Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
How VSM can help make your IT Dreams Come True in 2022
By Neelan Choksi, president and
COO, Tasktop
It's that time of year when the business
world falls in love with predictions, every article you read seems to say,
"...may your new year IT dreams come true." So, in the spirit of the season, we
at Tasktop provide you the following three predictions to kick off the New
Year:
1 - In 2022, the last holdouts in every
industry will admit they are essentially a technology company but more
specifically, a software company. With that admission, businesses will fully
embrace the digital road as the only way forward. Just as mass production
defined the business landscape in the 20th century, large-scale
software delivery will define the business landscape in the 21st
century. For example, Value Stream Management has been heralded as one way to
achieve digital transformation because it provides a framework that determines
the value of software development and delivery efforts across business units.
The "value" comes in improving, managing and monitoring the software delivery
lifecycle from end-to-end, to reduce risk and achieve positive business
outcomes directly impacting customer outcomes (either internal or external).
2 - The "Great Resignation" will remain a
constant source of business disruption well into 2022 and beyond. Data has
shown that software developers are leading the movement. With job entry
barriers falling and tech debt continuing to pile up, developers are quitting
in droves in search of greener pastures. This will only further increase the
gap between the demand required for talented software professionals and the
actual supply. Short-sighted organizations will attempt to address this transactionally solely by bumping up compensation.
Organizations need to:
- combine compensation bumps with investments
in management and leadership capabilities (via upgrades and education) to
ensure the manager-employee relationship is as rich as can be;
- create flexible work environments
and arrangements that support today's modern worker; and maybe most importantly,
- drive employee engagement by
helping employees find meaning and purpose in the work they do and by ensuring
that they are valued.
The customer centricity and focus on
customer outcomes that are inherent in value stream management and the Ask Your
Developer mindset is especially important for software professionals
to find meaning and purpose.
3 - We started 2021 at the tail end of the
notorious SolarWinds hack and finished the year with the log4j vulnerability
that set the internet on fire in December. We learned from both events that a
zero-day vulnerability requires a tenacious focus on flow, and that flow often
has to extend beyond the four walls of your organization - all the way through
the entire software supply chain.
In 2022 and beyond, businesses will need the ability to respond quickly with
assessing threats quickly, potentially shutting services down, mitigation
strategies to get services running again and then delivering the actual fixes.
We don't know where the next security vulnerability is going to come from and
despite our best efforts, 1 out of 100 will slip through and software companies
(read: all companies) must be
prepared to respond effectively and with speed.
Value stream management will be an important practice to ensure response and
mitigation strategies are delivering timely outcomes. Organizations practicing
value stream management often shine in moments like this when stakes are the
highest, because they already are making all work visible (including security
and risk work), measuring speed and being conscious that value stream flow
forms the basis for how these organizations manage their software delivery.
These organizations are simply better prepared for crises and better suited to
respond.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neelan is president and COO of Tasktop and also serves as
a board member of the company. He leads corporate development and
corporate strategy activities for Tasktop. He also serves as a mentor at
the Capital Factory, as a director of the non-profit, TechGirlz, and as an
advisor to several startups around the world. He has extensive technology
management experience, serving as the COO of Lexcycle (acquired by Amazon), COO
of SpringSource (acquired by VMware), and President of SolarMetric (acquired by
BEA Systems). A graduate of MIT (and part of the well-publicized MIT Blackjack
team), Neelan holds graduate degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology and
the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Choksi has also managed
to wear an Aloha shirt every Friday for the past 11 years.