Posts Tagged ‘Risk Mitigation’
Consumerization of Enterprise Software
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/3055802287/
Figure 1: Consumerization of IT
The devastation in traditional Publishing needs precious little mentioning. Just think about a brand like BusinessWeek selling for a meager cash offer in the $2 million to $5 million range, McGraw Hill getting into interactive text books through Inkling or Flipboard delivering “… your personalized social magazine” to your iPad. This devastation might not have gotten the attention that the plight of the ‘big three’ automobile manufacturers got, but in its own way it is as shocking as a visit to the abandoned properties in Detroit is.
As most of my clients do enterprise software, many of my discussions with them is about the consumerization of IT. From a day-to-day perspective this consumerization is primarily about six aspects:
- Use of less expensive/consumer-focused components as infrastructure
- ‘Pay as you go’ pricing (through Cloud pricing mechanisms/policies)
- Use of web application interfaces to monitor IT infrastructure
- Use of mobile and consumer based devices for accessing IT alerts and interfacing with systems
- Use of the fast growing number of mobile applications to enhance productivity
- Application of enterprise social networks and social software in the data center
From a strategic perspective, IT consumerization IMHO is all about the transformation toward “everything as a service” [1]. The virtuous cycle driven by Cloud, Mobile and Social manifests itself at three levels:
- It obviously affects the IT folks with whom I discuss the subject. Immense changes are already taking place in many IT departments.
- It affects their company. For example, the company might need to change the business design in order to optimize its supply chain.
- It affects the clients of their company. Their definition of value changes these days faster than the time it takes the CIO I speak with to say “value.”
© Copyright 2010 Israel Gat
Figure 2: The Virtuous Cycle of Cloud, Mobile and Social
Sometimes I get a push-back from my clients on this topic. The push-back is usually rooted in the immense complexity (and fragility) of the enterprise software systems that had been built over the past ten, twenty or thirty years. The folks who push back on me point out that consumerization of IT will not scale big time until enterprise software gets “consumerized” or at least modernized.
I agree with this good counter-point but only up to a point. I believe two factors are likely to accelerate the pace toward “consumerization” of enterprise software:
- Any department/business unit that can get a service in entirety from an outside source is likely to do so without worrying about enterprise software and/or data center considerations. This is already happening in Marketing. As other functions start doing so, more and more links in the value chain of enterprise software will be “consumerized.” In other words, these services will be carried out without the involvement of the IT department.
- Once the switch-over costs from legacy code to state-of-the-art code are less than the steady state costs (to maintain and update legacy code), the “consumerization” of enterprise software is going to happen with ferocious urgency.
If you are in enterprise software you need to start modernizing your applications today. The reason is the imperative need to mitigate risk prior to reaching the end-point, almost irrespective of how far down the road the end-point might be. See Llewellyn Falco‘s excellent video clip Rewriting Vs Refactoring for a crisp articulation of the risk involved in rewriting and why starting to refactor now is the best way to mitigate the risk.
Footnotes:
[1] The phrase “Everything as a Service” has been coined by Russ Daniels.
Outline of the Technical Debt Seminar at the Cutter Summit
Pictured above are speakers of the forthcoming Cutter Summit. Between the seventeen of us we will cover a broad spectrum of IT topics such as Agile, Enterprise Architecture, Business Strategy, Cloud Computing, Collaboration, Governance and Security. Inter-disciplinary seminars, panels and case studies will weave all those threads together to give participants a clear view of the unfolding transformation in IT and of the new way(s) companies are starting to utilize IT. Click here for a details.
As Jim Highsmith and I continue to develop our joint seminar on technical debt for the summit, I would like to give readers of this blog a sense of where we are and ask for feedback. Right now we are considering the following building blocks for the seminar:
- The Nature of Technical Debt
- Technical Debt Metrics
- Monetizing Technical Debt
- Constructing Roadmaps for Paying Back Technical Debt
- Risk Assessment and Mitigation
- A Simple Software Governance Framework
- Schedule in the Simple Governance Framework
- Enlightened Governance
- Baking in Quality One Build at a Time
- How Often Should the Project Team Regroup?
- Multi-Level Governance
- Extending Technical Debt Techniques to Devops
- Use of Technical Debt Techniques in Agile Portfolio Management
- The Start Afresh Option
- Technical Debt as an Integral Part of a Value Delivery Culture
In the course of going through a subset of these building blocks, we will cover the latest and greatest from the October issue of the Cutter IT Journal on technical debt, present two case studies, and conduct a few group exercises.
How to Initiate a DevOps Project
Source: 17th/21st Lancers c. 1922-1929 “THE FIGHTING SPIRIT!”
Agile consultants on a development project often start by helping the team construct a backlog. The task is sufficiently concrete to get all stakeholders (product management, project management, development, test, any others) on a collaborative track through the creation of a key artifact. The backlog establishes a base line for the tasks to be carried out in the project.
For a DevOps project, start by establishing the technical debt of the software to be released to operations. By so doing you build the foundations for collaboration between development and operations through shared data. In the DevOps context, the technical debt data form the basis for the creation and grooming of a unified backlog which includes various user stories from operations.
Apply the same approach when you are fortunate to be able to include folks from operations in the Agile team from the very beginning. You start with zero technical debt, but you track it on an ongoing basis and include the corresponding “fix-it” stories in the backlog as you accrue the debt. Running technical debt analytics on the source code every two weeks is a good practice to follow.
As the head of development, you might not be comfortable sharing technical debt data. This being the case, you are not ready for DevOps.
The Executive’s Workshop for Scaling Agile to The Enterprise
Readers of this blog are well aware of my keen interest in enterprise level Agile. I am now offering a specialized workshop for executives on this topic.
The Executive’s Workshop for Scaling Agile to The Enterprise
This one day workshop and free follow-on coaching service prepares executives for their roles in large-scale Agile implementation.
This workshop is ideal for building a shared understanding of your company’s Agile goals and practices amongst members of the leadership team. It illustrates how executives could/should engage in the Agile process in a meaningful manner, and includes strategies for addressing common challenges. Your team will see how to govern Agile effectively, and most importantly, you’ll learn proven practices for attaining the operational, financial and business benefits of a successful enterprise-level Agile implementation.
Objectives
Agile is shown to cut the cost, improve the flexibility and shorten time-to-market of software-driven projects. Upon completion of this service, executive teams will be able to:
- Scale Agile to the enterprise level
- Minimize risks associated with large-scale Agile rollout
- Apply Agile practices in development and beyond
- Galvanize the team around a shared, cross-functional Agile vision
Approach
The Executive’s Workshop for Scaling Agile to The Enterprise service is divided into three parts, each designed to help company leaders accelerate their adoption of Agile.
Part I: Preparation via phone interviews and web-based coaching. The workshop leader works with your executive team to gather context, discuss logistics and focus the on-site workshop on your needs.
Part II: One day on-site workshop is delivered through combination of presentation, examples, exercises and participant discussion.
Part III: Free telephone coaching and mentoring with the Workshop Leader for six months after the workshop. The objective is to help executives respond effectively to the challenges they encounter in the course of implementing Agile.
On-Site Workshop Details
Leading an enterprise adoption of Agile requires that you understand the key concepts, principles and practices of Agile without getting bogged down in technical details. You must learn techniques for handling the expected “noise” associated with organizational change while identifying the critical tasks needing your attention and leadership to succeed. The workshop is designed to address these challenges with a minimal investment of time.
Here is an overview of the key topics you will add to your experience set:
Explaining the Rationale for Agile to Your Company
- Why now?
- What is the state of the art in Agile and what is our goal
- Expected return on our Agile investment
How The Agile Process Fits into Your Company:
- Understanding Agile as an example of other common, iterative, quality-oriented processes
- How Agile works with other software development life cycle processes
- How to run a heterogeneous software development environment that mixes Waterfall, Agile and other methods
- Connecting Agile to your budgeting process
- How to perform governance and portfolio management with Agile
How to Implement Agile:
- Choosing suitable projects for Agile methods
- Rollout strategies that mitigate risks
- Keeping departments aligned during the Agile rollout
- Defining the social contract for Agile
- How to make Agile sustainable in your particular culture
- How Agile impacts your partner eco-system
- Succeeding with off-shoring and outsourcing
Setting Up The Agile Enterprise:
- Determining your performance metrics for Agile
- How to negotiate Agile contracts
- Achieving breakthrough innovation through Agile
- Business designs that utilize the power of Agile
Price and Availability
- Limited to 12 people per workshop
- Please contact me at isrgat@gmail.com
The Agile Executive 