Advanced Digital Operating Model Design Training Course

Course overview

Digital transformation programmes often stall after a strategy, roadmap or technology investment has been approved. The unresolved work is operational: deciding which capabilities belong in products, platforms and shared services; assigning decision rights; designing value streams; establishing data accountability; and measuring whether new ways of working improve customer, employee or business outcomes. This course addresses that design gap for professionals responsible for turning digital ambitions into an executable enterprise operating model.

Participants learn to assess a current operating model, identify structural and governance constraints, and design a target digital operating model that connects strategy to delivery. The course covers capability mapping, customer-facing and internal value streams, product and platform operating models, Team Topologies interaction patterns, data and AI governance, portfolio governance, funding mechanisms, metrics and transition planning. Participants practise using the TOGAF Standard and ArchiMate notation to make operating-model choices visible, testable and communicable across business, technology, data and risk functions.

Teaching combines instructor-led design briefings with a sustained enterprise case study, modelling workshops and peer design reviews. Each participant develops an operating-model design pack for a realistic transformation scenario: a capability heatmap, value-stream map, organisation and team topology, decision-rights matrix, governance cadence, KPI set and phased implementation roadmap. The final day focuses on defending design choices to executives, resolving trade-offs and planning the first 90 days of mobilisation.

The course is best suited to experienced transformation, enterprise architecture, product, technology, data and operating-model professionals who need to influence cross-functional change rather than manage a single technology implementation.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Assess a current-state operating model using capability, value-stream, organisation, governance and technology lenses
• Design target-state business capabilities and map their ownership to products, platforms, shared services and partners
• Model end-to-end value streams in ArchiMate to expose hand-offs, bottlenecks, controls and accountable roles
• Apply Team Topologies interaction modes to define team boundaries, platform services and cognitive-load constraints
• Create a decision-rights matrix using RAPID principles for investment, architecture, data and product decisions
• Define digital governance cadences, portfolio controls and outcome-based KPIs for a target operating model
• Build a phased operating-model transition roadmap with dependencies, risks, change interventions and measurable milestones
• Present and defend an operating-model design pack to executive stakeholders using evidence-based trade-off analysis

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Digital Transformation Leaders — who must translate transformation strategy into accountable delivery structures and governance
• Enterprise Architects — who need to connect business capabilities, technology platforms and organisational design
• Chief Information Officers and IT Directors — who are redesigning IT around products, platforms and business outcomes
• Product Portfolio Leaders — who need clear product boundaries, funding models and cross-functional decision rights
• Data and AI Leaders — who must embed data ownership, stewardship and controls within operating-model design
• Operating Model and Business Change Consultants — who advise clients on target-state design and implementation roadmaps

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in digital transformation, enterprise architecture, product delivery, IT service management, data governance or organisational change. They should understand the difference between business capabilities, processes, applications and organisational units, and be comfortable discussing governance, prioritisation and stakeholder accountability. Familiarity with architecture repositories, Jira boards or process maps is useful but not essential. No programming, financial modelling or prior ArchiMate certification is required. Participants do not need to be practising enterprise architects, but should be prepared to work with ambiguous cross-functional design scenarios.

Training methodology

The five days alternate focused instructor-led sessions with design studios built around a complex enterprise transformation case. Participants assess a current operating model, model capabilities and value streams in ArchiMate, define product and platform boundaries, and test governance choices against realistic constraints such as regulatory controls, legacy systems and competing investment demands. Small-group critiques simulate architecture and executive review boards. Individual application planning on the final day converts the case methods into a prioritised 90-day plan for the participant's own organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: Diagnosing the Digital Operating Model

• Digital operating model components: capabilities, value streams, organisation, governance and technology
• Operating-model archetypes for product, platform, shared-service and ecosystem-led enterprises
• Current-state assessment using the operating-model canvas
• Business capability mapping and capability heatmap scoring
• Value-stream identification from customer and employee outcomes
• Archimate core concepts for business, application and technology-layer operating-model views
• Operating-model pain-point analysis across hand-offs, duplication, latency and accountability

Workshop: Participants assess a case organisation's current operating model and produce a capability heatmap with prioritised design issues.

Day 2: Designing Value Streams, Products and Platforms

• Value-stream decomposition into stages, stakeholders, outcomes and enabling capabilities
• Product operating model principles and durable product-team boundaries
• Platform operating model principles and reusable internal platform services
• Product, platform and shared-service boundary decisions
• Team Topologies stream-aligned, platform, enabling and complicated-subsystem team types
• Team Topologies interaction modes: collaboration, X-as-a-Service and facilitating
• Cognitive-load assessment and dependency reduction techniques

Workshop: Participants redesign a fragmented service-delivery value stream and produce a product-platform team topology.

Day 3: Governance, Data and Decision Rights

• Decision-rights design using RAPID roles and accountable decision owners
• Digital portfolio governance for demand, prioritisation, investment and benefits realisation
• Architecture governance checkpoints and exception-management processes
• Data ownership, stewardship and domain accountability models
• COBIT 2019 governance and management objectives for digital operating-model controls
• Risk, compliance and cyber-security participation in product and platform governance
• Governance cadence design for executive, portfolio, architecture and product forums

Workshop: Participants create a RAPID decision-rights matrix and governance calendar for the case transformation portfolio.

Day 4: Metrics, Funding and Transition Design

• Outcome-based KPI design using leading, lagging, flow and reliability measures
• OKR alignment from enterprise objectives to product and platform outcomes
• Portfolio segmentation and investment decision criteria
• Funding models for projects, products, platforms and persistent teams
• Target operating-model gap analysis and change-impact assessment
• Dependency mapping across capabilities, data, technology, suppliers and workforce changes
• Transition roadmap sequencing using waves, milestones, decision gates and risk controls

Workshop: Participants build a phased transition roadmap with KPIs, dependencies, investment gates and named change actions.

Day 5: Mobilising and Defending the Target Model

• Operating-model design pack structure for executive approval
• Architecture and operating-model viewpoints in ArchiMate
• Stakeholder mapping for sponsors, delivery leaders, control functions and external partners
• Executive narrative design for operating-model trade-offs
• Scenario testing against growth, cost reduction, regulatory and merger conditions
• Implementation mobilisation through 90-day priorities and transformation workstreams
• Benefits tracking and operating-model review mechanisms

Workshop: Participants present and defend their completed operating-model design pack in an executive review simulation and produce a 90-day mobilisation plan.

Tools & standards covered

TOGAF Standard, ArchiMate 3.2, COBIT 2019, Jira Software

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions