Software innovation builds upon cloud, collaboration, AI, and more

As we move into 2019, Forrester sees digital transformation as a continued driving force for the software industry, pushing teams to accelerate their innovative efforts. Last year, Forrester predicted that a host of enabling technologies, such as serverless computing, integrated DevOps tools, AI+ML, and low-code platforms, would enable digital transformation efforts. We also predicted the decline of project-oriented teams and the rise of product-centric teams.

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In 2019, we see these trends growing and becoming the necessary components to digital transformation. Agile+DevOps isn't just for unicorns anymore; it will be the requirement to stay competitive. And those integrated DevOps tool chains we predicted last year will have a dashboard: Value stream management tools. In addition, the cloud will become a necessary component to all AD&D efforts, including those of giants such as SAP. Ignoring the cloud is no longer an option.

Forrester has released its predictions for 2019, which will help AD&D leaders prepare for the coming year and guide them toward emerging technologies that will help them keep their foot on the innovation accelerator.

Here are two key takeaways from our 2019 software predictions:

Agile And DevOps Are The New Normal For Developers

Agile and DevOps are now core processes for development shops. As their adoption spreads, new processes and technologies will layer on top.

Cloud-Native, Value Stream, And AI-Based Tools Are Among The Next Frontiers

The quest for more productive and better-aligned development organizations continues. New platforms for cloud-native app architectures, value stream management tools, and infusing artificial intelligence into testing are among the breakout technologies we expect in 2019.

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As we approach 2019, software organizations of all industries will need to come to grips with the reality that working in siloed organizations, managing waterfall projects, and resisting the jump to the cloud will be the fast track to death. 2019 is the year that laggards need to leap into the Agile+DevOps fray, reorganize into product teams, and build their bridge to the cloud with adaptive, cloud-native technologies, led by product leaders armed with customer journey maps, and backed by multidiscipline teams.

By Christopher Condo, senior analyst

Download Forrester's Predictions 2019 guide to understand the 14 major dynamics that will impact firms next year.

This post originally appeared here.

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