Agile transformation in IT business models

10

October

2021

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The Agile way of working within organizations has become very popular. Many companies transform go through an Agile transformation, and some companies have adopted Agile way of working from the start, such as Spotify.

But first, for anyone who is not familiar with Agile yet: What is Agile?

Agile is an approach to project management. According to the dictionary, the word Agile literally means ‘able to move quickly and easily’. In this project management approach, team members are stimulated to adapt to changes, give feedback and interact with each other and possible the clients in order to deliver efficiently. The Agile way of working actually finds its origin in the software development sector, where developers worked in sprints (iterations) of 2 to 4 weeks. In between these sprints feedback from clients was requested and based on this feedback, the software developers would start a new sprint until the software was finished to the wishes of the client.

If Agile would be implemented throughout the whole business, it is important that this approach is being introduced on every level:

Figure 1: Overview of the business model elements and the Agile implementation.
  • Organization & Governance – The organization should rather be decentralized than centralized in order for Agile to function.
  • Capabilities, Services & Processes – Workers should learn the skills needed for Agile to function properly. This involves stand-ups, giving feedback and flexibility. Revising processes in order for them to work according to Agile is crucial as well. 
  • People & Skills – In order for an Agile team, it is crucial that the members are intrinsically motivated and flexible. Transparency is essential in an Agile environment and it would be wise to introduce an Agile coach in each team in order to guide the team.  
  • Performance management – Performance should be clearly measured in order to create a clear progress. Performance metrics should be implemented by board level management. 
  • Technology – Technology should be modular and easily interconnected in order for it to be flexible and easily adaptable.
  • Sourcing – Current supplier contracts should be revised and closely checked on ‘constraints and impediments’ that could be in the way for your company to become Agile. 

In order to implement the Agile way of working, a fitting transformation approach should be selected. 

Figure 2: Agile transformation approaches

According to the article from Cohen, Lindvall and Costa, a focus on top-down approach should best support an organization to implement Agile. 

References

Cohen, D., Lindvall, M., & Costa, P. (2004). An introduction to agile methods. Adv. Comput., 62(03), 1-66.

Wat is Agile? (Voordelen en manier van werken). (n.d.). Lean Six Sigma Groep. Retrieved October 9, 2021, from https://leansixsigmagroep.nl/lean-agile-en-six-sigma/wat-is-agile/

Coolen, J., Bos, V., de Koning, T., & Koot, W. (n.d.). AGILE TRANSFORMATION OF THE (IT) OPERATING MODEL. Opgehaald van Compact: https://www.compact.nl/articles/agile-transformation-of-the-it-operating-model/

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How Cozy Bears contributed to Russia’s large share in state-sponsored hacking

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October

2021

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This blog is based on the annual Microsoft Digital Defense Report, which covers the months of July 2020 to June 2021.

Recently Microsoft published their Digital Defense report exposing nations where cyberattacks mostly origin from. According to this report, large scale cyber hackers are countries such as North Korea, Iran and China. However, last year’s winner is Russia. Over the past year, Russia has been accounted for the majority of state-sponsored hackings according to the Digital Defense report published by Microsoft. With a 58% share, the winner primarily targets US government agencies. An example of one of Russia’s hacks is SolarWinds, which was discovered in 2020. The SolarWinds software has contributed to an increase in Russian succession of state-backed hackers by 11%. The success rate went up from 21% to 32%, which proves that the succession of the Russian attacks has increased drastically.

The Russian hacking group who was behind SolarWinds is called ‘Cozy Bear’. These not so snuggly bears are being accounted for more than 92% of Russian hacking activities. The group has largely humiliated the US government, and US senators still hold a grudge for this action. The group extracted 80% of all email accounts in the US Department of Justice.

As the US found the Cozy Bears not so cozy, they refer now to them as Nobelium. After the group of Cozy Bears was discovered, Russia started focusing on other areas such as organizations developing COVID-19 related operations, security and geopolitics again.

Russia can still learn a lot from its neighbor China regarding effectiveness, as China has a cyberattack success rate of 44%. However, China was was only accounted for “less than one out of every ten state-sponsored hacking attempts”, which is only 8%, while Russia was responsible for 58% as aforementioned.

However, China and Russia are both very successful compared to the overall success rate of country hackers, as the average success rate is around 10 – 20%.


Facts regarding state-sponsored cyberattacks:

  • Cyberattacks are mostly targeted at consumer retail (13%), financial services (12%), manufacturing (12%), government (11%) and health care (9%). The victim of these attacks are often the United States.
  • Most often used, and fastest growing attack strategy are ransomware assaults. In this kind of digital assault, the hackers attempts to get money from its victims.
  • State-sponsored cyberattacks are mainly aiming on gaining knowledge regarding geopolitics and security.

References

Associated Press. (2021, October 7). Microsoft: Russia behind 58% of detected state-backed hacks. Opgehaald van MAG MTV: https://www.wagmtv.com/2021/10/07/microsoft-russia-behind-58-detected-state-backed-hacks/

Microsoft. (2021). Microsoft Digital Defense Report. Microsoft.

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