Many Agile experts have written about integration and testing. Some debate about the goals, while others explore the tactics taken to achieve them. Most agree that integration and testing should be performed continuously and in an automated manner, if possible. However, this seems to be the extent of agreement. Debate arises over “who does the integration and testing — when, where, and why?” along with discussion about the most efficient and effective way to get the job done. 

Here in Part VIII, we discuss the social and emotional cognitive aspects of proj­ects.

Data science skills span a wide gamut of capabil­ities within an organization, including business analysis, Lean-Agile portfolios, enterprise and systems archi­tectures, quality assurance, and, of course, database and statistical skills. In this Executive Update, we address the issues around upskilling people for big data capabilities.

In this Executive Update, we describe the application of Scrum in the restaurant business. This environment is similar to that of Lean hardware Scrum, in that shifts are repeatedly creating and delivering products in short cycles with high quality. Process efficiency and cycle time become the key metrics for production.

In Part VII of this Executive Update series on statistical project management, we turn our attention to the dynamical and often irrational nature of projects.

In Part IV of this Executive Update series on customer experience (CX), we review the CX practices and techniques that organizations are interested in adopting.

This Executive Update examines some current trends in the API space, including API platforms, as well as the influence of microservices, streaming, and serverless on those API platforms. We also cover how enterprises are expanding their API program to include the broader concerns of enterprise architecture. Finally, we take a look at what those trends and perspective shifts may hold for us in the future.

There is a wealth of evolving business and IT strategies, disciplines, and technologies, but many of these concepts are technology-driven and lack a unifying vision. The cognitive enterprise, on the other hand, offers a business-driven vision for organizations where technology is merely a means to an end. This Executive Update outlines the purpose of the cognitive enterprise, its two fundamental underlying concepts, common scenarios that manifest within a cognitive enterprise, and how to position organizations to achieve this vision.

In this Executive Update, we look at how non-software, product–based companies can successfully embrace Agile — and non-Agile — methods in a complementary way.

In Part VI of this Executive Update series on statistical project management, we look at the “nature” of the project and its role as the firm’s “working memory.”

In Part III of this Executive Update series on customer experience (CX) management in the enterprise, we examine findings pertaining to the benefits organizations hope to obtain from implementing CX practices and technologies.

The “Recordkeeping for Timely Deposit Insurance Determination” rule from the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), or FDIC 370, seems simple but, as we explore in this Executive Update,  it presents several challenges for covered institutions (CIs).

Ninety-two percent of executives say agility is critical for the future of their business, yet only 4% of their transformation efforts are delivering agility. The leading causes for this gap are an entrenched legacy culture and general resistance to change. Responding to these challenges and delivering business agility may require more than Agile practices. As we explore in this Executive Update, many organizations are discovering “solution focus” to be the missing piece of their transformation puzzle.

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.

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.

Understanding data storage requires under­standing data. Data sources, data types, storage sophistication, the structure and format associated with data, volume and velocity, meaningful processing, and, eventually, presentation of the results are all aspects of understanding data. Coupled with security, privacy, and quality, these factors play a pivotal role in delivering business value. This Executive Update investigates the relevance of NoSQL databases in providing business value.

This Executive Update introduces a timely, new Agile event: consequence scanning. This event fits into an iterative development cadence and allows organizations to consider the potential consequences of what is being built — early and often. We explain the need to embed proactive and dedicated consideration of potential consequences within an organization’s product development and outline how best to do it with consequence scanning.

Here in Part V of an Executive Update series on statistical project management, we explore a common metric used in economics and market analysis: the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI).

To meet increasingly elevated customer expectations, organizations are implementing detailed strategies for distributing customer experience (CX) practices across the organization. This includes defining and standardizing the “customer journey” across various channels in order to strengthen their brand, increase customer loyalty, reduce costs, make better use of customer feedback, and so on. Organizations are also investing in leading technologies designed to enhance CX, regardless of which channels customers choose to engage with them.

The need for business architecture in organizations has never been greater than it is today, as we must continually sense and respond to opportunity and change, both of which abound. Though the business architecture discipline continues to gain traction at an ever-increasing pace, how we practice it is critical for its adoption and effectiveness. This Executive Update provides an overview of the importance of using visual techniques as part of a business architecture practice and highlights three aspects: visual design, graphic recording and facilitation, and storytelling.

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. This Executive Update summarizes five key scenarios in which this cognitive dissonance becomes especially evident for large companies, particularly with non-software teams.

In statistical project management (SPM), we simplify the project management approach by eliminating many concepts that the dominant project management methodologies consider central. While I caution you to err to the side of adopting a lighter methodology rather than a thicker one, that choice is a local one and yours to make. The SPM ontology provides you with options. Here in Part IV, we examine how projects grow.

Portfolio management plays a critical role in R&D management, as it structures a strategic process that allows management and R&D to make joint decisions that impact the range of R&D projects in the development funnel. The pooling of insights drives better decisions on the allocation of scarce technical resources based on the needs of the business and its capabilities. Portfolio management creates a dynamic capability to react purposefully to changes in the market, whether strategic, technological, or competitive. This requires clearly articulated projects that can link back to corporate strategy.

As companies evolve through the stages of increasing agility, the work of HR changes as well. At each stage, there are new priorities and new hurdles that should be both expected and managed.

The ever-increasing pace of technology development and the emerging requirements for new cross-disciplinary competencies, especially in converging industries, place increasing demands on resource and competence management in R&D. If companies fail to develop, or target the wrong areas, consequences can be significant — and it can be difficult to recover. In this Executive Update, we examine a recent survey of large organizations worldwide on R&D best practices that shows how some leading companies are rising to the R&D challenge by developing resilience in their resourcing plans to avoid bottle­necks, taking a long-term view on required future competencies, and putting plans in place to develop competencies, often with external partners.