Unlocking the potential of digital transformation requires more than just technology. It demands a shared language, a common understanding that bridges the gap between tech experts and business leaders. Explore how this linguistic unity can drive successful digital change.

Over time, departments develop their own languages

Technical debt occurs when you choose an imperfect short-term solution that will require a more substantial fix later

  • It adds enormous friction any time people need to coordinate work across silos
  • To reduce it, companies must first establish, and rigorously adhere to, a small, well-thought-out common language

Don’t Underestimate the Effort Required

Developing these underlying concepts, gaining agreement on them, and using them going forward is hard work. It requires committed leadership and a powerful coalition of people with diverse skills.

  • A well-thought-out and well-deployed common language will be a sound investment.

An Insidious Dynamic

Technical debt grows in three simple steps:

  • As businesses grow, change, and innovate, naturally leading teams and departments to develop and adopt new, increasingly specialized business language to help them do their work efficiently
  • To automate their work, departments use databases, computer systems, and applications, which employ data models and databases to capture and lock in the business language of their users
  • While automation can help each department boost efficiency, it can also mean that the company winds up with multiple, disparate, department-level databases that don’t speak to each other very well

The Resolution Lies in Common Language

The only proven way to fix this problem is to intervene at step one, via common language

  • Treat “prospects,” “signers” and “responsible payers” as roles played by one or more persons or groups of persons (e.g., organizations)
  • Take advantage of the flexibility this permits, assigning as many roles to parties as befits the business
  • A single, shared database can support marketing, sales, finance, and anyone else across the entire enterprise who deals with “parties”

Source