Struggling to start a 'two-track' approach to IT? Start with mobile app development

FeedHenry CEO Cathal McGloin tells CIOs that the best way to start a core IT/agile IT approach is with a simple mobile app project

Companies struggling with a "two track" approach to IT - seeking to sustain stability in core IT but also support an agile methodology - should start with mobile app development, according to Cathal McGloin, formerly CEO of mobile application platform provider FeedHenry, now VP Mobile Platforms at Red Hat.

McGloin told Computing that a two-track IT approach is one that many organisations are gunning for at the moment.

"The whole idea is keeping existing systems and skills running, but also introducing a new track with new skills, new tools and new ways of doing things that are more agile. You keep them alongside each other, rather than trying to change things altogether," he said.

While some organisations may struggle to implement two-track IT with complicated projects, McGloin urged companies to try it out on a simpler mobile project, pointing to Network Rail as an example.

"Network Rail is a company that is very traditional. It has older systems that have been there for years, things like the asset management systems and so forth. But a few years ago they decided to go mobile-first and bought tablet devices for staff and rolled out a number of apps," he said.

McGloin explained that Network Rail selected a mobile platform, with new tools and techniques, and built up a mobile agile team to look after it.

"In spring last year there was severe flooding and within eight hours the mobile team had built an app allowing them to take pictures out in the field and send them back to headquarters. That is the promise of this agile approach - you can do things very quickly because you have the tools and processes and a new way of doing things," he said.

Obstacles

McGloin said he knew of no examples of such a two-track approach to IT going wrong, but he added that there are numerous challenges to overcome. These include retaining the culture of the organisation, which could become harder with two separate teams. He said IT leaders also need to ensure they avoid creating conflict as a result of those dealing with older systems wanting to be involved with some of the new technologies.

"This can be addressed by introducing certain techniques and tools to the more traditional IT [team] to support the new products," McGloin suggested.

As for the people leading these teams, McGloin said that aside from the essential management skills, leaders needed to have knowledge of agile and scrum techniques, and the technologies associated with them, including concepts such as containerisation.

"[They need] a knowledge of cloud and DevOps skills and the tools and approaches that are out there including scrum and agile, but above all it is about management and leadership," he said.

McGloin emphasised that there is no one "flavour" of two-track working, and that FeedHenry, which was acquired by Red Hat last year, had seen many good examples of it in play.

"The second track can be outsourced, or partly outsourced, or it could involve cross-training existing staff. There is no single form of it, but CIOs have to recognise that to deliver the new stuff they have to change the way they have delivered things in the way of the past. We think mobile is a good way of introducing this, because it is small projects that don't affect the entire business, so it's a good way of getting feet wet," he said.

FeedHenry by Red Hat will be speaking at Computing's Enterprise Mobility Summit 2015, which is FREE for qualified end users to attend. For more information on the event click here.

This will be followed by Computing's inaugral DevOps Summit. For more information click here.