Looking back at future IT trends

A few years ago I created a presentation covering the trends that I was seeing in the IT market and I came across this deck a few weeks ago. It's been interesting to consider whether we, as an IT industry, actually delivered on some of these trends. Here they are for your consideration and my scores of our performance:

1. Everything As A Service - With the increased use of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS I proposed that a service mentality would start to purvade other parts of IT and maybe even make into the SI space. I think there's some way to go on this and so it's probably a 5 out of 10, could do better, regarding the delivery of this.
2. Change enabled at Pace - DevOps, Agile and Factory delivery models. Well there's definately been lots of talk, lots of view points and some successes. Many of these areas are underpinned by quickly developing technologies and so it's hard to give full marks. Also, there are some segments of the markets that "agilewash" their messaging but still deliver old skool, so let's say 8 out of 10 here.
3. A focus on driving up value - Always a challenge due to the every changing perception of value. Pro-active innovation, value based pricing models, process optimisation all contribute to this area but the challenge comes delivering many of these new initiatives when the day job needs doing. I think the intention was always strong, the desire is high but it's really "could do better" - 4 out of 10.
4. Business and End User alignment - End users are a strange bunch, aren't they? Getting aligned to them and to the business where they work has always been a challenge. When I put together the trends there was a lot of IT spend occurring in the business due to a misalignment of IT and the business since then some improvements have taken place but with the increasing use of Lo-Code/No-code platforms then this will be tested again. I'm going to say 7 out of 10 for effort but don't let it slip again.
5. Silent running, no-Ops - Automation and tooling has advanced considerably in recent years but like a lot of technology the full value of them is not being exploited. When looking at this area I think I would split my scoping - in the Digital space I think we're saying 9 out of 10 because many of these applications and platforms need to be run seemlessly, in the non-Digital space still some work to do and so it's a 6 out of 10.

So it's a bit like my old school reports some good things to take away and some areas to focus on. I still think these trends or objectives will still be relevant for the next 5 years (yes I made them in 2017) and I know from what we're doing currently our scores will be considerably higher in 2027.