Insights top picks from 2024

Dear Readers,

As the year draws to a close, here’s a look at what sparked your interest and engaged you on Insights. 

There was heightened interest in AI whether it was navigating the landscape of AI tools for software delivery or getting started with legacy modernization, AI was everywhere and you dear reader couldn't get enough of it. We published deeply technical content on several key aspects that steered AI conversations including the need to have good governance in place while using AI tools and building products. We also wrote on an array of tech trends that are shifting the technology landscape including transformation in retail, financial, banking and insurance services, cloud, FinOps and others.  

Thank you dear readers for your support and encouragement.

The Insights editorial team would also like to thank all Thoughtworkers, guests, alumni and clients who have made Insights what it is today, a hub for thought leadership content. 

How to overcome tech debt and keep your business moving by Rachel Laycock

The essential guide to managing your tech debt in a strategic manner that enables you to balance risk and investment — while getting your enterprise fit for the future.

Operationalizing AI: why managed services is the ideal place to start by Mathew Lee

When it comes to integrating and operationalizing the technology, most organizations struggle to get started. But there’s one area where operationalizing AI can be simpler and deliver significant business value: managed services.

Navigating the landscape of AI tools for software delivery by Birgitta Böckeler

The article provides a blueprint for how to think about tools for AI assistance in a software engineering organization

Kickstart your legacy modernization initiative with generative AI by Shodhan Sheth, Tom Coggrave and Alessio Ferri

Generative AI can accelerate some of the tricky parts of the legacy modernization process, specifically in helping you to understand your system and tackle capability gaps.

Leveraging data as a product: a strategic imperative for business leaders by Rebecca Lamury

This article explores the fundamental concept of treating data as a product (DaaP) and its essential role in reshaping business strategies.

Three-part articles series on transformation within organizations that recommended doing away with the break and fix approach, evolving digital assets through managed services and provide five strategies  to maximise value of digital assets.

Generative AI can have a significant impact that potentially enables truly transformative change for millions of people: Jugalbandi.  Read all about this transformative project here.

Read how a robust platform strategy is one of the few effective approaches that can help you digitally transform your organization, but how do you build digital platforms that enable long-term success.

Besides blogs and articles we also publish the bi-annual Tech Radar report, podcasts and books. Here are our most popular podcast episodes from the Technology Podcast this year:

Software service granularity: Getting it right

In this episode of the Thoughtworks Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by Neal Ford and Mark Richards — authors of multiple books on software architecture — to discuss service granularity. They explain why it matters and how software architects can go about getting it right, through the lens of granularity integrators and disintegrators. 

Themes from Technology Radar Vol.31

In this episode of the Technology Podcast we discuss interesting blips that featured in the Radar including coding assistance antipatterns, Rust being anything but rusty, the rise of WebAssembly and what we describe as the "cambrian explosion of generative AI tools." To do so, Alexey Boas is joined by guests and podcast regulars Ken Mugrage and Neal Ford. We launched the Tech Radar Vol 31 on October 23. 

Refactoring with AI

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Adam Tornhill, CTO and Founder of CodeScene, joins Thoughtworks' Rebecca Parsons (CTO Emerita), Birgitta Böckeler (Global Lead for AI-assisted software delivery) and Martin Fowler (Chief Scientist and author of the influential Refactoring book) to discuss all things AI and code. From refactoring and code quality to the benefits and limitations of coding assistants, this is an essential conversation for anyone that wants to understand how AI is going to shape the way we build software.  

At Thoughtworks, we deliver cutting-edge tools and technology to our enterprise clients. As a result, we're always learning new things — and we believe in sharing our expertise which is why we provide extensive support to Thoughtworkers writing books. Here are some popular books this year:

Head First Software Architecture: A Learner's Guide to Architectural Thinking

Software architecture can be a tricky area to get started with, even for relatively experienced software developers. What can make it worse is having to wade through dense textbooks and pages and pages of theoretical prose. That's why Neal Ford, Raju Gandhi and Mark Richards developed Head First Software Architecture. Taking a radically different approach to the technical book, they bring the key concepts and ideas behind software architecture to life in a visual — and fun — way. 

Effective Machine Learning Teams: Best practices for ML practitioners

This book explains and demonstrates how to develop and run teams that can deliver machine learning solutions rapidly. David Tan, Ada Leung and Dave Colls build on their collective experience working on machine learning projects to provide you with insight and guidance that is immediately actionable.

You can explore our extensive book collection in the library.

The Insights editorial team wishes you an incredible 2025. Look out for Looking Glass in January, the first thought leadership report we will publish in the new year.