Convergent Technologies

presented by Israel Gat, Director, Agile Product & Project Management Practice

About two thirds of the functions and features implemented in software are of no commercial value.¹ How did we get to this sorry state of affairs? The number one reason is the decoupling of fast-changing customer needs from the process by which software is produced.

Product managers the world over drive software production based on seat-of-the-pants instinct rather than through data-driven decisions. The unfortunate consequences of guessing are shocking: No other industry produces as much waste, incurs such tremendous costs of delay, or misses its business targets as often as the software industry does. Similar effects are experienced by companies that embed software in their products and those that use software aggressively in automating their business processes.

The confluence of Agile software methods, cloud computing, mobile applications, and social networking opens the opportunity for companies to drive their business and make decisions based on real-time customer feedback. Companies that take advantage of this convergence benefit from continuous value delivery in conjunction with continuous feedback. This kind of feedback leads to constant grooming of the product backlog, the product portfolio and the corresponding go-to-market strategies. The net effect is transformative. It is not so much the change in the way the software gets delivered that matters. Rather, it is the ability to outgun, outclass and outmaneuver the competition through real-time requirements management and superior business designs that makes a decisive difference in today's marketplace.

The Emerging (Agile, Cloud, Mobile, Social) Virtuous Cycle

With Cutter's Convergent Technologies strategic consulting workshop, our primary goal is to teach your C-level executives just how to elevate agility from the tactical arena to the strategic level, so your enterprise is the one doing the outmaneuvering. This one day workshop will teach your executive team how to continuously deliver value to your customers and earn a profit for your company. By the end of the workshop you will know how to:

• Design your business to take advantage of the hyper-segmentation of markets, value chains and technological capabilities

• Use Everything-as-a-Service to capitalize on the opportunities offered through such hyper-segmentation

• Utilize agility as your core strategic advantage

• Integrate your business processes with your software method(s) in a seamless manner

• Implement rolling product planning and portfolio management processes

• Configure your resources to balance demand and supply of knowledge work through Programming-as-a-Service.²

• Utilize the new economics of software production to dramatically change the cost structure of your company.

The Interplay of Strategy and Delivery

The Convergent Technologies workshop combines presentation with group exercises. Throughout the workshop, you and your executive team will be asked to refer to actual business situations you have encountered in the past couple of years. In addition, a case study of a specific business opportunity your company is currently contemplating, based on preparatory telephone interviews with the executive team, will be analyzed.

The pace dictated by today's markets leaves no time for your company to stage delivery after strategy. You need to combine strategy with delivery so that delivery can start before strategy is completed and delivery informs strategy through tight feedback loops. This "secret sauce" you and your executive team will explore in this workshop is nicely captured by Russ Daniels, Chief Technology Officer, HP Enterprise Services: "The real challenge, however, lies in how to go about solving problems when you don't understand them well enough to get to a viable solution ... when you don't have a clear enough understanding of the problem to create clear solutions, you have to iterate." It's just this challenge that you'll be prepared to overcome as a result of this workshop.

Cutter's Convergent Technologies workshop is customized to meet your specific needs. For details, contact your Cutter Account Executive at sales@cutter.com or +1 781 648 8700.

¹The Standish Group "Chaos" Report

²Programming-as-a-Service is distinct from Software-as-a-Service. The first term refers to the ability to create programs; the second, to the ability to use programs.