Market Obsolescence

Obsolescence is a by product of the market experimentation that must be recognized, accepted and reconciled by the participants as a real an looming outcome of the drive to experiment within the market and especially the supply chain. Experimentation produces both new features and functionality to push the market forward and also elimination or obsolescence of existing or previous capabilities that are not longer necessary or relevant. This obsolescence must be accounted for in the process in order to ensure that the portfolio of services and capabilities remain current and provide value. This effort to specifically identify obsolescence is important to the vitality and support requirements for the market participants to eliminate the support for obsolete services and functionality. The continued support of obsolete services and capabilities will place a drag on the ability to experiment and move forward.





Every experiment will potentially create an obsolete process or function and this must be recognized and taken into account and planned as part of the process. The effort and impact to the business increases with each obsolete process or function that is not retired and eliminated. Elimination of the obsolete functions and services must be a key part of the experimentation process because of the overhead required for ongoing maintenance and support. Planned obsolescence is an important practice in the market from a maintenance and value perspective. The value of the improvements realized from experiments will be quickly overwhelmed if the obsolete functions and processes are not retired.





Planning and executing obsolete service retirement is not the fun, or sexy, part of the experimental improvements proces, however it is an important part of the process to ensure the function and service catalog is appropriately maintained and services and functions are bringing value. The costs of maintaining obsolete functions and services will quickly escalate to overwhelm benefits of the improvements realized from improvements realized through experimentation.





In addition to the increased maintenance and support costs, the obsolete functions and services also impact and delay the realization of improvements from experiments, in other words, working around obsolete functions impacts the complexity and delays the delivery of experiments because of the effort to work around the obsolete functions. Eliminating the obsolete functions improves the velocity of change through experimentation. Google is a great example of eliminating obsolete services and functions. They regularly announce the retirement of functions and services that have outlived their useful lifespan and the value added capabilities are provided through new services or functions that have been created as a result of experiments.





The challenge for many of the partners is recognizing and accepting the obsolescence of services, features and functionality and most importantly eliminating the obsolete items. This can be especially challenging when you are focused on responding to change in the market. This challenge must be rationalized and prioritized through the realization of the potential impact to the partner in the event that the obsolescence is ignored. The weight of obsolete services, features and functionality will become overwhelming in the event that they are not retired and this challenge comes down to the focus; it is too easy to walk away and ignore because of the demands of the changing market.