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Tag: business leaders

  • LaunchNotes Adds Communications Tool for App Release

    LaunchNotes Adds Communications Tool for App Release

    LaunchNotes today launched a namesake software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for managing the communications surrounding the release of an application.

    Company co-founder Jake Brereton said LaunchNotes streamlines internal and external communications for DevOps teams, eliminating the need to employ a collaboration tool such as Slack or a project management application.

    Each message can be designated as either a private communication for the internal DevOps team or shared publicly with business shareholders. Instead of having to subscribe to yet another Slack channel, business stakeholders now have a dedicated and easier means to track the progress of application releases, said Brereton.

    Communications surrounding application releases have always been problematic. Most applications are developed using multiple platforms, so standardizing the communications tools provided by those platforms isn’t usually practical. LaunchNotes is designed to provide an easy way to manage communications regardless of the platform employed to build and deploy an application, Brereton said.

    DevOps teams can also post things such as articles that might, for example, explain the history of any given application development project, he added.

    Interest in application release timetables has never been higher. In the age of digital business, more organizations than ever have come to equate with revenue the rate at which applications are deployed and updated. However, it’s not always been easy for business leaders to decipher the release notes that DevOps team members routinely share with one another. LaunchNotes is meant to provide a means for DevOps teams to communicate privately with one another while creating a separate channel within the same platform to share frequent updates in plain language in real-time with other members of the organization.

    The issue with Slack and other communications platforms is they have become too noisy, noted Brereton. In the stream of updates being provided about things going on inside the organization and beyond, it can be easy to miss a critical update about an application release.

    LaunchNotes has been available through a private beta involving 60 organizations. The company views its platform as a complement to project management applications rather than a replacement. The sole focus is on streamlining DevOps communications, said Brereton.

    To one degree or another most DevOps teams suffer from a failure to communicate. Most of the time that failure is not because a message wasn’t shared; rather, the medium employed to deliver that message made it easy to miss or be misconstrued. If the medium is the proverbial message, then DevOps teams might be better off employing a medium designed specifically for optimizing application release cycles.

    Of course, many organizations will continue to employ the communications tools that are most readily available. However, those general-purpose communications platforms also make it easy for users to be distracted by everything from messages from human resources about the latest form to be filled out to who won the football pool this week.

  • Communicating with Management About Technical Debt

    Communicating with Management About Technical Debt

    We’re all familiar with the challenges of technical debt. While it’s often unavoidable–due to time constraints, resource considerations or simply a lack of good information–it still weighs on our minds and puts us on the defensive. It makes future changes that much more difficult. As it builds up, it generates that nagging sense of an unpaid bill that’s accumulated interest and is about to come due.

    But, perhaps, the most challenging aspect of technical debt is simply this: getting senior business leaders to understand what it is and convincing them to do something about it.

    There are many reasons we’re not getting through. Management is often under significant pressure to deliver results with little patience for discussing anything that doesn’t directly contribute to a specific outcome. Resources may be limited. It’s simply human nature to prefer short-term gratification–developing a new customer-facing app, for example–to the longer-term but behind-the-scenes benefit of paying down technical debt.

    If we’re honest, we also bear some responsibility for our lack of progress. We need to do a better job of clearly defining and explaining why technical debt should matter to business leaders. But, how do we do this?

    Here are five ways to explain and highlight the importance of addressing technical debt to key decision makers.

    Drop the Tech Talk

    When discussing technical debt, it’s easy to fall back on shop talk–i.e., explaining technical debt in IT terms. This is a battle that must be waged in business terms. Fortunately, there are many parallels between technical and financial debt that business leaders are familiar with.

    All healthy businesses carry financial debt on their books, and leaders know that debt must be kept within certain limits in order to maintain a healthy balance sheet. Indeed, they are acutely aware of the consequences of carrying too much debt. Not only does it endanger the company’s credit rating–making future borrowing more expensive–but it also accumulates interest and may force companies to curtail certain actions, such as paying dividends or buying back stock, that are important to shareholders. That’s why, when debt levels rise to a certain point, most companies bite the bullet and make a concerted effort to pay down debt before embarking on another business-building cycle.

    Outline the Potential Business Impact for Carrying too Much Technical Debt

    Technical debt must be kept within certain limits to avoid hurting the business. Unpaid technical debt generates interest that increases over time and adds to the cost of fixing the problem. Carrying too much technical debt leads to negative business (versus IT) consequences, including:

    • Lost sales and/or lower productivity due to system outages.
    • A loss of competitive advantage due to a progressively poorer user experience.
    • An inability to adapt to market changes.
    • Fines due to security breaches.
    • Poor decisions resulting from inconsistent or untimely data.

    Find Creative and Visual Ways to Tell the Story

    There are several different ways you can contextualize technical debt–from using everyday analogies, such as the importance of daily household upkeep, to the benefits of preventative maintenance, as in the classic Fram oil filter “pay me now or pay me later” commercials. You can also leverage compelling visuals like the one below to dramatize your arguments.

    Technical debt
    Source: Projectmanagement.com

    Rinse and Repeat

    In making your case to business leaders on the need to address technical debt, it’s important to adopt a campaign approach. Think like advertisers who measure their impact in terms of reach and frequency–how many people they reach and how many times those people are exposed to their message. While you’re not running an advertising campaign, you need to be prepared to make your case over time, and to reach both the decision makers and the people who influence the decision makers. One email, or one presentation to management, isn’t going to get your message across.

    Creating a Healthy IT Balance Sheet

    Technical debt is inevitable and, in some cases, makes sound business sense–i.e., when speed-to-market is critical, when resources are limited or information is incomplete. If technical debt reaches a certain level, it makes good business sense to forego immediate gratification projects (developing that shiny new app) in order to pay it down.

    That’s why framing technical debt in a manner that business leaders understand (i.e, through the lens of financial debt) can make business leaders more inclined to realize the importance of managing it, as they do other risks facing the business.

    Of course, responsible IT leaders not only surface issues that require management attention, they also offer potential solutions. For example, funding strategies to pay down technical debt, including ongoing efforts and small and large improvement projects.

    By treating technical debt as a business rather than a technical issue, technology officers stand a better chance of breaking through with management, paying down those nagging old debts and finally getting their IT balance sheets in order.