Making IT succeed today involves much more than technology considerations. Modern ways of working rely on people working together in high performance teams, placing increasing emphasis on people having strong soft skills. So in this post, while we have consultants sharing technology learning on MicroServices, VSTS and Azure, we also have consultants sharing learning on cognitive bias and the human and organisational considerations for Agile adoption and transformation.

This article is republished from my original Adding Personas To Work In VSTS post on fantail.io.

During the week I finished adding the requirements I started in my previous post.  I found I needed a few more features - one about Security and one covering setting up the development projects and builds.  I also discovered an extension for VSTS that will help me keep focused on the users while I work. VSTS has a marketplace where you can see all the extensions and install those you think are useful. The one I will install is Personas, by Agile Extensions. 

In New Zealand the scale of most solutions, and the dev teams working on them, are tiny compared to global software companies. Yet many developers, architects and CxOs I work with, want to do things 'because Netflix does it' – especially when it comes to MicroServices.

Highly respected Auckland solution architect Faranak Torabi has joined Equinox IT's Cloud business.

Faranak takes up the role of Senior Solution Architect where she will be responsible for designing and delivering Microsoft Azure and other technical solutions for Equinox IT clients.

Nearly every organisation is somewhere on their cloud journey - at Equinox IT we spend a lot of time helping organisations to decide how rapidly they can safely transition their systems. While there are technical constraints, mostly these are conversations about the risk appetite of the organisation, and what rate of change both users and IT staff are able to cope with. Many organisations associate their current technologies, structures and operating models with low-risk and perceive rapid change as increasing risk - when in reality not changing fast enough can put them at greater risk.