Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

Automation has long been a key driver of efficiency. Traditional RPA and IDP technology promised to relieve carriers from rekeying, extracting data from forms, and other repetitive tasks. At Appian, we saw early that automation in isolation doesn't achieve transformative outcomes. Why? Because AI has too often been deployed at the edges of workflows: copilots, chatbots, or analytics dashboards that assist us when prompted.

Every new protocol introduces complexities—onboarding new tools and SDKs, adapting to new processes, evaluating security and performance implications, ensuring compatibility with existing systems, and overcoming the learning curve. So when a new protocol shows up, the first question to ask is: is it really necessary? Let’s ask that about MCP—what problem is it trying to solve?

With its vast ecosystem, Elixir offers multiple solutions for running things in the background. To a newcomer or even an experienced developer, the variety of options might seem daunting. Some tools that used to be popular have fallen into the maintenance limbo, while others have emerged as default choices.

DreamFactory simplifies SAP HANA integration by automating API creation, eliminating the need for complex custom development. It supports seamless connections between SAP HANA's OData services and other applications, ensuring secure data access and improved efficiency. Here's how it works: What It Does: DreamFactory generates REST APIs for SAP HANA, enabling CRUD operations on data without requiring deep technical expertise. Key Features: Automated API creation for SAP HANA data.

Would you believe me if I say there is a development methodology that considers changing requirements and technical risks as part of the process instead of obstacles to be overcome? Sounds crazy, right? That’s exactly what I thought about the Spiral Model until I took a closer look. I’m not saying it’s perfect for every project or that we should all use it. But for certain types of projects, the messy, uncertain, high-stakes ones, it may be just what you need!

Not every failure is a bug and not every bug is what it seems. Sometimes, a test fails without warning. No code changes, no environment issues, just a red mark where there should be green. You rerun it, and it passes. These are flaky tests. And they do more than create noise. They drain team time, stall releases, and make it harder to trust automation at all. Left unchecked, they quietly become one of the most expensive problems in testing.

When developing iOS applications, creating an IPA file is a crucial step in distributing and testing your app. But managing this process—especially across development teams—can become tedious and error-prone if done manually. In this post, we’ll explain what an IPA is, why it matters in CI/CD pipelines, and how you can seamlessly generate, sign, and distribute IPA files using Bitrise automation.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) had a well-documented failure of the S3 service in its US East region this week. The knock-on effects of the S3 outage took out many of Amazon’s other services and caused serious and long-lasting outages for many high-profile services including Quora, Trello, GitLab, and many others. Overall Amazon provides an outstanding set of services, and as anyone knows these things happen, the key is to architect your solution so that it can tolerate these kinds of failures.