W11 - IT Bimodal

I recently revisited Gartner’s early concept of bimodal IT. The core idea is to divide IT governance from the demand perspective into two modes — Mode 1 focuses on domains that are well understood and fairly predictable, emphasizing sustained “reliability,” like a marathon runner. Mode 2 addresses unknown, novel problems, aiming to manage uncertainty through exploration and experimentation, emphasizing “agility,” like a sprinter.

Business demands can be grouped into two categories: capability-driven operations and exploratory initiatives. These two areas have different iteration characteristics: capability building involves longer development cycles, while exploratory work iterates quickly. They also have different requirements for delivery cadence and stability. Over the long term, it’s sensible for organizations to clarify commonalities and differences in structure and processes and apply a divide-and-conquer approach to iteration and governance.