Practice is poised to socialize new forms of agility
Dr. Israel Gat
Boston, MA, 10 December 2010 -- Cutter Consortium announced today the appointment of Dr. Israel Gat as the new director of its Agile Product & Project Management Practice.
Dr. Gat is currently a Senior Consultant with the practice, where his focus has been on technical debt, large-scale implementations of lean software methods, and agile business service management. He is recognized as the architect of the agile transformation at BMC Software. Under his leadership, BMC software development increased Scrum users from zero to 1,000, resulting in nearly three times faster time to market than industry average and 20-50% improvement in team productivity. In addition to BMC, Dr. Gat's executive career spans top technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Digital, and EMC.
According to Gat, Cutter's Agile Practice "will continue to offer and deepen the rich menu of Agile and Technical Debt services that has been available over the past few years." He adds, "These offerings are being supplemented with various Kanban offerings, and with 'devops' -- the application of Agile principles and practices in IT Operations to ensure continuous deployment." By doing so, Gat explains, "continuous delivery of value becomes a major competitive advantage."
As a provider of end-to-end agile solutions, Gat will position Cutter's Agile practice to embrace new forms of Agility, such as those provided by Cloud Computing, Mobile Applications, and Social Networking. "The net effect of combining Agile software methods with Cloud, Mobile, and Social is transformative," argues Gat: "It is not 'just' about doing one thing or another a little faster. Rather, it is about enabling new business designs that utilize the ultra-fast pace and flexibility of multiple links in the company's value chain."
With this in mind, Gat points out that Agile will "continue to be elevated from a 'mere' software method to a strategic initiative," with obvious implications at the C level. Forthcoming Cutter research will elaborate on this theme, providing the business rationale for effectively combining both traditional and new forms of Agility.
"We feel very lucky to have Israel taking the helm of Cutter's Agile practice. His pioneering work in the area of software development governance and current focus on the strategic value of agile to enterprises has put him in great demand with Cutter clients worldwide," says Cutter CEO Karen Coburn.
To interview Dr. Gat, or for more information on Cutter's Agile Practice, contact Kim Leonard at press@cutter.com or 1-781-648-8700.