Agile software development works because of continuous feedback at various levels, and the most important form of feedback is working software. One way to achieve rapid feedback is to integrate and deploy code frequently. Rather than starting with the process, first decide what "frequently" should mean for your team.

When automated tests work perfectly one day but fail for no discernible reason the next, it's easy to get frustrated with automation. But you don't have to stay in the dark. Many of the tools we use today allow us to extend their reach with some custom code. Just use some systems thinking and a little imagination.

It’s still early in the lifecycle of cloud adoption. This means certain cloud vendors and technologies will fall by the wayside as adoption takes on critical mass. How, then, do you future-proof your cloud solution to make sure you don’t make a decision that you’ll regret later? Here are three ideas to consider.