ThoughtWorks' Bi-Annual Technology Radar Highlights Emerging Trends in Augmented Reality and Changing Structure of Software Teams

"Our latest Technology Radar highlights the current trends that are impacting the way the industry operates, from the rapid adoption of augmented and virtual reality to the way teams are organized," said Dr. Rebecca Parsons, CTO of ThoughtWorks. "With the launch of this Radar comes the opportunity for leaders to visualize their tech strategy by creating their own radar. The new tool provides an exciting chance for organizations to put technology at the core of their business and to better understand how to reap its benefits."

"Adopting and staying ahead of current trends in technology is vital for business success, which makes the Technology Radar so pertinent," said Craig Gorsline, President and Chief Commercial Officer of ThoughtWorks. "By showcasing these consistent changes and allowing others to get involved in creating their own radar, we hope more businesses can implement necessary changes and help their organizations thrive."

The graphical nature of the Radar groups items into techniques, tools, platforms, and languages and frameworks. These are further grouped into four rings: Adopt, Trial, Assess, and Hold, in order to give a clear perspective on the current position on these items.

The notable themes in this edition of Technology Radar include:

• Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Easing Towards the Mainstream
  Hardware such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Microsoft HoloLens is maturing to the point that early adopters can reap benefits without fumbling with immature technology. Although software platforms like OpenVR and Unity have long been mature, new natural language processing (NLP) tools like Nuance Mix, and hardware that provides natural interactions will have a huge impact on the adoption of AR and VR. We will see significant challenges in the creation and delivery of AR and VR content as the skills and capabilities lag behind the pace of hardware, particularly in the enterprise.

• Intelligent Empowerment
  Long-time R&D topics like machine learning and artificial intelligence suddenly have practical applications through frameworks like Nuance Mix and Google's TensorFlow. Companies frequently open-source sophisticated libraries and tools in this space that would have been stratospherically expensive and therefore restricted a decade ago, making them available to a wide audience of developers. Many factors have evolved and combined to make new tools possible: commodity computing, targeting specific hardware like GPUs and cloud resources. This is an efficient way to make use of the Big Data that's been stored.

• Docker as Process, PaaS as Machine, Microservices Architecture as Programming Model
  Developers can think of a container as a self-contained process and the PaaS as the common deployment target, using the microservices architecture as the common style. Decoupling the architecture allows the same for teams, cutting down on coordination cost among silos. Its attractiveness to both developers and DevOps has made this the de facto standard for new development in many organizations.

• The Holistic Effect of Team Structure
  Tech companies are popularizing the "you build it, you run it" style of team autonomy, and we're seeing the same product thinking applied to enterprise projects. When restructuring teams yields better results, it illustrates once again that software development is still mostly a communication problem. Building cross-functional teams increases the beneficial surface area of communication across traditionally segregated job roles, which in turn removes friction imposed by artificial structures like silos.

Visit ThoughtWorks.com/radar to access the interactive version or download the PDF.

Organizations can visualize their own strategy and go through the radar creation exercise in order to:

• Objectively assess what's working and what isn't
• Pollinate innovation across teams and experiment accordingly
• Balance the risk in technology portfolios
• Determine the type of technology organization you want to be
• Break down silos and improve communication

We want to hear from you. Continue the conversation on Twitter (@thoughtworks #TWTechRadar).

About Technology Radar  

Technology Radar, now in its 7th year, is created by the ThoughtWorks Technology Advisory Board, which consists of 20 senior technologists from around the globe who serve as regular advisors to Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Rebecca Parsons. At ThoughtWorks we are focused on helping our industry improve and believe in sharing what we learn. We encourage you to explore the technologies in the Radar and then use this free visualization tool to map your own technology landscape.

About ThoughtWorks

We are a software company and community of passionate purpose-led individuals. We think disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients' toughest challenges all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change.

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