Cutter Consortium: Enterprise Suite

Contrasting Efficiency with Effectiveness

Wed, 6 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Snowden, David | E-Mail Advisors |
Efficiency has been the mantra of systems approaches from early work on time and motion, through the business process reengineering movement, to the latest manifestation in Six Sigma. The organization has been seen as a machine or manufacturing process to be managed through the definition and measurement of defined outcomes. In consequence, method and tools have imitated the manufacturing process: defining output, managing process, monitoring for deviation. Increasingly those tools are being used in public service and in service more generally, but while manufacturing is a closed system in which repeatability is achievable, service is an open system that contains irreducible complexity. It is more like an ecology than a machine.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130606.html

Viewing Future Requirements

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Benson, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |
Ever since I began teaching IT at the university (in 1966, actually), I have wondered how best to prepare students for a professional life in computing. Of course, we called the field various things at different times and in different academic contexts: data processing, management-information-systems, computer information systems, computer science. The contexts varied from business school to engineering school to technology school to, in some cases now, library and information science. But the question always remained the same: how can we best prepare students for professional life in the computing field?
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130606.html

The Role of Coaching, Mentoring, and Team Building in High Performance Teams

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Ellyn, Lynne | E-Mail Advisors |
The roller coaster of business cycles appears to be headed up and accelerating. The economy is recovering, companies are beginning to hire, the real estate market is improving, and even new housing starts are up. In the past, the economic undulations of business have been shadowed by a boom-and-bust pattern of corporate investment in training, leadership coaching, and team development programs. In my 30-plus years in IT, there have been numerous cycles of intense investment in training and employee development. During these cycles, corporate-speak riffed on variations of the adage, "People are our most important asset." These people-asset times are characterized by competition for good employees and corporate objectives that focus on growth, new product development, new marketing channels, and innovation. The corporate focus shifts to effectiveness. Usually these boom times are spearheaded by marketing, engineering, or sales -- in other words, the corporate entities that actually create business, business relationships, and new opportunities.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130605.html

A Leadership Approach for a Metrics Program: Part III -- Using Expectations Instead of Targets

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Klubeck, Martin | Executive Updates |
In the first two Executive Updates in this series, we discussed the importance of using a root question for your metrics and of "staying out of the kitchen." Recall I asked you to think in the abstract rather than going to the data level and to focus on the customer's viewpoint and avoid playing with efficiency measures. I also asked you to take a little leap of faith and "stay out of the kitchen" -- to not do what may be normal for most leaders. Finally, I asked you to trust me and try something new. For any of you who currently use targets to motivate your staff and guide progress, you may decide that I've gone too far with this Update, because I'm going to ask you to trust me once again and do away with targets altogether. No more targets. Seriously.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1310.html

Webinar: Understanding the Mobile Environment

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 12:01:20 -0400

Succi, Giancarlo | Events |
Mobile devices have become one of the most important platforms for user-oriented software. Mobile app stores host thousands of apps and report millions of downloads per day. To take advantage of this market, it’s critical that your organization designs and deploys good software products. It’s equally vital that it has a sound mobile-specific strategy based on a clear understanding of the mobile environment.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/webinar/2013/mobile-environment.html

Book Review: Stories That Move Mountains

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
Every year I review a few books for my email Advisors. Usually, I can do this fairly quickly, in a week or two, but the most recent book took much longer. Not just because I have been busy, but because you just can't rush through this material. It's not that it's so complicated, because much of it seems like common sense, but rather that it is full of so much wisdom and experience, all tied together with tips and techniques toward producing a story that has impact and affects change. You need to take time to absorb the concepts, think about how they apply to something you're doing, try out some of the ideas, and then repeat with the next chapter. Even if you could, you just don't want to rush through it.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130605.html

Mobile BI Products and Services Trends

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
For years, the major BI vendors (e.g., IBM-Cognos, Oracle, SAP Business Objects, SAS, and Microstrategy) have offered components that add mobile capabilities to their BI platforms, business performance management, and other analytic products. The same goes for the leading open source BI vendors (e.g., Actuate, Jaspersoft, and Pentaho). And, over the past few years, we've seen new BI providers (Cyfe, Leapfactor, MobiWeave, PushBI, etc.) that offer mobile BI products and services as well.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130604.html

Toward Enterprise Agility

Thu, 30 May 2013 15:20:39 -0400

Ambler, Scott W. | E-Mail Advisors |
In this Advisor, I focus on what it takes to have an agile IT strategy.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130530.html

Business Models and the Development of Mobile Apps

Thu, 30 May 2013 11:34:34 -0400

Succi, Giancarlo; Corral, Luis |
Mobile devices have become one of the most important platforms for the distribution and utilization of user-oriented software. Smartphone sales outnumber those of PCs, and application markets represent a primary channel for the dissemination of end-user software products, hosting thousands of apps and reporting millions of downloads per day.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130530.html

Trends in Learning Technology

Wed, 29 May 2013 14:47:50 -0400

Dublin, Lance | E-Mail Advisors |
The latest trends in learning technology mirror today's top strategic IT trends: mobile devices and applications, personalization and digital relationships, the cloud, Big Data, actionable analytics, apps, and integrated systems.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130529.html

Putting the "M" Back into BPM

Wed, 29 May 2013 11:52:02 -0400

Spanyi, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors |
There is no doubt that business process management (BPM) has made a key contribution to improving performance of business processes via BPM projects, yet the "management" part of BPM has not lived up to its full potential.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130529.html

The Prism View Technique: A CIO's Framework for Designing Successful Organizational Training Programs

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:46:16 -0400

Pruseth, Debabrata | Journals |
Until recently, most analysts were predicting the death of the CIO role. The emergence of cloud computing, which offers migration of software (SaaS), platform (PaaS), and even infrastructure (IaaS) to the cloud, made the traditional CIO post look redundant or limited to managing service-level agreements with cloud vendors.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305e.html

Investing in Human Capital and Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture: The Egyptian Experience

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:44:26 -0400

Kamel, Sherif | Journals |
Investing in human capital should always be the priority for individuals, organizations, and societies in order to constantly move forward.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305f.html

The Role of Leadership Development and Staff Training in a Recovering Global Economy

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:43:09 -0400

Ellyn, Lynne | Journals |
Leadership training is a must for new managers, and refreshing the outlook and skills of more experienced professionals is one important way to maintain organizational effectiveness.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/index.html

A Model for Creating High-Performance Teams -- From a Most Unexpected Source

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:41:17 -0400

Glazer, Hillel | Journals |
What good is a high-performance team in a vacuum, and how long will one last without an environment in which it can thrive?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305d.html

Creating High-Performance Virtual Teams: Expanding Our Perspectives on Investing in People

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:39:29 -0400

Brenner, Richard | Journals |
In this article, I focus on IT virtual project teams, but much of what follows applies to other types of virtual teams, possibly with slight adjustments.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305a.html

High-Performance Team Building

Tue, 28 May 2013 11:15:47 -0400

Stradley, Jason L. | Journals |
In this article, I will focus on some of the keys to creating and sustaining high-performance teams in today's fluid and ever-changing business landscape.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305b.html

Using Leadership as a Secret Weapon in IT

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:35:27 -0400

Woerner, Ronald; Sweeney, Timothy | Journals |
For many organizations, IT is in a rising position of power, especially the CIO. However, many people on the IT team are still stuck down the chain of command fighting an uphill battle to adequately serve their organization.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/05/itj1305c.html

Agile Processes in Virtual Spaces

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates |
For myriad reasons, distributed agile software development represents the cutting edge of collaboration technology. It provides a laboratory for techniques that teams can beneficially employ throughout the enterprise. The high degree of communication required by agile development continues to make distributed teams problematic, while economic conditions and changes in the work environment have made use of such teams imperative. For these reasons, as shown in this Executive Update, enterprises are now exploring techniques in all areas for extending communication and collaboration in the complex, task-oriented agile world, from rules and processes up to communications technologies and supporting software. Consequently, there has been a flux in a variety of experiments in creating shared virtual spaces for improving team communication and the ability to work together on complex projects over a distance.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1307.html

Measuring IT Value: The CIO as the New Brewmaster of the IT Investment Portfolio

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Multhaup, Bob | Executive Reports |
Measuring the value of IT can best be determined by building an IT investment portfolio where customer goals drive the IT projects. The development of this complex portfolio requires a tremendous amount of careful attention and technical and political skills from the CIO to "brew" the perfect mix of IT solutions for the customer. As we explore in this Executive Report, the primary challenge of the CIO is to get the right people to agree on where the company should allocate its IT assets and resources -- otherwise known as the "investment portfolio."
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/reports/2013/03/index.html

Data Quality and Governance in Projects: Knowledge in Action

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:35:02 -0400

McGilvray, Danette; Bykin, Masha | Executive Reports |
Organizations make substantial investments in projects to achieve business goals and seize opportunities. The more effective those projects, the sooner they realize results. Increase the speed and success of your projects by making data quality and data governance activities an integral part of the solution (or software or systems) development lifecycle, or SDLC. This Executive Report discusses the critical activities needed for both sequential and agile methodologies. Including these will also improve the quality of the data that matters most, transforming it into a valuable asset.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/reports/2013/05/index.html

SMAC for the Enterprise

Tue, 28 May 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Everyone talks about social media, mobile, analytics, and the cloud (SMAC) profoundly impacting the enterprise. But while these technologies hold tremendous promise, each presents its own issues and considerations when it comes to its utilization for business.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130528.html

Taking a Lean Approach to Mobile App Development

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:35:02 -0400

Hassinger, Sebastian | E-Mail Advisors |
When developing a mobile app, especially one that is consumer-facing and is anticipated to build a large and loyal user base, agile and lean methods can be particularly valuable. In my experiences with mobile development, customers who adopt a lean approach to product design and strategy are able to leverage agile development teams more effectively.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130523.html

Tablets for Mobile BI

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:34:02 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Organizations have been developing mobile BI applications for some time now. To a large degree, however, the "first wave" of mobile BI applications focused on the use of smartphones due to the proliferation of such devices; they were the first mobile devices to appear that really made mobile BI practical, and they were considerably less expensive than the early tablet offerings (e.g., Apple iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook).
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130523.html

Balancing Hard and Soft Skills

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:41 -0400

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |
Process improvement initiatives have always suffered from incompleteness. While the practices applied are often useful and effective, the models fail to take into account the needs of the team.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130522.html

Developing for the Mobile Enterprise Experience

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:28:06 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Mobile enterprise application implementation involves carefully considering how providing a select group (or groups) of employees with mobile devices and apps can achieve some business benefit. Typically sought-after goals include increased worker productivity, better customer service, and optimized workflows.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130522.html

Big Data in Training

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:26:16 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
A revolution is coming to learning environments, with its initial impact likely to be seen in corporate training. This revolution is being fostered by Big Data analytics. The application of real-time Big Data analytics to processes has already shown promise in areas such as marketing, transportation, and finance, where analytics can be combined with automation to produce vastly more efficient and better-targeted results.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130521.html

The Emperor's New Clothing Budget

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:23:30 -0400

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors |
One of the major income opportunities I missed in my life was betting on a common budget question. If I had been given 100 Euros each time someone asked me, "How do I deal with budgeting in an agile environment?" I could probably fund a major contribution to the extinction of some terrible disease in the world.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130516.html

Does IT Lack Audacity?

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:17:00 -0400

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors |
At the age of 25 in 75 BC, Julius Caesar was abducted by Cilician pirates (from modern-day southeastern Turkey) while he was sailing for Greece for further study (college, anyone?). As abductions for ransoms were commonplace at that time, the pirates demanded a ransom of 20 talents (a unit of weight, presumably in gold or silver), which today is probably about four million US dollars.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130516.html

Sustainable EA: Is It Possible?

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:13:59 -0400

Evernden, Roger | Executive Updates |
In this Executive Update, we examine the relevance of sustainability for enterprise architecture.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1309.html

How to Ask the Right Question

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:10:58 -0400

Klubeck, Martin | E-Mail Advisors |
At every turn it seems leaders are being told to embrace Big Data. They are urged to make "data-driven decisions" and to mine their warehouses of all the buried data gold. The problem? This is absolutely the wrong direction to go in.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130515.html

Architecture Isn't About Fashion

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:09:21 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
I had an interesting discussion last week that started by talking about Big Data and ended in reflecting on the goals and skills of architecture. It finally boiled down to the statement: "enterprise architecture isn't about fashion."
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130515.html

A Survey of the API Economy

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:59:26 -0400

Gat, Israel; Succi, Giancarlo | Executive Updates |
This Executive Update presents a systematic summary of publicly available information on the topic of the API Economy. Our primary goals are to disseminate knowledge on the API Economy to Cutter clients and to do so in a way that helps bridge the gap between the business side and the development community, making the two better aligned.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1306.html

Exponential Data Growth: Challenges and Opportunities

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:40:54 -0400

Teerlink, Marc; Martin, Desmond; Fillie, Jan-Paul | E-Mail Advisors |
Organizations are increasingly inundated by data: more sources of data, more types of data, and more detailed data. Yet while the volume, depth, and diversity of data continue to increase exponentially, the need to cut through the growing noise becomes more challenging and ever-more urgent.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130514.html

Mobile in the Enterprise: Part IV — Mobile BI

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:37:52 -0400

Hall, Curt | Executive Updates |
In this Executive Update, Part IV in a series, I examine trends pertaining to mobile BI.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1308.html

Initial Agile Adoption Euphoria

Thu, 9 May 2013 10:38:19 -0400

Lines, Mark | E-Mail Advisors |
Stakeholders new to agile are typically delighted early in the project as they see regular demonstrations of shippable software. They are often fascinated by aspects of the process such as the efficiency of daily stand-up meetings, colorful task boards, burndown charts, and gimmicks such as estimation with planning poker cards.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130509.html

Trends in Green IT

Thu, 9 May 2013 10:36:50 -0400

Konkol, Sebastian | E-Mail Advisors |
During the past decade we have seen a great deal of pressure placed on environmental issues. There have been more restrictive emission norms, a somewhat sense of being forced to use renewable sources of energy, the emergence of passive buildings, and even green IT.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130509.html

Game Plan for a CIO's First 100 Days

Wed, 8 May 2013 10:35:01 -0400

Clermont, Paul | E-Mail Advisors |
So you're the new CIO? Congratulations or condolences, which should it be? A bit of both. Nobody ever said it would be easy to be a tech-savvy plus business-savvy strategist who focuses on important IT initiatives and innovations while simultaneously managing hiccup-free daily operations and delivering complex initiatives predictably, on schedule, and within budget.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130508.html

Agile and Outsourcing: A Disciplined Approach Webinar

Wed, 8 May 2013 10:33:54 -0400

Ambler, Scott | Webinars/Multimedia |
In this webinar, Senior Consultant Scott Ambler will explore strategies for effectively initiating and governing an outsourced IT delivery project in an agile manner. Your initial instincts for how to run an outsourced project are likely to hurt you more than help you. Outsourcing introduces a collection of risks that can be uniquely addressed with a disciplined agile strategy. Luckily, the Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process decision framework provides a foundation from which you can tailor a viable strategy for disciplined agile outsourcing. DAD is a goal-driven, hybrid agile, full delivery methodology that is enterprise aware and scalable.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/webinar/2013/agile-outsourcing.html

Benchmarking Considerations for Cloud Performance Metrics

Wed, 8 May 2013 10:32:40 -0400

Markande, Krishna | E-Mail Advisors |
For all independent service providers (ISVs) and IT service providers, developing cloud-based services is becoming an essential business model in order to be at par with competitors and to keep infrastructure and operational cost optimal.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130508.html

Intelligent Video Analytics on the Rise, Part II

Tue, 7 May 2013 10:29:45 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
In Part I of this article ("Intelligent Video Analytics On the Rise, Part I"), I discussed the basics of video analytics and how the technology has evolved into comprehensive, intelligent video analysis (IVA) platforms, which are finding increasing use for automating the monitoring and interpreting of complex environments.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130507.html

Mobile BI and the Role of Tablets in the Enterprise

Mon, 6 May 2013 10:29:00 -0400

Hall, Curt | Executive Reports |
Mobile BI consists of the ability to access, view, and interact with corporate data on smartphones and tablets via mobile reports, interactive dashboards, visualizations, ad hoc reporting, and other functionality. This Executive Report examines the application of mobile BI with a focus on the use of tablets in the enterprise. It includes potential business benefits afforded by using tablets for mobile BI as well as the technology, products, applications, and issues associated with implementing mobile BI applications.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/reports/2013/04/index.html

Any Chance for Green IT?

Fri, 3 May 2013 10:26:42 -0400

Konkol, Sebastian | Executive Updates |
During the past decade we have seen a great deal of pressure placed on environmental issues. There have been more restrictive emission norms, a somewhat sense of being forced to use renewable sources of energy, the emergence of passive buildings, and even green IT.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1308.html

On Fixing Water Leaks and Technical Debt

Thu, 2 May 2013 10:15:55 -0400

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |
A colleague and friend -- Olivier Gaudin, CEO and cofounder of Sonar -- has recently shared with me his "water leak" metaphor. The water leak metaphor asserts that resolving a technical debt situation is similar to the approach you need to take when you find water on the floor of your house.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130502.html

No Big Data Laws or Regulations ... Yet

Thu, 2 May 2013 10:13:56 -0400

Herold, Rebecca | E-Mail Advisors |
At the time of this writing, I could find no existing laws or regulations that explicitly name Big Data within them. That could change sometime in the coming months as businesses and lawmakers realize that a variety of legal protections as well as associated information security controls are necessary to protect these digital gold mines.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130502.html

Is Lean the Path to Releasing the Competitive Business Potential in Knowledge Work?

Wed, 1 May 2013 10:10:16 -0400

Sutton, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |
The heart of a modern enterprise is the knowledge work it does. How to run a factory effectively is fairly well understood these days. But knowledge work activities such as strategy, market positioning, effective services, and the like are what make for an effective business. Enterprises are beginning to move away from the mass production paradigm and into an overall systems view using the Lean paradigm.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130501.html

Agile Management Innovations: A Primer

Wed, 1 May 2013 10:09:06 -0400

Schiffer, Bernd | Executive Reports |
As we explore in this Executive Report, your agile teams might not live up to their full potential due to an inappropriate work environment. Agile management innovations (AMIs) shape the organization’s environment to unleash the full potential of agile employees. AMIs inspire innovations at the management level, providing greater success in terms of productivity, innovation, and employee retention.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/reports/2013/01/index.html

Looking at Model Refinement

Wed, 1 May 2013 09:51:28 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
One of my tenets of modeling is "Good enough is good enough," meaning that when a model is good enough for its intended purpose, it's time to stop messing with it. For example, if I'm trying to create a descriptive business process model, it will probably take two or three iterations through the model to get it good enough to convey the high-level process correctly.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130501.html

Intelligent Video Analytics on the Rise, Part I

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:49:41 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
The Boston Marathon bombing on 15 April and the crucial role that video played in identifying and apprehending the suspects in the days after sparked my interest in examining the current state of video analytics and, in particular, new developments with intelligent video analytics (IVA) systems.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130430.html

Programming the World: Part II -- Creating Value Through Augmented Reality

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:48:13 -0400

Feller, Joseph | Executive Updates |
This is the second Executive Update in a three-part series exploring an exciting and rapidly maturing technological trend: the layering of interactive information over the physical world in real time -- aka augmented reality (AR).
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1307.html

Learning and Organizational Change: The Soft Stuff Is the Hard Stuff ... Still

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:46:03 -0400

Dublin, Lance | Executive Updates |
As we'll explore in this Executive Update, using technology to develop, deliver, and manage learning is now central to most every organization's strategy to leverage their people to achieve and sustain competitive advantage.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1309.html

A Leadership Approach for a Metrics Program: Part II -- On Leadership's Role and "Staying Out of the Kitchen"

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:41:47 -0400

Klubeck, Martin | Executive Updates |
One of my friends wanted help in growing her business. As a local restaurant owner, she had received many accolades and encouragement to expand. I readily agreed to help her with developing a metrics program to determine how good her restaurant was, which I discuss in this Executive Update.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1308.html

Strategy Formulation for Lean Environments

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:31:14 -0400

Brennan, Kevin | Journals |
In this article, I will present an approach to strategy formulation that we have used at the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) to develop our strategic plan.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304f.html

Is Lean the Path to Releasing the Competitive Business Potential in Knowledge Work?

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:28:20 -0400

Sutton, Jim | Journals |
The heart of a modern enterprise is the knowledge work it does. How to run a factory effectively is fairly well understood these days. But knowledge work activities such as strategy, market positioning, effective services, and the like are what make for an effective business.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/index.html

Cooks in a Messy Kitchen

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:29:41 -0400

Snowden, David | Journals |
In the 1940s, an engineer maintaining a radar machine noticed that a chocolate bar had melted in his pocket; from that we got the microwave oven. In the 1990s, tests on the drug sildenafil citrate, formulated for heart conditions, produced an interesting side effect that resulted in Viagra. These well-known cases are examples of what is known in evolutionary biology as exaptation, which is contrasted with adaptation.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304c.html

Dissolving a Dangerous Enthusiasm: Taking a Systems Approach to IT Systems

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:27:04 -0400

Seddon, John | Journals |
In their aptly titled book Dangerous Enthusiasms,1 Robin Gauld and Shaun Goldfinch summarize the shocking truth about large-scale IT projects: 30% fail completely and a further 60% fail in that they require significantly more time, resources, and effort than planned, and even then they often fail to meet requirements.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304b.html

Implementing Organization-Wide Gemba Using Noninvasive Process Mining

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:25:17 -0400

Astromskis, Saulius; Janes, Andrea; Sillitti, Alberto; Succi, Giancarlo | Journals |
Lean promotes gemba, a Japanese term that means "go and see." Gemba represents the search for knowledge; it helps us understand the execution of processes, why certain activities take the time they take, who is involved in the activities, and so on.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304e.html

Lean Thinking and Knowledge Work

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:23:47 -0400

Jones, Daniel T.; Bell, Steve | Journals |
What do Amazon, GE, Tesco, SAP, Rolls Royce, Intel, Capital One, Starbucks, Nationwide, Wells Fargo, and Virginia Mason and Thedacare hospitals have in common?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304a.html

The Lean Systems Framework: Extending Lean for Knowledge Work

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:22:14 -0400

Odegard, Frode L. | Journals |
Over the last 20 years, much of the world economy has increasingly evolved into a knowledge economy. More and more work involves no physical artifacts at all; we are simply consuming, integrating, and creating knowledge.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/04/itj1304d.html

Agile Team Bouncers: The Bug Stops Here

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:20:50 -0400

Heintz, John D. | E-Mail Advisors |
It doesn't get much more "from the trenches" than digging in to find and fix bugs, and this is a case study based on working with a client doing exactly that. The particular issue: they were becoming increasingly unresponsive to high-priority bugs.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130425.html

Shifting into the Future Without Changing Gears

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:57:43 -0400

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors |
The past few months have been compelling for me in my role as a project management consultant and risk management expert. Clients have been clamoring for insight on how to manage the significant shifts that have occurred in the management marketplace with the introductions of ISO 21500:2012 (Guidance on Project Management) and the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 5th Edition ©2013 (PMBOK Guide).
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130425.html

Big Data: Privacy and Security

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:56:28 -0400

Herold, Rebecca | E-Mail Advisors |
Big Data is not only knocking at your business executives' doors, it is being pushed in their faces with dire warnings that if they don't adopt it, their business is doomed for failure.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130424.html

What Is Complexity? An EA Perspective

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:49:01 -0400

Evernden, Roger | E-Mail Advisors |
Many explanations and descriptions of complexity refer to, and even depend on, the notion of a system or systems. As EA also uses the notion of systems extensively, referring to systems makes it much easier to relate complexity to an EA perspective.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130424.html

A Matter of Vector

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:47:43 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
Last month we looked at the veracity factor in Big Data, which concerns the uncertainty of input and the need to cross-check and correct it (see "The Veracity Factor"). This is important because results in streams, such as social data comments, do not yield a precise interpretation.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130423.html

Why Software Services Organizations Can Never Be Agile

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:39:17 -0400

Krishnamurthy, Venkatesh | E-Mail Advisors |
The key members from the technology group are waiting to hear about the new project that the director is going to announce. The meeting is about to begin, and the room is filled with silence. They know that the project has something to do with Java, Oracle, and the cloud. The director starts explaining the importance of this strategic project and delivering it on time to the customer.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130418.html

Big Data, Big Denial

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:37:54 -0400

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors |
In a mutual boot-strapping beginning with the dawn of Homo sapiens, mankind and information have both exploded in variety, velocity, and volume. Our fates have been intertwined. We advance by harvesting, using, and sharing information. Along the way, information persists, mutates, and diffuses further.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130418.html

Time for Game-Changing Mobile Enterprise Apps

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:36:50 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
A recent article in the New York Times describes a New York Police Department (NYPD) pilot program in which approximately 400 officers have been given smartphones to help them fight crime. You can read the full article here, but here's the gist of the NYPD's mobile application.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130417.html

The User Experience

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:32:08 -0400

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors |
The experience a customer has with an organization is no longer restricted to the time window of that interaction. Instead, it's a much wider phenomenon that evolves into the realms of that individual user's activities and actions before contact with the business is initiated and sustains long after such interaction is completed.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130417.html

Corporate Adoption of Tablets for Mobile BI

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:19:58 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
For some time now, tablets routinely have been touted as an ideal platform for making mobile BI practical. But to what extent are end-user organizations actually adopting tablets to support their mobile BI initiatives?
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130416.html

Business Process Management: Cutter Glossary, Second Edition

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:18:37 -0400

Baudoin, Claude R. | Executive Reports |
Every discipline goes through phases when the terminology is ambiguous or requires frequent explanations, or when novices join the club and need to learn its lingo. Business process management (BPM) is passing through these phases. Existing glossaries are often incomplete (or spill over to cover adjacent concepts), obsolete, biased toward a specific approach, or of limited quality. Therefore, Cutter Consortium developed in 2010 a comprehensive, high-quality BPM glossary from a tool- and method-agnostic viewpoint to help clients with their BPM adoption and education efforts. Since a young discipline often adds new concepts and terms, we present in this Executive Report an updated second edition of the glossary.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2013/02/index.html

Agile Lifecycle Management

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:33:13 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates |
While new methodologies naturally create a need for process change, it is important to understand that lifecycle processes have been established to support a range of requirements beyond the needs of development itself. As we explore in this Executive Update, we must continue to serve these requirements as we move into an era of enterprise agility.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1305.html

Driven by Data: Can We Invent the Future?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:31:32 -0400

Love, Jim | Journals |
"On a clear day, you can see six weeks." A friend overheard this comment between two IT executives at a conference a few years back. It's become one of my favorite quotes. It beautifully illustrates the difficulty of making predictions about the future of technology.
http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2013/01/cbr1301b.html

IT Trends in 2013: A Fresh Spring Perspective

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:30:02 -0400

Feller, Joseph | Journals |
No matter what goals your company has set or planned for 2013 -- a clean end game for an ongoing set of initiatives, an accelerated start for new ones, radical changes, or battening down the hatches -- now is the time to take stock and turn plans into action.
http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2013/01/index.html

IT Trends 2013 Survey Data

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:27:38 -0400

Cutter Consortium | Journals |
This survey explored interest in, and adoption of, various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 68 organizations worldwide.
http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2013/01/cbr1301d.html

IT Trends in 2013: What Comes Next?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:23:15 -0400

Feller, Joseph | Journals |
I hope you have enjoyed this issue of CBR, and that both the survey data and our authors' analysis gave you food for thought as you consider your strategies and operations for the rest of 2013 and beyond.
http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2013/01/cbr1301c.html

Hope for IT Stability: Staffing, Sourcing, and Innovation Trends

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:21:10 -0400

Adams, Dennis A. | Journals |
For most organizations, IT represents investments meant to control costs or create revenues. The time horizon for these payoffs can vary substantially and are tempered by the realization that there is a sizeable probability of failure for all IT projects. Consequently, those answering this year's survey are cautious about spending money. In looking at the data from this year's annual CBR issue on IT trends, our eighth installment, one gets the sense that it is too soon to declare victory and that caution still rules the day.
http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2013/01/cbr1301a.html

On Projects, Products, and Gaming Theory

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:07:19 -0400

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors |
The more agile software development becomes mainstream, the more often I run into a typical pattern of management mismatch. It comes in several flavors. A recent client CTO who is responsible for the IT of an online store illustrates one example. "We have just raised an additional budget of 1 million Euros for this year to implement this fantastic feature," he told me. "And now I'd like to talk with you about how to cut the teams."
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130411.html

Measurement Is Not a Number

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:04:53 -0400

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors |
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." So wrote the novelist Upton Sinclair in 1935, but the past few weeks have seen several examples that serve to exemplify Sinclair's astute observation, as well as highlight some important lessons in unintended consequences and in the avarice inherent in human beings.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130411.html

A Strategic View of Risk Management

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:03:02 -0400

Doughty, Ken; Terry, Craig | E-Mail Advisors |
The global financial crisis (GFC) provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop support among key decision makers that a strategic view of risk management actually does matter. Post-GFC views of risk management increasingly seek to embed the analysis and understanding of risk within the strategy process. After all, strategy is about taking risk. The challenge then becomes: how do we control this risk taking?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130410.html

Understanding Organizational Interactions

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:01:12 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
Every company has some form of organizational chart. We're all used to seeing the hierarchy of boxes and lines and names that are characteristic of traditional reporting structures. And, of course, everyone has a boss, and gets paid from some budget, so these charts make a lot of sense for certain purposes.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130410.html

A Bigger Cloud Ecosystem Is on Its Way

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:58:47 -0400

Murugesan, San | E-Mail Advisors |
Driven by several converging and complementary factors, cloud computing is advancing as an IT service delivery model at a staggering pace. It is also causing a paradigm shift in the way we deliver and use IT.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130409.html

Agile Is Way Past the Chasm

Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:56:04 -0400

Heintz, John | E-Mail Advisors |
I agree with my coauthors in Cutter's Executive Report, "Has Agile 'Crossed the Chasm?'" that successfully adopting agile requires study, practice, mentoring, and discipline. Many managers either don't want to put in the time (i.e., money) for all the work, or simply don't believe it's necessary.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130404.html

What Is My Contingency Plan for My Internet Life?

Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:48:38 -0400

Benson, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |
The degree of our reliance on relatively invisible Internet services -- and free other than the cost of the cable itself -- is more than a bit startling. And of course all this is done with the absolute belief and confidence in Internet availability, reliability, and security -- anywhere and anytime.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130404.html

User Experience Analysis Framework: From Usability to Social Media Networks

Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:40:26 -0400

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | Executive Reports |
A user experience analysis framework (UXAF) is an all-encompassing view of a user's experience with a business that transcends the "known" areas of usability of systems. UXAF draws your attention to the invaluable pre-user and post-user that exist outside the electronic firewalls of your business -- and reside in the exploration and reflection phases of UXAF -- facilitated by social media networks (SMNs). This Executive Report lays the foundation for the future of business analysis in the SMN Age by encouraging in-depth analysis of user experience beyond usability and into the realms of user communities, their demographics, and their perceptions.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/reports/2013/03/index.html

Business Architecture Is Coming of Age

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 10:38:28 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
For the past few years, we've argued that business architecture is important, its use is growing, and it is being used to deliver value to organizations. Last month's Business Architecture Innovation Summit in Reston, Virginia, USA, offered more proof.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130403.html

The Emerging Cloud Ecosystem: Innovative New Services and Business Models

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 10:26:58 -0400

Systems of Engagement: Part II -- Enterprise Solution Architecture and Responsibilities

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 10:24:43 -0400

Rosen, Michael | Executive Updates |
In Part I of this three-part Executive Update series, we discussed the differences between systems of engagement (SOEs) and systems of record (SORs). To summarize, SORs are the transactional, back-office systems that IT has been building for the last 40 years.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1307.html

The Veracity Factor

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 10:10:33 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
Big Data has frequently been described as differing from standard BI and analytics by volume, velocity, and variety. These factors describe most of the current initiatives within the area and point to issues that make analysis difficult. However, there is also another intriguing "V" that might be added to introduce a new level of complexity and higher goals: veracity.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130402.html

Big Data: Part III -- Privacy and Security

Mon, 1 Apr 2013 09:48:27 -0400

Herold, Rebecca | Executive Updates |
To round out this three-part Executive Update series on Big Data, let's get a better handle on all the significant privacy and security issues we touched on in Parts I and II.http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1305.html

The Front-End vs. Back-End Dichotomy Is Dead

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:36:23 -0400

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |
Expanding agile in development to end-to-end agile was always a tricky business. You could, of course, drive success in agile downstream, using your success in development as the lever for change, provided you had carefully thought through three major aspects.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130328.html

How Bad Could It Be? Coping with Cyber War in the 21st Century

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:25:05 -0400

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors |
Over the last three or four years, the news around the world has been increasingly pockmarked with scarier and scarier stories of real-world cyber crime and cyber war perpetrated by ever-larger, exceedingly well-funded organizations -- both governmental and civilian. As the world has become totally dependent on the Internet as the principal worldwide means of communication and control, the scope of Internet/computer cyber security problems has mushroomed.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130328.html

Taming the Video Bandwidth Hog

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:24:00 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Back in September of 2012, I discussed business video and issues associated with implementation and usage (see "Catch the Wave of Business Video"). Basically, I said that video is one of the most important "disruptive" technologies that organizations can employ today. This is because it can benefit a variety of business activities, including training, corporate communications, knowledge sharing, CRM, and (especially) collaboration. Since I wrote that article, video business conferencing has captured the attention of many organizations.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130327.html

Ready to Make Work Easy?

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:22:47 -0400

Derby, Esther | E-Mail Advisors |
Managers, especially middle managers, are uniquely positioned to see an integrated and holistic picture of their organizations. But they won't do so as long as they see their role as getting people to work hard. When managers view their jobs as optimizing the flow of value through the organization it becomes possible for people to work effectively with less frustration, wasted effort, and churn.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130327.html

A Leadership Approach for a Metrics Program: Part I -- Root Questions -- and Thinking in the Abstract

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:13:27 -0400

Klubeck, Martin | Executive Updates |
At every turn it seems leaders are being told to embrace Big Data. They are urged to make "data-driven decisions" and to mine their warehouses of all the buried data gold. The problem? This is absolutely the wrong direction to go in. In a past Executive Update, Cutter Fellow Vince Kellen suggested that the problem is that leadership isn't using their data properly.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1306.html

What's Up with Watson?

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:10:33 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Two years ago, I examined Watson-IBM's natural language question answering system (see "How Smart Is Watson, and What Is Its Significance to BI and DSS?"). At that time, Watson was getting a lot of publicity because it had successfully challenged, and defeated, some of the best Jeopardy! (human) contestants in the history of the popular TV game show.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130326.html

The Emerging Cloud Ecosystem: Innovative New Services and Business Models

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:06:23 -0400

Murugesan, San | Journals |
Cloud service providers, the IT industry, professional and industry associations, governments, and IT professionals all have a role to play in shaping, fostering, and harnessing the full potential of the emerging cloud ecosystem.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/03/index.html

The Promise of a Diverse, Interoperable Cloud Ecosystem -- And Recommendations for Realizing It

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:03:52 -0400

Grise, Kathy L. | Journals |
The cloud is here to stay. It is a vital part of the information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem, even though it is still a dynamic, fluid, and ever-changing addition to the ICT environment.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/03/itj1303d.html

Cloud Ecology: Surviving in the Jungle

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:58:17 -0400

Baudoin, Claude R. | Journals |
When organizations consider a cloud option, they always look first at functionality and cost. They realize that a cloud offering must also meet other capabilities without which an IT service is not viable: performance assurance, resilience, disaster recovery, notification schemes, security, privacy, and so on.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/03/itj1303c.html

Merging IaaS with PaaS to Deliver Robust Development Tools

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:53:40 -0400

Cohen, Beth | Journals |
In this article, we will discuss how platform as a service (PaaS) is the key to maximizing the benefits of cloud architectures, allowing companies to create new business models for delivering services better, faster, and cheaper.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/03/itj1303a.html

Intrusion Detection as a Service (IDaaS) in an Open Source Cloud Infrastructure

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:47:37 -0400

John Prakash Veigas; K Chandra Sekaran | Journals |
In this article, we offer an overview of intrusion detection systems (IDS) and the work that is being done to adapt them to the cloud. We then introduce a framework for an intrusion detection and reporting service for cloud consumers based on the type of application and the consumer's security needs.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/03/itj1303b.html

On Agile and Discipline

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:46:19 -0400

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors |
There is a conception in the public debate that agile is a basically undisciplined approach. Book titles such as Balancing Agility and Discipline fuel this perception. In the debate on agile and CMMI we had earlier this year, Cutter Senior Consultant Hillel Glazer rightly pointed out that "it would be incongruous to ignore the plentiful examples of dreadfully undisciplined 'agile' adoptions resulting in 'agile in name only'".
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130321.html

New Technologies for the New, Collaborative Workplace

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:42:46 -0400

Coleman, David | E-Mail Advisors |
Although collaboration is a behavior, it can often be enabled by various technologies. But it's not just collaboration technologies that will define the workplace of the future. These seven technologies will be crucial in shaping the future workspace.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130321.html

How Does Business Architecture Govern?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:34:45 -0400

Guitarte, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors |
I wrote in the December 2012 issue of the Cutter IT Journal on enterprise patterns (see "Business Capability Architecture Is the Tie that Binds All") that a business capability architecture (BCA) "is an overarching enterprise pattern that delivers business outcomes by binding every enterprise change to a business strategy. The model is the ‘tie that binds all,’ encapsulating the business strategy, contribution to business value, and operational complexity." I went on to relate a use case where BCA can solve IT project portfolio prioritization problems.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130320.html

Making the Most of a CIO's First 100 Days

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:32:39 -0400

Clermont, Paul | Executive Reports |
CIOs not only need to know what to do, they need to know how to go about it in a way that gains respect from two very different constituencies: businesspeople and technologists. This Executive Report addresses situations facing new CIOs based on where they were before and what happened to their predecessors. It offers situation-based advice on what to do -- substantively, politically, and stylistically -- to maximize the likelihood of success.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/reports/2013/02/index.html

Pursuing Process Ownership

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:30:58 -0400

Spanyi, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors |
There are two common models for process ownership. In one model, the senior process owner role is part-time, and such process owners wear two hats, one for their business or functional responsibility and another for their process ownership role. In the other model, a senior staff person is appointed as a dedicated, full-time process owner, with the responsibility to work with department and business unit heads to drive collaboration across departmental boundaries.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130320.html

Dirty Data, Missing Data, or Insufficient Training -- The Impact on Decision Making Is the Same

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:29:46 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
The recent announcement that NATO and the US Pentagon were retracting a statement reporting that Taliban attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan had declined (in 2012) is a good reminder of just how important training and data quality are when it comes to analytics and decision making.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130319.html

Mastering Complexity to Drive EA Productivity

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:28:35 -0400

Evernden, Roger | Executive Reports |
Architectures and associated change programs are increasing in complexity. As such, today’s enterprise architects and EA teams need to know the best ways to handle or deal with complexity. How can we apply the latest ideas in complexity theory and systems thinking to the management and evolution of architectures, and how does this help with the planning and running of programs and projects? This Executive Report examines complexity from an EA perspective, explains why architecture has become more complex, and shows how EA as a discipline already has a wealth of techniques that address complexity. Getting to grips with complexity is not easy, but the alternative is to become less effective in our work since each increase in complexity reduces EA productivity.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2013/01/index.html

Testing Your Process

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:24:50 -0400

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |
In his landmark blog post, "My agile testing project," Brian Marick provided a model for agile testing. According to his model, the "universe" of testing can be viewed as composed of four quadrants, formed by a horizontal (support programming -> critique product) axis and a vertical (technology facing -> business facing) axis.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130314.html

The Role and Responsibilities of the Chief Data Officer

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:23:18 -0400

Moss, Larissa T.; Adelman, Sid | E-Mail Advisors |
A company's data has value, but to date, data assets have not been shown directly on companies' books, although it is sometimes there as goodwill, and sometimes it is partially reflected in the price of the stock. We need to make the value of data more apparent.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130314.html

The Path to Leadership

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:21:04 -0400

Fox, Bill | E-Mail Advisors |
Have you ever written an email, blog post, or Tweet that caused you to take a deep breath and cringe before you showed it to the world?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130313.html

IT Service Providers: Adding Value to Your Business

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:19:43 -0400

Chandra, Aluru | Executive Updates |
This Executive Update discusses ideas and opportunities for presenting value additions in a manner that will be appreciated by the client-side stakeholders. The suggestions presented here are equally applicable to captive IT organizations that provide services to business units within the enterprise.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1305.html

Tailoring TOGAF for Business Architecture

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:18:05 -0400

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
With the continued adoption of TOGAF as the industry standard EA framework, many organizations are struggling with how to get started and how to adapt TOGAF to fit them.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130313.html

Big Data -- Does Size Matter?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:16:22 -0400

Mazzucchelli, Lou | E-Mail Advisors |
While the term "Big Data" continues to encroach on the common vernacular, it's important to understand the drivers of the phenomenon, its possible value, and also its potential for misuse. Many of the "misuse" examples come from areas of privacy and ethics, but there is also the potential for misuse that is just bad business.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130312.html

Big Data: Part II -- Legal Issues

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:12:01 -0400

Herold, Rebecca | Executive Updates |
In Part II of this three-part Executive Update series , we examine some of the legal impacts of Big Data, with particular attention paid to energy usage, protected health information (PHI), e-discovery, and intellectual property (IP).
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1303.html

Devops: Reaching the Goals

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 11:10:17 -0400

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
Devops has only been around for a brief few years, and it is already having a significant impact throughout the development community. While there are those who might view the integration of development and operations as a useful fad that serves a limited number of situations, evidence suggests that there are serious advantages to this approach.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130307.html

What Is the Price of Trust Per Pound?

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 11:06:22 -0400

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors |
"We don't test for hedgehog, either." So said Malcolm Walker, chairman and founder of Iceland Foods, a large supermarket chain operating in the UK and Ireland. Walker was speaking in defense of EU supermarkets and about why they didn't know that the meat products they offered for sale contained horsemeat, some of which was contaminated with an equine anti-inflammatory medicine that is banned in food.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130307.html

An Integrated EA Approach for Effective ERM

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 11:04:26 -0400

Chapala, Nethaji | Executive Updates |
Operational risks are the most challenging for any organization, but most can be controlled, if not avoided, as long as the organization builds and implements effective enterprise risk management (ERM) strategies. While there are certainly mature methodologies available for risk identification and assessment, today's organizations fail to build and implement them effectively due to limited practice of these methodologies.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1304.html

The Promises and Challenges of the New IT: Part III -- The Real-Time Enterprise and the Web

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 11:02:20 -0400

Greco, Frank D. | Executive Updates |
In this three-part Executive Update series, we have examined the new era unfolding in IT with an exciting generation of powerful tools entering the field. In this last installment of the series, we discuss the Web roadblocks ahead for anything as a service (XaaS).
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1306.html

SMAC: Social Media, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 11:00:52 -0400

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors |
From time to time, the corpus of information technologies absorbs new classes of technology, often in one fell swoop. The collection of technologies discussed here -- social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) -- represents such a bundle. A decade ago, social, mobile, and cloud technologies were more a gleam in the eye of innovators than part of the CIO repertoire.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130306.html

Cloud Computing: Misunderstandings and Fallacies

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 10:58:58 -0400

Greco, Frank D. | E-Mail Advisors |
So what really is cloud computing? It is a way to run a data center that allows users to serve themselves and gives your staff the opportunity to go home on time.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130306.html

Amazon Joins the DWaaS Craze

Tue, 5 Mar 2013 10:57:14 -0400

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Various vendors, including Greenplum (EMC), Kognitio, ParAccel, Teradata, and Vertica Systems (HP), have offered versions of their high-performance analytic databases tailored for use in cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platforms for several years now.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130305.html

Does Agile Help in Innovation?

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:08:48 -0500

Krishnamurthy, Venkatesh |
In today's rapidly changing business environment, innovation is key for survival. Companies may become obsolete in no time in the absence of new and innovative products. A classic example of this phenomenon is the demise of Kodak. At the same time, companies like Apple and Google have not only contributed toward building innovative products but at the same time made their investors many times richer.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130228.html

Business as Proactive Transformation Change Agent

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:07:20 -0500

Ulrich, William M. | E-Mail Advisors |
Building executive support from a business perspective is often the most challenging aspect of launching and delivering a business-IT transformation initiative. The first step requires understanding what role the business must play and how to overcome common roadblocks.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130228.html

Marketecture: Selling Your Cause

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:04:23 -0500

Evernden, Roger; Consultant, Senior | Executive Updates |
In this Executive Update, we use the term marketecture to describe practical steps that enterprise architects must take in order to properly promote the benefits, outcomes, and achievements delivered by a change to the architecture.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1305.html

Is SMAC Adding Business Value or More Complexity and Uncertainty?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:02:19 -0500

Chapala, Nethaji | Journals |
With all the emerging social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) technologies, IT is not merely a supporter or enabler of the business but a game changer, bringing differentiation to organizations.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/itj1302c.html

Gamification: Driving Behavior Change in the Connected World

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:00:22 -0500

Bess, Charles E. | Journals |
Since this month's Cutter IT Journal is focused on social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC), it seemed like an ideal opportunity to provide more detailed information about how gamification can enable organizations to reach their goals at the convergence of these four other trends. Since it is a broad topic, I'll focus mainly on a framework for understanding and planning for a gamification effort within an organization.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/itj1302e.html

Leveraging Social Science to Boost Adoption of SMAC Technologies

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:58:17 -0500

Higgins, Dave; Clark, Sam | Journals |
In this article, we're going to focus primarily on the social aspects of SMAC: why it is important and what have we learned about social engagement that can extend and enhance the value of cloud-based, mobile applications with analytics.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/itj1302a.html

SMAC: Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:56:26 -0500

Kellen, Vince | Journals |
In many ways, SMAC is rapidly eclipsing the importance of such old standbys as ERP, network infrastructure, and basic communication and messaging services. New forms of data -- audio, visual, unstructured text, logging -- created by new devices -- smartphones, cameras, tablets, superthin laptops -- are now creating new business opportunities.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/index.html

How Can an API Platform Support the Integration of SMAC?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:54:02 -0500

Banerjee, Suman | Journals |
The world is going through a massive digitalization in the consumer ecosystem due to the influence of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC). The evolution of SMAC throws integration challenges in front of enterprises, forcing them to handle various SMAC endpoints in the simplest way.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/itj1302d.html

Challenging CIOs to Drive Front-Office Transformation

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:52:15 -0500

Teerlink, Marc; Martin, Desmond; Fillie, Jan-Paul | Journals |Organizations are increasingly inundated by data: more sources of data, more types of data, and more detailed data. Yet while the volume, depth, and diversity of data continue to increase exponentially, the need to cut through the growing noise becomes more challenging and ever more urgent. Organizations will need a new type of decision maker to address this need.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/02/itj1302b.html

Up and Down the Communications Gap

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:49:41 -0500

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors |
Last year, I had a client identify a concern regarding the communications gap that seemed to exist between team members in the trenches and those in the executive suite. The response? We developed a series of "Communicating UP" workshops, designed to facilitate better communication up the food chain. It was a surprising success.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130227.html

The Role of Chief Data Officer in the 21st Century

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:47:45 -0500

Moss, Larissa T.; Adelman, Sid | Executive Reports |
Fifteen years after enterprise resource planning and over two decades into data warehousing, many business executives are still frustrated over their inability to trust their company's data. They have spent millions on new technologies, only to find that the state of their data assets has deteriorated. This significantly reduces the business value of their investments. One big reason for this continuing data chaos is that companies do not manage their data as a business asset, and there is no one watching the store. In this Executive Report, we look at the role of chief data officer and why this role is so important.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/reports/2013/02/index.html

Is Your Architecture Successful?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:46:08 -0500

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
I think the fundamental purpose of architecture is to create a context that influences decisions. Those might be technology selection decisions, solution design decisions, project selections/portfolio management decisions, or business transformation execution decisions, just to name a few. Clearly, each of these decisions requires a different context and different information to influence the individuals who make those decisions.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130227.html

The PMO Tool: An Information Source for Dashboards

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:44:13 -0500

Garcia-Alonso, Jose; Joaquin Guillen Melo; Miranda, Javier; Berrocal, Javier; Hernandez, Fernando; Murillo, Juan M. | Executive Updates |
This Executive Update proposes an approach that facilitates the integration of the PMO model in large software organizations. It presents an environment in which multiple tools are integrated to ensure that software processes are executed as specified by the PMO and that significant information about the outcome of the project is retrieved during all project phases and presented in the most suitable way.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1304.html

Corralling the Crowd

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:42:54 -0500

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
To view social media as monolithic in nature is to ignore some of its most interesting attributes. One area of growing importance is the use of social participation to create crowd behavior that suits a variety of interesting purposes.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130226.html

Agility and Discipline in Business Processes: A Case Study

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:36:47 -0500

Baudoin, Claude R. | Executive Updates |
In April 2012, while in Boston for the Cutter Summit, I discovered something I was tempted to summarize as "some people just get it". What they "get" is that you can combine agility and rigor in your business operations, and the example of Dimagi proves it.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2013/bitu1303.html

Collaborative Devops from End to End

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:27:04 -0500

Ambler, Scott W. | E-Mail Advisors |
I have claimed that devops affects the entire solution delivery lifecycle from end to end. Let's explore each Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) phase one at a time and see how this is true.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130221.html

So What Is Big Data?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:25:48 -0500

Herold, Rebecca | E-Mail Advisors |
The term "Big Data" is becoming part of the common vernacular. So what does it mean? Basically, Big Data refers to the huge amount of data created and collectively examined through many online sites, as well as offline sites and vast repositories.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130221.html

"Has Agile Crossed the Chasm?" Is the Wrong Question

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:21:50 -0500

Derby, Esther | E-Mail Advisors |
Every model helps us see and make sense of some things, but obscures other aspects of the situation. And so it is with Moore's technology adoption lifecycle and the fabled chasm. Moore's model describes marketing high-tech products. But agile isn't a product, even though some firms try to sell it as such.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130220.html

Looming Security Threats: Big Data to the Rescue

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:07:16 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
It seems that hardly a day goes by when the poor state of systems security isn't driven home with another report of some stunning new attack. What's even more distressing to security experts is that the frequency of such attacks and their sophistication are increasing.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130220.html

Business-IT Architecture Misalignment: Part III — Building Executive Sponsorship

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:56:51 -0500

Ulrich, William M. | Executive Updates |
In this, part III of the Business-IT Architecture Misalignment series, I provide practical advice for launching a business-IT architecture misalignment initiative in practice. Topics covered include business as a change agent in business-IT transformation, building executive support, transformation scenarios, and establishing governance and funding.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1304.html

User Experience Analysis

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:55:20 -0500

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors |
User experience analysis (UXA) can be described as the understanding, modeling, documenting, and reviewing of multiple aspects of a user's (and user group's) relationship with the business with the aim of creating lasting and sharable value.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130219.html

Welcome to the Dark Side

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:58:28 -0500

Janes, Andrea; Sillitti, Alberto; Succi, Giancarlo | E-Mail Advisors |
Since the publication of "CMMI for Development, Version 1.3," we would expect an end to the discussions about whether agile can be combined with CMMI. In its current version, CMMI explicitly adds guidance for organizations using agile methods. However, our experience reveals that practitioners still think CMMI and agile are incompatible because they lack accurate information about agile development.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130214.html

The Communications Gap -- Up and Down

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:56:19 -0500

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors |
Last year, I had a client identify a concern regarding the communications gap that seemed to exist between team members in the trenches and those in the executive suite. The response? We developed a series of "Communicating UP" workshops, designed to facilitate better communication up the food chain.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130214.html

Business Transformation

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:55:05 -0500

Mayer, Tobias | E-Mail Advisors |
Creating or running a business requires continuous focus on many areas: the individual, the team, the group or division, the organization as a whole, and, of course, the customer. While it is impossible to keep all the people happy all the time, it is essential to embrace, rather than fear, the conflict that naturally occurs.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130213.html

Mobile in the Enterprise: Part II -- Support, Strategy, and Standardization Trends for Tablets

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:51:15 -0500

Hall, Curt | Executive Updates |
Part I of this series examined corporate mobile device adoption practices and strategies and the main benefits organizations hope to achieve by using mobile technologies as well as the top obstacles to enterprise mobile adoption. In this Update, I focus on survey findings pertaining to the support for tablets in the enterprise, strategic significance of tables and what trends are emerging in the efforts to standardize the corporate tablet platform.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1302.html

Is It Architecture? Part III: The Zachman Framework and Architecture

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:49:31 -0500

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
In my last couple Advisors, I have looked at what constitutes architecture and an architectural description ("Is It Architecture? Part I" and "Is It Architecture? Part II: Ontologies and Metamodels"). In my final Advisor on this topic, I want to examine the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture using the same criteria (see Part I to review the criteria).
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130213.html

Your Job Is to Make Work Easy

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:47:43 -0500

Derby, Esther | Executive Updates |
Agile pundits who declare, "We don't need no stinking managers" don't help. As companies move away from command and control and embrace agility, they need a different picture of how managers add value.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1303.html

Risk Management and the Strategy Process

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:43:21 -0500

Doughty, Ken; Terry, Craig | Executive Reports |
To fully embed risk management within the strategy creation process effectively, organizations need to first understand the risks that its stakeholders take when providing continuing resources and support. They must also comprehend the actual processes used to create strategy. As we explore in this Executive Report, strategy creation models can differ according to environmental context and each impacts the design of a strategic risk management framework. Importantly, these models also create their own risks.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/reports/2013/01/index.html

Big Changes on the Horizon for Big Data, Part II: Market Happenings

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:41:19 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
In Part I of this Advisor, I discussed important changes I saw happening in the Hadoop/Big Data world in order to accelerate enterprise adoption of the technology (see "Big Changes on the Horizon for Big Data -- Part I"). Basically, I said that we could expect to see a shift from focusing so much on the technological aspects of Hadoop to one that champions better methods and well-defined use cases.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130212.html

Designers -- An Untapped Pool of Agile Leadership

Thu, 7 Feb 2013 14:25:41 -0500

Gothelf, Jeff | E-Mail Advisors |
Implementing an agile product development process has many challenges. One that is not regularly addressed is who will lead each of the Scrum teams. Many organizations default to the seemingly obvious answer of the Scrum Master.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130207.html

Pulling the Andon Risk Cord

Thu, 7 Feb 2013 14:20:27 -0500

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors |
I was reminded of Gene Kranz's words once more this past week on the 10th anniversary of the loss of the NASA shuttle Columbia and the deaths of its seven-member crew. Kranz, who was the NASA Flight Director during the Gemini and Apollo programs and later Director of NASA Mission Operations, was referring to the Apollo 1 fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on Friday, 27 January 1967.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130207.html

Making Managerial Dashboards Meaningful

Wed, 6 Feb 2013 14:18:48 -0500

Fronza, Ilenia | E-Mail Advisors |
IT organizations worldwide use dashboards to provide managers with the key information they need to steer their organizations in the right direction and make important strategic business decisions. Managers must be able to understand at a glance the information presented in the dashboard and to take effective corrective actions if needed
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130206.html

Eight Factors in All Enterprise Architectures

Wed, 6 Feb 2013 14:15:02 -0500

Evernden, Roger | E-Mail Advisors |
In Reframing Frameworks: Part I -- Making EA Frameworks Your Ally, I identified eight key factors common to all predefined frameworks. Some of these factors are visible in popular architecture frameworks such as TOGAF or Zachman, while others that are just as important are less evident.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130206.html

Big Changes on the Horizon for Big Data, Part I

Tue, 5 Feb 2013 14:13:25 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
For the past year and a half, much of the hype surrounding Big Data focused on the technological aspects of Hadoop. During this time, Hadoop became almost synonymous with Big Data -- as we were flooded with stories about how Internet companies like Amazon and Facebook and Yahoo! were using and enhancing the technology.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130205.html

Big Data: Part I -- New Privacy Concerns

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:15:30 -0500

Herold, Rebecca | Executive Updates |
How many business organizations are actually looking into the privacy issues for how they use or plan to use Big Data? Here in Part I of this three-part Executive Update series, we explore new privacy concerns surrounding Big Data.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2013/biau1301.html

The API Economy

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:21:35 -0500

Plamondon, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |
In the API Economy, an API is an application programming interface that is exposed (publicly or privately) on the Internet. It is the means by which one piece of Internet-based software can access the data and/or computational services of another, using standard Internet-based communications technologies.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130131.html

Food for Thought: Bedtime Reading for IT Management, Volume II

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:19:59 -0500

Benson, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |
In this Advisor, I focus on leadership and strategy subjects (for past reviews, see "Food for Thought: Bedtime Reading for IT Management"). These may be interesting to those of you considering issues in these domains.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130131.html

The Differences Between the Business Architect and the Business Analyst

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:18:47 -0500

Evernden, Roger | E-Mail Advisors |
Most large organizations have teams of business analysts. And a growing number have business architects. There are bound to be overlaps between the business architect and business analyst roles, but, curiously, the potential intersections and synergies between them are often neglected.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130130.html

Business Craftsmanship: A Right-Brain Approach to Organizational Transformation

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:16:47 -0500

Mayer, Tobias | Executive Updates |
Scrum is a good example of an organizational framework. It has well-defined components, namely roles, meetings, artifacts, and values. These are fixed, and failure to embrace the whole usually results in a collapse of the framework. Business craftsmanship in contrast is a shape-shifting container of emergent ideas based on experience and intuition.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1302.html

Is It Architecture? Part II: Ontologies and Metamodels

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:15:26 -0500

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
In my last Advisor, I talked about some defining characteristics of architecture and looked at the criteria that IEEE 42010 specifies ("Is It Architecture? Part I"). One of these was the need for some underlying basis and formality, or "model."
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130130.html

The Promises and Challenges of the New IT: Part II -- Cloud Strategies for the Enterprise

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:06:32 -0500

Greco, Frank | Executive Updates |
In Part I of this three-part Executive Update series, we highlighted the importance of understanding and evaluating the value and impact of the many new technologies, techniques, and tools that are part of the state of IT today. This Update explores the enterprise's need to go beyond the firewall to enhance customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and maintain a competitive edge.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1303.html

Dashboards Are Great, But We Still Must Watch the Road!

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:04:35 -0500

Clermont, Paul | Journals |
If you've driven a car, you know about dashboards. They concentrate a lot of constantly updated, useful information in our line of sight: how fast we're going, how much fuel remains in the tank and how far it will take us, what radio station is coming through, the outdoor temperature and where we are on a map, and warnings about overheating, insufficient oil, failing brakes, failed light bulbs, low tire pressure, and unlatched doors. Dashboards for managers are similar. Retrospectively, they help us notice and quantify problems that have developed. Prospectively, they provide early visibility into problems before they fester and metastasize. They help us focus our attention and probing.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301a.html

Making Managerial Dashboards Meaningful

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:03:03 -0500

Fronza, Ilenia | Journals |
In this edition of Cutter IT Journal, we will focus on the selection of the metrics that organizations should include in their dashboards to indicate how the business is performing. Moreover, we will learn best practices and guidelines for showing the information on the screen and the main requirements to keep in mind when designing dashboards. We will consider different contexts for dashboards, such as development teams and global enterprises, and we will see how different the requirements for a dashboard can be depending on their context of application.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/index.html

Should We Abandon Performance Measures?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:00:45 -0500

Parmenter, David | Journals |
I have worked with performance measures for over 20 years, and in that time I have witnessed minimal progress in the right direction. Deriving measures is often viewed as an afterthought. Measures are regarded as something we fill into a box to say we have achieved a goal.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301d.html

A Case for Decision-Focused Dashboards

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:38:52 -0500

Charette, Robert N. | Journals |
In November 2012, the US Air Force finally decided to cancel its Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) modernization project after spending US $1 billion on it. ECSS was intended to replace more than 240 outdated Air Force logistics computer systems, some over 40 years old, with a single, integrated system.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301b.html

Effective Dashboard Design

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:34:44 -0500

Janes, Andrea; Sillitti, Alberto; Succi, Giancarlo | Journals |
In the 19th century, the term "dashboard" was already being used to refer to a board in front of a carriage that stopped mud from being splashed (dashed) into the vehicle by the horse's hooves. Later, cars began using dashboards to inform the driver about the status of the car's various systems.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301c.html

Creating Dashboards That Think Globally, Act Locally

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:32:48 -0500

Ravi Tej Kanteti | Journals |
Today's global economy has spawned global enterprises that traverse boundaries and operate across more than one geography -- effectively meaning they encounter and handle different cultures, laws, languages, and timelines.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301e.html

Building Project Management Skill: How the Right Dashboard Drives Organizational Performance

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:31:06 -0500

Fitzpatrick, Lawrence | Journals |
The holy trinity of information technology is people, process, and tools. Yet in practice, IT fixates on tools first, process second, and then largely ignores people. Nowhere is this more evident than in project portfolio management (PPM) -- the process of managing and communicating the project activities within an organization.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2013/01/itj1301f.html

Spreading the Vision: Bringing Analytics to Culture

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:29:44 -0500

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
In a previous Advisor ("Staffing for the Big Data Future") we looked at team-building issues and the need to incorporate an emerging breed of data scientist. Another important part of the analytics mix is to move analysis beyond the traditional silos and into the ordinary operations of the business.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130129.html

Business-IT Architecture Misalignment: Part II -- A Transformation Framework

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:26:51 -0500

Ulrich, William M. | Executive Updates |
Part I of this Executive Update series introduced systemic challenges facing organizations with a high degree of business-IT misalignment, along with a summary of how to address these challenges. Here in Part II, we introduce a business-IT architecture transformation framework. The framework provides a comprehensive approach to addressing business-IT misalignment.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1302.html

An Holistic Software Operations Paradigm

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:25:07 -0500

Rasmus Wihlborg Jelsgaard | E-Mail Advisors |
When we discuss software operations, we are often implicitly referring to the technical activities involved with day-to-day operations; that is, the parts of operations that are related to the infrastructure of a running system. I suggest that we think of software operations as the sum of ongoing, interdisciplinary activities that contribute to a system, and which bring sustainable, increasing customer value.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130124.html

Left to Their Own Devices

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:23:15 -0500

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors |
The "consumerization of IT" is a catchy term for a sneaky trend that has been going on for at least 10 years, in which consumer devices and applications are increasingly incorporated into the workplace.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130124.html

From Photo Processing to Everyone as a Merchant

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:22:00 -0500

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |
On the face of it, photo processing is a fairly mundane business. Having taken a few photos, the photographer would like to produce copies to share with others. Traditionally, the image was latent on the photographic film. One had to physically take the film to an outlet that would expose the latent images and turn them into visible images. A second trip to the outlet would be required to pick up the photos (and the film).
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130123.html

A Model-Based Management Dashboard: Harmonizing Management Efforts to Optimize the Enterprise

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:16:29 -0500

Cummins, Fred A. | Executive Reports |

This Executive Report proposes personalized dashboards for all managers in an enterprise as well as an active business model based on the Value Delivery Modeling Language (VDML). The report describes the VDML concepts and facilities that model the operation of the enterprise, the mechanisms for integrating the model with operational business systems, and, finally, the implications of the shared VDML model and modeling facilities to the future evolution of the enterprise.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/reports/2013/01/index.html

Enterprise Tablet Standardization Trends

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:42:29 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
According to our research, approximately 24% of organizations have standardized on tablet platforms for enterprise use. Another 27% say they plan to do so within the next 12 months or so. How these organizations' plans will actually pan out is uncertain, due to the hyperactive nature of the tablet market, in general.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130123.html

Manage IT As a SaaS Business

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:40:51 -0500

Multhaup, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |
IT has always been a SaaS business in the sense that IT delivers software application solutions every day to every user's PC and end devices, no matter whether they come from a mainframe, the cloud, the network, or SAP. But the problem is that IT and its business relationship to its customers has not been managed on this usage or cost-per-seat basis, but rather as a cost overhead or a contrived chargeback method, as we alluded to earlier.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130122.html

Devops: Goals, Consequences, and Support

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:39:07 -0500

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates |
Devops has only been around for a brief few years, and it is already having a significant impact throughout the development community. While there are those who might view the integration of development and operations as a useful fad that serves a limited number of situations, evidence suggests that there are serious advantages to this approach.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2013/apmu1301.html

Systems of Engagement: Part I -- Understanding the Big Picture

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:37:26 -0500

Rosen, Mike | Executive Updates |
There has been a lot of noise in the application development area around what are being called "systems of engagement." In this Executive Update series, we will explore this newfound principle and what architects must contemplate in order to foster improved enterprise efficiency and innovation.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2013/eau1301.html

"Agile vs. CMMI": The Debate Goes On

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:55:25 -0500

Glazer, Hillel | E-Mail Advisors |
Jens Coldewey's Advisor "Why 'Agile vs. CMMI' Leads Down the Wrong Track" rightly argues that "Agile vs. CMMI" is not the right direction to go. However, he assumed a particular (and common) perspective about CMMI and in doing so left out a few key points about both CMMI and agile that must be mentioned as well to complete his argument.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130117.html

Go Small. Go Postmodern

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:53:32 -0500

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors |
I have recently gone cold turkey in ditching my brand-new Retina display iPad and my most favored Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook for a Dell Latitude 10 tablet. Since I have done that, I have yet to turn on my iPad or my XPS. I gave my son my iPad and the Ultrabook is sitting collecting dust. I am only keeping it for awhile longer because, for many of us older technology folks, paranoia gets soldered in our brains.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130117.html

Conscious Team Building

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:52:18 -0500

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |
Think back for a moment to the best project experience you have ever had. It may have been in the workplace, part of some team sport you were involved with, or perhaps it was a major trip you undertook with your family. What are the characteristics that made that a great project experience?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130116.html

Conducting Business Process Reviews

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:49:50 -0500

Spanyi, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors |
While conducting business process reviews has become a core activity for many business analysts, I have observed that there is still room for improvement on how these reviews are done in some organizations.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130116.html

Thoughts on the Market for Tablets in the Enterprise

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:48:19 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
The tablet market is currently very dynamic; not only are new products by the leading providers like Apple, Google, and Samsung getting introduced with hyper-frequency, but new vendors -- the most recent and notable being Microsoft -- are also appearing, while other players are fighting for their lives. Here are some of the key trends I see impacting the enterprise market for tablet products.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130115.html

Why "Agile vs. CMMI" Leads Down the Wrong Track

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:46:01 -0500

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors |
In his Advisor "Why 'Agile vs. CMMI' Is Still Valid," Santiago Matalonga makes the point that CMMI is a valuable tool for process improvement in agile organizations. He raises evidence of companies that have successfully applied both agile approaches and CMMI and reached CMMI Level 3 or more on this track.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130110.html

ERM 2012: A Year of Living in Cloud Cuckoo Land

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:44:11 -0500

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors |
"Risk management was regarded as a constraint on the business rather than integral to it." Or so a UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) report stated in March of last year concerning the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in October 2008. What the report didn't state was why senior management believed the bank could allow a concentration of lending risk to build up in the bank without someone taking action to manage it.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130110.html

Quick Turnaround: Rediscovering Innovation and the Power of Teams

Wed, 9 Jan 2013 11:35:27 -0500

Dalcher, Darren | E-Mail Advisors |
Is it possible to learn from experts in other disciplines? Indeed, can we improve our own practices by watching other professionals ply their trade?
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130109.html

Is It Architecture?: Part I

Wed, 9 Jan 2013 11:33:45 -0500

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
There has been a lot of discussion on some business architecture forums lately about the relationship between capabilities and processes and their role in business architecture.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130109.html

Look to Mobile Combined with Other "Disruptive" Technologies for Killer Apps in 2013

Tue, 8 Jan 2013 11:30:20 -0500

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |
Last year, organizations across almost every industry became really serious about using mobile technology. The majority of these initiatives involved companies enabling existing applications and business processes with mobile capabilities to extend their usefulness to workers in the field or those on the go, as well as to customers and partners beyond the firewall.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130108.html

Undisciplined Product Owners Can Torpedo Your Agile Adoption

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:28:31 -0500

Lines, Mark | Executive Updates |
This Executive Update illustrates how poor product owner practices can lead to skepticism regarding the value of agile and thereby reduce support for your agile adoption initiative.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2012/apmu1218.html

Profiting from Risk: A Transformation of One Company's Risk Culture, 2nd Edition

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:27:04 -0500

Charette, Robert N.; O'Brien, Patrick; Gemmer, Art | Executive Reports |
Organizational change is never easy. However, successful transformations can and do happen. This Executive Report details the 10-year transformation of Rockwell Collins from a risk-averse to a risk-entrepreneurial company that took place in the final decade of the 20th century, as well as an update on how Rockwell Collins continuously works even today in the second decade of the 21st century to exploit its risk management principles as an integral part of its core business process. It includes an array of lessons learned that establish how an organization can create lasting, profitable business change.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/reports/2012/08/index.html

The Art of Questioning

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:23:19 -0500

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | Executive Updates |
In this Update, I summarize for you the myriad reasons for questioning (particularly in undertaking BA) and also suggest a framework that can be used in practicing the "art of questioning."
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2012/bitu1223.html

The Environmental Context for EA: The Imperative to Deal with Uncertainty

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:21:58 -0500

Evernden, Roger | Executive Reports |
The role of the architect and the scope of architecture have steadily evolved from a focus purely on IT to one that also includes business and the enterprise as a complete organization. But enterprise architecture (EA) can't operate in isolation from the environment -- political, economic, social, and technology factors exert tremendous pressures on an enterprise. The nature of these pressures is increasingly unpredictable and uncertain. Enterprises are expected to respond to change that enterprise architectures were not designed for. Within the EA team, what can we do to anticipate trends and changes? And how do we structure and organize architectures to be able to respond to the unexpected? We explore these questions in this Executive Report.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2012/07/index.html

Business Architect vs. Business Analyst: What's the Difference?

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:09:59 -0500

Evernden, Roger | Executive Updates |
Most large organizations have teams of business analysts. And a growing number have business architects. In this Executive Update, I look at the characteristic techniques used by the two roles to highlight where there are differences between the two and how these differences complement each other. I then describe some of the practical ways to encourage greater cooperation and collaboration between these two areas.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2012/eau1213.html

Why "Agile vs. CMMI" Is Still Valid

Thu, 3 Jan 2013 11:50:26 -0500

Matalonga, Santiago | E-Mail Advisors |
CMMI is the de facto standard for process improvement in the software development domain. This standard encourages a systematic approach to process improvement. On the other hand, agile software development fosters high customer collaboration, rapid feedback, and empowerment of the individual developer.
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2013/apm130103.html

The Allure and Danger of the Crystal Ball: The Alternative to Making Predictions

Thu, 3 Jan 2013 11:47:26 -0500

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors |
It is so easy, and tempting, to try to envision precisely how 2013 will unfold. Levels of business uncertainty abound, and yet for some reason, we invest significant chunks of our time trying to forecast what's going to transpire in the world around us and determine its lasting effects on our actions and lives.
http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2013/bit130103.html

Enterprise Patterns: The Key to Delivering Enterprise Transformation?

Wed, 2 Jan 2013 11:46:03 -0500

Evernden, Roger | E-Mail Advisors |
Change at an architectural level is always transformational. But too often, architects have struggled to demonstrate or realize this potential for making a significant, positive difference at the enterprise level. Instead, big changes are more frequently driven by the architectural opportunities that arise from new technologies.
http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2013/itj130102.html

Analytic Visions

Wed, 2 Jan 2013 11:44:36 -0500

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors |
As we move into an era of increasingly complex Big Data and multidimensional real-time processing, visual presentation of results will rise in importance, and new ways of presenting information are likely to develop. Growing use of smaller screen mobile devices will also promote development of improved and more interactive display.
http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2013/bia130102.html

EA New Year's Resolutions, Eighth Edition

Wed, 2 Jan 2013 11:43:16 -0500

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |
Welcome to the eighth-anniversary edition of my enterprise architect's New Year's resolutions. I hope it will give you food for thought and some inspiration for architectural growth in 2013.
http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2013/ea130102.html