Digitization Program Risk & Mitigation
- Anand Nerurkar
- Jun 17
- 2 min read
# | Risk Area | Risk Description | Impact | Mitigation Plan |
1️⃣ | Business Alignment | Misalignment with business goals and KPIs | Wasted effort, poor ROI | 🔹 Co-create business capability map and OKRs with business stakeholders 🔹 Establish a Business-Technology Governance Board 🔹 Review and adjust scope quarterly based on KPIs |
2️⃣ | Change Management | Resistance to new processes or tools by employees | Low adoption, rework | 🔹 Run structured Organizational Change Management (OCM) program 🔹 Identify change champions and power users early 🔹 Provide role-based training, town halls, and ongoing support |
3️⃣ | Data Integrity | Poor data quality or incomplete migration | Workflow failures, decision-making errors | 🔹 Conduct early data profiling and cleansing 🔹 Use a Master Data Management (MDM) strategy 🔹 Validate post-migration data with business users before go-live |
4️⃣ | Architecture & Scalability | Rigid or monolithic design limits future growth | High rework, poor performance | 🔹 Adopt microservices and cloud-native patterns 🔹 Use API-first and event-driven architectures 🔹 Perform scalability and performance testing before rollout |
5️⃣ | Security & Compliance | Data breaches or regulatory non-compliance | Financial/legal penalties, reputation loss | 🔹 Apply DevSecOps and shift-left security testing 🔹 Conduct threat modeling and regular penetration testing 🔹 Ensure compliance with local (e.g., SEBI/RBI) and global (e.g., GDPR) laws |
6️⃣ | Vendor Lock-in | Overdependence on single tool/platform/vendor | Loss of control, rising costs | 🔹 Favor open standards and modular architecture 🔹 Have clear exit strategy and SLAs in contracts 🔹 Consider multi-vendor or hybrid strategies where feasible |
7️⃣ | System Integration | Failure to integrate with legacy or 3rd-party systems | Broken workflows, manual workarounds | 🔹 Use standardized APIs and middleware (e.g., API Gateway, ESB) 🔹 Conduct early integration testing 🔹 Create integration reference architecture with fallback mechanisms |
8️⃣ | Talent & Skills | Lack of skilled staff to support digital systems | Delay in execution, post-launch issues | 🔹 Upskill internal teams via certification programs 🔹 Use a blended model: internal staff + partners 🔹 Maintain a knowledge management repository (e.g., Confluence) |
9️⃣ | Governance & Execution | Poor visibility into risks, delays, or outcomes | Slippage, budget overruns | 🔹 Establish Program Management Office (PMO) 🔹 Define governance structure with escalation paths 🔹 Use tools like JIRA, Azure DevOps for tracking progress and dependencies |
🔟 | Customer Experience | Digitized flows are not user-friendly or accessible | Low engagement, user drop-off | 🔹 Co-design UX with customer feedback loops (design thinking) 🔹 Run usability testing and A/B experiments 🔹 Ensure mobile responsiveness, performance, and accessibility (WCAG) compliance |
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