Get on the AAA train (Automation, Agile & AI)
I see you out there, product owners; you scrum masters and business owners, planning your iterations and incrementing your programs.
Just a few years ago you were a business analyst, dev lead, QA tester, or maybe a product manager and now you’re thinking, “Holy crap, what is going on”?
Everything’s changed in a flash and the news is that even more’s coming down the pike.
The synthesis of the three A’s - Automation, Agile, and AI - is what’s happening, and careers will be made by those who get on top of them before everything in your world (including yourself) becomes obsolete.
Automation:
Like me, if you’ve been around a while you probably got your first introduction to the concept of automation through a scripting tool for QA testing software, performance testing tools, or the scripting of basic tasks via the Windows OS.
A quick survey of the landscape reveals the many specialized forms of automation that are now critical to the performance of the modern computer system and network…
· Provisioning and Deployment
· Configuration Management
· Monitoring and Alerting
· Data Management
· User Management
· Workflow Automation
· QA-Dev-Agile Testing
· DevOps
….to name but a few.
These automation capabilities help improve efficiency, reduce errors, and free up IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks.
The point is that tools and functionality have advanced enough that everyone in your organization can probably automate something in their daily routine, something that right now waits and waits on a human being to organize, push through to completion, or investigate before it’s allowed to move on to the next stage.
If you’re not automating, you’re failing to maximize productivity and falling behind the competition.
By the same token, don’t just react and automate the bejeezus out of everything. Have a plan, analyze the possibilities, capture the low hanging fruit, then reiterate.
Agile:
What Agile did, more than anything else, was free projects from the prevailing mindset that had dominated project planning (esp. computers and software) in the post-WWII era.
Then, computer software was like building the Pyramids with large chunks of stone that, although produced engineering marvels that stand the test of time, was time-consuming.
When fierce competition on an international level caused the collapse of project timelines, megalithic software building was too inefficient on a cost and productivity basis.
Development time once counted in months, if not years, became weeks, while simultaneously costs for talent, materials, and logistics ballooned. Waterfall was out, and different dev lifecycle models came and went. The fusion of the Internet with modern, OOO programming languages, was the ignition giving birth to a new system of doing business that caught on from Silicon Valley.
Inevitably, development moved on from the ‘move fast and break things’ mantra. When the winners of the Dotcom era (and their successors) emerged, they could no longer afford to have Production go down, but a way was needed to keep the momentum going. A framework that described the essence of the development process, while also keeping the natural, human inclination towards bureaucracy (and interference) at bay.
That framework was Agile. And while Agile purists may not accept or recognize the many variants being shopped today, they are a reflection of the maturation of the modern development process. It’s inevitable that as the Agile methodology was adopted across industries and disciplines, it too would evolve, but the broad philosophy is still there.
Artificial Intelligence (AI):
The story of AI has yet to be fully written. It’s still early days, and the initial rollout could rightfully be accused of being part parlor trick and part traveling roadshow. The land rush is on, and just like any other speculative opportunity, it’s filled with truth-seekers, zealots, and schemers.
It may surprise you to hear me say that it’s still early innings, and the shape of the AI landscape in two or five years will certainly not look the same as it does now.
There are two historically similar IT events in living memory to draw upon for experience to see where AI may possibly be heading next: Dotcom or Blockchain.
AI 1.0 can be compared with both but only one (the dotcom era) has achieved true ignition, spawning an entirely new universe of possibilities, creating new technologies, creating jobs, and powering the modern partnerships of nations and corporations, while the other (Blockchain) is still on the launchpad, looking to spawn its own multiverse of practical applications.
Which direction will AI head? Here’s a clue. AI models, as flawed as they are (and they are all flawed), and as much as they are filled with nonsense responses and ‘hallucinations’, racism, stolen IP and controversy, AI is already bearing results. It’s being deployed in a wide variety of applications, industries, and human situations that were not to be imagined just twelve months ago.
Will it replace people in jobs? I suspect not, no more than QuickBooks replaced accountants.
Instead, AI will be a vital tool to assist and enrich modern life and work, probably as much a bane as a blessing as anything else we care to name. It will become a vital tool for contemporary living and working; the latest addition to what needs to be in your technology stack.
And if you can’t imagine where you could possibly utilize AI or how to incorporate all three A’s into your operation, then you’re either not trying hard enough, or your replacement is being hired as I type this out.
Your choice.
Would love to hear what you think, let me know in the comments!
Have a plan. Know who to call and, if you want to know what we know, get in touch.
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