Forrester Blogs › Category: Quality

Security and Operations Have More In Common Than You Think

Posted by Glenn O'Donnell on October 19, 2011

There is growing evidence of a harmonic convergence of Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) with Security and it is hardly an accident. We often view them as separate worlds, but it’s obvious that they have more in common than they have differences. I live in the I&O team here at Forrester, but I get pulled into many discussions that would be classified as “security” topics. Examples include compliance analysis of configuration data and process discipline to prevent mistakes. Similarly, our Security analysts get pulled into process discussions and other topics that encroach into Operations territory. This is as it should be.

Some examples of where common DNA between I&O and Security can benefit you and your organization are:

  • Gain economic benefit by cross-pollinating skills, tools, and organizational entities
  • Improve service quality AND security with the same actions and strategies
  • Learn where the two SHOULD remain separate
  • Combine operational NOC and security SOC monitoring into a unified command center
  • Develop a plan and the economic and political justifications for intelligent combinations
Read more

Categories:

"Using Working SW As The Measure Of Progress Is Narcissistic...." How Do You Measure The Value Of Agile Instead?

Posted by Diego Lo Giudice on October 18, 2011

Hi all,

My colleague and friend Mike Gualtieri wrote a really interesting blog the other day titled "Agile Software Is A Cop-Out; Here's What's Next." While I am not going to discuss the great conclusions and "next practices" of software (SW) development Mike suggests in that blog, I do want to focus on the assumption he makes about using working SW as a measurement of Agile.

I am currently researching that area and investigating how organizations actually measure the value of Agile SW development (business and IT value). And I am finding that, while organizations aim to deliver working SW, they also define value metrics to measure progress and much more:

  • Cycle time (e.g., from concept to production);
  • Business value (from number of times a feature is used by clients to impact on sales revenue, etc.);
  • Productivity metrics (such as burndown velocity, number of features deployed versus estimated); and last but not least
  • Quality metrics (such as defects per sprint/release, etc.).
Read more

Categories: