Automation the Driving Force Behind Agile Research

Two of the hottest topics at the moment are Automation (especially developments utilising Artificial Intelligence) and Agile Research. Separately, they are both interesting, but the key story is the way they interact and the role that automation has in facilitating and enhancing Agile Research. Agile Research is a movement that has borrowed its approach (and name) from the world of agile software development. For decades, software was developed through a process of mapping the space, developing a plan, and implementing it with a big bang approach (for example the move from Windows XP to Windows Vista and then Windows 7). However, the software world realised that their planning was often faulty; the world tended to change between design and implementation, and the effectiveness of the final product was often limited by the designer’s ability to envisage how the product’s use would evolve once it was available. Agile research picks up on many of the same trends as agile software development, for example: Accepting that forecasting the future more than a few months ahead is usually beyond us; That new products and services are unlikely to be designed right the first time (or the second); That an iterative, test and learn, […]