| McKinsey Classics | October 2021 |
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| For years, many companies have been spending—and sometimes wasting—huge sums of money to transform their data-related IT infrastructures and processes. They hope to make data accessible throughout the organization, yet the benefits of data migration have mostly been limited to specific business units or functions, for these solutions are hard to replicate. Programs that attempt to do so often drag on endlessly.
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| Businesses don’t have all the time in the world to get this stuff right. Some advanced companies have succeeded in speeding up their data programs by drawing on the agile techniques first used to develop software. Cross-functional teams with people from both the business units and IT collaborate to design and build minimally viable products and features quickly, test them with users quickly, and refine them quickly. Ongoing collaboration between the business and IT improves decisions, uncovers new uses for existing data, inspires novel data-driven initiatives, and hastens the delivery of important information. To learn more, read our 2016 classic “Using agile to accelerate your data transformation.” Data technologies and roles are evolving quickly, but some things—such as the need for an agile approach—have remained the same.
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| — Roger Draper, editor, New York |
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| Did You Miss Our Previous McKinsey Classics? |
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| McKinsey’s research and experience have found not only that companies with the strongest risk cultures have specific traits but also that there are effective ways to strengthen them. Read the 2015 classic “Managing the people side of risk.”
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