Beware Press-Release-Driven Development
Software developers are big on what's driving development. We have all sorts of DDs:
TDD: Test-Driven Development
BDD: Behaviour-Driven Development
DDD: Domain-Driven Development
There's also Resume-Driven Development, in which an engineer absolutely, positively, and vehemently insists that the system must be rewritten in the latest framework or language, mostly because it will help them land a better job.
The company-wide version of that is Press-Release Driven Development. Does your project really need quantum computing, blockchain, augmented reality or generative AI, or are you just doing it because it will make you and your company look cool?
It's fantastic that companies want to explore how emerging technologies can help their businesses. However, that exploration must be evaluated against real business problems, not vice versa. The problem statement must come first; otherwise, you will endlessly chase the latest fad.
There's a good chance new technology, especially AI, can help your business in amazing ways, but those might be non-obvious and rather subtle, and you can only uncover them if you start from the actual pain you are trying to solve, rather than a shiny piece of tech. Do you know what's cooler than GenAI and the Metaverse combined? Solving a problem people care about!
To keep it simple: Ask yourself if you'd still do the thing if you couldn't tell anybody about what's under the hood. If yes, chances are you are focused on the problem!
