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Agile is best for digital transformation

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Cape Town, 27 Sept 2016
To reduce complexity in legacy businesses, CIOs need to embrace an Agile philosophy, says Gartner's Andy Kyte.
To reduce complexity in legacy businesses, CIOs need to embrace an Agile philosophy, says Gartner's Andy Kyte.

Agile development methodologies help CIOs to deliver innovation, differentiation and a digital business.

Andy Kyte, VP and Gartner fellow, speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016 in Cape Town this morning, told CIOs to embrace Agile development because they can get into the space of delivering change quickly.

Agile development is a software development methodology, he said. "Agile should not be used to customise SAP software or customise CRM systems. You [CIOs] embrace Agile to deliver small simple software objects that consume services of the big old stuff that you still need to keep around."

According to Kyte, if CIOs increase the complexity of their environments, change is going to take longer and they will be less agile.

"Complexity is the root cause of high costs of operation; it is the root cause of high cost of maintenance and root cause of high cost support and change. Complexity is not good for you."

Kyte advised CIOs to reduce complexity by minimising the number of silo decisions and adopting Agile development methodologies for their businesses.

He noted that the digital business doesn't come in a box. "Digital is about a business' unique set of digitalised capabilities like interacting with employees, customers and with suppliers. It's all about how you digitalise all the connections and that can't be bought.

"If you want to be a digital business you have to embrace a development methodology other than the waterfall model and the clear favourite is Agile development, in terms of the number of people making very good progress with it."

Kyte listed 10 recommendations that CIOs can follow to embrace Agile development within the IT system:

  • * Agile development is not one thing; CIOs must get an Agile manifesto.
  • * Agile is not a pick-and-mix methodology ?the core deliverable is something called a user story. Agile must be done by the book.
  • * Embracing Agile is a joint business /IT activity - it can't be run without training and the end-users in the business. It has continuous learning curves.
  • * With Agile, you walk before you run and have to keep learning.
  • * Embracing Agile is embracing continuous learning.
  • * Agile is about teams - and teams of teams. What makes Agile methodologies so strong is that they are flexible and constantly moving around.
  • * Agile demands ruthless refactoring of technical debt.
  • * Buying Agile development services is a "whole new ball game" - CIOs must work with small boutiques that have developed Agile services.
  • * The impact of Agile goes well beyond software development to transform capabilities.
  • * Other software development methodologies still have a place in your portfolio.

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