Random Thoughts from the Trenches

Software craft, leadership, estimation, and whatever else is on my mind.

12 articles in this theme

Automation's Critical Role in Driving Efficiency

Automation's Critical Role in Driving Efficiency

Last year in this space, we predicted that "the humanity of the enterprise will be at center stage." The pandemic certainly brought people front and center in ways nobody could have foreseen. COVID-19…

Five Ways to Keep Innovation Alive in Your 2021 IT Strategy

Five Ways to Keep Innovation Alive in Your 2021 IT Strategy

This year, the pandemic taught us the truth of old proverb “necessity is the mother of invention.” When companies had to close offices on short notice to control the spread of the virus, IT teams…

Welcome to the world of pervasive ERP

Welcome to the world of pervasive ERP

For decades now, users of enterprise resource planning software have been trained to believe that all the action must take place within the core of the system.

More than a feeling: why sentiment’s the missing link in professional services success

More than a feeling: why sentiment’s the missing link in professional services success

Accountability is critical in business. Professional services companies are held to high standards, and client expectations need to be met. But are the goals being measured for each project telling…

Do you have what it takes to be a successful self-disruptor?

Do you have what it takes to be a successful self-disruptor?

Entrepreneurs have disrupted nearly every industry, developing start-ups that transform the way business is done. Airbnb for example has changed the world of travel forever. Today, this company enjoys…

Hybrid Cloud Can Smooth the Digital Transformation Culture Shock

Hybrid Cloud Can Smooth the Digital Transformation Culture Shock

Digital transformation is a given across all industries in today's economy. If a business wants to succeed, it must focus on meeting customer demand through growing and evolving the customer…

Unit4 2019 Predictions: The Year Ahead for the ERP Market

Unit4 2019 Predictions: The Year Ahead for the ERP Market

As we transition from one year to another, it is customary to look back on the past year and begin to consider what might unfold in the year ahead. We are in a period of massive technology-driven…

How to avoid ERP lock-in and seize the service imperative

How to avoid ERP lock-in and seize the service imperative

The future is XaaS – Everything-as-a-Service. While XaaS stems from cloud computing, it has quickly evolved to something that embraces anything that can be delivered via the Internet that used to be…

Software will never be beautiful – it’s the experience that counts

Software will never be beautiful – it’s the experience that counts

For almost a decade, we’ve talked about wanting to modernize enterprise software user interfaces (UI) to match consumer software, but we’ve gone about it the wrong way. The  modernization of UI was…

Four megatrends that will reshape what software can do for us

Four megatrends that will reshape what software can do for us

Four major enterprise management trends are maturing simultaneously, and their imminent fusion has only begun to transform the way we conduct business. They are big data, mobile access, user…

Patterns

Patterns

Patterns is not a new buzz or anything, actually patterns, the use hereof and definitions started in 1994 when the book “Design Patterns” was released by the gang of four. Since then there have been…

Does multi-tenancy really matter anymore?

Does multi-tenancy really matter anymore?

At risk of upsetting cloud purists, my answer is a resounding no. Fifteen years ago, multi-tenancy mattered because infrastructure was expensive. Today, with cheap cloud resources and container orchestration, the economic necessity has gone away.