Agility Drivers

Our growing ability to swiftly put together sophisticated software affords us the luxury to listen to our customers, to try out new things, to make mistakes, to redesign as we move along—in short to be agile. On the technological front, the main driving forces are powerful operating systems, the widespread availability database management systems, a wide selection of libraries, interoperability standards, versatile programming languages, ample processing power, and sophisticated development tools. On the environment front, agility is driven by specialized education, informal management structures, Web access, open source software, shifting user expectations, and the ubiquitous availability of IT infrastructures. Where agility drivers are present, we must adjust our development processes, demand more from our software suppliers, and develop in-house capacity to organically grow applications and services that will delight and even captivate our users and customers.