In this smartbits video “” Zulfikar Deen

( In this SmartBits, Zulfikar Deen outlines  “  Management expectations of CIO & IT team “. The video is at the end of this blog)

Whether the end-user organization is small or large, the challenges remain the same for both of them. For a large multinational multi-billioncorporation, or a smaller organization challenges are very similar. They could be related to security, adoption, consumer understanding, delivery, timeline or quality.

The difficulty for a smaller organization is that IT team is much smaller, not an army of people. They do not have a huge budget to ensure the same challenges are tackled better. With small and shoestring budgets, it is difficult to bring in newer technology and solutions into operations. Not having an appropriate budget is an important challenge, but that doesn’t mean that they will be left far behind. They still have to adapt, invent and have to move at the same speed.

The next challenge is that business leaders come across sound bites (for example Blockchain) from meetings they attend and are keen to implement. Our role is to ensure they distill it correctly and make sure they are used appropriately in context to the business, in relation to the readiness of the systems and ensure they don’t fall too far behind.

Another aspect to be looked at, is the level of board and the top management  CXO organization’s ability to look at technology. Often, CXO’s would neither be a risk-taking forerunner nor they want to lag behind. We need to understand what level of comfort the management has and then we need to play along with that. One needs to watch for a technology shaping up and as soon as it is ready for usage in the system they should start putting it in place.

Summary
This article is about views on quality from CIOs curated from a list of interesting articles. It is felt that solution quality is one of the Top-3 challenge doing DevOps adoption with reducing technical debt as a key focus area for 2019. Some of the interesting views from CIOs are “there’s no way you can satisfy the demands of digital transformation without DevOps, Continuous Testing”, “address testing and ensure it advances your digital transformation initiatives rather than holds them back”, “can’t risk disrupting frequent deployment,  this is where Continuous Testing comes in.”

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Quality of solutions is a challenge during DevOps adoption
Based on Gartner’s 2019 DevOps Survey, ensuring the quality of solutions is among the top 3 challenges encountered during the adoption of DevOps. According to them,application leaders guiding a digital transformation initiative must make continuous quality the technical, organizational and cultural foundation of their strategy.

Many organizations are on a journey with DevOps, practicing continuous development and continuous deployment, yet a continuous approach to quality is often missing. Basic functional quality goals, is not sufficient to satisfy the quality expectations of the users, the business or the market. The growing pervasiveness of mobile, web, cloud and social computing scenarios has raised end users’ expectations for application quality. The notion of what constitutes superior quality has become much broader and includes overall user experience, quality of service (QoS), availability and performance, as well as security and privacy. It is no longer sufficient that the application just works. It must provide an optimised experience that leaves the user wanting to engage more and interact again. 

(Ref: https://www.cio.com/article/3411568/transforming-software-testing-for-digital-transformation-it-leaders-can-t-afford-to-wait.html)

Reducing technical debt needs increasing focus
When CIO.com asked CIOs “What are your top priorities for 2019?”, reducing Tech debt was 2nd most popular response. CIOs say reducing technical debt needs increasing focus. It isn’t wasting money. It’s about replacing brittle, monolithic systems with more secure, fluid, customizable systems. CIOs stress there is ROI in less maintenance labor, fewer incursions, and easier change. (Ref: https://www.cio.com/article/3329741/top-priorities-for-cios-in-2019.html)

CIO’s views on Digital Transformation
Here are some views from CIO on Digital Transformation, consumer expectations, and hence the changing expectations from testing.

Rajeev Ravindran, SVP & CIO, Ryder System, Inc.
“Oftentimes, when people talk about digital transformation, they are really talking about technology. For me, taking the company “digital” is both about technology and a mindset shift. As a part of this mindset shift, we are moving from an applications-focused environment to a product-focused environment. In our new model, we look at every application as a product that has a life cycle determined by a product owner, who is typically in a business function other than IT.”

“In IT, we are moving from a linear thinking perspective to design thinking, and we are moving from waterfall to iterative. The goal of these changes is to create a customer-centric culture, whether those customers are internal or external to Ryder. The customer centric culture along with a product mindset will help with operational efficiency and revenue growth.” (Ref: https://www.idgconnect.com/interviews/1502117/cio-spotlight-rajeev-ravindran-ryder)

Andy Walter (Procter and Gamble)
“I think Continuous Testing is going to be core to companies being able to dynamically evolve their structures, their M and A, joint ventures, all these types of areas. While we were doing the Cody divestiture, we started a covert project of “how are companies going to be structured in the future?” And there’s no way you can satisfy the demands of digital transformation without DevOps, Continuous Testing, and the speed and agility they enable.” 
(Ref: https://www.itproportal.com/features/cios-share-why-software-testing-matters/)

Jennifer Sepull (USAA, Kimberly Clark, American Honda)
“I think the beauty of creating a DevOps model is that you have a powerful team that is empowered to really connect with the consumer. When those teams come together in that powerful way, and they own the entire end-to-end process, there’s opportunities for innovation. Application development and testing are absolutely critical to making sure that those innovations, or that connection with the consumer, can happen.” This means that you have to address testing and ensure it advances your digital transformation initiatives rather than holds them back.” 
(Ref: https://www.itproportal.com/features/cios-share-why-software-testing-matters/)

Robert Webb (Etihad)
“.. I know that software testers can make the CIO’s survival rate higher—but they can make the company more profitable, make it safer, and help it grow faster. If they make your testing faster and get your new apps out there, you can be more competitive. And if they can do that while lowering costs, that’s remarkable..” “..Transforming testing is pivotal for accelerating how software is digitising the business.” 
(Ref: https://www.itproportal.com/features/cios-share-why-software-testing-matters/)

Vittorio Cretella (Mars)
“We have to really understand how the user is reacting and how to achieve this optimal customer experience..”  “.. To accomplish this, we need constant deployment. But we also have to ensure that deploying functionality daily or hourly always improves the user experience. We can’t risk disrupting it—so this is where Continuous Testing comes in.” 
(Ref: https://www.itproportal.com/features/cios-share-why-software-testing-matters/)

Andreas Kranabitl (SPAR ICS)
“..I believe that the most important element in digital transformation is people. We cannot have people spending their time on software testing tasks that can and should be automated. There is much higher-level work to do. We need future-oriented staff, and we can’t afford to make them suffer by asking them to do needless manual testing.” 
(Ref: https://www.itproportal.com/features/cios-share-why-software-testing-matters/)

Robert Webb ( Etihad Aviation Group)
“..Can you make my testing faster and get my new apps out there so I can be more competitive? Can you do that in a way that makes testing more automated and safer, and can you do that while you’re lowering costs? This is something that is very, very unique, and I think we all have a wonderful opportunity to be part of this revolution..” (Ref: https://www.tricentis.com/blog/digital-imperative-software-transformation-cio/)

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