This Executive Update explores some tools and techniques that have been used to successfully deal with and manage a hidden culture.

Many technologies exist today that have the potential to change the manner in which we get work done. Currently, the software developer job is heavily labor-intensive. Yes, we use software tools to perform many of the repetitive tasks; however, for the most part, the programming job is performed by highly talented individuals who specify, design, code, and test complex pieces of code and make them work. We have attempted to automate such tasks, but we can best characterize current efforts as assistance (helping workers by providing guidance and information) rather than automation (replacing humans with machines). In this Executive Update, we identify 20 technologies that have the potential to alter this picture in both the near and long term. 

As part of an ongoing series on artificial intelligence (AI) in the enterprise, in this Executive Update, we turn specifically to AI development platform preferences, including open source and commercial providers’ development tools and AI-as-a-service platforms. 

About a decade ago, Cutter Consortium published my Executive Update series on the project-volatility metric, which examined the notion of project volatility and set forth the assumptions that underlie my own project-planning approach. The framework has grown tremendously. Thus, we are returning to this Update series with a revised Part II and a plethora of Updates to come.

Here in Part VIII, Robin Harwood has invited me to discuss the use of the ADF in a user experience/user journey context, relating some real-world business analysis experiences in its application.

This Executive Update discusses the merits of developing a continuous deployment process for software by combining Agile methods and DevOps. After first looking at the salient characteristics of both techniques, we examine 12 areas of change within the use of Agile methods when developing a continuous delivery and deployment chain. Finally, we discuss why bringing together Agile and DevOps — and the resultant continuous delivery and deployment chain — is truly worthwhile. (Not a client? Download your complimentary copy.)

As part of an ongoing series, in this Executive Update we examine the biggest adoption challenges to organizations’ efforts to utilize artificial intelligence (AI). These impediments include a lack of skilled AI experts, a lack of understanding and identifying use cases, the fact that AI is still an emerging technology, and more.

With twice the product in half the time™ being a generic goal for industry, what exactly is going wrong in today’s industrial environment? What stops or delays improvements in product delivery, despite embracing practices from Lean and Six Sigma? Why does it take years to get a new product out of the manufacturing plant? This Executive Update explores the “why” of these questions and deep-dives into the solution. 

Business architecture is valuable to all organizations, regardless of type or size. This Executive Update discusses how nonprofits and small organizations can leverage business architecture and articulates some considerations for architecting within these types of environments.

In this Executive Update, we explore why organizations need data democratization and how they can achieve it.

In Part VII, we continue to illustrate the concept of “assurance” for ADF artifacts and how it might be implemented using verification and validation. We make reference to a set of example artifacts and propose a more detailed assurance layer, which implements the ADF assurance view and reflects the ADF perspectives and views discussed thus far in this series.

The simple reason we cannot see (or perhaps refuse to see) a paradigm shift upon us is because we tend to look at the world through the old paradigm. So perhaps all we need to do to meet tomorrow’s problems is to stop using yesterday’s thinking. This Executive Update is a call for the acceptance of complexity and the introduction of interdisciplinary thinking to all aspects of life, starting with software engineering as the guinea pig. By seeking to understand complexity instead of hiding it, we can build better-quality software with less stress.

Value-stream mapping is a useful tool that forces tech teams to focus on activities that add the most value for the customer, rather than those that are recommended in some textbook, or that employ a hot new technology a senior person happens to want to learn, or that use a development method that will look good when reporting to the CIO. However, too often advocates of this laudable technique have been operating on long-discredited ideas of which economic activities “add value” and which ones do not.

Here, in Part VII, we continue examining industries and domains where organizations see AI having its most significant impact.

Line-of-business (LOB) applications are at the center of most large enterprises. These are the applications we don’t think about and we don’t appreciate, but they’re the glue that keeps an organization functioning. They are the boring applications that drive internal processes, but the more LOB apps an enterprise has, the more technology it employs and the more productive it is.

Much of the wisdom, books, academic papers, and so on, concerning Agile, focus at the team level. Yet an Agile transformation focuses on the adoption of Agile principles at the business or organizational level. Agile transformation, therefore, presents senior leaders with challenges they need to work out for themselves without such recommendations. The temptation is to reach out to their traditional business advisors; however, as this Executive Update illustrates, this may not be the optimal path.

Here in Part VI, we survey the ADF assurance view with its intent to apply an Agile, quality-control approach to ADF artifact development. All system and software developments have the potential to fail (i.e., they carry risk); assurance is an attempt to reduce or mitigate such risk.

Given the heightened cybersecurity environment, what should you provide in response to a board request for assurance that the company is perform­ing its fiduciary duty? What information should you provide to assure the board that it is appropriately protecting the company? This Executive Update proposes a five-section standard presentation template for the board. 

This Executive Update provides an overview of capability assessments and examines their use. It also provides some key tips to anchor the assessments in practicality so that you can begin using them within your organization.

Cutter Consortium is conducting a survey on how organizations are adopting, or planning to adopt, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. We also seek to identify important issues and other considerations they are encountering or foresee encountering in their efforts. In addition to gathering and analyzing survey data, I have been interviewing leaders and practitioners from different organizations implementing or working to implement AI appli­cations. Here, in Part VI, we jump right into where we left off and continue examining industries that AI is expected to disrupt.

This Executive Update attempts to clarify the disconnect between the “no project” Agile camp and project managers by exploring seven areas of software development. In addition, two case studies highlight the unique differences.

The difference between an organization that survives and thrives following an incident versus one that flounders can be summed up in one word: preparation. In this Executive Update, we outline a multipronged approach for best practice organizations that focuses on continuous process improvement.

In this Executive Update, we briefly revisit some earlier lifecycle development models and examine the historic move away from waterfall to DevOps via iterative/ incremental and Agile development approaches. In doing so, we push the Agile envelope a little further and consider some trends that affect business analysis and requirements specification and examine the implications of the Agile development framework for business analysts (BAs) when working within a DevOps regime.

In this Executive Update, we explore a promising breakthrough growth model that we have successfully applied in both B2C and B2B businesses. This model delivers major benefits in terms of speed, cost, and likelihood of success. It involves radical collaboration across the innovation ecosystem and covers the entire innovation process from idea to commercialization, including the strategic, commercial, operational, and technical aspects. We call this the Breakthrough Incubator (BI) model.

Value is the main interest in big data. Extraction of value from big data transcends both analytics and technologies. Value is highly dependent on the “context” in which data is analyzed and used. The Big Data Framework for Agile Business (BDFAB) is my comprehen­sive approach to big data adoption, which includes (among others) a module on business process modeling (BPM) and business analysis (BA). This module considers modeling and optimization of business processes as highly relevant and crucial in deriving value from big data.