A Conversation with OCLC's Cindi Blyberg: Rethinking Products and Systems

This discussion with Cindi Blyberg of OCLC closed out the morning session of the two-day NFAIS Forethought Strategic Summit: Transforming Content Through Transformed Systems. Blyberg offered this as the abstract of her talk:

Changes in technology and requirements nearly always outstrip organizational capacity. Without careful planning, tech debt can pile up, and new requirements for privacy, security, accessibility, smooth user experience, and culturally-sensitive language can fall to the bottom of the priority list. If an organization does not champion their staff's professional development in their technology and product teams, it can quickly fall behind. Tech infrastructure can age quickly if not updated, leading to security problems and customers unhappy with products and interfaces and their accessibility and language. At the same time, the tech teams must work behind the scenes to ensure that no major functionality (or data!) is lost when modernizing. Learn how the software creation process has evolved away from one person writing scripts to larger and more varied teams who review code, write tests, and make use of modern tools to compensate for the expanded time it can take to create, maintain, and roll out changes. Lastly, hear strategies for scheduling the potential disruption in our modern, 24/7 world.

Click on the arrow above to watch the embedded video or click through here to view the recorded presentation on Youtube.