E-Business
10 Things CIOs Need to Know About Agile Development- Gartner
Gartner Inc. has reiterated that chief information officers (CIOs) are under pressure to support fast-evolving digital business scenarios but are finding traditional project and development methods unsuitable.
According to Gartner, enterprises are increasingly turning to agile development to speed up projects and illustrate their value.
Speaking ahead of the Gartner Application Architecture, Development and Integration Summit in Sydney this month, Nathan Wilson, research director at Gartner, said that executed well, use of agile methods has the capability to transform IT-business relationships and have a major positive impact on IT value delivery.
However, the value will be delivered only if the CIO and the entire IT management team are dedicated to the culture change that is necessary for success.
“Done well, agile development can be an integral part of the portfolio of methods that the CIO uses to deal with increasing business demand for innovation,” said Mr. Wilson. “Done badly, agile development will create a lot more problems than it solves.”
Gartner has identified 10 guiding principles for agile development:
Agile Is Not One Thing
Agile development methodologies are a set of approaches to software development that share a common philosophy but are sharply distinguished in the details of their implementations.
They therefore tend to be adapted to different sorts of problems.
Sophisticated organizations with a lot of experience may well use more than one of these approaches, but an organization that is getting started should select one approach and master it before attempting other approaches.
Agile Is Not A “Pick’n Mix” Methodology
Agile methods are highly systematic. Every component element of the methodology is crucial to the success of the methodology.
A common mistake is for an organization to embrace some elements of an agile methodology, such as the sprint, but to ignore or play down other elements, such as managing “technical debt.”
Such organizations enjoy the kudos that comes from rapid development and release of new code, but they are storing up trouble by failing to address technical debt.
Embracing Agile Is A Joint Business-IT Activity
The full benefits of agile cannot be achieved without engaging with business leaders, management and the user community.
If the rest of the business does not have an immediate appetite for working in a new way, careful planning and communication will be needed to bring different communities of managers and users on board.
With Agile, It Is Important To Walk Before You Try Running
Experienced agile practitioners can tackle large-scale developments — the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.
But it takes many years to develop the necessary skills to be able to take on such large-scale software projects. Any organization that is starting out on the agile journey needs to start in the foothills to develop the confidence and competence to take on larger tasks.
Embracing Agile Is Embracing Continuous Learning
Agile practitioners must be committed to continuous improvement in quality and cost-effectiveness, which means that every development is analyzed for lessons that can be used to improve policies and working practices.
This analysis and learning are not the responsibility of a small number of senior practitioners; they are fundamental components of the workload of all agile practitioners.
Furthermore, the learning is not just appropriate to the programmers who are directly involved in software development; it is also essential for all the related skills, such as project management, architecture, quality assurance and IT budget management.
Agile Is About Teams And Teams Of Teams
The basic organizational unit of delivery in agile development is a small team, typically expressed as “seven, plus or minus two” people — both developers and quality assurance.
From an HR perspective, managing agile teams involves walking a fine line between keeping productive teams together and moving individuals between teams to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas.
If people are moved too frequently, the teams fail to develop into highly productive units; if people are not moved between teams enough, then each team starts to become isolated and diverges from the other teams.
It is important to note that physical location of teams is much more important with agile methods than with conventional approaches to development.
Documenting, Managing And Eliminating Technical Debt Is A Core Concept Of All Agile Methods
Technical debt is the difference between the state of a piece of software today and the state that it needs to be in to meet appropriate and necessary requirements for quality attributes such as reliability, performance efficiency, portability, usability, maintainability and security.
All development creates technical debt.
The difference with agile methods is that technical debt is recognized and added to the backlog, not swept under the carpet. Any organization that seeks to embrace agile methods must put in place the necessary elements of the chosen method dedicated to ruthless refactoring and the elimination of technical debt.
Working With Third-Party Development Service Providers On Agile Development Demands Special Care And Attention
Many user IT organizations have a long history of outsourcing application development to specialist service providers.
While there is a role for service providers in agile development, it is a very different commercial model and a very different engagement model.
Since colocation with business users is axiomatic to agile methods, the opportunities for sending large amounts of work offshore are somewhat limited, so some form of supplemental staffing is likely to be a more useful model.
The Impact Of Agile Goes Well Beyond The Software Development Teams
An integral component of the agile methodologies is the concept of “continuous delivery.”
Agile methodologies are predicated on continuous engagement with business managers and users, and lead to the delivery of a continuous stream of new and modified software into the operational environment.
This demands significant changes in working practices for both business governance and relationship management and the infrastructure and operations teams.
Other Software Development Methodologies Will Still Have A Place In Your Portfolio
In most commercial and public sector organizations, the application portfolio will present many different classes of development problems, some of which will be well-suited to agile, while some may be better-suited to incremental, iterative development and some to a modified waterfall model.
Agile is not “better”; it is simply better-adapted to some problems, but not so well-adapted to others.
Amazon’s management on Wednesday said that it expects that artificial intelligence software will reduce the number of office workers at the world’s largest online retailer.
Andy Jassy, chief executive, Amazon
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs,” Andy Jassy, chief executive, Amazon wrote in an email to employees.
He said it was difficult to predict how the overall workforce will evolve, but in the next few years, it is expected that AI efficiency gains will lead to a reduction in the number of office workers.
According to earlier reports, Amazon employed around 1.5 million people worldwide, with approximately 350,000 office employees in various roles.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company does not anticipate further large-scale layoffs, as seen in 2022 and 2023, in the near future.
Instead, it expects that vacant positions will not be refilled.
However, layoffs are not ruled out, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“Amazon is focusing on so-called AI agents, software capable of independently performing tasks. These agents could, for example, summarise information from the web and data sources, write software, translate languages and automate many time-consuming tasks,” Mr Jassy explained.
“Agents will be teammates that we can call on at various stages of our work,” he added, urging employees to experiment with AI whenever possible.
The impact of AI on the job market has been a concern for many years.
Recently, Spotify, the leader in music streaming, announced that teams requesting additional staff would first need to prove that AI could not perform the tasks.
The creators of the language-learning app Duolingo plan to gradually replace external workers with AI.
Dr Adebowale Adedokun, director-general, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), has reaffirmed the bureau’s commitment to data protection in Nigeria.
He disclosed this in a statement at the weekend by Zira Nagga, head of Public Relations, BPP, following a courtesy visit by a delegation from the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
Adedokun stressed that data protection is vital to Nigeria’s economy and development, particularly in areas such as demography, health, education, and other key sectors.
He emphasised that no country should leave its data unprotected, as it plays a crucial role in future planning and national development.
“Data governs the world. It is essential to technological progress and must be protected for a country or business to be taken seriously,” he said.
Adedokun described the visit, aimed at fostering partnership on data policy implementation and protection, as timely and aligned with national goals.
He said the BPP would collaborate closely with the NDPC to boost data development, capacity building, and enhance the procurement system.
“The BPP will support compliance as part of the ‘Nigeria First’ Policy, although it is not a core procurement eligibility requirement,” he explained.
He suggested a hybrid training model to help build strong capacity in data protection, privacy awareness, and policy understanding.
According to him, a dynamic training approach will reduce logistics costs and improve public confidence in data safety and privacy.
Dr Vincent Olatunji, CEO, and national commissioner, NDPC, praised Adedokun and the BPP for supporting data protection initiatives.
He said the partnership supports President Bola Tinubu’s vision and will strengthen data privacy across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
“The collaboration will create awareness and train BPP staff to ensure a firm grasp of data protection principles and policies,” he stated.
Olatunji said the NDPC would establish a working group to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding beneficial to both institutions.
He added that President Tinubu signed the NDPC into law on 12 June 2023 to uphold citizens’ rights and protect national and business data.
Olatunji also noted that strict legal measures were in place to enforce data protection and ensure full compliance nationwide.
Both agencies agreed to form a team to sign the MoU and focus on capacity building and data management in procurement and beyond.
President Bola Tinubu said that his administration has initiated a project to install fibre optic cables across the country, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
His plans were contained in a speech he delivered at a joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of Democracy Day on Thursday, June 12.
He said the fibre optic layout is part of other projects being embarked on.
“In addition, we have embarked on an ambitious project to lay fibre optic cables across the nation, a transformative step toward bridging the digital divide and fostering greater connectivity.
“This initiative promises not only to enhance the speed and reliability of internet access but also to revolutionise how businesses operate, how students learn, and how communities stay connected,” Tinubu stated.
He maintained that by extending this critical infrastructure, his government is empowering entrepreneurs, enabling digital education, and providing the tools for our youth to compete in a globalised world.
In a most recent report on Internet connectivity, The ICIR pointed out how Nigeria has faced setbacks in its deployment of fibre optic cables and needs a transformation.
The challenges revolve around vandalism, inadequate coordination between road construction and telecom infrastructure, and varying right-of-way (RoW) charges across states.
Among industry experts, these issues impact network outages, increase repair costs, and hinder broadband expansion efforts.
It has also further threatened the digital economy, leading to slower Internet speeds, dropped calls, and unreliable connectivity among others.
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