Watchtower

Early risk identification for digital and analytics transformations

Watchtower helps leaders and teams proactively identify and address the greatest risks in their technology-project portfolios by leveraging best-in-class analytics to expose true risks before they materialize.

Digital and analytics transformations often fall short of meeting their ambitious goals: they fall behind schedule, deliver over budget, or fail to capture full potential value. Identifying project risks through traditional techniques is challenging because key project data are held across many sources and self-reported status updates frequently fail to surface risks proactively. Watchtower is a delivery-management solution that integrates all project data and applies machine learning to catch key project risks early. With Watchtower, transformation leaders and teams can focus on what counts: proactively mitigating risks and delivering value back to the organization.

How Watchtower works

Integrate

Creates a comprehensive project-management database by compiling all available project data: project-portfolio-management tools, agile execution tools, Excel, surveys, and others

Identify

Identifies hidden project risks using machine learning on critical indicators such as status, milestones, financials, velocity, and team sentiment

Flag

Visualizes a weighted list of risks, specific to each delivery leader’s project portfolio, into a newsfeed

Act

Address and mitigate project risks strategically through data-driven conversations during regular initiative reviews and team cadences

Watchtower by the numbers

$2.5 bn

of IT investment under management

>350

technology-transformation leaders using Watchtower

$3 bn

of recurring business value under management

Why Watchtower

Rapid one-time deployment

Watchtower can be deployed within weeks. After integration of data sources, Watchtower can be adopted instantly across the transformation, surfacing critical risks that spark data-driven mitigations.

Reliable risk assessment

Watchtower identifies and prioritizes what really represents a risk, learning how to differentiate true signals from false positives over time.

Value-assurance experience

Watchtower is an integral part of McKinsey’s proven holistic approach to IT and digital value assurance, providing the insights needed to improve and act on risks continuously.

Our impact

Safeguarding launch

Watchtower detected an at-risk launch when an agile team during a transformation of a medical-devices manufacturer broadened scope while slipping in productivity

Assuring value delivery

Watchtower identified when a development team, part of a multibillion-dollar transformation of a health-insurance company, spent significantly more money than forecast while not delivering corresponding business value

Wave

Find out how this web-based program-management tool supports transformation and change programs—and helps organizations monitor, quantify, and sustain results.

Full-Scale Transformation

We help transform the world’s largest, most complex organizations—with a focus on creating real value through digital reinvention.