How Business Model Innovation intertwines with Design Thinking and Agile Development practices – driving viability, desirability and feasibility in parallel

In 2009, SAP decided to implement Lean and Agile Software Engineering practices within its global development organization. Lean management and agile practices like Scrum helped SAP to become more efficient and predictable in delivering its software. However, Scrum starts with a product vision – where does that come from? Design Thinking helped, but did not yet solve the “Innovator’s Dilemma” which almost any big company faces after many years of success. Hence, we had to explore new ways and approaches to come up with innovative product ideas and business models for the ever faster changing and evolving enterprise software market. Combining Agile and DT with Business Model Innovation (BMI) practices and providing adequate project coaches finally did the trick for SAP: while lean thinking and agile project management improved many feasibility aspects, BMI practices tackle commercial success and viability, especially in the new cloud-based environment...