Ian Mulvany

December 21, 2022

Micro Book Review - Going Digital

Going Digital by Lyndsey Jones and Balvinder Singh Powar

This is a micro-review of the the book Going Digital - what it takes for smoother transitions - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Digital-Lyndsey-Jones/dp/1292375671/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21PD84V32VU1J&keywords=going+digital+book&qid=1671652221&sprefix=goi%2Caps%2C1966&sr=8-1

Overall I recommend this book. It's short enough that you can get through it fairly quickly and it packs quite a lot in over it's seven chapters. The book looks at some of the key components needed to succeed at digital transformation, and broadly brakes down into a mix of exposition, micro-case studies, some frameworks that you can apply, and at the end of each chapter a set of tester questions that you can apply to your project or organising. 

I found the case studies fairly weak, and not very evidence based, but they came from people who had worked on large digital transformations. I feel this is a reflection of how hard it is to capture exactly all of the things that go on in any large project. 

The frameworks presented were really good, and the tester questions also really good. Really, the book is worth the buy just for these alone. 

I've worked in this area for quite a few years, and the areas I know well were fairly represented, but I also learnt a few interesting perspectives that I've not used, e.g. about how to look at the balance of strengths of your existing team, and how to share that and use it to think about how to balance your team. 



About Ian Mulvany

Hi, I'm Ian - I work on academic publishing systems. You can find out more about me at mulvany.net. I'm always interested in engaging with folk on these topics, if you have made your way here don't hesitate to reach out if there is anything you want to share, discuss, or ask for help with!