When it comes to staying up-to-date with emerging technologies, what initiatives or best practices should software teams implement to monitor, evaluate, and incorporate relevant advancements into their development processes?
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One specific aspect we focus on is developer happiness. We measure openness to adopt new technologies, openness to innovation, and flexibility for developers to bring in new tools and solutions. We also consider how resistant or rigid the system is when people recommend these solutions. Another aspect, which some teams see as an anti-pattern for innovation, is documentation. Any idea that comes up, we push for it to be documented so it doesn't remain with one person and get stuck at that phase. We push for sharing, any presentation is first documented and then presented, which retains some knowledge beyond the person who's talking about it.
One of the things we use heavily is Slack. We have Slack channels for new things that are out there. When you start to post a new link or idea, everyone comments on it. We also have a cloud governance group to vet new technologies before they're introduced into our environment. There's so much that comes out every day right now that you have to be careful about what you're introducing.
A lot of this comes down to measuring before you start any new efforts. Establish a functional baseline first, so when you're evaluating the impact of new tech on your team and delivery, you have a base of how you're currently doing. This way, you can measure the metrics - maybe a new technology increases productivity or maybe it impacts bug count or code coverage. Different technical wins come in different areas and they might not bleed over into all areas. My main advice is to measure things early so you can see the impact, rather than guessing.
Adding to what John wrote, we look at three things when evaluating emerging tech. First is client focus - how is it going to help clients and create an intelligent experience. Second is speed to market - how can we use these tools to improve that aspect and drive automation. Third is cultural perspective - how does the new tech fit into our culture and our processes. We also consider if it's helping employees manage their work-life balance. We measure these factors using employee satisfaction surveys and other tools. It's all about metrics and what matters to each business.<br><br>
I love to have teams truly leverage their dedicated time during sprints for innovation and exploring emerging technologies. Too often this time gets stolen for LODO and BAU work and when that happens the impacts are far reaching. I encourage our engineering, design and product teams to work together because often the emerging tech has a product benefit that can align our goals and make the push for adoption that much easier.