GDPR, CCPA, and CPRA – Oh my!
Over the past few years, the world has seen the introduction of two major data protection regulations: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The GDPR, which affects the European Union, has been in effect since May 2018, which is nearly two and a half years. The CCPA went into … continue reading
premium 3 keys to planning a successful product
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, hearing people talk about the “new normal” has become, well, the new normal. Much has been upended to say the least—and some shifts are extremely relevant to the product development realm. For instance, I predict it will become the “new normal” for restaurants to have their own products … continue reading
What user and market data tell us about the challenges of test coverage today
I am frequently asked this question: “On what devices and browsers should I be testing my mobile and web applications?” It’s a very valid question, because the volume of permutations is vast, and it gets bigger and more fragmented all the time. In 2020 alone we are seeing several major OS platforms debut. These introduce … continue reading
Use Emotional Intelligence before Artificial Intelligence
Process change is more about people than process. At least until processes can be fully automated. During the past decade, I have championed technology-led process improvement initiatives at over a dozen large companies. I have seen process improvement implemented successfully primarily when such initiatives were pursued with a healthy mix of technology and human understanding … continue reading
Guest View: The de-evolution of software testing
Software testing is nearing the end of its Cretaceous period. Personally, I invite the proverbial asteroid to advance its destructive approach so the practice of software testing can continue down its much-needed evolutionary journey. Don’t get me wrong, software testing has not been totally stagnant; it did evolve during its Cretaceous period. The most significant … continue reading
premium Scrum and SAFe: Four tips for Scrum masters
As Agile software development continues to take hold across all industries, along with DevOps practices and tooling, refining the delivery of products and services is increasingly the focus for many firms. Ensuring business goals and customer requirements are being met is key to software delivery. This requires detailed planning and organization of all teams working … continue reading
What value stream management isn’t
There are a few definitions of “value stream management” floating around out there. Most seem pretty good, but they are necessarily very broad and maybe vague. That’s because value stream management is a very broad concept. Given the hype around these 3 words, and how it’s often shortened to 2 words, there is a lot … continue reading
Guest View: Data-driven software development — cloud-native, open source, and collaborative
Data is more available than ever before, and copious amounts of new data are collected every day. But if there’s one major impediment to helping organizations unlock the full value of their data, it’s the fact that data hasn’t truly been democratized. In large part, data is simply not accessible for far too many professionals … continue reading
premium In the wake of COVID-19, the offshoring model must change
With a market greater than US$50 billion in India alone, there is no denying the offshoring model works. It helps companies test, develop and bring digital products – like many of the gadgets, apps and technologies we use today – to market in a relatively cost-effective manner. That said, it’s no secret that the COVID-19 … continue reading
premium User feedback can be found in unlikely places
In 2013, customer experience firm Walker released a report in which it predicted that by 2020, user experience would be the key differentiator for brands, and price and product would become less important to users when choosing among different digital services. Well, 2020 is here, and that prediction seems to have been pretty accurate. In … continue reading
Skills that matter for software developers looking to get hired
The world may seem like it is on pause as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but technology is still advancing and the skills gap between talent and job requirements is widening. Microsoft estimates that there will be 149 million new technology jobs by 2025. There will be 1 million new jobs for privacy and trust, 6 … continue reading
premium Don’t throw away that throwaway code
Want to quickly know how good a project manager is? Here is an old consultant’s trick: Ask a programmer on the team how much throwaway code he or she used during the last project. A good 80/20 rule is the more throwaway code used during development, the better the project manager. Throwaway code refers to … continue reading
It’s critical to keep your open-source components up to date and secure
The recently released 2020 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report, produced by the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC), found that of more than 1,250 codebases analyzed in 2019, not only did virtually 100% have some open-source components, but also that an average of 70% of the code was open source, nearly double the … continue reading
premium Application stability: The missing link in next-gen app deployment
It’s a new age for software development, defined by the rise of mobile applications and iterative development releases. Today’s fast-paced development environment doesn’t slow down for anyone. If monitoring tools don’t work to promote speed and agility for the teams using them, then new solutions must be found. As a result of this mindset, mature … continue reading
Contact tracing apps need to establish trust to be effective
As the world tries to fight the coronavirus pandemic, contact tracing is a key practice for preventing outbreaks. Contact tracing is the method of contacting every person an infected person might have had close contact with and getting them tested so they don’t go out and unknowingly spread the virus. While much of this tracing … continue reading
premium Feature experimentation: Walk before you run
Software innovation doesn’t happen without taking risks along the way. But risks can be scary for businesses afraid of making mistakes. There is another way, according to Jon Noronha, senior vice president of product at Optimizely, a progressive delivery and experimentation platform provider. Feature experimentation, he said, allows businesses to go to market quicker while … continue reading
premium Why accessible experiments matter
For software development teams, moving fast is key. But so is the confidence that you’re building the right thing in the first place. To reduce uncertainty, product and engineering teams are running more experiments across websites, apps, and every level of the stack to gain valuable data and real user feedback, enabling them to deliver … continue reading
Jamstack brings front-end development back into focus
Businesses that want to attract, engage and retain more online customers need to provide an exceptional front-end solution. It’s the first thing users see when they come to a website, and it’s the first impression digital businesses can give. Traditionally, when front ends are coupled with the back end, developers have to be full-stack experts … continue reading
Forrester’s recommendations for building a successful continuous testing capability
Organizations are moving to continuous testing (CT) out of necessity because business competitiveness demands faster release cycles. In fact, teams can’t deliver on the promises of DevOps and CI/CD if testing isn’t part of continuous processes and the pipeline. Forrester Research VP and principal analyst Diego Lo Giudice and some of his colleagues, recently published … continue reading
Continuous testing isn’t optional anymore
DevOps and CI/CD practices are maturing as organizations continue to shrink application delivery cycles. A common obstacle to meeting time-to-market goals is testing, either because it has not yet been integrated throughout the SDLC or certain types of testing are still being done late in the SDLC, such as performance testing and security testing. Forrester … continue reading
premium Microservices and APIs: The path to agility
It’s often been said that digital transformation is not a destination, but a journey. In the past, that journey was fraught with complications and the risk of downtime as legacy systems were retired and replaced. Today, however, steering legacy systems into the digital age has been made simpler through the introduction of microservices and APIs. … continue reading
premium How to create a community of developers
When the Kotlin project began 10 years ago, we never imagined it would grow into what it is now. While Kotlin began with internal ambitions, it was a vibrant, thriving community that took the project to the next level. JetBrains, which dog foods all of its own products, wanted a programming language to use when … continue reading
The four stages of the cloud data journey
Where is your organization on the cloud data journey? Most businesses are steadily moving toward the cloud, with most businesses planning to migrate to the cloud or expand their cloud presence in the next few years. There are four stages of the end-to-end journey: cloud discovery, cloud data migration, cloud data maturity, and cloud data … continue reading
premium Hiring in a remote-first world
After over two months of lockdowns due to the novel coronavirus, many states have started or are about to start the process of reopening. While some things will be opening up, many companies, especially those in the tech industry where remote work can be easily achieved, will continue to keep their employees out of the … continue reading
Observability: It’s all about the data
Observability is the latest evolution of application performance monitoring, enabling organizations to get a view into CI/CD pipelines, microservices, Kubernetes, edge devices and cloud and network performance, among other systems. While being able to have this view is important, handling all the data these systems throw off can be a huge challenge for organizations. In … continue reading
premium The most important factor in project success? Your staff
Go to any IT conference or class and you see the attendees chatting with each other about their organization’s hardware, software, and networks. But you almost never hear them talk about their staff. What is surprising about this is that study after study has shown that, of all of IT’s assets, staff is the most … continue reading
New capabilities in Microsoft Teams improve remote workforce productivity
As we face the global pandemic that is among us, businesses and organizations have of course accelerated their remote work and collaboration efforts. One of those ways to communicate, collaborate and connect seamlessly as a team is with Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams recently celebrated its third anniversary and in doing so, released some new, innovative … continue reading
premium Why software delivery management matters
Software delivery has come a long way in the last 10 years. Many organizations have scrapped the restrictive waterfall model in favor of collaborative approaches that enable them to build faster, change features midstream and deliver updates continuously. But today’s delivery processes aren’t as efficient as they could be. They’re still fraught with bottlenecks, mistakes … continue reading
