BIMODAL or 2 SPEED IT. Is it Flawed Model?
Arvind Rathore ,
VP, Societe Generale
So lets start by getting a glimpse of the model: According to Gartner, the IT organization should run as Bimodal or 2 speed IT. Bimodal IT is the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery. Mode 1 is Traditional IT focused on stability, efficiency and reliability while Model 2 is an Agile IT organization focused on time-to-market, rapid application evolution, and tight alignment with business units. Mode 1 -Traditional IT is focused on “doing IT right”, with a strong emphasis on efficiency and safety.Mode 2-Agile IT is focused on “doing IT fast”.
Bimodal IT recommends maintaining 2 organizational silosin form of Mode1 and Mode2. The analogy often given about Hare or Tortoise, Sprinter or Marathon Runner etc. This also implies that if you are Agile you cannot be Lean and Vice versa.
Its important to note if you are running pilots(experiments) in your research/Innovation lab and rest of your IT organization is traditional IT, then it cannot be called 2 Speed or Bimodal. It should be almost 2 equal parts of the organization running in 2 different modes for the org to be called Bimodal or 2-speed. Need to clear this out as I have seen people changing the definition to suit themselves and calling their organization as Bimodal (2-speed).
What’s the Problem with the 2-speed model?
1.Fallacy- The fallacy at the core of this 2-speed model is that an Agile mode cannot be Stable and vice versa. Being an Agile and Lean Startup Practitioner, I can say with lot confidence that in this day and age, IT can be both Agile and Stable at the same time. In fact practices like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Develops and Extreme
Programming give you precisely that i.e. Agile and Stable IT systems at the same time. More and more companies are adopting CD practices to the extent that its becoming need of the hour to remain competitive. Continuous Delivery has both Agile (Fast) and Lean (Efficiency) principles and therefore is great example of mode 1 and mode 2 working together in an organization.
2.Silos–2 Speed Model as you see encourages Silos. Whereas we have entered an era where IT organizations want to more integration and break the silos between Architecture, Development, Testing, Production Support to improve agility and stability. Using this model, we get stuck where some part of IT is agile and rest is not. The point is that if we cannot decouple different parts of organization and allow them to run in 2 different modes as they depend on each other, i.e. IT depends on Infra, IT depends on Security etc.
3.Skills– In a 2 Speed Model we will end up in situation where the 2 modes have 2 different types of skills. This again is not conducive to modern organizations as they want more people to have pi (∏) based skills (not single or I based skills) where they can do multiple tasks i.e. devop code, test and put in the production box rather than being skilled only in 1 area. Devops and Agile encourage teams to have polyglot skills.
4.People Focus and Motivation – Imagine you being the CEO of 2-speed organization. What is the vision you will provide the organization. 2 visions to the 2 Modes and would that not be contradictory visions? How do you keep people motivated? Would everybody given a choice not want to work for Agile Mode 2 Organization?
Conclusion
In my opinion 2 speed model sets the bar low on what an organization should aim for and encourages mediocrity by letting one part of the organization run in catch up mode ‘non agile’.This won’t make the organization competitive and ready for the future. As they say ‘The chain is as strong as its weakest link’, therefore the entire organization should aspire to the best in class (mode2)and not just only one part of the organization. The entire organization needs to remember that they are serving the same customers and therefore need to operate in one mode.The only place you can choose to be Bimodal is during ‘transition’ when a part of org is transforming itself to greater Agile maturity and the other is already mature.
2.Silos–2 Speed Model as you see encourages Silos. Whereas we have entered an era where IT organizations want to more integration and break the silos between Architecture, Development, Testing, Production Support to improve agility and stability. Using this model, we get stuck where some part of IT is agile and rest is not. The point is that if we cannot decouple different parts of organization and allow them to run in 2 different modes as they depend on each other, i.e. IT depends on Infra, IT depends on Security etc.
3.Skills– In a 2 Speed Model we will end up in situation where the 2 modes have 2 different types of skills. This again is not conducive to modern organizations as they want more people to have pi (∏) based skills (not single or I based skills) where they can do multiple tasks i.e. devop code, test and put in the production box rather than being skilled only in 1 area. Devops and Agile encourage teams to have polyglot skills.
4.People Focus and Motivation – Imagine you being the CEO of 2-speed organization. What is the vision you will provide the organization. 2 visions to the 2 Modes and would that not be contradictory visions? How do you keep people motivated? Would everybody given a choice not want to work for Agile Mode 2 Organization?
Conclusion
In my opinion 2 speed model sets the bar low on what an organization should aim for and encourages mediocrity by letting one part of the organization run in catch up mode ‘non agile’.This won’t make the organization competitive and ready for the future. As they say ‘The chain is as strong as its weakest link’, therefore the entire organization should aspire to the best in class (mode2)and not just only one part of the organization. The entire organization needs to remember that they are serving the same customers and therefore need to operate in one mode.The only place you can choose to be Bimodal is during ‘transition’ when a part of org is transforming itself to greater Agile maturity and the other is already mature.
We have entered an era where IT organizations want to more integration and break the silos between Architecture, Development, Testing, Production Support to improve agility and stability
