We are accustomed in our area of technology to have news all the time.
From new software development platforms to new devices that will revolutionize human interaction with technology. But what we have most noticed lately is that these changes that appear all the time have accelerated!
In the software development world, since the emergence of the Lean Startup concepts introduced in 2011 by Eric Ries, the way software is developed has changed. We know that the book was not geared towards software development (it was geared towards Startups and the lean "movement") and we also know that the lean concept does not come from it (it's a more than secular concept [2] and [3]) , but due to Eric Ries' programmer background, he was very influential in the software world as well.
The "Agile Teams" and the agile and lean way of thinking have revolutionized the world, beginning with the Startups that design, develop, launch and validate their products at an unparalleled speed, going through to large corporations, which by definition are not agile but are working to be, there is no longer space to develop software the old way anymore.
Visionnaire and the "DevOps" Entry
At Visionnaire we have always been connected with what is most modern in technology (being a visionary in our name [4]), and in recent years we have changed our way of developing and delivering software, using agile process tools and supporting everything in the cloud, but we recently surrendered ourselves to the "DevOps" revolution.
For those who do not know, the term DevOps is the unification of Development with Operations. It had its origin in 2008 [5] and has since been used in several contexts. For those who are in the area of technology, and more specifically software development like us, we have always been accustomed to thinking that software development teams and systems operations teams (including infrastructure, support and maintenance) were separate teams. Even before, when referring to the two teams, we always used "versus" (as in development versus operations) rather than "and". In the past a team worked with one focus, and even did not like the work of the other team, and vice versa, and this was even a joke in one of the original lectures on the subject DevOps, presented by the Flickr engineers in 2009 [6]. But that has changed!
Today, software development and the delivery and operation of such software are highly integrated. In today's fast and agile times there is no more room for time-consuming software development processes that create bureaucratic points by making delivery time-consuming. Iteration and interaction with system users is mandatory, learning from mistakes, correcting quickly, is a rule.
Software Impacts on Company Results
Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim in their recent book Accelerate [7] argue that companies' ability to develop software positively affects profitability, productivity, and market share. That software development can be measured and delivered in a statistically significant way, making companies that adopt best practices in software get better results in their markets (these are called High Performance Companies).
The authors focused their research in five main areas where professional software development should be measured and optimized, which are: Continuous Delivery, Software Architecture, Product and Process, Lean Management and Monitoring, and Culture.
And it is not new that in the future all companies will be software companies [8], so the ability of organizations to develop and deliver software to their customers will make all the difference in their markets!
Business as usual is no longer enough to remain competitive in the market, companies from all sectors are modernizing and delivering better results to their customers. Is your company prepared for this transformation?
The Heart of Acceleration is Software
Visionnaire is a software company that has been working with innovative technologies for more than 22 years! We were born as a software factory in Brazil, and we continue as a software factory (based in Brazil, serving the whole world but with a Silicon Valley culture). What changed in these 22 years were the technologies, but the heart of the company remains the same, delivering quality and innovative software to our customers.
If you are thinking of transforming your business entering the modern digital world, talk to Visionnaire, we are ready to Accelerate your Business and assist you in the Digital Transformation of society.
Sergio Mainetti Jr. is Director and Co-Founder of Visionnaire.
Notes
[1] The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Eric Ries. https://www.amazon.com.br/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898
[2] A Brief History of (Just-In-) Time
http://www.strategosinc.com/just_in_time.htm
[3] The Origins and Evolution of Lean Management System
https://www.jois.eu/files/DekierV_5_N1.pdf
[4] Visionnaire - Visão, Missão e Valores
https://www.visionnaire.com.br/en/About-us-184-702.shtml
[5] DevOps - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
[6] Velocity 09 - 10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdOe18KhtT4
[7] Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim.
https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339
[8] No futuro toda Empresa será uma Empresa de Software
