my previous articles about “Citizen Development Skills for Life”, “Five Tips to QuickStart your Citizen Development Career” and “Why Go for a Citizen Developer Certification”)

3. Develop new capabilities, as described in the PMI CD Canvas: Business Analysis & Design, Enterprise Risk Requirements, Application Development.

I will explain these foundational elements below.

A New Approach to Enable Hyper-Agility

It is possible that a citizen development application may cause more harm than good, causing extra work or confusion instead of solving a problem. That´s why citizen development practitioners need tools to design and develop their applications within the context of the business and the entire organization.

Business Analysis & Design, a core element to the PMI CD Canvas, provides a process architecture model focused on the wider implications of change across a suite of processes and applications to evaluate value creation.

The PMI CD Canvas takes into consideration functional and nonfunctional requirements, including underlying technologies, architectural landscape, and potential future usage. These, and other aspects, are carefully taken care of during the Hyper-Agile SDLC (software development life cycle), according to application development guidelines around designing and building data models, user-friendly interfaces, governance, and security.

In future articles, I will explore the Citizen Development Operating Model, Organizational Alignment, and Maturity Model. As you know, few organizations have taken citizen development to its maximum potential. So, I would like to conclude this piece with two questions:

1. How successful is your organization in embracing Citizen Development?
2. What could you do to help your organization and to advance in your profession?

Please leave your thoughts and share your experiences related to hyper-agility and citizen development.

By Mario Trentim

Agile and Citizen Development

In this article, I will guide you through a journey that combines agility and citizen development. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity add up to the VUCA world, posing new challenges to the organizations. As globalization and transformations changed the outside world, organizations embraced agile practices to adapt.

More recently, the next generation of business evolved into Brittleness, Anxiety, Nonlinearity, and Incomprehensibility, resulting in the new BANI world.

Combining VUCA and BANI means a whole new playing field and Agile frameworks like Scrum are not enough to build agile organizations.

The Agile Revolution

In a previous article, I explained the early days of project management. At that time, most organizations operated in models from the 19^th century, typically hierarchical and prescriptive. It was a time when the change was slow. Consequently, organizations had plenty of time and resources to go for waterfall approaches. For example, if you compare NASA and SpaceX, you will find two great organizations with very different methods.

I am not advocating that one is better than the other. The context is different, and we have a new project environment, innovations in technology and management, and the world changed. NASA started with traditional approaches to management and project management, and it evolved from there. SpaceX started with agile methods, flexible with scope, focusing on speed in development and lean approaches.

When I go back to the Agile Manifesto, it looks to me that agile approaches were the answer to external changes. Engaging with stakeholders and delivering working products (or software) needed a new way of work to respond to change. Without the waterfall constraints, teams and organizations were suddenly free to experiment, learn, and co-create value with stakeholders to co-create value.

The Agile Revolution emphasized

adaptive versus predictive.

A decade ago, Jurgen Appelo published the book Management 3.0, sharing insights grounded in modern complex systems theory to help in scaling and advancing agile management. In summary, management 1.0 describes scientific management approaches from the 19^th century, typically hierarchical and prescriptive. As organizations evolved, management 2.0 evolved to objectives and key results, meritocracy, and organizational alignment around business models. Finally, management 3.0 advocates that autonomous teams, distributed, hybrid, and virtual, need a different environment to thrive.

Agile is not the fastest way anymore.

VUCA and BANI mentioned before are not buzzwords. These are attempts to make sense of the rapid pace of changes and the digital transformation turmoil accelerated by the 2020 pandemic. The Cynefin Framework, created by Snowden and Boone, is a sense-making framework to help us in navigating a variety of situations to make decisions.

Figure 1 – Cynefin framework (Wikipedia.org)

If we were better equipped to deal with external changes because of agile approaches, Cynefin framework, and more, it all changed when internal changes surpassed external changes. 2020 will be remembered as the year of hyper-agility.

Citizen Development

Think for a moment that very few organizations were prepared for the full-time remote work. Even agile approaches had to be reinvented because you cannot use daily meetings and information radiators as you did in a physical environment.

Although there was a significant number of remote workers in the past, organizations were focused on in-person first work. That means organizational structures, organizational architecture, communications, decision-making, and more assumed that we had physical spaces, headquarters, and in-person work for the things that were “important.”

In other work, most people working from home were even part-time employees, freelancers, outsourced workers. Full-time employees were not working from home permanently. Remote work has always been peripheral to in-person work until the pandemic.

Because of the pandemic, we had no choice but to embrace remote work. A remote-first organization needs to decentralize decisions to a myriad of distributed teams.

Figure 2 – Disciplined Agile

While Disciplined Agile provides principles, guidelines, and a complete toolkit for organizations to create their Way of Work, Citizen Development enables these organizations to build applications to support their work, embedding intellectual property from flexible and adaptable processes into low-code platforms with governance and security.

Figure 3 – Citizen development and technology abstraction

Hyper-agility is the new normal as a result of the digital transformation accelerated because of the 2020 pandemic. To understand the implications of hyper-agility, think for a moment about your organization´s business model, capabilities, and systems. Imagine you work for a large manufacturer. In the past, you would need a couple of months to go through the cascade of choices (Figure 4) or any other strategic planning approach. Once you reviewed and prioritized a roadmap of initiatives, it would take even more time to build or rethink the capabilities, developing and implementing new scalable systems.

Figure 4 – Playing to Win (Lafley and Martin, 2013)

Right now, citizen development allows you to do the same job in weeks. You can check the successful case studies here, for example. Hyper-agility means that organizations have now to change from the inside. Adapting to the external context is not enough.

Citizen development allows you to learn, experiment, innovate, build, deploy, and service new applications as you discover new ways of work and value streams with the support and help of business users and stakeholders.

Let me know how your organization is embracing Citizen Development in the comments below.

By Mario Trentim

Citizen development is not something that´s far out in the future. We now live in an era of hyper-agility that demands citizen development skills to innovate, and the modern workplace and digital businesses require cultivating citizen development to maximize digital dexterity.

Citizen developers are in high demand in all

professions and roles.

Figure 1 – Anyone can be a developer (Gartner, 2019)

Although, in theory, anyone can become a citizen developer (Figure 1), it is not easy to become a successful citizen developer. In a previous article, I laid out five tips to QuickStart your citizen development career. And in this article, I would like to highlight the benefits of certifications to establish your professional credibility and to guide you on best practices.

How can you stand out in the job market as

a professional citizen developer?

Professional Developer vs Citizen Developer

. Before I describe citizen development certificates and credentials, it is important to highlight the major career differences between a citizen developer and a professional developer:

-          Professional Developer: IT professionals and software developers who have the skills, knowledge, and expertise to create and maintain software created for commercial purposes.

-          Citizen Developer: non-IT professionals who are capable of building applications without coding knowledge, but usually with the support of IT.

A typical career path for a software developer may start with database, application services, software development lifecycle, coding skills, and a variety of technologies. A professional developer might become a technical leader, software architect, CIO (Chief Information Officer) or CTO (Chief Technology Officer).

Figure 2 – Software developer learning paths (LinkedIn Learning)

What about Citizen Developers?

What does a CD career path look like?

The Project Economy articulates how work has changed for individuals and organizations. According to PMI´s research, the future of work will be based more on specific projects than roles, meaning change-makers are anywhere in all industries and professions. On top of that, digital transformation is everywhere from products and services to new technologies, new business models, and new ways of work. Consequently, citizen development as a life skill applies to all of us.

Learning a visual interface drag-and-drop system to connect components in a meaningful order to create an application without writing any code is not enough. You have to acquire the skillset to see the world through new lens, understanding business needs through the hyper-agile SDLC (Doing and the Management of Doing).

Figure 3 – PMI Citizen Development framework.

To become a successful citizen developer, you must understand the citizen development framework (Figure 2), as I explained in previous articles. You can take the official course at https://www.pmi.org/citizen-developer and showcase your certificate of completion on your resume. The next step is to get certified.

Get a Certification, and Get Ahead

A certification increases your earning potential and employability. You can also access community involvement benefits by getting a certification.

Figure 4 – PMI CD product descriptions and certifications.

Our professions are rapidly evolving, citizen development will upskill your career, enabling you to create low-code applications. That means you can leverage your competencies and experience to achieve more through the use of technology. Take these examples:

-          Finance: as a citizen developer, you may solve a variety of problems by developing a reimbursement app or automated approvals based on business rules;

-          Health Care: as a citizen developer, you may identify opportunities to improve services by adopting paperless technology and real time dashboards;

-          Marketing: as a citizen developer, you may develop applications to improve customer experience, customer service, and more;

-          Project Management: as a citizen developer, you may build a variety of applications to help you updating tasks, manage information and documents, and more;

-          Logistics: as a citizen developer, you may find ways to become more productive by using artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning;

-          Engineering: as a citizen developer, you may combine Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and more to build low-code applications and improve your organization´s competitiveness.

The common story among the examples above is that they use a proven framework to move from the project concept to a minimum viable product. Hyper-agility is the next big thing for all organizations and professionals. And, by getting certified, you get ahead. Visit https://www.pmi.org/citizen-developer and stay tuned.

Join the conversation. Let me know your thoughts on the comments below. 

Do you prefer listening to a Podcast? Check out the PMOCast here.

By Mario Trentim

Shadow IT has been around since the beginning of IT. It is the result of business owners and stakeholders reaching for other options to address their challenges rather than waiting for IT to address them. It has been a solution to move faster without all the constraints from IT. To that extent, we might say that Shadow IT had its advantages in the past because there was no better solution.

In this article, I will examine Shadow IT and explore how citizen development brings better solutions to the table.

Shadow IT Benefits vs Risks

A quote attributed to Bill Gates says, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”  So, in a way, we must thank the “lazy people” and the workarounds known as Shadow IT. These were the first attempts to get past the IT professionals and developer shortage.

If Shadow IT is so good, shouldn’t we embrace it?

The problem with Shadow IT is that it is unsanctioned, posing significant threats to the security, performance, and reliability of critical assets in your organization.

95% of IT decision-makers recognize risks associated with Shadow IT, including lack of data governance, lack of ownership, and change control.

“If you are not breaking things, you are not moving fast enough.”

(Mark Zuckerberg)

Until recently, employees didn´t have the tools, capacity, and support from IT to address their needs.

Now that low-code platforms matured to the point that they minimize the need for technical knowledge, business users will be empowered to turn their ideas into reality in a hyper-agile development and prototyping environment.

Citizen Development and Hyper-Agility are the Solutions

Increasing IT capacity was never the solution. Considering that the world runs on software, citizen development becomes a life skill in high demand.

FTI Consulting's survey (Figure 1) demonstrates that business stakeholders and IT professionals view citizen development as a practical framework to address some of the main barriers to digital transformation.

Figure 1 – Citizen development research results from 2021 by FTI Consulting.

From the organizations´ perspective, business agility and resilience are only possible in an environment that supports collaboration, and autonomy. People from all industries and professional backgrounds must develop citizen development competencies and digital skills to stay relevant to the job market.

The ability to design and deliver applications will speed up the innovation processes organization-wide. As the organization matures in citizen development, there is a potential to unleash productivity gains across businesses. In order to reap the benefits, we need a combination of project management and hyper-agile development cycle.

Figure 2 – Hyper-agile software development cycle (PMI Citizen Development framework)

Hyper-Agile SDLC combines design and development in real-time with smaller teams and less management overhead, resulting in

· reduced documentation and requirement gathering needs

· lighter project governance and documentation

· continuous improvement, and

· ideation 2.0 throughout the project.

In my future articles, I will describe the project concept or initiation, ideation 2.0, spot assessment, and the three paths to Hyper-Agile SDLC, using the PMI Citizen Development framework.

Conclusion

Shadow IT is not the solution. It was a shortcut to a permanent solution based on citizen development in partnership with IT as needed.

Innovation and speed are essential elements to every organization. The environment has become more volatile and uncertain, and we have not only to adapt but also to anticipate change.

Thanks to technology, and empowered by the PMI Citizen Development framework, we are now better equipped for agility and to digitally transform businesses, society, and the way we work.

By Mario Trentim

Businesses and society as a whole are facing change and disruption at higher rates than ever before. To manage complex organizational transformations, we need more than project management. It is necessary to strategize and innovate, coordinating larger and more complex transformation initiatives. This article will discuss the rise of the Transformation Offices, portfolios, and programs dedicated to promoting and sustaining change in organizations, and whether Citizen Development can help bring even further transformation.

Will Transformation Offices replace PMOs?

Before I answer the question, it is vital to emphasize that Project Management Offices (PMOs) are usually responsible for tactical and operational activities related to portfolio, program, and project management.

Although we have Enterprise PMOs (EPMOs), traditional portfolios and projects are extensively focused on continuous improvement. Research and Development PMOs (R&D PMOs) focused on innovation, but they are also not "transformational" in essence.

Finally, research and experience show that transformation and change management involves specific types of portfolios, programs, and projects that lower organizational hierarchy levels cannot handle. Because of that, a Transformation Office might be a combination of strategy, business analysis, innovation, and portfolio project management.

According to McKinsey & Company, the transformation office's role is to coordinate and provide oversight to strategic transformational initiatives, ensuring that all participants have a "single source of truth" and reinforcing the change-management goals.

A transformation's success depends on the regular drumbeat of the

Transformation Office, on clear communication,

and an action-oriented tone.

In summary, PMOs will not be replaced because we have an increasing number of projects at all organizational levels in different departments or areas. However, there is a high and increasing demand for project management professionals skilled in change management, transformation, and technology.

New trends support the case for a Transformation Office not only because people are the real key to digital transformation but mainly because there is no escape from the future of work and new business models. Finally, despite organizations knowing they have to reinvent and disrupt themselves, 70 percent of corporate transformation efforts fall short of their goals.

My point is that this staggering high failure rate has three major causes:

1. Confusion between transformational and non-transformation initiatives;
2. Insufficient or inappropriate change management activities; and,
3. Lack of competency and skills.

What does a Successful Transformation Office look like?

Since the typical workforce lacks the critical mass of technology skills, “even when technologies are in place, too many of companies’ processes remain stuck in the pre-transformation world, to say nothing of the disconnect that remains between IT and systems groups and the rest of the business.” (McKinsey & Company)

Effective Transformation Offices are a combination of a Citizen Development Center of Excellence and a Project Management Office that can help organizations combine technical know-how with soft capabilities.

Project managers, business analysis, and citizen developers are change-makers by nature. When working together in a coordinated fashion, PMs, BAs, and CDs are capable of building relationships and common understanding among business functions and technology, paving the way for a successful transformation.

The PMI Citizen Development canvas (Figure 1) summarizes a framework to guide successful organizational transformations. Starting at the Project Delivery section, hyper-agility provides guidance to lean approaches and prototyping based on innovative techniques of the Ideation 2.0 while all ideas and proposals shall be evaluated according to the Suitability Assessment. A Transformation Office is also responsible for Capability Development which includes Business Analysis and Design, Enterprise Risk Requirements, and Application Development.

Figure 1 – PMI Citizen Development canvas (PMI.org)

In order to set up and operate a successful Transformation Office, we need people proficient in business analysis and strategizing, project management and agile approaches, citizen development and technology acumen. Considering the diversity of disciplines involved, the Citizen Development framework is the glue that holds a coherent and unified approach to organizational transformation.

Is it time for a Citizen Development Office?

Well, it looks like the 70 percent failure rate shows that transformations are not being properly managed by traditional PMOs. Instead of creating different names (Strategy / Vision Realization Offices, Transformation Management Offices, Agile Project Management Offices, and more), I advocate that it is time to add a new framework to our existing change-makers toolboxes: PMI Citizen Development, a handbook for creators and change makers.

“Besides being respected and credible, the leader of the transformation office should be technically proficient, understand the affected business domains, and have a strong relationship with technical teams.” (McKinsey & Company)

In my next articles, I will provide you with step-by-step examples using the tools and techniques described in the Citizen Development canvas (Figure 1). And I will tell you how organizations are embracing citizen development by describing successful (and unsuccessful) case studies.

What are your thoughts on this? If you want to listen to this article and previous articles, check out my podcast here. Please leave your comments and join the conversation below.