"agile development" entries

How to be agile with your big data

Agile methodology brings flexibility to the EDW and offers ways to integrate open-source technologies with existing systems.

Data analysis, like other pursuits, is a balancing act. The rise of big data ratchets up the pressure on the traditional enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and associated software tools to handle rapidly evolving sets of new demands posed by the business. Companies want their EDW systems to be more flexible and more user friendly — without sacrificing processing speeds, data integrity, or overall reliability.

“The more data you give the business, the more questions they will ask,” says José Carlos Eiras, who has served as CIO at Kraft Foods, Philip Morris, General Motors, and DHL. “When you have big data, you have a lot of different questions, and suddenly you need an enterprise data warehouse that is very flexible.”

EDWs are remarkably powerful, but it takes considerable expertise and creativity to modify them on the fly. Adding new capabilities to the EDW generally requires significant investments of time and money. You can develop your own tools internally or purchase them from a vendor, but either way, it’s a hard slog. Read more…

Burning the silos

The boundaries created by traditional management are just getting in the way of reducing product cycle times.

If I’ve seen any theme come up repeatedly over the past year, it’s getting product cycle times down. It’s not the sexiest or most interesting theme, but it’s everywhere: if it’s not on the front burner, it’s always simmering in the background.

Cutting product cycles to the bare minimum is one of the main themes of the Velocity Conference and the DevOps movement, where integration between developers and operations, along with practices like continuous deployment, allows web-native companies like Yahoo! to release upgrades to their web products many times a day. It’s no secret that many traditional enterprises are looking at this model, trying to determine what they can use or implement. Indeed, this is central to their long-term survival; companies as different from Facebook as GE and Ford are learning that they will need to become as agile and nimble as their web-native counterparts.

Integrating development and operations isn’t the only way to shorten product cycles. In his talk at Google IO, Braden Kowitz talked about shortening the design cycle: rather than build big, complete products that take a lot of time and money, start with something very simple and test it, then iterate quickly. This approach lets you generate and test lots of ideas, but be quick to throw away the ones that aren’t working. Rather than designing an Edsel, just to fail when the product is released, the shorter cycles that come from integrating product design with product development let you build iteratively, getting immediate feedback on what works and what doesn’t. To work like this, you need to break down the silos that separate engineers and designers; you need to integrate designers into the product team as early as possible, rather than at the last minute. Read more…

As transmedia publishing evolves, experimentation is the name of the game

Verane Pick on what's involved in a transmedia operation.

In this TOC podcast, Verane Pick talks about her work at Counter Intelligence Media. She also talks about gaming mechanisms and hints that gaming techniques may become an "engagement silo" in a future project.

Agile for real-world publishing

The first in a series looking at the major themes of this year's TOC conference.

Several overriding themes permeated this year's Tools of Change for Publishing conference. The first in a series reviewing five major themes, here we look at agile publishing, in terms of workflow, work environment and practical publishing applications.

With GOV.UK, British government redefines the online government platform

The U.K. moves from alpha.gov.uk to beta.

A new beta .gov website in Britain is scalable mobile-friendly, platform agnostic, uses HTML5, open source, hosted in the cloud and open for feedback. Those criteria collectively embody the default for how governments should approach their online efforts in the 21st century.

How agile methodologies can help publishers

Bookigee's Kristen McLean says agile techniques from the software world also apply to publishing.

Bookigee founder Kristen McLean explains how lightweight development, flexible teams and other agile methods can help publishers with content development and workflows.

BookRiff: A marketplace for curators

A startup looks to give curators an outlet while keeping content owners happy.

BookRiff CEO Rochelle Grayson explains how her company will open new distribution and revenue streams for curators and content owners.

What publishing can learn from tech startups

Todd Sattersten on how a startup mentality applies to the publishing world.

Author Todd Sattersten believes the publishing industry has a lot to learn from tech startups. Agile development, iteration and adaptation all have a place.