Soil, water, light, and temperature. All vital aspects to consider when planting a garden or building a house. They impact where you plant each plant, what types of plants you try to grow, how big each plant will grow, and the likelihood of survival. Similarly with a house, they impact where you position the house, the size, the style, and even how long it will last.

In some ways these are design constraints of the context. And it is better to work with them than to fight them. And yes, there are always exceptions but they also help us understand the norm.

In thinking about going digital in our organisations, it helpful to understand the ‘design constraints’ of the contexts we work in and with. It may be different for each context. Some things to consider will almost always include – people capacity, infrastructure, connectivity, and project/organisation governance.

And yet it is also important to know if you are building a garden or a house. The materials you need will be quite different.

Photo by federico passi