Strategic advice to leverage new technologies

The field of robotics has benefited considerably from advances in various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies — most notably deep learning neural networks, computer vision, intelligent guidance and control systems, and voice and speech recognition. The biggest advances are being realized from developments in deep learning algorithms and machine vision technologies, which are allowing the creation of robots featuring advanced autonomous navigation and intelligent object recognition capabilities.

Large, non-software companies introducing Agile to their organizations tend to suffer from a cognitive dissonance of sorts: we would like to have the same look and feel across the entire company, delivering stellar-quality products, yet we want to enable high-performing, self-organizing, self-managed, and self-empowered teams to deliver (or demo) at the end of each sprint. In this Advisor, we summarize one area where this conflict becomes especially evident for large companies, particularly with non-software teams: process misalignment. We also share a potential solution that we’ve seen work in industrial practice.

Here in Part II of this Executive Update series on customer experience (CX) management, we look at survey findings covering budgeting trends for CX initiatives and the status of the “chief customer officer” (CCO) in the enterprise.

In this Advisor, I have chosen the simple word “change” as a starting point for thinking about architectural change, rather than many of the others in rampant use — words such as “transformation,” “permutation,” “enhancement,” and so on. This choice seems appropriate because “change” is an abstract, neutral, and descriptive word without the deeper connotations that might impede the nuancing of this notion into something of a practical, if rudimentary, taxonomy that will help us grapple better with the different kinds of changes that we are compelled to deal with.

Although recent advances in computing user interfaces for decision support tools make the tools much easier to learn, understand, and manipulate, some decision makers may be reluctant to adopt and use a new decision support tool. Potential users with greater IT knowledge and expertise often find it easier to learn new systems than those who are infrequent users and hence lack knowledge and expertise. Thus, developers should strive to build a decision support capability that targets potential users, matching the design to user needs, abilities, and skills.

In statistical project management (SPM), we simplify the project management approach by eliminating many concepts that the dominant project management methodologies consider central. Objects represent a repeatable thing that non-IT people can wrap their minds around. They are supposed to be concrete, like a balance sheet report in an accounting system or an employee demographics data-entry Web form. Since objects are supposed to be repeatable, project managers and the IT organization would find it very helpful to know how long, on average, it takes teams to create and operate related objects. Thus, objects become an important list of deliverables and one that is crucial to estimate accurately. Objects represent, from the user’s perspective, the list of things that are delivered to them — a kind of a bill of materials.

Software architecture requires balance. During the 20 years I’ve been leading technology organizations to build products, mostly via Agile, I’ve learned some rules that have helped me — and my teams — successfully strike the right balance. These aren’t technically focused rules; they’re more generic, so they apply to monolithic, layered, service-oriented, and microservice architectures equally well. One of these rules is the subject of this Advisor.

Continuous dissent is necessary and extremely valuable — but also incredibly tough for the architect to participate in. This Executive Update seeks to find a balance that allows architects to engage in dissent while preserving their careers — and their sanity.