The headlong rush towards digital transformation continues ---IDC estimates that worldwide spending on digital transformation initiatives will reach nearly $2 trillion in 2020, growing at an annual compound growth rate of almost 17 percent.
Spending on digital transformation initiatives will reach nearly $2 trillion in 2020, according to IDC.
But much of that money might be mis-spent. Forrester found that more than half of all digital transformation efforts stalled in 2018. It reports, “Far too many were not ready — some due to a lack of organizational readiness; some because they underestimated the real work needed to overcome technical debt and poor data governance; some because the sound strategy was to invest in back-office technologies to drive efficiencies; some due to a lack of executive cohesion; and some due to the fear that it would interrupt or destroy quarterly performance.”
Digital transformation is often done via agile and DevOps development practices. But those practices often fall woefully short. A Gartner report, “Predicts 2019: Application Development in the Age of Digital Products,” warns “Through 2023, human rather than technical factors will cause 90% of agile/DevOps initiatives to miss expectations of higher customer value and faster product delivery.”
According to Gartner, human rather than technical factors will cause 90% of agile/DevOps initiatives to miss expectations of higher customer value and faster product delivery.
One of the key problems, the report notes, is that “The average application development organization is poorly prepared to address new digital design requirements as well as the associated user experience (UX) expectations.” In addition, companies frequently don’t use test automation and continuous testing practices.
It needn’t be that way. The report includes solid recommendations on how DevOps and agile development can be used properly to spur digital transformation. Overall, it says, companies need to set the right business expectations, and measure the success of projects in business value rather than in technical metrics. To do that, those in charge of development strategies should “Adapt to the ever-changing needs and expectations of customers and users by aligning business and IT around agile and DevOps.”
And it offers these three important pieces of advice that companies should follow:
- Ensure that the right digital products are being built by increasing in-house competencies in digital design.
- Transform the way digital products operate by embracing and promoting a new DigitalOps mindset supporting real-time optimization.
- Improve the success of digital products by instilling a “continuous quality” mentality across development and operations teams.
Aligning Business and IT Around Agile and DevOps
To get the most out of DevOps and agile development, enterprises are finding ways to empower business users with products that better capture business requirements and speed the development process. Alpha TransForm is one product ideal for the task because it helps business users craft online or offline mobile apps in minutes that utilize the latest mobile features (camera, GPS, bar code scanning, etc.)., but ensures agility and DevOps success by giving developers the power they need to quickly turn these "prototypes' into enterprise-grade apps with advanced integration and security capabilities. Alpha TransForm apps can then be modified and updated in minutes by business users, to quickly respond to business or field team needs. No other digital transformation product on the market can offer the speed of a mobile forms product and the power of a robust, low-code development platform - the ideal combination for agile and DevOps. Learn more about Alpha TransForm and try it free with sample apps for 30 days.
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