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10 Things CIOs Need to Know About Agile Development- Gartner

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Gartner Inc. has reiterated that chief information officers (CIOs) are under pressure to support fast-evolving digital business scenarios but are finding traditional project and development methods unsuitable.

According to Gartner, enterprises are increasingly turning to agile development to speed up projects and illustrate their value.

Speaking ahead of the Gartner Application Architecture, Development and Integration Summit in Sydney this month, Nathan Wilson, research director at Gartner, said that executed well, use of agile methods has the capability to transform IT-business relationships and have a major positive impact on IT value delivery.

However, the value will be delivered only if the CIO and the entire IT management team are dedicated to the culture change that is necessary for success.

“Done well, agile development can be an integral part of the portfolio of methods that the CIO uses to deal with increasing business demand for innovation,” said Mr. Wilson. “Done badly, agile development will create a lot more problems than it solves.”

Gartner has identified 10 guiding principles for agile development:

Agile Is Not One Thing

Agile development methodologies are a set of approaches to software development that share a common philosophy but are sharply distinguished in the details of their implementations.

They therefore tend to be adapted to different sorts of problems.

Sophisticated organizations with a lot of experience may well use more than one of these approaches, but an organization that is getting started should select one approach and master it before attempting other approaches.

Agile Is Not A “Pick’n Mix” Methodology

Agile methods are highly systematic. Every component element of the methodology is crucial to the success of the methodology.

A common mistake is for an organization to embrace some elements of an agile methodology, such as the sprint, but to ignore or play down other elements, such as managing “technical debt.”

Such organizations enjoy the kudos that comes from rapid development and release of new code, but they are storing up trouble by failing to address technical debt.

Embracing Agile Is A Joint Business-IT Activity

The full benefits of agile cannot be achieved without engaging with business leaders, management and the user community.

If the rest of the business does not have an immediate appetite for working in a new way, careful planning and communication will be needed to bring different communities of managers and users on board.

With Agile, It Is Important To Walk Before You Try Running

Experienced agile practitioners can tackle large-scale developments — the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.

But it takes many years to develop the necessary skills to be able to take on such large-scale software projects. Any organization that is starting out on the agile journey needs to start in the foothills to develop the confidence and competence to take on larger tasks.

Embracing Agile Is Embracing Continuous Learning

Agile practitioners must be committed to continuous improvement in quality and cost-effectiveness, which means that every development is analyzed for lessons that can be used to improve policies and working practices.

This analysis and learning are not the responsibility of a small number of senior practitioners; they are fundamental components of the workload of all agile practitioners.

Furthermore, the learning is not just appropriate to the programmers who are directly involved in software development; it is also essential for all the related skills, such as project management, architecture, quality assurance and IT budget management.

Agile Is About Teams And Teams Of Teams

The basic organizational unit of delivery in agile development is a small team, typically expressed as “seven, plus or minus two” people — both developers and quality assurance.

From an HR perspective, managing agile teams involves walking a fine line between keeping productive teams together and moving individuals between teams to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas.

If people are moved too frequently, the teams fail to develop into highly productive units; if people are not moved between teams enough, then each team starts to become isolated and diverges from the other teams.

It is important to note that physical location of teams is much more important with agile methods than with conventional approaches to development.

Documenting, Managing And Eliminating Technical Debt Is A Core Concept Of All Agile Methods

Technical debt is the difference between the state of a piece of software today and the state that it needs to be in to meet appropriate and necessary requirements for quality attributes such as reliability, performance efficiency, portability, usability, maintainability and security.

All development creates technical debt.

The difference with agile methods is that technical debt is recognized and added to the backlog, not swept under the carpet. Any organization that seeks to embrace agile methods must put in place the necessary elements of the chosen method dedicated to ruthless refactoring and the elimination of technical debt.

Working With Third-Party Development Service Providers On Agile Development Demands Special Care And Attention

Many user IT organizations have a long history of outsourcing application development to specialist service providers.

While there is a role for service providers in agile development, it is a very different commercial model and a very different engagement model.

Since colocation with business users is axiomatic to agile methods, the opportunities for sending large amounts of work offshore are somewhat limited, so some form of supplemental staffing is likely to be a more useful model.

The Impact Of Agile Goes Well Beyond The Software Development Teams

An integral component of the agile methodologies is the concept of “continuous delivery.”

Agile methodologies are predicated on continuous engagement with business managers and users, and lead to the delivery of a continuous stream of new and modified software into the operational environment.

This demands significant changes in working practices for both business governance and relationship management and the infrastructure and operations teams.

Other Software Development Methodologies Will Still Have A Place In Your Portfolio

In most commercial and public sector organizations, the application portfolio will present many different classes of development problems, some of which will be well-suited to agile, while some may be better-suited to incremental, iterative development and some to a modified waterfall model.

Agile is not “better”; it is simply better-adapted to some problems, but not so well-adapted to others.


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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NITDA, CISCO Empower Youth with Digital Skills

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Fifty selected young unemployed Nigerians have completed a four-week intensive digital skills bootcamp under the Digital Literacy for All (DL4ALL) initiative, gaining practical training in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and IT Essentials.

The programme, a collaborative effort between the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Cisco, was hosted at NITDA’s South West Zonal Office in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking on behalf of the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa , the Head of the South West Zonal Office, Mrs. Chioma Okee-Agugwo, described the initiative as a vital component of Nigeria’s digital future. “This is not just a closing ceremony. It is the launchpad for new journeys—anchored in digital knowledge and powered by innovation,” she remarked.

According to the Director General, the initiative is rooted in NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0) and reflects key focus areas including Digital Literacy, Emerging Technologies, and Youth Empowerment. It also aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which seeks to accelerate economic diversification through digitisation, innovation, and skills development.

Inuwa noted that the DL4ALL initiative forms part of Nigeria’s broader commitment to digital inclusion—ensuring that no one is left behind in the evolving digital economy. It also supports the ambitious goal of achieving 70% digital literacy by 2027, championed by the Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani. This national vision aims to equip millions of Nigerians with the skills required to thrive in a tech-driven world.

He further emphasized the importance of empowering youth with globally relevant skills. “They are no longer just consumers of technology. They are creators, innovators, and future employers,” he said.

The NITDA boss explained that throughout the bootcamp, participants engaged in hands-on learning experiences designed to build both technical proficiency and digital leadership capabilities.

“This is only the beginning,” he stated. “Through our zonal strategy, we are bringing innovation closer to local communities. This is how we democratise access and unlock Nigeria’s full digital potential.”

Inuwa expressed appreciation to Cisco for delivering high-impact training and called on stakeholders to continue investing in partnerships, people, and platforms that drive digital inclusion.

He asserted that the newly certified participants are now equipped to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s digital economy—armed with the skills to build solutions, secure infrastructure, and launch tech ventures that solve real-world problems.

At the end of the bootcamp, participants demonstrated their knowledge through impressive presentations that showcased the integration of skills acquired across Data Science, AI, and IT Essentials. Many spoke passionately about how the programme had expanded their technical competence and sparked a drive to create job opportunities—not only for themselves but also for others—as entrepreneurs and digital solution providers in their communities.


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Cyberattack Could Cost it Up to $400m – Coinbase

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Coinbase forecast a hit of between $180m and $400m from a cyberattack that breached account data of a “small subset” of its customers, the crypto exchange said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Cyberattack Could Cost it Up to $400m - Coinbase

The company received an anonymous email on May 11, claiming to have information about certain customer accounts as well as internal documents.

While some data — including names, addresses and emails — was stolen, the hackers did not get access to login credentials or passwords, Coinbase said.

Still, it will reimburse customers who were tricked into sending funds to the attackers.

Hackers had paid multiple contractors and employees working in support roles outside the US to collect information.

The company has fired those involved, it said.

Separately, the New York Times reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating whether the company had misstated its user numbers.

Coinbase shares extended losses after the report and were last down 6.5%.

“This is a hold-over investigation from the prior administration about a metric we stopped reporting two-and-a-half years ago, which was fully disclosed to the public,” said Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer.

“While we strongly believe this investigation should not continue, we remain committed to working with the SEC to bring this matter to a close.”

The SEC declined to comment.

The latest developments come days before the company is set to join the benchmark S&P 500 index, casting a shadow over what was expected to be a landmark moment for the crypto industry.

Security remains a challenge for the crypto industry despite its growing mainstream acceptance.

In February, Bybit disclosed a hack in which about $1.5bn worth of digital tokens were stolen — widely described the biggest crypto heist ever.

“The cyberattack may push the industry to adopt stricter employee vetting and introduce some reputational risks,” said Bo Pei, an analyst at US Tiger Securities.

Funds stolen by hacking crypto platforms amounted to $2.2bn in 2024, according to a report from Chainalysis, a US-based blockchain analysis firm.

“As our nascent industry grows rapidly, it draws the eye of bad actors, who are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the scope of their attacks,” said Nick Jones, founder of crypto firm Zumo.

Coinbase has refused to pay a ransom of $20m demanded by the attackers and is working with law enforcement agencies. Instead it has established a $20m reward for information on the hackers.

The company is also opening a new support hub in the US and taking other measures to prevent such cyberattacks, it said.

 

 

 


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Q1 2025 .ng Domain Name Statistics Reflect Nigeria’s Advancing Digital Landscape

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The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) presents its report on .ng domain name registration and renewal statistics for the first quarter of 2025, highlighting the continued expansion of Nigeria’s digital footprint. The data underscores a consistent and significant adoption of the nation’s Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), reinforcing its pivotal role in the burgeoning Nigerian digital economy.

During the period spanning January to March 2025, a total of 40,791 .ng domain names were recorded. This figure comprises 22,236 new registrations and 18,555 renewals, indicating a healthy balance between the acquisition of new digital identities and the sustained commitment of existing domain name holders to their online presence.

Analysis of the registration trends within the quarter reveals a notable upward trajectory, with a 13.92% increase in domain name registrations observed between February and March 2025.

This growth signifies an increasing recognition of the importance of a localized online identity by a diverse range of stakeholders, including individuals, startups, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and larger organizations.

Notably, the .com.ng extension continues to be the dominant choice, accounting for over 60% of both new registrations and renewals. This reaffirms its status as the preferred domain name extension for Nigerian businesses seeking to establish a credible and locally relevant online brand presence while maintaining global accessibility. The sustained popularity of .com.ng underscores its perceived value among Nigerian entrepreneurs and enterprises seeking to secure their digital real estate.

This upward trajectory isn’t happening by chance. The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has remained intentional in its drive for digital inclusion and domain adoption. Through public education, training via the .ng Academy, outreach campaigns, and partnerships with stakeholders across the tech ecosystem, NiRA has consistently advocated for the importance of owning a local domain.  The current standing of .ng as the second most registered ccTLD in Africa reflects the efficacy of these efforts.

Digital adoption in Nigeria is no longer just about being online—it’s about owning your digital identity. And with a .ng domain, Nigerians are better positioned to assert that identity, connect with local and international audiences, and gain better control over their digital footprints.

As we look toward the rest of 2025, the Q1 results serve as a strong signal: more people are embracing the digital future, and the .ng domain is increasingly becoming their first step.


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