Debbie Madden has been working as a tech industry CEO for more than 10 years and is currently leading Agile software consultancy Stride. She shares the top technology trends businesses are likely to see in 2016 based on her team’s experience working with dozens of diverse tech teams big and small.

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/12/2015 --Forward-thinking businesses are starting to plan their 2016 budgets and projects. Debbie Madden, a 10-year tech industry CEO and consultant, is working with dozens of firms -- big and small – to solve their biggest technology challenges going into the New Year. Though the companies she works with are diverse – from online magazines like The Daily Beast and retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, to headhunters like Hip Hire and financial advisors at Corporate Insight – she has noted several driving technology trends that are common to nearly all industries.

"Co-location is huge in 2016," says Debbie Madden. "In the past, we saw a lot of emphasis on working remotely with teams spread out around the globe to save money. However, companies were finding it was costing them in the long run as they struggled to keep track of all the moving parts and keep everyone on the same page. Face-to-face communication is the most effective mode of communicating, which is why our team embeds itself physically in the same room as our clients. Our schedules are still flexible, but the in-person meetings make a huge difference in productivity."

In a recent blog, Madden describes six other observations for 2016, including the following:

- Pair programming is splintering – "At Stride, we're seeing pairing used on projects about 60-70% of the time. Pairing is helpful when hiring new developers, training junior developers, learning a new language or solving a problem that hasn't been solved before, but pair programming is no longer viewed as a black-and-white decision."

- Test Driven Development (TDD) is still the gold standard – "Striving for the highest level of TDD continues to be the trend for both mobile and front-end code. We still work with a few teams using Lean Startup to test a new idea, but even they typically go back and re-write code once they've confirmed their hypotheses."

- Monoliths are being split into micro-services – "Everyone is using micro-services these days, but businesses must be careful not to assume this is a silver bullet. Response time is slow when new services hammer your app. The right tools are helpful, but no substitute for communication."

- Native mobile is less critical – "New front-end innovations like React.js and Angular.js are making it easier for teams to build one responsive website, rather than developing a mobile app prior to building out a website."

- Contracts are becoming more agile – "Lawyers are starting to learn more about Agile projects to effectively tweak legal documents in more intelligent ways."

- UX is becoming more iterative – "Several years ago, the standard was to do a large portion of UX/IX up front, and still kind of throw it over the wall to the developers. We are seeing more and more UX teams fully integrate within cross-functional Agile teams and work in an iterative way alongside developers to speed up progress."

More information on all of these points can be found on the Stride NYC blog. Also, businesses looking to align themselves with these technology trends and speed up their projects in 2016 are invited to contact Debbie Madden at Stride NYC to speak with a consultant.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.stridenyc.com/blog/top-tech-trends-for-business-in-2016/

About Stride
Stride is an Agile consultancy in NYC. We embed and co-locate with tech teams (like Plated, Gust, Sailthru, Intent Media) to help you be your best. Think of us as Agile SWAT teams. We partner highly skilled Agile developers with your dev team. As a result, we leverage the skills of your entire team and help you improve code quality and your Agile process in perpetuity. Whether you seek process refinement (TDD, Refactoring, Tech Debt, Estimates, Continuous Delivery, etc.) or need to get high quality code out the door to launch your MVP, Stride is here to help.

About Debbie Madden
Debbie Madden has built five companies from the ground up and has been CEO of three of them. She is currently the CEO of Stride, an Agile software development consultancy in NYC. Prior to Stride, Debbie was the CEO of Cyrus Innovation, which she ran for 10 years, grew into a five-time Inc. 5000 winner, and Crain's NY Best Place to Work.

Contact:
175 Varick Street Suite #423 New York, NY 10014
212-634-7240
info@stride.nyc