On Frankenarchitecture, DevOps, Strategic IT, and the Culture of Digital Transformation

I've received some smart and interesting feedback on my blog posts via LinkedIn. So this week, I'd like to share some of that feedback.

On Frankenarchitecture

I posted on 12 warning signs of bad application architecture and received some good suggestions to add to this list:

Yes, spot on and there are certainly more. Some of my favorite are:

- Customize COTS so much that upgrades become impossible
- Day 2 application support team is simply conduit to escalate issues to development
- Emergence of Shadow IT to support, maintain or to provide reports, data correction, etc. and suppress escalations
- Trying to fit a square peg in round hole - Teams/Architects choosing technologies based on comfort and/or love for the new shiny object than what's right -- Sagar Bhujbal

and a couple more

To add :

- Trying to fit older/obsolete/non flexible tools due to love or personal likings .
- Attempting a Big Bang and hence screwing the architecture and fit. -- Shikhar Mathur

Recommendations for Devops CI/CD

I've done several posts at InfoWorld on DevOps and CI/CD and added one post here on 5 Recommendations on Implementing DevOps CI/CD Pipelines. While many organizations are focused on the automation and collaboration enabled by CI/CD, many experts are suggesting to put the Sec and QA into the practice. Some would rather see DevSecOps or DevQOps.

Yeah, love that security is being built in at all stages, not just at the end -- Mark Miller

and

I'd like to draw more attention to #2 [continuous testing]. It is so important to gain visibility into ci/cd pipelines before deploying them and being able to continuously monitor them in real time! thank you for recognizing this as an important step. -- Maxwell Kaplan

On getting CXOs to view IT strategically

It's not easy to get CXOs in legacy businesses to view IT more than a cost center or just running the business' back office systems. My post, 3 ways CIOs can change the CEO’s perception of IT from cost center to strategic provides some advice to IT leaders struggling with this issue. Here are some more suggestions:

1. Forge partnerships with LOB executives and contribute to their business planning activities (e.g., suggest augmented products with a technology component). Having profit-centers singing IT's praises does wonders for the CEO perception.
2. Work with the CFO to fix the IT budget process: stop thinking of the IT budget as 'x% of sales' or 'last year +/- 'x' %' or whatever ratio-driven number is traditionally used, and make it a business-case-driven, business-unit-owned ROI discussion (Like non-IT capital Committee 'decision packages' have long been). -- Wayne Sadin

Digital transformation's summer program

Lastly, my recent post on culture covers some advice for digital transformation leaders that are looking to take the stress out  of their programs. I wrote 5 Things Digital Transformation Leaders Should do this Summer and love this additional advice!

Yes!! Cultivate the culture first.

Or maybe read your book first and give something to talk about on the road trip.  Take a train, limo, or cruise and leave the driving to someone else.
On the road trip, give it a destination, like participating in a conference to see what other companies are doing and discovering possible solutions to emerging business problems   -- James "Keith" Plemmons