Amanda LeClair

Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

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Amanda is an analyst serving the needs of application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals. In this role, she helps clients understand the changing enterprise application services market and navigate the new engagement models of leading technology services firms. In her coverage, she explores business applications ecosystems, digital business transformation trends, and technology services spending patterns. Her research covers topics such as co-innovation, outcome-based services engagements, and the changing role of digital studios in services engagements.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to her current role as an analyst, Amanda was a researcher on Forrester's AD&D team. In that role, she contributed to Forrester's coverage of agile development and DevOps, led coverage on managing agile teams, and explored the intersection of design and customer experience with software development. She has extensive primary research experience, having served as research lead on Forrester Data's Global Business Technographics® Developer Survey and having conducted hundreds of research interviews with developers, VPs of technology, CIOs, and CTOs. In her role as a research associate, she contributed to Forrester's research on business technology transformation and technology market sizing.

Education

Amanda holds a B.A. in politics from Saint Anselm College.

Print Bio

Amanda LeClair

Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Read Amanda's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Amanda holds a B.A. in politics from Saint Anselm College.

Research Coverage

Amanda LeClair's Research

Most RecentMost Popular

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Now Tech: Service Providers For Next-Generation SAP Products, Q2 2018

Forrester's Overview Of 33 Service Providers For Next-Generation SAP Products

April 20, 2018Amanda LeClair, Liz Herbert

SAP customers use service providers for next-generation SAP products to access new skill sets, leverage providers' experience with SAP products, and get an outside perspective on innovation. But to access these benefits, you'll first have to select from a diverse set of providers that vary by size, capability, geography, and vertical market focus. Application development and delivery (AD&D) pros should use Forrester's Now Tech report to understand the value they can expect from SAP service providers and select providers based on relevant capabilities, experience, and capacity.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Three Trends Shape Digital Services Engagements

Snapshot Of Three Trends In Forrester's Business Technographics 2017 Services Survey

February 9, 2018Amanda LeClair

As enterprises strive to transform their organizations with digital technologies, the consulting and system integration marketplace is transforming as well. For this report, we take a look at three emerging trends in tech services: next-generation customer experience; software-as-a-service (SaaS)-driven business transformation; and new ways of working with services providers. This report will help application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals understand the maturity of those trends — and what it will mean for them in 2018.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Tap Into Your Services Partner's Ecosystem

Leading Services Firms Orchestrate Your Ecosystem, From Startups To Stalwarts

January 25, 2018Amanda LeClair

The drumbeat of "disrupt or be disrupted" is often substantiated by the success of Uber and Airbnb, insinuating that your organization is under threat from digital startups. But as the importance of the ecosystem grows, we see more opportunities for startups to help your business than to destroy it. In response to clients' innovation demands, leading services firms have invested in startup ecosystems; now is the time to connect to them. This report helps application development and delivery (AD&D) pros understand four ways to tap into their services provider's startup ecosystem.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The New Dawn Of Functional Programming

What Enterprises Need To Know About The Next Era Of Software Development

December 11, 2017 Michael Facemire, Amanda LeClair

Functional programming (FP) is beginning to hit the mainstage. Requiring greater scale and dynamic experiences, the customer-facing software development world is outgrowing stateful, object-oriented (OO) development. Seven decades in the making, FP models will finally rise as the solution to certain enterprise-scale software challenges. Enterprises must experiment now with the new FP skills, languages, and platforms they need to begin a transition. This report outlines six recommendations for application development and delivery (AD&D) leaders during the shift to FP.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Inquiry Spotlight: Digital Services, Q2 2017

Client Inquiries Focus On Cloud And SaaS — But The Shift Is On To New Service Offerings

October 20, 2017Amanda LeClair

Forrester analysts field hundreds of inquiries related to services each month. The inquiries can help you understand the challenges other customers face, prepare you for shifts in the landscape, and predict the challenges services customers will face in the future. For this report, we analyzed over 600 services inquiries in Q2 2017 and identified the three most important trends for services buyers and application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals.

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: TechRadar™: Continuous Software Delivery, Q3 2016 (Updated)

Road Map: The Modern Application Delivery Playbook

August 2, 2017 Diego Lo Giudice, Christopher Condo, Amanda LeClair

Modern software delivery practices use an automated pipeline in which code is delivered, built, tested, and deployed with limited manual intervention. Because the technologies that enable this pipeline have evolved independently, tool integration is complex. This is an update of our previous analysis of continuous delivery tools for application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals; Forrester reviews and revises it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: The Internet Of Things Propels Product Development Into The Digital Era

May 4, 2017 Nate Fleming, Amanda LeClair

Traditional product development — years-long product cycles, stage gate processes, and isolationist policies — hinders companies from successfully developing and delivering products connected to the internet of things (IoT). Just as rising customer expectations for consumer and enterprise applications catalyzed a sea change in software development, the increasing importance of software in IoT products means big changes for product development processes. This report helps CIOs understand the five levers of change for digital product development.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: Learn To Innovate From Digital Transformation Leaders

Digital Innovators At Forrester's Digital Transformation Forum 2017 Apply The New Rules Of Digital Business

June 22, 2017Amanda LeClair, Danielle Jessee, Martin Gill

Digital transformation means business transformation. Forrester's Digital Transformation Forum 2017 brought digital business leaders to the main stage to share their unique journeys to and through the transformation. This report provides the lessons learned from digital business pros for applying the new rules of what it means to be a digital business.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Get The Most Out Of Distributed Agile Teams

April 27, 2017Amanda LeClair, Jeffrey S. Hammond

Agile methodologies and the spread of co-innovation and co-laboratory spaces presuppose that colocated software development teams are best. But for many shops, 100% colocation is neither achievable nor desirable. Application development and delivery (AD&D) leaders favor a global presence and access to partner ecosystems over some of the benefits of colocation. This report illuminates the best practices of AD&D leaders that who work with geographically distributed Agile teams to embrace the oxymoron of "distributed Agile."
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Integrate Design Thinking Into Agile Development

It's Time To Apply DevOps-Style Collaboration To The Front End Of The Software Life Cycle

February 3, 2017Amanda LeClair, Allegra Burnette

Customers' rising expectations for software that meets their needs have disrupted traditional software development cycles. To address the quality-at-speed challenge, design and development teams need to blend upstream design thinking techniques with downstream Agile development practices. But most shops struggle to do so as a result of organizational and operational barriers. This report will help application development and delivery (AD&D) pros understand the best practices of integrating design thinking into Agile development.