The question of questions: Who are you?

Before you get down to the actual planning, it’s helpful to be aware of where you’re positioned in the market and the resulting options for moving forward. Who are you, what do you want to achieve and what are you capable of providing? After all, there is no such thing as a single strategy suitable for all companies, and all approaches have both advantages and disadvantages. For a more in-depth look at these, we recommend reading Mopheus Lab’s article Strategic Approaches to Adopting Blockchain. It should be noted that blockchain is still in its early days and these insights gained from experience should be seen as tendencies rather than fixed rules.

10 steps towards a successful implementation

In creating our 10-step plan, we roughly followed Tiana Laurence’s Blockchain for Dummies. In addition to the deployment options and the choice of use cases, it also shares interesting info about the different platforms, the benefiting industries and already existing blockchains. Now, let’s get to the meat: The implementation procedure can be roughly divided into two major sections: first, the selection of a suitable use case and second, the groundwork for the actual implementation of the selected case.

Identify Use Cases

1. Will your business benefit from Blockchain?

Orientation is the key : create awareness and a general understanding of the added value and possibilities of Blockchain. If you are not sure, conduct a workshop first.

2. Which are the disruptors and problematic spots in your processes?

Self-analysis is the key: Review your company’s processes for inefficiencies and, more importantly, process steps that cause delays, frustration, errors, and/or redundant work. Consider where you want to go. What challenges do you face with respect to your current transaction networks?

3. Which uses for blockchain are fitting?

Alignment is the key: Identify how Blockchain can contribute to your process optimization. To do this, look at the different features of Blockchain, such as those that address inefficiencies, redundancies, and high costs.

4. What is the best use case to get started?

Simplicity is the key: To get started, it should be a less complex use case (e.g., a specific service within your previously identified bottlenecks) that adds value to your business. Using the S.M.A.R.T. principle, already define precise goals that you want to achieve.The use case must be evaluated and defined based on the criteria of consensus, provenance, immutability, distributed ledger technology.

Create an implementation plan

With the selected use case in mind, get to work on doing all the necessary groundwork and follow-up care for your implementation.

5. How do you define the goal for your Blockchain network?

Storytelling is the key: The goal for your initiative must be clearly defined and measurable. What is the problem you intend to solve and what improvements will you make to your business, what process will you optimize, what problem will you fix? Take the time to formulate your story in a winning way so that every stakeholder understands your innovations and can support them. Create a positive team atmosphere. This step runs parallel to everything that follows.

6. Where can possible dependencies come up?

Planning is the key: Think in advance about future obstacles and eliminate them. Identify all resources and you can already address some post-implementation activities. Set up your project cleanly, start with a kick-off that includes appropriate onboarding of the team. Tools: BPMN, Solution Architecture, Capability Landscape, Project Management, Trainings & Workshops.

7. How do you rate your Blockchain platforms and providers?

Best Fit is the key: Identify collaboration partners and the platform that best fit your functional requirements and satisfy your NFRs from a technical perspective. Define an appropriate evaluation process where you consider both functional requirements (FRs) and non-functional requirements (NFRs). This can be done using a clearly defined Proof of Concept if more than one DLT is available. Otherwise, define a 1st release with a smaller scope. Apply the results of your use case analysis and bring the results into your evaluation matrix. Tools: FR/NFR Criteria, BPMN, Solution Architecture.

8. Implement your project

Action is the key: Design, implement, and set up your blockchain application and networks. Keep your approach about market positioning in mind, define clear roles and rules in terms of infrastructure, development environment, programming language, which digital ledger technology? Task management system, implementation guidelines and how-to tutorials can help with the onboarding of further team members.

9. Test your application end-to-end

Result analysis is the key: Test and optimize your application and network. Define your test cases correctly from a technical and business point of view. Refer back and check the previously defined criteria for success control according to the S.M.A.R.T. principle. Tools: Q&A surveys etc.

10. Celebrate success and look out for new use cases

Communication is the key:Successful deployment and service setup in the production environment is behind you. A follow-up planning session is scheduled. Celebrate your success and communicate it! Schedule a “lessons learned” session and make sure you capture the results. Thoroughly plan the follow-up session for next steps. Tools: lessons learned, success stories, channel communication, celebrating.