October 05, 2016

Github’s Phil Haack on Moving from Engineering to Management

It’s important to be able to take an evidential approach to identifying the practices and approaches that work for collaborative outcomes, however there is not a lot of research in these areas. Take what research we do have and try it out – does it really work or is it just “conventional wisdom” that may not actually apply in the development space?  ... Sane Development Practices: techniques like setting up a build environment that just works – download the project and hit F5 to have it build without having to configure many different things before you can even do the simplest activity. If you clone a repository there should only be a couple of steps needed to have it running on your machine. ... Having things like automated builds and continuous integration are about helping developers maintain their sanity.


Beyond Dashboards – Predictive Analytics and Decision Management

The first and most obvious benefit provided by the combination of decision management and predictive analytics is the collaboration inherently resulting from the former. No longer are we dependent on the mad data scientist in a white lab coat! Now every concerned group – business analyst, IT, business owner and the data scientists can all view, understand and work with the same information. This removes the ubiquitous black box and enables truly effective data governance. But let’s face it – what we really want most of all is to create something actionable from all that data. We know more and more of it will be coming in real time. By beginning to incorporate additional elements of decision management while collaborating across all stakeholders, we can create (or significantly enhance) the ability to:


Malaysia and Singapore face IT talent shortage

Randstad’s ranking of the most popular tech jobs in Singapore shows cyber security and technology risk professionals being in highest demand, with the potential to earn S$120,000 (£69,000) to S$240,000 a year. Project management and business analysts are ranked next highest. Their functional knowledge and in-depth technical know-how are in demand as organisations seek to become more lean and cost-effective. Randstad ranked application developers as third most in demand, due to Singapore being an attractive hub for companies setting up centres of excellence. Demand for experienced developers exceeds supply in the country due to a lack of experienced developers and an influx of startups.


The Data Science Hierarchy of Needs

The urgency to establish a big data strategy propels companies into the third step of diving into infrastructure without a clear directive. You start with installing Hadoop, maybe some Kerberos and SSO for security, even a NoSQL Database just for fun. However, if you start with the business problem, you may find that you don’t need any new infrastructure or complex machine learning at all. A good rule of thumb is to employ the YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It) principle from agile programming. Start by doing the simplest thing that could possibly work. A lot of problems can be solved by smart people armed with modest data and tools designed with the business in mind, before ever requiring a big data infrastructure.


7 ways DevOps benefits security programs

Organizational culture and its processes and technology are evolving at a pace we have never experienced before. As a result, we can’t just sit back and wait for the “DevOps fad” to fade away because it isn’t going to. It’s not a fad – it’s an evolved way of software development. Furthermore, security cannot be the elephant in the room that everyone avoids because it gets too complicated. Security must evolve, as well, segueing into SecDevOps. Many organizations are regularly pushing out tens if not hundreds of releases and updates on a daily basis. With help and guidance from the security team, organizations can push secure releases on the first try and save lots of money and time along the way. Checkmarx explains why DevOps can end up being a major benefit to security.


2016 State of Digital Transformation

When everyone and everything is connected to the Internet, companies must leverage information and digital technologies including cloud computing, mobile, social, Internet of Things (IoT) and AI to transform how they connect with customers in a whole new way. Per Gartner, 89% of marketers expect to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience. Customer experience is a top priority and managed as a team sport. Digital business transformation will require an experimental and technology-led mindset that must be inclusive of the entire business - marketing, sales, services, IT, R&D and customer and partner communities. How can companies today leveraging technology to drive digital business transformation?


Google Home: What it does and when you can get one

Google Home has a built-in edge when it's time to ask the speaker a question...Google Assistant. Take the speaker's My Day feature. Tell Google Home "Good morning," and it will launch in with today's weather and information about your commute. It will also tell you about upcoming appointments you've got scheduled for the day and list any reminders...Google Assistant is pulling all this information from your Gmail, calendar and other Google Maps. ... Google Home...will go on sale Nov. 4 for $129...The purchase price also comes with a free six-month trial of YouTube Red, an ad-free version of the video sharing service. ... Google Home is coming to the U.S. only at first, and will be sold in the online Google Play Store...Target, Walmart and Best Buy; Google starts taking preorders Tuesday.


How today’s CIOs are getting sales cycles ‘Back in Black’

"The job of a CIO has changed," said Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta, whose company helps sales organizations deliver customer success through big data. "Server design has been replaced with service delivery." As CIOs are now accountable to business users, they demand results — not products — from their vendors. Modern CIOs are asking vendors about their business process — often called their "customer success" process — to ensure that they are achieving their desired outcomes from the business relationships. "It's all about the outcome," Mehta said. To accomplish this, vendors need to get business users and CIOs talking to one another to make sure it's a good fit for everyone.


Putting the pieces together: The intersection of strategy and agility

Generally speaking, strategic responsiveness increases with the frequency of corporate strategic-planning activities. Most of the survey respondents use an annual planning cycle. However, organizations that conduct either continuous or annual planning with quarterly rolling plans have the highest level of strategic responsiveness. Though ongoing corporate planning has the highest level of strategic responsiveness, there is negligible improvement between ongoing planning and using an annual planning with quarterly rolling plans. Organizations that use an annual planning cycle with quarterly rolling plans have the ability to balance long- and short-term goals and ensure a structured method to review changes in the external business environment and incorporate them in the strategy as needed


By 2020, your Wi-Fi-connected car will pay for parking, gas

"Connected vehicles will streamline many of the processes currently in use in the businesses. For example, a rental car could be provisioned remotely, allowing the customer to pick it up and drop it off without having to go to an office," said James Hines, a research director at Gartner and the report's author. "They will also enable new modes of operation; for example, when combined with autonomous driving capability, connected vehicle technology will allow a customer to request a ride and a vehicle could be automatically dispatched to the customer’s location." Connected vehicles will improve access to EV charging by locating available stations and paying for charging services; they'll also be able to monitor the state of charge of the battery in the vehicle, Hines said.



Quote for the day:


"A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them." -- John C. Maxwell


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