There is a lot of talk these days about value stream management. Much of the hype is about getting the right VSM Platform. It’s about the tooling. I try to cut through the hype in my post “What Value Stream Management Isn’t.” In that post I make the point that value streams exist whether you … continue reading
I started collecting my thoughts on this topic at the start of 2020, a time just a short while and a whole era ago. Matters of heated discussion back then made way for whole other concerns, but as you know firsthand – more and more of our daily lives is getting online, ensuring that the … continue reading
Code reviews are a crucial component of the software development process. It encourages the software development team to interact with one another, collaborate, and improve the quality of their code. However, it’s more than just checking new code to detect errors and become familiar with the codebase. According to Phil Hughes, front-end engineer at GitLab, … continue reading
As technology advances and morphs, startups continue to emerge, looking to differentiate themselves from the rest against incredible odds — some 90% of all startups fail, according to Forbes. (That’s in all fields; not just tech startups.) Identifying which will ultimately succeed or fail is like trying to find gold in the bottom of a … continue reading
OpenAI says it is backlogged with a waitlist of prospective testers seeking to assess if the first private beta of its GPT-3 natural language programming (NLP) tool really can push the boundaries of artificial intelligence (AI). Since making the GPT-3 beta available in June as an API to those who go through OpenAI’s vetting process, … continue reading
Navigating the digital-first world requires organizations to explore new frontiers to deliver more value to their customers. While the tech oligopoly can provide customers with digital solutions at warp speed, traditional enterprises need a little help. Many IT leaders, such as CIOs, are taking proactive measures to improve market response through software by adopting practices … continue reading
Imagine undergoing some serious surgery at your local hospital. The nurse tells you that they are all excited about your surgery. Your surgeon is very famous but quite new to the hospital and the surgical staff has never worked with him before, and they are not familiar with his operating room procedures. Further, there is … continue reading
When Compuware, now a BMC company, came under new leadership in 2014, the company embarked on a mission to realign as an Agile business. It went from delivering customer requirements every 12 to 18 months to a publicly faced quarterly roadmap deeply engaged with customers. Once the company started to see some success, customers went … continue reading
“After the last nuclear bomb goes off and the earth cools, and the cockroaches come back out of the ground, they will all be dragging mainframes with them because it’s the only platform that will be able to withstand that,” Thomas Klinect, a senior research director at Gartner, told SD Times. While Klinect was joking … continue reading
When both the GDPR and CCPA came out, they were a major force in the industry for making companies rethink how they handled data privacy. They’ve already had significant impacts in the industry, as discussed above. Despite how powerful the CCPA was compared to existing data privacy laws in the United States, a new law … continue reading
Over the past few years, the world has seen the introduction of two major data protection regulations: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The GDPR, which affects the European Union, has been in effect since May 2018, which is nearly two and a half years. The CCPA went into … continue reading
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, hearing people talk about the “new normal” has become, well, the new normal. Much has been upended to say the least—and some shifts are extremely relevant to the product development realm. For instance, I predict it will become the “new normal” for restaurants to have their own products … continue reading
I am frequently asked this question: “On what devices and browsers should I be testing my mobile and web applications?” It’s a very valid question, because the volume of permutations is vast, and it gets bigger and more fragmented all the time. In 2020 alone we are seeing several major OS platforms debut. These introduce … continue reading
Process change is more about people than process. At least until processes can be fully automated. During the past decade, I have championed technology-led process improvement initiatives at over a dozen large companies. I have seen process improvement implemented successfully primarily when such initiatives were pursued with a healthy mix of technology and human understanding … continue reading
Software testing is nearing the end of its Cretaceous period. Personally, I invite the proverbial asteroid to advance its destructive approach so the practice of software testing can continue down its much-needed evolutionary journey. Don’t get me wrong, software testing has not been totally stagnant; it did evolve during its Cretaceous period. The most significant … continue reading
As Agile software development continues to take hold across all industries, along with DevOps practices and tooling, refining the delivery of products and services is increasingly the focus for many firms. Ensuring business goals and customer requirements are being met is key to software delivery. This requires detailed planning and organization of all teams working … continue reading
There are a few definitions of “value stream management” floating around out there. Most seem pretty good, but they are necessarily very broad and maybe vague. That’s because value stream management is a very broad concept. Given the hype around these 3 words, and how it’s often shortened to 2 words, there is a lot … continue reading
Data is more available than ever before, and copious amounts of new data are collected every day. But if there’s one major impediment to helping organizations unlock the full value of their data, it’s the fact that data hasn’t truly been democratized. In large part, data is simply not accessible for far too many professionals … continue reading
With a market greater than US$50 billion in India alone, there is no denying the offshoring model works. It helps companies test, develop and bring digital products – like many of the gadgets, apps and technologies we use today – to market in a relatively cost-effective manner. That said, it’s no secret that the COVID-19 … continue reading
In 2013, customer experience firm Walker released a report in which it predicted that by 2020, user experience would be the key differentiator for brands, and price and product would become less important to users when choosing among different digital services. Well, 2020 is here, and that prediction seems to have been pretty accurate. In … continue reading
The world may seem like it is on pause as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but technology is still advancing and the skills gap between talent and job requirements is widening. Microsoft estimates that there will be 149 million new technology jobs by 2025. There will be 1 million new jobs for privacy and trust, 6 … continue reading
Want to quickly know how good a project manager is? Here is an old consultant’s trick: Ask a programmer on the team how much throwaway code he or she used during the last project. A good 80/20 rule is the more throwaway code used during development, the better the project manager. Throwaway code refers to … continue reading
The recently released 2020 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report, produced by the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC), found that of more than 1,250 codebases analyzed in 2019, not only did virtually 100% have some open-source components, but also that an average of 70% of the code was open source, nearly double the … continue reading
It’s a new age for software development, defined by the rise of mobile applications and iterative development releases. Today’s fast-paced development environment doesn’t slow down for anyone. If monitoring tools don’t work to promote speed and agility for the teams using them, then new solutions must be found. As a result of this mindset, mature … continue reading
As the world tries to fight the coronavirus pandemic, contact tracing is a key practice for preventing outbreaks. Contact tracing is the method of contacting every person an infected person might have had close contact with and getting them tested so they don’t go out and unknowingly spread the virus. While much of this tracing … continue reading
Software innovation doesn’t happen without taking risks along the way. But risks can be scary for businesses afraid of making mistakes. There is another way, according to Jon Noronha, senior vice president of product at Optimizely, a progressive delivery and experimentation platform provider. Feature experimentation, he said, allows businesses to go to market quicker while … continue reading
For software development teams, moving fast is key. But so is the confidence that you’re building the right thing in the first place. To reduce uncertainty, product and engineering teams are running more experiments across websites, apps, and every level of the stack to gain valuable data and real user feedback, enabling them to deliver … continue reading
Businesses that want to attract, engage and retain more online customers need to provide an exceptional front-end solution. It’s the first thing users see when they come to a website, and it’s the first impression digital businesses can give. Traditionally, when front ends are coupled with the back end, developers have to be full-stack experts … continue reading
