By focusing on organizational enablers and robust software engineering practices, e-commerce companies can shorten the development lifecycle, outmaneuver the competition and remain relevant in the eyes of customers.
Making a Quantum Leap with Continuous Analytics-Based QACognizant
By correlating analytics data across the IT lifecycle, enterprises can design and implement a level of testing that improves predictive mechanisms and anticipates ever-changing business needs.
Top Five Secrets for a Successful Enterprise Mobile QA Automation StrategyCognizant
1) The document discusses five secrets for a successful enterprise mobile automation strategy: selecting automation tools wisely, enabling continuous delivery and rapid QA, automating beyond functional coverage, supporting a flexible execution environment, and using the right framework.
2) It emphasizes the importance of tool selection parameters like cross-platform support, new OS version support, and open integration.
3) Continuous delivery is key to increasing speed without compromising quality in a DevOps environment. This requires automation across the entire software development lifecycle.
4) Automation should go beyond functional testing to also validate nonfunctional parameters and customer experience under varying conditions.
5) The framework design should allow for efficient implementation, reuse, and adaptation to changes
Drive Business Excellence with Outcomes-Based Contracting: The OBC ToolkitCAST
Making Outcomes-Based Contracting Work With Facts
Introduction by Amit Anand, Robert Asen & Vijay Anand of Cognizant
Using metrics to develop effective results-based contracts
Managing outcome based application contracts requires a combination of scope management,
pricing, and, above all, quality. As suppliers and clients evolve the relationship, the
need for clear facts dominates conversations.
The premise of outcomes-based contracting is that hours (and indeed rate) are inputs to
the ADM process (not outputs), and that structures that measure programming results are
now both possible and achievable. Outcomes-based structures bring the original intent of
software to the forefront—creating successful results. While many companies have shifted
from input-based to output-based contracting, forward-thinking IT leaders are also taking
steps to define a sustainable outcomes-based relationship with their ADM suppliers.
Outcomes-based contracts focus on how the delivered product adds value, while inputand
output-based contracts focus on the resources and the activities needed to deliver the
outcome, respectively.
Empirix's Top Metrics to Achieve Contact Center AssuranceAlex Johnson
This document discusses metrics for achieving contact center assurance and quality customer experience. It describes Six Sigma techniques used in manufacturing for quality assurance but notes these may not align well with agile software development models used by many contact centers today. The document then outlines some key metrics for contact centers, including critical-to-quality trees to identify customer needs and measure how well sub-processes meet those needs, and critical-to-customer metrics to determine what customers want and measure experience quality. It also discusses agile methodology metrics like burn down rate and velocity.
Why is Org Strategy important, what are the possible org patterns and what are some of the benefits and challenges to consider? This 12-page long white paper describes different org existence models, trade-offs, design best practices, and assessment approach. Please leave your comments.
This document discusses best practices for software vendor selection. It begins by introducing Advantiv Solutions, which provides tools to help with complex procurement projects. The document then outlines lessons learned from past vendor selection projects, emphasizing that they should be business-driven projects with clear requirements and stakeholder involvement. It also discusses the vendor perspective and common mistakes made during selections. The document concludes by highlighting emerging practices like increased due diligence and stakeholder education, as well as advice from industry peers.
7 Steps to Choosing an Enterprise BPM solutionMatt McClintock
1. The document outlines 7 steps for choosing an enterprise business process management (BPM) software solution. The first step is to identify and fully document current business processes and requirements.
2. The second step is to consult key stakeholders to refine requirements and get organizational buy-in.
3. The third step is to create a list of technical criteria based on the documented processes and requirements rather than a generic list from vendors. This list should consider factors like cloud vs on-premise and integration needs.
4. The remaining steps include setting implementation goals, getting estimates from vendors, selecting top vendors to consider further, and doing proofs of concept to evaluate vendor fit. Thorough preparation upfront helps identify the best
Transform Software Delivery to Address Market Complexity and ChangeIBM Danmark
The document discusses challenges in software delivery due to increasing market complexity and change. It proposes taking a smarter approach to process and integration in software delivery to address issues like slow service delivery, inability to adapt to changes, siloed teams, and difficult processes. This includes capabilities for collaborative software development, integrated application lifecycles, streamlined deployments, and accelerated application delivery across platforms and to the cloud.
Making a Quantum Leap with Continuous Analytics-Based QACognizant
By correlating analytics data across the IT lifecycle, enterprises can design and implement a level of testing that improves predictive mechanisms and anticipates ever-changing business needs.
Top Five Secrets for a Successful Enterprise Mobile QA Automation StrategyCognizant
1) The document discusses five secrets for a successful enterprise mobile automation strategy: selecting automation tools wisely, enabling continuous delivery and rapid QA, automating beyond functional coverage, supporting a flexible execution environment, and using the right framework.
2) It emphasizes the importance of tool selection parameters like cross-platform support, new OS version support, and open integration.
3) Continuous delivery is key to increasing speed without compromising quality in a DevOps environment. This requires automation across the entire software development lifecycle.
4) Automation should go beyond functional testing to also validate nonfunctional parameters and customer experience under varying conditions.
5) The framework design should allow for efficient implementation, reuse, and adaptation to changes
Drive Business Excellence with Outcomes-Based Contracting: The OBC ToolkitCAST
Making Outcomes-Based Contracting Work With Facts
Introduction by Amit Anand, Robert Asen & Vijay Anand of Cognizant
Using metrics to develop effective results-based contracts
Managing outcome based application contracts requires a combination of scope management,
pricing, and, above all, quality. As suppliers and clients evolve the relationship, the
need for clear facts dominates conversations.
The premise of outcomes-based contracting is that hours (and indeed rate) are inputs to
the ADM process (not outputs), and that structures that measure programming results are
now both possible and achievable. Outcomes-based structures bring the original intent of
software to the forefront—creating successful results. While many companies have shifted
from input-based to output-based contracting, forward-thinking IT leaders are also taking
steps to define a sustainable outcomes-based relationship with their ADM suppliers.
Outcomes-based contracts focus on how the delivered product adds value, while inputand
output-based contracts focus on the resources and the activities needed to deliver the
outcome, respectively.
Empirix's Top Metrics to Achieve Contact Center AssuranceAlex Johnson
This document discusses metrics for achieving contact center assurance and quality customer experience. It describes Six Sigma techniques used in manufacturing for quality assurance but notes these may not align well with agile software development models used by many contact centers today. The document then outlines some key metrics for contact centers, including critical-to-quality trees to identify customer needs and measure how well sub-processes meet those needs, and critical-to-customer metrics to determine what customers want and measure experience quality. It also discusses agile methodology metrics like burn down rate and velocity.
Why is Org Strategy important, what are the possible org patterns and what are some of the benefits and challenges to consider? This 12-page long white paper describes different org existence models, trade-offs, design best practices, and assessment approach. Please leave your comments.
This document discusses best practices for software vendor selection. It begins by introducing Advantiv Solutions, which provides tools to help with complex procurement projects. The document then outlines lessons learned from past vendor selection projects, emphasizing that they should be business-driven projects with clear requirements and stakeholder involvement. It also discusses the vendor perspective and common mistakes made during selections. The document concludes by highlighting emerging practices like increased due diligence and stakeholder education, as well as advice from industry peers.
7 Steps to Choosing an Enterprise BPM solutionMatt McClintock
1. The document outlines 7 steps for choosing an enterprise business process management (BPM) software solution. The first step is to identify and fully document current business processes and requirements.
2. The second step is to consult key stakeholders to refine requirements and get organizational buy-in.
3. The third step is to create a list of technical criteria based on the documented processes and requirements rather than a generic list from vendors. This list should consider factors like cloud vs on-premise and integration needs.
4. The remaining steps include setting implementation goals, getting estimates from vendors, selecting top vendors to consider further, and doing proofs of concept to evaluate vendor fit. Thorough preparation upfront helps identify the best
Transform Software Delivery to Address Market Complexity and ChangeIBM Danmark
The document discusses challenges in software delivery due to increasing market complexity and change. It proposes taking a smarter approach to process and integration in software delivery to address issues like slow service delivery, inability to adapt to changes, siloed teams, and difficult processes. This includes capabilities for collaborative software development, integrated application lifecycles, streamlined deployments, and accelerated application delivery across platforms and to the cloud.
Technology project executions rank high on CFOs’ most worrisome risks and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) projects are among them. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of strategic ERP projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, are delayed, and exceed budgets by a long shot. While most companies avoid catastrophic ERP failures, only a few wring out the most value. For top management, failing to deliver a strategic priority is rarely an option. Given a mature ERP solutions market place and mostly competent ERP installers, why do organizations frequently stumble?
Trends in Software Outsourcing: Best PracticesSoftheme
Presentation showcasing best practices in software outsourcing: selecting a vendor, applying effective outsourcing strategy, managing risks, signing service level agreements.
This document summarizes the results of a survey conducted by ARC Advisory Group of customers using RedPrairie's labor productivity management solution. The key findings were:
1) Over half of customers achieved payback on their investment within one year, which is considered an exceptional return on investment.
2) Customers reported labor productivity improvements between 5-15% for 40% of respondents and over 15% for another 40%, leading to decreased labor costs between 5-15% for 62% of respondents.
3) Employee relations were generally unchanged or slightly improved with implementation, dispelling fears that such systems negatively impact morale.
SlideTeam presents you Enterprise resource planning PowerPoint presentation slides, that allows your company to use a system of integrated utilization in managing the business and automate many backhand functions related to human resources, technology, and services. Intrinsic visuals have been included here for peculiar resource and planning with the topics like master data management, human resources, research & development, controlling, marketing and sales, material management, finance, and accounting, enterprise resource planning architecture, task categories included in its system. Stagewise progress of enterprise resource planning system, overview of implementation process, planning and selection phase are also included. One stage processes and flat designs, funnel graphs and liner schemes have been included here for a thorough approach. This PPT slide is dedicated to take you through the complex steps of enterprise resource planning and break it down into gentle steps. Click the download button and we are at your service for a magnanimous experience, get started now. Act as an effective go between with our Enterprise Resource Planning Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Be instrumental in creating accord. https://bit.ly/3gnY2rs
Continuous Delivery Operating Model for Entertainment Video Providers: Buildi...Cognizant
To compete with digital streaming natives, established entertainment video providers need to build a streamlined, waste-free pipeline for rapid software delivery. We recommend an integrated approach to the four types of change needed: culture, process, engineering practices and platforms.
This presentation shows why it is important to benchmark the performance of software projects and organizations. Measurement of performance and comparing this to relevant peer groups provides the knowledge and understanding for managemenr to make informed decisions on where the organization stands and where it should go. This presentation was given at the Italian GUFPI-ISMA conference (December 2013) and addressed also the way the Italian industry is performing according to the ISBSG Country Analysis report.
Interactive selling solutions for complex manufacturingCincom Systems
This document discusses configurators, which are tools that capture corporate knowledge about products and services and deploy it to support sales and customization. It evaluates factors to consider when selecting a configurator, including desired sales processes, required configuration knowledge, users, and integration needs. Key capabilities of configurators include managing rules for specifications, pricing, constraints, and generating outputs. Maintaining business rules in the configurator using graphical tools without programming is emphasized.
Vendor Selection Matrix - Capacity Management - Top 15 Vendors in 2016TeamQuest Corporation
Independent analyst report on the top 15 vendors in capacity management software and SaaS. More than 1300 IT buyers of capacity management software were surveyed and more than 20,000 data points collected and evaluated. Vendors are ranked in terms of:
*Vision & Go-To-Market
*Innovation & Partner Ecosystem
*Company Viability & Execution Capabilities
*Differentiation & USP
*Breadth & Depth of Solution Offering
*Market Share & Growth
*Customer Satisfaction & Mindshare
*Price vs Value
TeamQuest was ranked #2 overall and has the highest scores for customer satisfaction and price vs value in the industry.
This document discusses key factors for successful ERP selection and implementation at manufacturing and distribution companies. It outlines that ERP success comes from streamlining processes and enabling data-driven decisions. Selection requires understanding business operations and how ERP can generate value. Current ERP technologies and innovations that can benefit manufacturers include software-as-a-service, mobility, business intelligence, and social/green technologies. Effective selection starts with assessing strategies, processes and ROI to define requirements and ensure organizational readiness for change.
The document compares different ERP packages and provides guidance on evaluating ERP vendors and systems. It discusses factors to consider such as software tier and features, deployment methods, customer satisfaction, costs, and whether a system meets business needs. The conclusion emphasizes that ERP systems significantly impact business success and growth, and manufacturers are benefiting from ERP in ways like increased collaboration, responsiveness, simplicity and mobility. Careful selection is important given the large impact of an ERP system.
The DevOps promise: IT delivery that’s hot-off-the-catwalk and made-to-lastPeter Shirley-Quirk
DevOps promises rapid delivery AND stable operations by integrating business, development, test, deployment and operations into a cohesive workflow with a rapid feedback cycle. So how is that possible?
Packaging It Up Latest Enhancements for App Distributiondreamforce2006
The document discusses new capabilities for distributing and upgrading apps on the AppExchange, including upgradeable app packages that allow developers to rapidly deploy new functionality. It demonstrates how a developer creates and tests a recruiting app, enhances it based on feedback, then releases and upgrades the app for customers. The presentation rates various aspects and takes feedback via text message.
Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
Techniques to Effectively Monitor the Performance of Customers in the CloudSalesforce Engineering
This document discusses techniques for effectively monitoring customer performance in the cloud. It recommends establishing a baseline for normal performance and monitoring metrics and thresholds to detect deviations. Key metrics to track include counts, medians, percentiles, and distributions over time. Dashboards should visualize these metrics and allow comparing performance across different time periods. An example dashboard monitors adoption, errors, and metrics over the last 30 days and compares to the same day last week. The presentation demonstrates an Einstein Analytics dashboard for interactive analysis across devices.
Collaborative Consulting provides software performance engineering services to help clients ensure system scalability, stability, and quality. Their services include advisory services to assess performance engineering maturity, application readiness assessments to evaluate performance risks, production performance rescues to quickly restore functionality during issues, and application performance management to proactively monitor systems. Collaborative uses a proprietary performance engineering methodology applied throughout the software development lifecycle. They have experience across industries including healthcare, financial services, and retail.
This document discusses key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs) for testing as a managed service. It provides examples of SLAs for metrics such as defect removal effectiveness, process compliance, and incident management response times. It also shows snapshots of SLA metric performance for items like automated regression testing and review of root cause analyses. The document aims to demonstrate how SLAs and KPIs can be used to govern a vendor's testing services.
As a leading Open Source enterprise software development company in USA, Corelynx provides high end software solutions based on the requirements of the client global.
Lino Palacio fue un ilustrador y humorista argentino nacido en 1903 que creó personajes emblemáticos como Ramona, Señor Fulgencio y Tapitas de Billiken. Dibujó para publicaciones como La Opinión, La Prensa y Billiken, donde sus tapas se convirtieron en un recuerdo perdurable para varias generaciones de lectores. Fue un artista muy prolífico que además de ilustrar se dedicó al boxeo, basquetbol, rugby y escribió sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial bajo el seudónimo de
Mauricio Sebastián Melillo es un analista de Business Intelligence con experiencia trabajando con la plataforma Microstrategy. Actualmente trabaja en Telecom Argentina analizando datos y desarrollando tableros e informes. Tiene experiencia previa trabajando con SQL, .NET y desarrollando soluciones de datawarehouse y Business Intelligence para diferentes empresas.
Technology project executions rank high on CFOs’ most worrisome risks and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) projects are among them. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of strategic ERP projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, are delayed, and exceed budgets by a long shot. While most companies avoid catastrophic ERP failures, only a few wring out the most value. For top management, failing to deliver a strategic priority is rarely an option. Given a mature ERP solutions market place and mostly competent ERP installers, why do organizations frequently stumble?
Trends in Software Outsourcing: Best PracticesSoftheme
Presentation showcasing best practices in software outsourcing: selecting a vendor, applying effective outsourcing strategy, managing risks, signing service level agreements.
This document summarizes the results of a survey conducted by ARC Advisory Group of customers using RedPrairie's labor productivity management solution. The key findings were:
1) Over half of customers achieved payback on their investment within one year, which is considered an exceptional return on investment.
2) Customers reported labor productivity improvements between 5-15% for 40% of respondents and over 15% for another 40%, leading to decreased labor costs between 5-15% for 62% of respondents.
3) Employee relations were generally unchanged or slightly improved with implementation, dispelling fears that such systems negatively impact morale.
SlideTeam presents you Enterprise resource planning PowerPoint presentation slides, that allows your company to use a system of integrated utilization in managing the business and automate many backhand functions related to human resources, technology, and services. Intrinsic visuals have been included here for peculiar resource and planning with the topics like master data management, human resources, research & development, controlling, marketing and sales, material management, finance, and accounting, enterprise resource planning architecture, task categories included in its system. Stagewise progress of enterprise resource planning system, overview of implementation process, planning and selection phase are also included. One stage processes and flat designs, funnel graphs and liner schemes have been included here for a thorough approach. This PPT slide is dedicated to take you through the complex steps of enterprise resource planning and break it down into gentle steps. Click the download button and we are at your service for a magnanimous experience, get started now. Act as an effective go between with our Enterprise Resource Planning Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Be instrumental in creating accord. https://bit.ly/3gnY2rs
Continuous Delivery Operating Model for Entertainment Video Providers: Buildi...Cognizant
To compete with digital streaming natives, established entertainment video providers need to build a streamlined, waste-free pipeline for rapid software delivery. We recommend an integrated approach to the four types of change needed: culture, process, engineering practices and platforms.
This presentation shows why it is important to benchmark the performance of software projects and organizations. Measurement of performance and comparing this to relevant peer groups provides the knowledge and understanding for managemenr to make informed decisions on where the organization stands and where it should go. This presentation was given at the Italian GUFPI-ISMA conference (December 2013) and addressed also the way the Italian industry is performing according to the ISBSG Country Analysis report.
Interactive selling solutions for complex manufacturingCincom Systems
This document discusses configurators, which are tools that capture corporate knowledge about products and services and deploy it to support sales and customization. It evaluates factors to consider when selecting a configurator, including desired sales processes, required configuration knowledge, users, and integration needs. Key capabilities of configurators include managing rules for specifications, pricing, constraints, and generating outputs. Maintaining business rules in the configurator using graphical tools without programming is emphasized.
Vendor Selection Matrix - Capacity Management - Top 15 Vendors in 2016TeamQuest Corporation
Independent analyst report on the top 15 vendors in capacity management software and SaaS. More than 1300 IT buyers of capacity management software were surveyed and more than 20,000 data points collected and evaluated. Vendors are ranked in terms of:
*Vision & Go-To-Market
*Innovation & Partner Ecosystem
*Company Viability & Execution Capabilities
*Differentiation & USP
*Breadth & Depth of Solution Offering
*Market Share & Growth
*Customer Satisfaction & Mindshare
*Price vs Value
TeamQuest was ranked #2 overall and has the highest scores for customer satisfaction and price vs value in the industry.
This document discusses key factors for successful ERP selection and implementation at manufacturing and distribution companies. It outlines that ERP success comes from streamlining processes and enabling data-driven decisions. Selection requires understanding business operations and how ERP can generate value. Current ERP technologies and innovations that can benefit manufacturers include software-as-a-service, mobility, business intelligence, and social/green technologies. Effective selection starts with assessing strategies, processes and ROI to define requirements and ensure organizational readiness for change.
The document compares different ERP packages and provides guidance on evaluating ERP vendors and systems. It discusses factors to consider such as software tier and features, deployment methods, customer satisfaction, costs, and whether a system meets business needs. The conclusion emphasizes that ERP systems significantly impact business success and growth, and manufacturers are benefiting from ERP in ways like increased collaboration, responsiveness, simplicity and mobility. Careful selection is important given the large impact of an ERP system.
The DevOps promise: IT delivery that’s hot-off-the-catwalk and made-to-lastPeter Shirley-Quirk
DevOps promises rapid delivery AND stable operations by integrating business, development, test, deployment and operations into a cohesive workflow with a rapid feedback cycle. So how is that possible?
Packaging It Up Latest Enhancements for App Distributiondreamforce2006
The document discusses new capabilities for distributing and upgrading apps on the AppExchange, including upgradeable app packages that allow developers to rapidly deploy new functionality. It demonstrates how a developer creates and tests a recruiting app, enhances it based on feedback, then releases and upgrades the app for customers. The presentation rates various aspects and takes feedback via text message.
Your Challenge
Service desk managers with immature service desk processes struggle with:
Low business satisfaction.
High cost to resolve incidents and implement requests.
Confused and unhappy end users.
High ticket volumes and a lack of root-cause analysis to reduce recurring issues.
Wasted IT time and wages resolving the same issues time and again.
Ineffective demand planning.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Don’t be fooled by a tool that’s new. A new service desk tool alone won’t solve the problem. Service desk maturity improvements depend on putting in place the right people and processes to support the technology.
Service desk improvement is an exercise in organizational change. Engage specialists across the IT organization in building the solution, and emphasize how everyone stands to benefit from the initiative.
Organizations are sometimes tempted to track their work under a single ticket type. Unfortunately, the practice obscures the fact that incidents, requests, and projects require radically different amounts of time and resources, and can create the impression that IT is underperforming. Distinguish between incidents, requests, and projects, and design specific processes to support and track the performance of each activity.
Remember, the value of any IT service management (ITSM) tool is a function of the processes it supports and the adoption of those processes. The ITSM tool with the best functionality is worth little if you do not build the right processes, configure the tool to support them, and work to improve tool adoption in your organization.
Impact and Result
Increase business satisfaction.
Reduce recurring issues and ticket volumes.
Reduce average incident resolution time and average request implementation time.
Increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
Enhance demand planning.
Techniques to Effectively Monitor the Performance of Customers in the CloudSalesforce Engineering
This document discusses techniques for effectively monitoring customer performance in the cloud. It recommends establishing a baseline for normal performance and monitoring metrics and thresholds to detect deviations. Key metrics to track include counts, medians, percentiles, and distributions over time. Dashboards should visualize these metrics and allow comparing performance across different time periods. An example dashboard monitors adoption, errors, and metrics over the last 30 days and compares to the same day last week. The presentation demonstrates an Einstein Analytics dashboard for interactive analysis across devices.
Collaborative Consulting provides software performance engineering services to help clients ensure system scalability, stability, and quality. Their services include advisory services to assess performance engineering maturity, application readiness assessments to evaluate performance risks, production performance rescues to quickly restore functionality during issues, and application performance management to proactively monitor systems. Collaborative uses a proprietary performance engineering methodology applied throughout the software development lifecycle. They have experience across industries including healthcare, financial services, and retail.
This document discusses key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements (SLAs) for testing as a managed service. It provides examples of SLAs for metrics such as defect removal effectiveness, process compliance, and incident management response times. It also shows snapshots of SLA metric performance for items like automated regression testing and review of root cause analyses. The document aims to demonstrate how SLAs and KPIs can be used to govern a vendor's testing services.
As a leading Open Source enterprise software development company in USA, Corelynx provides high end software solutions based on the requirements of the client global.
Lino Palacio fue un ilustrador y humorista argentino nacido en 1903 que creó personajes emblemáticos como Ramona, Señor Fulgencio y Tapitas de Billiken. Dibujó para publicaciones como La Opinión, La Prensa y Billiken, donde sus tapas se convirtieron en un recuerdo perdurable para varias generaciones de lectores. Fue un artista muy prolífico que además de ilustrar se dedicó al boxeo, basquetbol, rugby y escribió sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial bajo el seudónimo de
Mauricio Sebastián Melillo es un analista de Business Intelligence con experiencia trabajando con la plataforma Microstrategy. Actualmente trabaja en Telecom Argentina analizando datos y desarrollando tableros e informes. Tiene experiencia previa trabajando con SQL, .NET y desarrollando soluciones de datawarehouse y Business Intelligence para diferentes empresas.
This user guide provides information about installing and configuring the Raritan Dominion KX101 device. It includes details on rack mounting the device, attaching keyboard and mouse cables, configuring target servers, making physical connections to the KX101, performing initial configuration, and navigating the configuration menus. The guide also provides the factory default login credentials and information on default network settings.
Muebles de jardín colección 2013 de Greendesign by fast 2013Greendesign
Este documento es un catálogo de mobiliario de jardín que incluye tres oraciones o menos:
El catálogo presenta una amplia variedad de muebles de jardín de las colecciones Greendesign, incluyendo mesas, sillas, sofás y otros elementos. Además, proporciona información sobre los tejidos y precios de la tapicería confeccionada para personalizar los muebles.
Kreative Kampagnen im Social Web. Erfolgsgarant oder Rohrkrepierer?ScribbleLive
Meine Präsentation vom Internet World Kongress, gehalten zusammen mit Heiko Eckert von Big Mouth Media. Leicht verändert ggü, der gezeigten, zum Teil auch ergänzt.
1) O documento descreve os diferentes canais e programas da TV Paraíba, incluindo o Canal PDV para clientes e o Canal Corporativo para treinamento de funcionários.
2) Ele também detalha novos layouts para segmentos como moda, dicas, serviços e ofertas para promover os produtos e serviços da rede Paraíba.
3) O documento fornece instruções para a produção de vinhetas e conteúdos para esses diferentes programas e canais.
Este documento presenta un curso de psicología y comunicación cuyo objetivo es utilizar herramientas de estas disciplinas para mejorar el desempeño profesional. El curso busca que los alumnos sean capaces de reconocer el contexto en el que se desarrollan y ofrecer alternativas para mejorar la comunicación en su empresa u ámbito de desarrollo individual. El curso incluye presentaciones orales, evaluaciones de lecturas y discusiones en parejas de artículos.
The document contains a portfolio of graphic design work by Kaufmann Designs for various clients. It includes logo designs, bottle designs, advertisements, and other graphic materials for Syla Vodka, Fight It Out, Seacoast Rejuvenation, Aqua Paradise, and New Hampshire tourism. The designs cover a range of media including print, outdoor, and digital advertisements.
Wifiway es una distribución GNU/Linux diseñada para la auditoría de seguridad de redes WiFi, Bluetooth y RFID. Es un live CD basado en Linux que puede ejecutarse directamente desde un CD o USB sin necesidad de instalación. Incluye herramientas para escaneo de redes inalámbricas, auditoría de encriptación WEP y ataques como "fragmentación forzada" y "replay de ARP". La versión 3.4 actualiza varias herramientas incluidas como Aircrack-ng y añade funciones como guardado de se
This document contains information about JavaScript scope and closures. It includes code examples demonstrating variable scoping, hoisting, closures, the this keyword, and other JavaScript concepts. The document is authored by Eyal Vardi and contains his contact information.
C-urVision is an agency that assisting companies to develop their service capabilities from basic needs up to full service innovation and service design cycles.
C-urVision assisting companies to transfer to a better business situation, based on new business innovation tools and vast experience in strategy, technology and services
El documento presenta la planeación financiera de un expendio llamado Expencio Corona. Incluye estados financieros con la información de activos, pasivos, capital contable y estado de resultados. También incluye cálculos de diferentes razones financieras como rotación de inventarios, de cuentas por cobrar, rentabilidad y razón circulante para evaluar la situación financiera del negocio.
Camfil Truly Green Air Filters BrochureAdam Wiggins
Camfil produces air filters and provides documentation to support their claims of energy savings, waste reduction, and sustainability benefits compared to competitors' filters. They summarize four key considerations for evaluating filters: energy savings over the filter life, actual MERV performance over time rather than just initial rating, lack of ENERGY STAR rating for filters, and only Camfil guarantees green performance over the filter life. Camfil's filters are designed to have lower average pressure drop through proprietary media and configuration, resulting in estimated energy savings of $80-100 per year compared to competitors. They provide analysis tools and case studies demonstrating cost savings and reductions in CO2 emissions, waste, and total cost of ownership for customers who have switched to Camfil filters.
Este documento proporciona consejos sobre cómo mejorar la usabilidad y el diseño de un sitio web corporativo para hacerlo más atractivo a los usuarios. Recomienda prestar atención a las necesidades del usuario sobre las de la empresa, ofrecer una estructura de información clara, y actualizar constantemente el sitio para reflejar la realidad de la empresa y servir como herramienta de comunicación. También sugiere el uso de Flash para reforzar el mensaje sin obstaculizar la navegación, y proporcionar ayuda y mensajes de error compre
This document promotes an event hosted by PrintersPlus to showcase a next-generation work environment. The environment aims to help organizations leverage new innovations, optimize processes, and reduce costs associated with print and imaging. Attendees will see how modifying existing office setups can help attain desired states easily while renewing aging infrastructures and drastically reducing expenditures. The event will demonstrate how managed print and workplace solutions can create a next-generation work environment and savings of over 50% for one organization outlined in the document.
EOI · 16/06/2011 · http://a.eoi.es/8u
Jornada Innovación para la Sostenibilidad: Olfatometría
Juan Manuel Juárez Galán, Jefe de Producto de Olfatometría y Modelizaciones Ambientales de LABAQUA
Social Networking, Permission Boundaries and User AdoptionMark Phillips
This document discusses factors that influence user adoption of social media features. It summarizes current research on relationships like strong ties, weak ties, and temporary ties. However, it argues this research does not predict which tools people will use. Instead, it proposes examining specific social transactions and whether tools make those transactions easier and cheaper by reducing "permission boundaries," which capture the costs of sharing information online. Tools that facilitate transactions with strong ties through low permission boundaries will see more adoption.
In Automated Controls It’s No Longer the Traditional Build vs. BuyMelissa Luongo
Exploring an Alternative Perspective | An Infogix Position Paper by Lane Lambert and Chris Kosin
Decades of experience and research have shown that organizations maximize their return on investment (ROI) when they build or buy solutions that automate core processes. While making the build versus buy decision for automated or ancillary data integrity controls, an organization needs to determine if it is in the business of controls and how each option impacts Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditures (OPEX) budgets. “Buy to standardize, build to compete” has been an IT mantra for many years. Yet, executives responsible for developing an automated controls strategy continue to struggle with this question. The decision not only impacts the ability of an organization to meet its immediate controls needs but also has longstanding influence on the ability to maintain and sustain an internal control environment that is aligned with business needs. The rule of thumb has been: if the system is a requirement for business, “buy” is the answer; conversely if the system provides a competitive advantage, then the answer
is “build.”
In this paper, we propose an alternative way to look at Build vs. Buy by splitting “buy” into two options: – pre- packaged offering and configurable solution. The pre- packaged offering refers to an off-the-shelf product, while a highly configurable solution combines the virtues of a “build” solution with the flexibility and adaptability of a “buy” solution that is faster to deploy and removes the risk inherent in building internal controls. Regardless of the solution, the decision points remain the same: CAPEX vs. OPEX cost, time to deployment, internal politics, regulatory compliance mandates, architecture, IT staff competencies and strategic importance to the organization’s bottom line. However; as IT departments are increasingly stretched thin, in part due to increased data governance, audit, and overall challenges to close fragmented data integrity gaps, the case for a highly configurable data integrity controls solution becomes a compelling consideration to deliver a tailored system that capitalizes on the benefits of both building and buying. Leading organizations that use Infogix Controls have achieved significant cost savings (up to 80%) compared to internal development options. In addition, implementing Infogix Controls has enabled these organizations to rapidly deploy controls to efficiently meet changing business and audit needs. This position paper provides a framework to compare and contrast build versus buy by evaluating buy in two dimensions – pre-packaged vs. configurable – to delve into the financial and non-financial implications of these options.
No code the next big thing in supply chain technologyArpitGautam20
Traditional supply chain software relies on coding which makes it difficult and expensive to customize and implement new features. No-code platforms allow organizations to build customized supply chain solutions visually without coding by using tools like drag and drop. This simplifies and streamlines the configuration process. No-code allows for quicker testing and deployment of new supply chain applications and integrations. It puts stakeholders in control and allows organizations to more easily meet changing demands by quickly building and deploying new solutions.
No code the next big thing in supply chain technologyArpitGautam20
Here are a few exciting reasons why No Code App Platforms are the next big thing in Supply Chain Management for organizations & enterprises. https://natifi.ai/no-code-the-next-big-thing-in-supply-chain-technology/
Flexible development frameworks allow organizations to adapt quickly to changing business needs. Traditional "waterfall" approaches are too rigid for fast-growing companies that need to constantly improve their products. A flexible framework delivers high-quality products through an incremental process that optimizes costs and promotes collaboration. MiTOS is a flexible enterprise application framework that consists of modular backend and frontend layers for common and industry-specific functions. It allows customized solutions to be built efficiently on a shared infrastructure and adapted easily to different business requirements.
The document discusses the considerations around whether to build a sales performance management system in-house or subscribe to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. Building a custom system can be very expensive due to development and maintenance costs and may not provide improvements over time. Subscribing to a SaaS solution offers lower costs, faster implementation, flexibility, integrated processes, and reliability due to expertise from purpose-built vendors. The document analyzes factors around resources, complexity, timelines, and costs to evaluate the best approach.
Cosmetic shop management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
Buying new cosmetic products is difficult. It can even be scary for those who have sensitive skin and are prone to skin trouble. The information needed to alleviate this problem is on the back of each product, but it's thought to interpret those ingredient lists unless you have a background in chemistry.
Instead of buying and hoping for the best, we can use data science to help us predict which products may be good fits for us. It includes various function programs to do the above mentioned tasks.
Data file handling has been effectively used in the program.
The automated cosmetic shop management system should deal with the automation of general workflow and administration process of the shop. The main processes of the system focus on customer's request where the system is able to search the most appropriate products and deliver it to the customers. It should help the employees to quickly identify the list of cosmetic product that have reached the minimum quantity and also keep a track of expired date for each cosmetic product. It should help the employees to find the rack number in which the product is placed.It is also Faster and more efficient way.
This report from DCG Software Value discusses whether or not function points are still relevant in the IT world, given all the innovative changes and processes that have occurred.
Download this report here: http://ow.ly/108Vrw
This report from DCG Software Value discusses whether or not function points are still relevant in the IT world, given all the innovative changes and processes that have occurred.
Top Software panies to Outsource.pdfTesting ComMindfire LLC
However, finding one good company is a constant concern as the demand for software testing specialists is rising, and many companies face a severe shortage of them. Getting started with a list of companies is just not the right way to do it. First, you must know how to begin your search for a company that meets your needs. Hence, unlike other blogs, we’ll help you get started on your search for the best testing companies to outsource.
Embarking on a software development journey for startups can be a thrilling yet daunting experience. It's a path filled with twists and turns, and challenges that can make or break your success. But fear not, for there are solutions and proven strategies that can help you achieve your goal of successful product development. Join us on this exciting adventure as we explore the secrets to unlocking your startup's full potentia
Continuous Delivery Operating Model for Insurers: Building a Software “Value-...Cognizant
To compete with digital start-ups, established insurers need to build a streamlined, waste-free pipeline for rapid software delivery. We recommend an integrated approach to the four types of change needed: culture, process, engineering practices and platforms.
This chapter focuses on the execution of e-business projects and emphasizes the importance of tightly coordinating tactical execution to support the overall strategy and vision. It outlines a process for e-business tactical execution that includes defining projects, establishing teams, developing plans, managing requirements, and adopting and measuring outcomes. Successful execution requires addressing both technical capabilities and organizational readiness, maintaining communication, and focusing on customer needs and pain points.
Traditional, full-code waterfall application development, with its focus on a sequential define-develop-test-deploy-maintain approach has given way for many enterprises to low-code/no-code development
This document discusses challenges with quality assurance in agile software development and proposes a solution called "digital testing using cognitive approach". Some key points:
1. Traditional QA faces challenges keeping up with agile development cycles and diverse technologies. QA needs to evolve to facilitate faster delivery.
2. The proposed solution involves automating testing, using predictive analytics, parallel testing across devices, and involving QA earlier in the development cycle.
3. A "cognitive approach" uses machine learning, AI, and predictive analysis to optimize testing efforts and provide insights. This helps address issues like inadequate coverage, performance bottlenecks, and late involvement of users and testers.
Digitize your repetitive development processes to gain additional productivity and improve quality and costs.
Your Challenge
IT is increasingly under pressure to release applications quickly, reduce development, operations, and maintenance costs, while remaining relevant to business objectives.
Using a purely manual software development process can be useful when starting out and processes are not yet concrete. At a certain point, you will hit scalability limits around traceability and throughput. This will affect overall product quality.
Tests will increase over time as applications become larger and more complex, causing testing capacities to reach an upper bound slowing testing throughout. The urgency of release to market means a product may not be fully tested.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Focus on instrumentation and integration when implementing your automated application development (AAD) tools to reduce maintenance costs, increase product quality, and improve project productivity. Instrumentation focuses on your tool’s execution, and integration refers to the movement and acceptance of development artifacts.
Don't try to automate if you don't have a good foundation based on quality and traceability first. Otherwise automation will make matters worse by amplifying gaps in your foundation. Assess your current development process for people, process, and technology gaps before deciding to implement AAD.
Impact and Result
Realize significant savings over time by reducing repetitive effort devoted to developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining applications.
Free up time to proactively optimize processes and tools or to take on innovation projects to help boost business initiatives. Innovation, a historically nice-to-have, can now be an integrated part of IT directives and mantras.
IT and the business can accurately measure the success of the development, testing, and deployment of the application to determine the need for future optimization projects to further reduce costs and improve productivity.
Kick-Starting Digital Transformation: Four IT StrategiesCognizant
For IT organizations, digital transformation can be an especially daunting task. Keeping up with and managing ever-evolving technologies and applications entails four essential components that help accelerate time to market, minimize project risk; automate and handle thousands of requirements, enrich collaboration and manage costs.
IRJET- Vendor Management System using Machine LearningIRJET Journal
This document proposes a vendor management system that uses machine learning to help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) more efficiently manage multiple vendors. The system would provide a business intelligence dashboard to analyze vendor data visually and predict top quality vendors. It would use logistic regression and machine learning models on historical vendor order and delivery data to generate performance reports and identify ideal vendors. This would help OEMs more easily select high-quality vendors, place orders, and reduce costs compared to traditional manual vendor management processes.
This white paper discusses the benefits of implementing an ERP software solution specifically designed for heavy/civil contractors. It notes that a unified system allows for greater integration, efficiency, transparency and profitability across job management, equipment management, materials management, and other key areas. It highlights Viewpoint Construction Software as an integrated ERP product with functionality tailored to the unique needs and profit centers of heavy/civil businesses. The white paper argues that specialized construction industries require specialized software rather than generic or piecemeal solutions.
Achieving IT Strategic Directives When Evaluating a New Promotional Content E...Cognizant
By embracing a collaborative assessment model to evaluate technology platforms, life sciences organizations can better address cross-functional stakeholder needs.
Having developed itself as a saas head in office productivity and CRM tools, infox offers a number of data analytics platform gearing for both professional
data scientists and mid level staffers who need a self service option. The application has an instictive drag and drop interface and also a
classic spreadsheet interface. infox Analytics is geared for organization that need to give actionable data analytics insight to staffers at every stage.
Having developed itself as a saas head in office productivity and CRM tools, infox offers a number of data analytics platform gearing for both professional
data scientists and mid level staffers who need a self service option. The application has an instictive drag and drop interface and also a
classic spreadsheet interface. infox Analytics is geared for organization that need to give actionable data analytics insight to staffers at every stage.
Having developed itself as a saas head in office productivity and CRM tools, infox offers a number of data analytics platform gearing for both professional
data scientists and mid level staffers who need a self service option. The application has an instictive drag and drop interface and also a
classic spreadsheet interface. infox Analytics is geared for organization that need to give actionable data analytics insight to staffers at every stage.
http://www.infoxtechnologies.com/technologies.html
Similar to Improving Speed to Market in E-commerce (20)
Using Adaptive Scrum to Tame Process Reverse Engineering in Data Analytics Pr...Cognizant
Organizations rely on analytics to make intelligent decisions and improve business performance, which sometimes requires reproducing business processes from a legacy application to a digital-native state to reduce the functional, technical and operational debts. Adaptive Scrum can reduce the complexity of the reproduction process iteratively as well as provide transparency in data analytics porojects.
Data Modernization: Breaking the AI Vicious Cycle for Superior Decision-makingCognizant
The document discusses how most companies are not fully leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and data for decision-making. It finds that only 20% of companies are "leaders" in using AI for decisions, while the remaining 80% are stuck in a "vicious cycle" of not understanding AI's potential, having low trust in AI, and limited adoption. Leaders use more sophisticated verification of AI decisions and a wider range of AI technologies beyond chatbots. The document provides recommendations for breaking the vicious cycle, including appointing AI champions, starting with specific high-impact decisions, and institutionalizing continuous learning about AI advances.
It Takes an Ecosystem: How Technology Companies Deliver Exceptional ExperiencesCognizant
Experience is becoming a key strategy for technology companies as they shift to cloud-based subscription models. This requires building an "experience ecosystem" that breaks down silos and involves partners. Building such an ecosystem involves adopting a cross-functional approach to experience, making experience data-driven to generate insights, and creating platforms to enable connected selling between companies and partners.
Intuition is not a mystery but rather a mechanistic process based on accumulated experience. Leading businesses are engineering intuition into their organizations by harnessing machine learning software, massive cloud processing power, huge amounts of data, and design thinking in experiences. This allows them to anticipate and act with speed and insight, improving decision making through data-driven insights and acting as if on intuition.
The Work Ahead: Transportation and Logistics Delivering on the Digital-Physic...Cognizant
The T&L industry appears poised to accelerate its long-overdue modernization drive, as the pandemic spurs an increased need for agility and resilience, according to our study.
Enhancing Desirability: Five Considerations for Winning Digital InitiativesCognizant
To be a modern digital business in the post-COVID era, organizations must be fanatical about the experiences they deliver to an increasingly savvy and expectant user community. Getting there requires a mastery of human-design thinking, compelling user interface and interaction design, and a focus on functional and nonfunctional capabilities that drive business differentiation and results.
The Work Ahead in Manufacturing: Fulfilling the Agility MandateCognizant
Manufacturers are ahead of other industries in IoT deployments but lag in investments in analytics and AI needed to maximize IoT's benefits. While many have IoT pilots, few have implemented machine learning at scale to analyze sensor data and optimize processes. To fully digitize manufacturing, investments in automation, analytics, and AI must increase from the current 5.5% of revenue to over 11% to integrate IT, OT, and PT across the value chain.
The Work Ahead in Higher Education: Repaving the Road for the Employees of To...Cognizant
Higher-ed institutions expect pandemic-driven disruption to continue, especially as hyperconnectivity, analytics and AI drive personalized education models over the lifetime of the learner, according to our recent research.
Engineering the Next-Gen Digital Claims Organisation for Australian General I...Cognizant
The document discusses potential future states for the claims organization of Australian general insurers. It notes that gradual changes like increasing climate volatility, new technologies, and changing customer demographics will reshape the insurance industry and claims processes. Five potential end states for claims organizations are described: 1) traditional claims will demand faster processing; 2) a larger percentage of claims will come from new digital risks; 3) claims processes may become "Uberized" through partnerships; 4) claims organizations will face challenges in risk management propositions; 5) humans and machines will work together to adjudicate claims using large data and computing power. The document argues that insurers must transform claims through digital technologies to concurrently improve customer experience, operational effectiveness, and efficiencies
Profitability in the Direct-to-Consumer Marketplace: A Playbook for Media and...Cognizant
Amid constant change, industry leaders need an upgraded IT infrastructure capable of adapting to audience expectations while proactively anticipating ever-evolving business requirements.
Green Rush: The Economic Imperative for SustainabilityCognizant
Green business is good business, according to our recent research, whether for companies monetizing tech tools used for sustainability or for those that see the impact of these initiatives on business goals.
Policy Administration Modernization: Four Paths for InsurersCognizant
The pivot to digital is fraught with numerous obstacles but with proper planning and execution, legacy carriers can update their core systems and keep pace with the competition, while proactively addressing customer needs.
The Work Ahead in Utilities: Powering a Sustainable Future with DigitalCognizant
Utilities are starting to adopt digital technologies to eliminate slow processes, elevate customer experience and boost sustainability, according to our recent study.
AI in Media & Entertainment: Starting the Journey to ValueCognizant
Up to now, the global media & entertainment industry (M&E) has been lagging most other sectors in its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). But our research shows that M&E companies are set to close the gap over the coming three years, as they ramp up their investments in AI and reap rising returns. The first steps? Getting a firm grip on data – the foundation of any successful AI strategy – and balancing technology spend with investments in AI skills.
Operations Workforce Management: A Data-Informed, Digital-First ApproachCognizant
As #WorkFromAnywhere becomes the rule rather than the exception, organizations face an important question: How can they increase their digital quotient to engage and enable a remote operations workforce to work collaboratively to deliver onclient requirements and contractual commitments?
Five Priorities for Quality Engineering When Taking Banking to the CloudCognizant
As banks move to cloud-based banking platforms for lower costs and greater agility, they must seamlessly integrate technologies and workflows while ensuring security, performance and an enhanced user experience. Here are five ways cloud-focused quality assurance helps banks maximize the benefits.
Getting Ahead With AI: How APAC Companies Replicate Success by Remaining FocusedCognizant
Changing market dynamics are propelling Asia-Pacific businesses to take a highly disciplined and focused approach to ensuring that their AI initiatives rapidly scale and quickly generate heightened business impact.
The Work Ahead in Intelligent Automation: Coping with Complexity in a Post-Pa...Cognizant
Intelligent automation continues to be a top driver of the future of work, according to our recent study. To reap the full advantages, businesses need to move from isolated to widespread deployment.
The Work Ahead in Intelligent Automation: Coping with Complexity in a Post-Pa...
Improving Speed to Market in E-commerce
1. Improving Speed to Market in E-commerce
By focusing on organizational enablers and robust software engineering
practices, e-commerce companies can shorten the development lifecycle,
outmaneuver the competition and remain relevant in the eyes of
customers.
Executive Summary
E-commerce providers are under intense pressure
from a variety of stakeholders to continuously
add new features at an increasingly rapid pace.
Whether it is an urgent need to fulfill a new
business requirement, keep up with a competitor
or protect against an emerging threat, the stakes
are high to stay both competitive and compliant
with the latest security and regulatory require-
ments.
At the same time, it is extremely important for
the e-commerce business to continue operating
flawlessly, as each minute that an online store
is down means lost revenue and diminished
brand reputation. As a result, one of the biggest
challenges for e-commerce leadership teams is to
understand how to rapidly roll out features into
production, while ensuring that the new capabili-
ties work well with the rest of the e-commerce
ecosystem. This pressure will only get worse with
the exponential increase in complexity introduced
by the ever-growing number of third-party
and internal system integrations, as well as the
constant threat of attrition of key talent.
As business and marketing teams aggressively
push for features to be rolled out “as soon as
possible,” development teams are left to battle
with questions such as how to fit new requests
into an already packed release schedule, how
much testing is needed before rolling out the new
release or feature, how exhaustive the testing
should be, and what to do if the new feature
breaks something else, given the complex set of
interfaces and interactions.
In medium and large online businesses, today’s
technology operations are built on robust
technology stacks that power Web storefronts.
They cannot function without a plethora of
internal and external supporting systems, such
as catalog, content, pricing, inventory, order
management and marketing interfaces, to name
a few.
Despite the complexity of the environment,
e-commerce businesses can quickly bring new
capabilities to market quickly. This white paper
describes some of the proven best practices
that successfully shorten the development
lifecycle, as well as how organizations can use
these practices to avoid mishaps and keep their
e-commerce sites competitive by speeding time
to market. These best practices apply to organi-
zational setup, business processes, prioritization,
technical design and tooling.
Organizational Enablers for Speed
Most organizations want to achieve more with less
by improving operational efficiencies. Before we
discuss the technical enablers for efficiency, we’ll
cognizant 20-20 insights | december 2014
• Cognizant 20-20 Insights
2. cognizant 20-20 insights 2
look at a few organizational enablers, without
which the desired results may not be achieved.
One of the key ingredients for efficiency is to
ensure strong teamwork among the stakeholders
so that leaders can provide a focused direction to
the entire team.
Given that a rich body of knowledge already
exists around Agile software development’s best
practices, we will focus on elements beyond
implementing an Agile methodology. Many of
the best practices we discuss are over and above
the typical Agile implementation, and several of
these are applicable to non-Agile methodologies,
as well. (For more on the topic of Agile software
development, see our white paper, “Software
Development in the World of Code Halos.”)
• Business, marketing and IT function as one
team: Mature organizations ensure that their
release planning is carried out as a joint exer-
cise with all their internal stakeholders. These
plans are typically reviewed and adjusted on a
monthly basis. A prioritized ”product backlog”
should be created so the team knows exactly
what to work on and in which order. If all the
stakeholders have participated in the prioritiza-
tion, the most valuable features usually bubble
to the top. This builds trust, predictability and
teamwork, providing a sense of purpose and
direction to the whole team. During execution,
most reviews — including daily calls — should
be a team effort between business, marketing
and IT.
• Paradigm shift from project-based to fea-
ture-based execution: Moving from project-
based to feature-based execution requires a
mindset change across all teams. This cannot
be done overnight. A release calendar is usual-
ly published, and the actual transformation be-
gins with Release 1 and continues until the pro-
cess is established as the default method for
all online commerce delivery. In each release,
the teams deliver committed features and
functions. Every release should be followed by
a retrospection, in which lessons learned are
applied to subsequent releases.
Typically, a transformation could be complete
in about four to five such releases, giving the
organization time to change gradually while
delivering on its current commitments to
stakeholders and customers.
• Bandwith allocation for unforeseen, last-
minute requests and production issues:
Planning is absolutely essential, but the
nature of e-commerce demands that last-
minute requests will always exist; therefore, a
percentage of the overall capacity and budget
should be allocated to these needs. Doing so
increases the predictability of delivery, as de-
velopment of the core features would not need
to be interrupted to accommodate these un-
planned requests, and the associated depen-
dency chains would not be impacted. In the
best case, if there are no unexpected requests,
the extra bandwidth would be used to address
the next highest priority item(s) in the backlog.
• Engage a “co-sourcing partner” not an “out-
sourcing vendor:” Organizations require a
true partner when it comes to sourcing global
services in today’s hyper-competitive e-com-
merce space. The right co-sourcing partner is
not just about offering inexpensive resources;
it should also offer deep experience with im-
plementing best practices and e-commerce
domain knowledge. Such a partner should also
provide a flex capacity model that can quickly
bring in additional resources when required.
Applying Software Engineering
Practices
Along with organizational enablers, it is critical
to implement a robust set of software engineer-
ing practices, many of which are being success-
fully leveraged today by several e-commerce
shops and dot.coms. Many mature software engi-
neering shops are also following these practices
to improve speed to market and code quality.
These practices include continuous integra-
tion, automated software testing, traceability
and measuring code quality metrics to monitor
compliance with agreed-upon best practices and
coding standards (see Figure 1). Let us explore
how each of these fits into the bigger puzzle.
If all the stakeholders have
participated in the prioritization,
the most valuable features usually
bubble to the top. This builds
trust, predictability and teamwork,
providing a sense of purpose and
direction to the whole team.
3. cognizant 20-20 insights 3
Figure 1
Enablers for Speed to Market
Design Tooling/
Engineering
• Multi-variate testing.
• Automated SCM and
deployments.
• Sliver of production
for beta.
• Co-sourcing partner.
• Business, marketing and IT
function as one team.
Basic
Metrics
Management/
Planning
• Budget for unexpected needs.
• ROI-driven prioritization.
• Build a minimum viable
product for 80% of the
use cases.
• Fail fast, fail often.
• Continuous integration.
• Automated testing.
• Traceability.
• Measure code quality.
• Feature switches.
• Adaptive/responsive.
• Support for multiple
versions concurrently.
• Everything as a service.
• Build a minimum
viable product for 80%
of the use cases.
Advanced
• B
• Continuous integration: As defined by Mar-
tin Fowler, continuous integration (CI) is a
software development practice in which team
members integrate their work frequently; usu-
ally, each developer integrates at least daily,
leading to multiple integrations per day.1
Each
integration is verified by an automated build
(including testing) to detect errors as quickly
as possible. Many teams find that this ap-
proach significantly reduces integration prob-
lems and allows a team to develop cohesive
software more rapidly. CI is a prescribed Agile
best practice, but its benefits can be realized
by iterative (and even waterfall) teams. It re-
quires a minimal initial investment in terms of
a build server and associated scripting, but the
ROI is worth every penny.
• Automated software testing: This kind of test-
ing is made possible with a set of test suites.
Starting with a minimalist smoke test suite, a
more comprehensive regression testing suite
needs to be built, using tools like Selenium.2
These can be automatically invoked after each
build is deployed to the testing environment
so that a pass/fail report is generated for each
feature even before a human tester gets to
it. Scripts to set up the right data sets in the
right places are also carefully woven together,
ensuring that the tests are valid and current.
This requires an investment in automation test
scripting resources to keep the scripts current
from release to release. Testing is seen as an
area that typically slows down the process, but
automation helps recover some of that time.
• Code quality measurements: Measurement is
critical to the long-term success of the team.
Tools such as PMD, Checkstyle and JSLint3
can automatically flag coding standard viola-
tions, while Copy Paste Detector flags areas
of code that have been mass-copied without
being properly structured. Such coding viola-
tions are usually the symptoms of less disci-
plined software development, the long-term
price of which is prohibitively high. Using tools
like Crucible,4
metrics around manual code re-
views can be collected to identify pockets of
skill gaps and coaching needs. Note that this is
intended to augment and not replace manual
code reviews, as it is impractical to achieve
comprehensive coverage with manual code
reviews. All these metrics are usually consoli-
dated in a dashboard such as SonarQube.5
• Traceability: Traceability from requirements
to code and deployment is maintained by in-
dividually keeping track of each feature, func-
tionality and story, using tools such as Jira or
Rally,6
and interfacing them with source code
control systems, using tools such as Fisheye.7
This provides the ability to exactly trace each
requirement to code and vice versa, enabling
Coding violations are usually
the symptoms of less disciplined
software development, the
long-term price of which is
prohibitively high.
4. cognizant 20-20 insights 4
developers to better understand the depen-
dencies and side effects of the changes they
make. It also facilitates quickly rolling back a
change if needed. The processes listed so far
provide a strong level of mitigation against the
constant threat of attrition, but they do not
completely address it.
• Support for multiple versions of services and
key APIs: Any service or API that is being built
should support multiple versions in production;
this ensures that consumers of the service do
not need to synchronize their releases with
the rollout of the service, and that the service
can be rolled out on its own schedule without
impacting others. The consuming applications
can be modified later and tested against the
new version of the service. This also allows con-
sumers to quickly roll back to the older version
if problems arise during adoption. This best
practice has been very successfully adopted by
Amazon Web Services and is the foundation of
“everything-as-a-service” architectures.
• Everything-as-a-service architecture: With
this approach, large application ecosystems
are built from a multitude of services (which
can be hosted in a distributed fashion, for ex-
ample in a cloud), instead of being deployed as
a monolithic package on traditional infrastruc-
ture. The exponential growth in the social, mo-
bile, analytics and cloud space (or the SMAC
Stack™), has resulted in many new capabilities
being built in this way. This is also congruent
with the design patterns of how dot.coms (such
as Amazon) succeeded in building scalable sys-
tems. As other enterprises adopt this model,
they are breaking up their formerly monolithic
e-commerce systems into individual services,
such as catalogs, offers, promotions, search,
browse, cart, check-out, etc. and deploying
them independently. This reduces the tight
coupling and interdependency in an otherwise
densely connected e-commerce ecosystem,
thereby enabling faster, independent deploy-
ment of the parts.
• Search-driven commerce: A compelling
offshoot is search-driven commerce. Un-
like search as a component of the commerce
stack, this approach breaks off the search and
browse mechanism as its own entity in the eco-
system. In most e-commerce systems, search
accounts for the majority of traffic (and hence
computing power), far more than the actual
commerce functions. Since typical commerce
stacks charge licensing fees according to the
size of the infrastructure, the bulk of the fee
goes toward search, which is not really a core
competency of the commerce stack.
Also, with the constant shifting of business
needs and increasing numbers of devices, APIs
that need access to browse and search are
mandating that the search and browse function
have its own development and deployment
lifecycles to increase speed. These factors all
contribute to this shift in the industry.
• Distributed software development: This style
of development is inevitable today, with glob-
ally distributed teams and the new paradigm
of everything-as-a-service architectures. While
Agile recommends co-location, it is not always
practical given that the partners in the e-com-
merce ecosystem are spread across different
organizations and around the globe. The best
practices mentioned above mitigate the risks
of distribution of the teams. The risks are fur-
ther reduced by having daily “stand-ups,” or
quick meetings, between the representatives
of each team/ location, using the code quality
metrics from these tools.
Looking Forward: An Alternative
Approach
While these basic software engineering best
practices increase predictability and quality,
there are some additional e-commerce-specific
best practices often used by the likes of Amazon,
Google and other dot.coms. These are more
suited to organizational cultures that can shift
their mindsets away from the need to thoroughly
and exhaustively test (almost) every possible use
case and have all stakeholders sign off before
anything is rolled out.
Instead, these organizations test the majority of
use cases using an automated approach and then
— in order to achieve speed-to-market — conduct
a controlled, limited rollout by targeting a small
fraction of the user base trying the new feature.
As other enterprises adopt this
model, they are breaking up their
formerly monolithic e-commerce
systems into individual services,
such as catalogs, offers,
promotions, search, browse, cart,
check-out, etc. and deploying
them independently.
5. cognizant 20-20 insights 5
That way, if something breaks, it would only
impact a very small percentage of the user base
before it can quickly be turned off or rolled back
to its previous state.
Some fast-growing sites perpetually stay in a
“beta” state by accepting such a controlled risk,
as it speeds up the lifecycle and offers two sig-
nificant advantages: the ability to rapidly roll
out features (and roll back if necessary) and
the ability to measure the usage of features to
determine ROI. While large corporations cannot
perpetually stay in a beta state as dot.coms and
startups can, we believe a middle ground can be
established by fully testing the core e-commerce
site, with some new features introduced as beta,
using the following techniques.
• Fail fast, fail often: This is a model in which
rapid experimentation is encouraged by rolling
out several new ideas to see which one suc-
ceeds. To accomplish this without disturbing
the online business, a sliver of the production
environment is set aside for rolling out beta
features. Some experiments can be quickly
conducted in production (of course, with care-
ful control of the throttle to send only qualified
traffic), using a sliver of production; i.e., using
one server in each layer with a newer version
that can interoperate with the current soft-
ware. This allows for the deployment of a new
or updated component in parallel, with mini-
mal impact to the existing ecosystem.
• Feature switches: All major and high-risk
features and enhancements should be built
so they can be turned off (or rolled back to a
previous behavior) with a configuration switch.
There should only be a few design patterns of
implementing switches; if there are too many
types of configuration settings, multiplied by
many different lower environments, it will
quickly become a nightmare to manage these
configurations in each environment, requir-
ing yet another dashboard or control system
for configurations. We do not recommend this
level of complexity, unless a multi-tenant sys-
tem is being built, so moderation is key.
• Multivariate testing: Instrumenting these
switches together using a multi-variate testing
tool (such as Adobe Target8
) enables a fraction
of this traffic to be sent to this new feature. It
is usually turned on for about 5% to 10% of
the traffic during the first week(s) of the roll-
out and is then notched up, eventually rolling
forward or backward, based on the ROI metrics.
The traditional reason for multivariate testing
is to measure the difference in user adoption
and behavior for the “before and after”
scenarios under similar conditions. This helps
product owners implement the right solution
with the highest ROI. It also helps them refine
their ROI estimation models so they can focus
on the highest priority items.
Dot.coms use this method for a more important
reason, as well: To limit the damage in case
something goes wrong in spite of all the
testing that was done (or could not be done).
Note that when some features impact multiple
systems and batch processes in the ecosystem,
it might take up to a week to realize something
went wrong until all the back-end feeds and
payment or refund processes are reconciled;
this can sometimes be difficult to catch even
in end-to-end testing. This limited exposure
to the new feature contains the damage
and minimizes manual recovery efforts. The
throttle can be notched down to 0%, eliminat-
ing further damage until the issue is fixed.
• Build the minimum viable product for 80%
of the use cases: Very often, organizations
fall into analysis-paralysis trying to solve for
all cases, including the edge cases. Instead,
they should use the 80-20 rule, which states
that the first 80% of functionality can be built
for 20% of the effort, while the last 20% of
functionality requires 80% of the effort. This
rule should be applied to the organization’s
advantage. After developing a minimum viable
product for 80% of the use cases, companies
should develop a manual catch-all process flow
for the rest of the edge cases, or move them
out of scope initially. The rest of the function-
ality can be built in as enhancements in a later
release, while realizing ROI on the most used
features that are deployed sooner. The re-
quirements, scoping and estimation activities
usually add four to six weeks to the schedule,
and focusing on the minimum viable product
cuts that time down, as well.
After developing a minimum
viable product for 80% of the use
cases, companies should develop
a manual catch-all process flow
for the rest of the edge cases, or
move them out of scope initially.
6. cognizant 20-20 insights 6
• Incorporate metrics: Metrics are a critical en-
abler — what gets measured usually improves.
Our view is that this should go deeper than
measuring the traditional operational metrics.
For example, measuring the usage of every
new feature would enable data-driven deci-
sions to achieve ROI-driven prioritization. This
helps focus limited resources on what matters
the most. It is important to take a stab at the
KPIs that will be affected by each new feature
before it is built so that the business can mea-
sure against them and refine the model ac-
cordingly.
Leaders of mature, nimble organizations meet
on a weekly basis and review the key metrics
to ensure they are on track with their organiza-
tional goals and are spending their time on the
right activities. These organizations typically
have dashboards built to display these metrics
so that the entire staff has visibility into the
progress being made toward the annual goals,
thereby significantly improving the chances of
success.
Once the above pieces of the puzzle are in
place, a typical problem scenario turns into
something like this:
A marketing director comes up with
an urgent requirement that requires
changes in the browse, checkout, fulfill-
ment and marketing systems. The teams
are already working on a scheduled
release, but fortunately, some bandwidth
was allocated for unexpected require-
ments, and the co-sourcing partner
chips in with its flex resources to quickly
work in parallel on this requirement.
The code that is developed is traceable,
using the tools provided, and can be
quickly reverted either at the code level
or configuration level or by diverting
traffic, providing three layers of fallback
in case of any issues. However, most
issues are caught due to the automated
testing and targeted rollout. In the worst
case, the feature is disabled for new
traffic until the issues are fixed. The
other pre-scheduled features committed
on the roadmap are not affected
because of this unexpected requirement,
resulting in a win-win situation.
The organization is now resilient. Note that all
the work intake cannot be processed using this
“unexpected requirement” route but only a small
fraction that is truly exceptional.
With the right combination of design, tools, engi-
neering, processes and teamwork, enterprises
can react very rapidly to change and deliver
high-quality releases to production with minimal
downtime.
Note: All logos and trademarks mentioned in this
paper belong to their respective owners. The
tools mentioned above are illustrative, and their
applicability to different situations might vary.
The right toolset for any shop can be recom-
mended only after an assessment of the current
processes, toolsets and skillsets in place.