Enterprise hits and misses - retail gets its redemption, and diginomica gets a low-code-versus-agile spanking

Lead story - diginomica fails agile, agile fails diginomica, and a low-code-versus-agile debate rages on

MyPOV: Oh boy, here we go. Now and again, diginomica becomes part of the story we are covering - but not in the way we intended.

Our story of the week is really two stories: how diginomica stoked an agile debate in a linkbaity sensational seat-of-the-pants problematic way - and the merits of the debate itself. I can't capture all the points here, so here's your blow-by-blow:

• Unqork CEO - ‘Agile has failed’ - Derek pens a piece featuring a low code upstart (Unqork), whose CEO, Gary Hoberman, has a clickhate controversial view of Agile. Hoberman's view, as Derek quotes it, comes off more as a self-interested marketing ploy than a substantive critique of Agile. Diginomica readers are unqorked take issue.
• Low code – how much of the promise can it really deliver? Diginomica reader Vijay Vijayasankar publishes his critique of Derek's piece, articulating his disappointment with diginomica in a deeper view of the low-code versus agile debate. Sidenote: those who know Vijayasankar's own history of throwing agile under the project bus Agile skepiticism had to appreciate his (relative) defense of Agile here. Evolving is good.
• Agile has failed - a rebuttal - diginomica publishes another critique of our original piece and Hoberman's quoted take, this time from recovering SAP project guru Agile practitioner John Appleby.
• Agile has failed? It's just getting started - our own Phil Wainewright closes out this round with a more impassioned defense of low-code/no-code than we got from Vijayasankar and Appleby - and why it will be disruptive to the development status quo.

I won't air out my own Agile views here - I commented on Derek and Phil's pieces already - except to say that most customers I talk to are (wisely) not religious about one methodology or technology over another. That's good: there are no automagical solutions. The next big thing isn't, but it may prove useful.

As for diginomica, I have no issue with Derek centering his piece around a provocative view from a CEO with a dog in the fight. However: I do agree with readers like Vijayasankar who wanted to see us weigh in with a critical review. In (most) diginomica articles that are not customer stories or explicit opinion pieces, we have a "My take" section where our authors critique, and offer needed context. That was missing from this story - and in my opinion, was sorely needed.

Derek had his reasons for not doing a "My take" in this case. Be that as it may, when I say we can do better, Derek doesn't disagree. I believe Derek has emerged as an essential voice in enterprise media. The driving force behind diginomica/government, Derek's views on workplace diversity and the business implications of the new/NoSQL stack are always must reads. But when we set a high standard, that's our job to live up to it. We've all done a turn on that particular spank tunnel, myself included. This column would be hypocritical pudding if I didn't apply that.

The agile-versus-low-code debate is hugely important to project leads who are grappling with where to put their development resources - and how to get out in front of industry shakeups. An old school blog-against-blog debate makes me nostalgic, while at the same time, proving that blog debates are still hugely relevant. You can't get to the bottom of any of this on Twitter. Snarky short-form is fun, but it won't help your project.

One powerful constituency, however, loved Derek's piece: Google's news algorithm. You can imagine how I feel about that. Diginomica is far from perfect, but we built our business model so as not to have to kiss Google's ass cater to our algorithmic content kingmakers. To keep our non-advertising business model going, our first job is: reader trust. Lose that trust, and page views, already a flawed stat, become completely meaningless. We stumbled on that front this week, but I'd like to believe by pushing the bigger conversation, we got back on track - and, going forward, we'll be the better for it. As always, you'll be the judge.

Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week

• Cloud security threats require improved IT collaboration, governance, not necessarily new technology - Kurt pushes further into the tech issue of the summer: "The notion that security must be immersed in all parts of the software and infrastructure deployment lifecycle is unimpeachable." Alas, my least favorite buzzword "DevSecOps" makes an appearance - but not without justification.
• Retail isn't dying, it's being reborn as an experience play - Phil pens one of my fave retail pieces of 2019. But: ongoing market carnage will result from retailers that can't redo/shed their (expensive) legacy storefronts fast enough. As Phil says: "The general rule for retail success in the digital age seems to be that you either make visiting the store an experience, or a convenience." Or - convenience IS the all too rare experience. Also see my attempts to avoid becoming a 5G fanboy: How will 5G impact retail - and how soon?
• Rope me in, tie me up - SaaS age vendor lock-in is here - Brian with one of the signature diginomica pieces of the year. Though Pete Townshend said it best way back in 1971: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my top choices from our vendor coverage:

• Salesforce buys ClickSoftware - but why now? - Phil applies his persnickety perspicacious persistent ability to read between the lines - this time to Salesforce's latest shopping binge.
• For Qualys, context is everything when it comes to securing cloud services - Martin kicks tires on one vendor's approach to the red hot/necessary topic of cloud security.
• Slack pitches in to align teamwork across the enterprise - Phil strikes again, this time analyzing Slack's enterprise ambitions - and their data on conquering productivity problems.
• Maintenance upgrade is next stop for First Bus on digitalization journey - Jess keeps our use cases trucking along, this time with a low emission bus rollout, aided by Infor's Enterprise Asset Management.

Jon's grab bag - I finally unleashed my thank you for your continued disservice slow burn Scoop.it meltdown in The problem of curation platforms, and the Scoop.it monetization clampdown. Meanwhile, Den put on his clown-the-clowns nose accounting hat and stepped into a social media cowpie fascinating GAAP debate in Mind the GAAP.

Stuart took his poodle and ran for the hills this week (vacation baby!), so Derek did his best Stuart-on-media impression with Viacom and CBS reunite - but can they win big in the streaming wars? Finally, Jerry provides tips and context for the IoT security situation in State-sponsored cyber spies targeting IoT - a warning from Microsoft.

Best of the rest

Top five enterprise picks from the Interwebs

I already blew out my word count, so here's the quick hit review:

• Cloud security is too important to leave to cloud providers - Joe McKendrick extracts 11 cloud security issues from a highly pertinent study.
• Why our team cancelled our move to microservices - These types of "tell-alls" are just as important - and much more rare - than tales of project success. However I took issue with those who interpreted this as a critique of microservices. Yes, in a sense, but it's really about how a project team pushed back against a tech infatuation from leadership.
• Top cloud providers 2019: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud; IBM makes hybrid move; Salesforce dominates SaaS - Nice roundup by Larry Dignan. Just be ready for ZDNet's newsletter pop-up/autoplay video UX nightmare crudtastic reader "experience."
• S/4HANA migration concerns lead SAP 2019 stories so far - Solid roundup of analyst takes on SAP's most important 2019 storylines.
• Next-generation supply chain--transforming your supply chain operating model for a digital world - Yeah, customers don't walk around saying "Man, I need a next generation supply chain." But the topic still matters.

 

Whiffs

Headline of the week contenders: Florida Vacation Home Invaded by Vomiting Vultures. And: Study: 8 in 10 people have cried at work (no surprise: almost 20 percent of those driven to tears were asked to write another blockchain press release).

Our virtual assistants are still pretty dumb:

But hey, at least they are giving big tech a unique voyeuristic data opportunity:

Diginomica contributor Brian Sommer achieved a milestone this week: the worst email business pitch he ever received. Here's a delightful excerpt:

Hi {{First Name}}.

I’m [My Name], a [College Name] student from [City]. In the past three years, I've helped my clients generate an additional $250,000 in revenue, and have worked for major brands across Canada and the United States through my web development agency, Mad Libs Marketing. I came across your [INDUSTRY] site, and it hasn't been updated since [YEAR]. Here's a mock-up of what your site could look like:

[Link to Wordpress template in their niche, through a subdomain of mine]

Your new site will be mobile-responsive (it isn’t currently)....

Yep, that's special (and no, their real name isn't Mad Libs Marketing, but that seemed appropriate). Brian, we're all looking forward to your spiffy, mobile-responsive web site - which is not responsive currently LMFAO!  See you next time...

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.