Cutter Consortium: Enterprise Suite

Business Environment Determines Degree of Team's Innovation

1 May 2008 22:27:22 GMT

Stein, Erik | E-Mail Advisors | 01 May 2008 | Agile Project Management

Imagine, for a moment, that you have an integrated team that is to build some software product. This team includes all the necessary stakeholders to define, assess, and refine the product; it contains the people who understand the need and have all the required skill sets and tools to accomplish the task. Call this the A Team. The A Team might be creative and highly innovative. Or not. What makes the difference? Whether the team uses an agile or a waterfall process? Whether the team uses Java or C#? No. The difference is in the surrounding business environment, the business model itself, and the culture created and sustained by management. The software development practices per se do not determine the creativity or innovativeness of the team.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080501.html

Back to the Future Again -- From the Fourth Generation to the Third, Part I

1 May 2008 22:26:15 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 01 May 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence

One of the interesting dilemmas facing current IT development managers is what to do with the applications that were written in what used to be referred to as 4GLs (fourth-generation languages). In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of such languages were developed that were designed first to handle management reporting tasks and then to develop basic PC and client-server applications. A key characteristic of these kinds of development environments is that they were based on a specific database. Over time, most of these tools gravitated to one or another relational database management system, or RDBMS (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.). The hallmark of these tools is that they did many things for you. Among these 4GLs were tools like Oracle Forms and Microsoft Access (which included its own RDBMS).

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080501.html

The Pleasure of Added Resistance: Working at the Edge of Your Ability

1 May 2008 22:25:11 GMT

O'Donnell, Shannon | E-Mail Advisors | 01 May 2008 | Innovation

An old boyfriend of mine, while a young adult, once spent a Saturday with his best friend taking apart and reassembling his car's engine. The intent wasn't to make improvements. They were simply curious about the engine's assembly and about their own ability to do something that was more ambitious than other such experiments they had tried. Apparently not ambitious enough, however, as they decided to increase the challenge by carrying out the entire activity, start to finish, wearing roller skates.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2008/iea080501.html

To Build an EA, Start with Z Matrix

30 Apr 2008 22:23:52 GMT

Fung-A-Fat, Mark | 30 April 2008 | Enterprise Architecture; Cutter IT Journal

As technology continues to improve and advance, businesses are using software applications, components, and other technology tools once reserved for IT use in ways that IT departments sometimes have no control or even knowledge of. This ubiquitous adoption of technology at many levels within a company -- as well as the increasing complexity of internal systems, external partnerships, and shorter application-development cycles -- has left IT executives scrambling to find a solution to manage the enterprise technology roadmap. The proliferation of technology within many companies is not only a concern for IT executives, but also for many business executives who realize that in today's fast-paced digital culture, much of their key business processes and infrastructure is tenuously tied to the success or failure of their company's technical foundations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080430.html

Check the Maturity of Your Investment Priorities

30 Apr 2008 22:22:11 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 30 April 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

We have been working with public sector and commercial clients in upgrading their IT investment prioritization processes. While doing so, we have found it helpful to apply a prioritization maturity model to establish the company's goals and outcomes. Clients of Cutter's Business-IT Strategies Advisory Service are no doubt very familiar with the concept of maturity models in software development.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit080430.html

BRMS, Transparent Decision Services, and Service-Oriented Architectures

30 Apr 2008 22:20:50 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 30 April 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

I've been talking for some time now about why Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS) should be considered an important part of an organization's service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiative.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2008/ea080430.html

Informatica Buys ISI, Adds Identity Resolution Management to Lineup

29 Apr 2008 22:18:18 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 29 April 2008 | Business Intelligence

Data integration tools vendor Informatica Corporation is buying Identity Systems, Inc. (ISI), a provider of identity search, matching, and resolution software, for approximately US $85 million. Informatica will use ISI's software to bolster the identity resolution management capabilities of its data integration tools, enabling the company to better compete with other vendors that have their own identity resolution offerings.

In this Advisor, I examine what Informatica is getting from buying ISI. First, a quick overview of identity resolution management.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080429.html

Shortening the Tail

24 Apr 2008 22:17:18 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 24 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

In working with a number of software companies over the years, I've come to find a single metric that is very effective in determining how "agile" these organizations are: the length of the tail. The tail is the time period from "code slush" (true code freezes are rare) or "feature freeze" to RTM (release to manufacturing). It is the time when companies do some or all of the following: beta testing, regression testing, product integration, integration testing, documentation, defect fixing. The worst "tail" I've encountered was 18 months -- 18 months from feature freeze to product release, and most of that time was spent in QA. Routinely, I find software companies whose tail is four to six months.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080424.html

Creating and Managing the Agile Enterprise

1 Apr 2008 22:30:25 GMT

Piccoli, Gabriele | Journals | 01 April 2008 | Cutter Benchmark Review

This issue focuses on the management of the agile enterprise and on understanding how organizations can facilitate and foster agile practices through investments in IT infrastructure and technology practices. As such, the survey our contributors crafted tackles issues of strategy, relative positioning and competition, as well as technology infrastructure, software development methodologies, and IT architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2008/04/index.html

Architectural Strategies to Tighten Data Security

24 Apr 2008 22:15:46 GMT

Ambler, Scott W. | E-Mail Advisors | 24 April 2008 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

It seems as if every time you turn on the television there's an advertisement regarding identity theft or a newscast about how someone lost their laptop containing the personal records of hundreds of thousands of people. With losses running into the hundreds of millions from data theft, not to mention the impact from the reduced trust people have in the ability of many organizations to protect their data, it is clear that data security is a critical issue that must be addressed by your data architecture [1]. Data security issues include authentication, authorization (access control), and encryption/decryption. The good news is that there are architectural solutions to all of these issues, although many of them go beyond the narrow realm of data architecture and are actually IT architecture issues. The bad news is that security is rarely at the top of people's lists; although, mention terms such as "data confidentiality," "sensitivity," and "ownership," and they quickly become interested.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2008/erm080424.html

Weizenbaum, Eliza, and the Boundaries of AI

24 Apr 2008 22:14:25 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 24 April 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I noted that Joseph Weizenbaum died last month. Weizenbaum was an early computer scientist, most famous perhaps for the creation of Eliza, a very early artificial intelligence (AI) program fashioned around a simple pattern recognition (stimulus-response) model that mimicked the approach used by psychologists and psychiatrists in talking to patients.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080424.html

Two Stories Shape Outsourcing in Latin America

23 Apr 2008 22:13:04 GMT

Funes Cervantes, Alfredo | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2008 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

I frequently read articles about outsourcing, benefits, risks, business value, challenges, best practices, concerns, and so on. I wonder whether this information, most of it around success stories, refers to a reality exclusive to American companies, or whether we have the same environment in Latin America.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2008/src080423.html

Enterprise Mashups: How to Leverage One of the Engines of Agility

1 Mar 2008 22:29:12 GMT

Piccoli, Gabriele | Journals | 01 March 2008 | Cutter Benchmark Review

Mashups are one candidate gaining increasing attention. It is therefore a perfect time for us to produce an issue on this topic to provide you, our readers, with the conceptual framework, the vocabulary, and an overview of the issues surrounding this emerging approach to enterprise business and data integration.

http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2008/03/index.html

For Sharper IT Focus, Make Clear Your Business Need

23 Apr 2008 22:11:24 GMT

Sisco, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

I'm a strong proponent that everything we do in an IT organization should be driven by business needs and issues. One reason many IT managers are out of sync with their business client is that they haven't really established what the business needs and issues are.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit080423.html

One Way to Make IT Look Like the Business

23 Apr 2008 22:10:01 GMT

van Tyn, Jeroen | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2008 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

Awhile back, Cutter Senior Consultant Mike Rosen and I wrote an Executive Report (see "Enterprise Architecture: It's Not Just for IT Anymore," Vol. 9, No. 6) about an approach to enterprise architecture in which we recommended applying architectural modeling practices to business architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2008/ea080423.html

Emerge From Disaster Via Improved Communication

2 May 2008 22:04:16 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2008 | Cutter IT Journal

Disasters happen, and projects do go wrong. Very often this sets off a chain of events that causes more hardship down the line and incurs costs that someone will be looking to recoup. However, all too often, the distress of the situation blinds the people involved from the opportunities that remain to break new technological ground, introduce new products or capabilities to the market, and solve problems that could not be solved before. The question is whether the opportunities that remain outweigh the benefits of assigning blame and, if so, what steps need to be taken to nurse the project back to health.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080423.html

Business Intelligence: With or Without a Data Warehouse?

22 Apr 2008 21:59:05 GMT

Moss, Larissa T. | Journals | 22 April 2008 | Cutter IT Journal; Business Intelligence

After four decades of failing to manage data assets in an enterprise-wide fashion, organizations are suffering from data chaos. As a result, they are unable to determine the true value of their customers, gauge business unit and enterprise performance, react to market conditions quickly and accurately, and -- in some cases -- even stay in business. So how can IT best support business decision making in the current data morass? Must we commit to the painfully slow and costly process of building and maintaining a data warehouse (DW), or will that leave behind too many business units that need their data "yesterday"? If we attempt BI without a DW, will we simply spawn more BI silo applications, making our present data woes even worse? In this issue, we'll look at both sides of the BI debate.

Hear from one author who claims the "democratization" of BI has made the enterprise-wide DW irrelevant. You'll hear from others who predict "serious negative consequences" if organizations abandon the DW -- and argue that agile data techniques allow you to throw out the "bureaucratic bathwater" while keeping the DW "baby." Whether you consider the DW an unnecessary impediment or BI's best hope, you'll find plenty of thought-provoking discussion in this issue of Cutter IT Journal .

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2008/04/index.html

KPI Management Trends for Business Performance Management Applications

22 Apr 2008 21:58:05 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 22 April 2008 | Business Intelligence

Like other metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs) require modification to remain accurate. Reasons for modifying KPIs can range from the implementation of new business processes and corporate objectives and strategies to responses to changing market conditions or business environments.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080422.html

"The Big Splash": Discovering How Wet Our Leadership Behaviors Can Be

1 Apr 2008 18:17:48 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Updates | 01 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

This Executive Update is a bit of a departure from our usual writings as it instead illustrates an important lesson by presenting a story, which is compiled from my many experiences helping leaders make meaningful changes within individuals, teams, and their organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0807.html

Net Neutrality

15 Mar 2008 18:15:22 GMT

Choate, Mark | Executive Updates | 15 March 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The controversy over Net neutrality raised its head again when the Associated Press reported in October 2007 that Comcast was throttling peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet traffic. Proponents of Net neutrality saw it as the smoking gun that definitively proves the need for Net neutrality legislation. The debate and the various calls for legislated remedies have introduced an air of uncertainty in the marketplace. Regardless of how politicians ultimately decide to respond to the issue, the debate raises important questions for IT professionals in terms of how much they should invest in technologies that consume high bandwidth, such as P2P and VoIP, and how the proposed remedies might affect the underlying cost structure of those technologies.

http://www.cutter.com/trends/fulltext/updates/2008/bttu0806.html

How to Increase Productive Velocity, Part 1

17 Apr 2008 18:14:29 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 17 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

If you start with agile management, you will hit a point of frustration eventually: the more reliable your planning process becomes, the more frustrating are its results. You will find that your real velocity is way beyond what you would like it to be -- and probably beyond what you promised to your stakeholders. One measure you have to take now is quite obvious: if you have too much to do, reduce expectations. Try to find alternatives that are easier and cheaper to implement. This gives immediate relief and is the right thing to do tactically.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080417.html

Convergence CRM to Accelerate "Personal" Service

17 Apr 2008 18:13:34 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 17 April 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

I recently spent some time on hold with -- and occasionally actually speaking with -- "technical support" representatives. I listened to the on-hold voice tell me over and over again that I could just go to the Web site for technical support, since the scripts that the human technical support team used to troubleshoot problems were the same scripts that the digital technical-support team used. This advice struck me as peculiar: if I could really get the answers I needed from the Web, then why was the company spending so much money frustrating me with 1-800-number support? Was the voice implying that I was an idiot to actually want to speak with someone? I bounced from service rep to service rep, ending with a (live) support professional telling me that she did not know how to solve my problem.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080417.html

A Closer Look at Leadership Versus Management

17 Apr 2008 18:12:27 GMT

Hanke, Peter | E-Mail Advisors | 17 April 2008 | Innovation

The expectations for our leaders have never been larger. More than ever before, the essentials of leadership include the courageous use of human experience and the individual desire to create a difference and succeed in a world of rising complexity. The possibilities for development and the ability to engage in new, interesting projects, as well as to realize potential, are almost infinite. In addition, individual existential choices have become more important and are more closely connected with the emotional forces of employees and managers. Gut feeling has risen in the ranks as a tool for decision making, and the leader's search for credibility and authenticity has become a major issue. At the same time, the organization's ability to set and reach strategic goals can no longer be differentiated from the manager as a human being. This is true for top leadership as well as for informal and formal management because the personalization of goal-setting and the capability of coaching both employees and stakeholders have become universal aspects of the role. I am not talking only about pragmatic branding exercises or media visibility and nicely phrased value-based management; the leader is in focus just as a performing artist is -- and people will be just as critical of the exposed aspects of the leadership performer's contribution as they are of the opera star tenor in an opening night at the Metropolitan Opera or a popular rock band at Wembley Stadium.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2008/iea080417.html

Grow Greener IT by Starting at the Bottom

16 Apr 2008 18:09:48 GMT

Emily Jane Ryan | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

IT can be the facilitator of efficiency and sustainability within a corporation. By driving sustainable practices from the bottom up, IT can help build a better, greener company around itself. There are some simple policy modifications that can be taken immediately to reduce the environmental impact of IT's use in the company, and then there are some cultural changes that take longer to enact. A short-term and long-term plan for sustainability will provide the most benefit and allow management time to analyze new technology and foster employee spirit in the campaign [5].

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit080416.html

Four Stages of Architectural Cognition

16 Apr 2008 18:08:09 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

In the education business, there is a recognized theory of cognitive development that is based on the work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and his study of children. Piaget identified four stages of development. Each represents the understanding of reality during that stage, but the last is an inadequate approximation of reality. Development from one stage to the next is caused by the accumulation of errors in the understanding of the environment, which eventually requires a reorganization of thought structures to correct it.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2008/ea080416.html

Employing Google's Free-Time Policy in Your Business

16 Apr 2008 18:07:18 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2008 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

I have met many engineers, programmers, administrators, and others who have great imagination (I used to be one of them; sometimes I stray back into that fold). Ideas come to them, and they try those ideas. Sometimes, some of those brilliant ideas work right now in the system we are building. Often, however, that isn't the case. Poor odds don't deter these imaginative people. Close oversight is necessary; well, maybe not necessary, as there are other choices.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080416.html

Caution Urged on Foreseeing 2008 Business Performance Management Spending

15 Apr 2008 18:06:15 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 15 April 2008 | Business Intelligence; Business-IT Strategies

The majority of organizations plan to increase spending on business performance management in 2008. This finding comes from a Cutter Consortium survey conducted in January 2008 of 101 end-user organizations based worldwide. The survey was designed to measure the extent that organizations are implementing business performance management and the techniques and tools they are using, as well as the issues they are encountering in their efforts.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080415.html

New Workshop: Practical Software Estimation

17 Apr 2008 17:58:17 GMT

Mah, Michael | Training/Workshops | Cutter Benchmark Review

In a survey conducted by Cutter Consortium of more than 100 software development organizations of varied sizes, the most common method of software estimation was -- "gut feel". Software engineers pick a number for cost and schedule estimates based on rough judgment of experienced developers nearly 50% of the time, and as a result this workshop was designed to teach attendees how they can help get software development projects in their company back on track by being able to produce better and more accurate estimates.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/practicalsoftwareestimation.html

New Workshop: How to Collect and Use Metrics in Agile Software Development Environments

17 Apr 2008 17:56:14 GMT

Mah, Michael | Training/Workshops | Cutter Benchmark Review

In this workshop you'll learn how to move from a project whiteboard to create project trendlines on productivity, time-to-market, and defects using your own data. Get an inside look at agile measurement by seeing this in action using real case studies. Learn how to replicate these techniques to make your own comparisons on time, cost, and quality. And discover how to leverage these methods to make the case for change with your management teams at your company.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/metrics.html

New Workshop Added: Agile Management

17 Apr 2008 16:53:14 GMT

Spann, David | Training/Workshops | Agile Project Management
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This 3-day Agile Management course is designed for teams that will be working together on a project/initiative and that want to increase customer satisfaction, technical quality, and business value. To that end, the team will work collaboratively, through periods of instruction/learning, and then immediately apply the lessons learned using their project/initiative's actual data. For example, during the business case section of the course, the team will define its project's objectives, business value and elevator speech to assure everyone understands and agrees with why it is important.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/agilemanagement.html

The Missing Pragmatic Link in the Semantic Web

1 Apr 2008 15:50:17 GMT

Di Maio, Paola | Executive Updates | 01 April 2008 | Business Intelligence

While we are still trying to get our heads around the concepts and terminologies surrounding the Semantic Web, hints of a "Pragmatic Web" are finding their way into conversations and exchanges as some important new idea that is lurking in the background and hasn't quite yet made it onto the IT agenda.

http://www.cutter.com/bia/fulltext/updates/2008/biau0807.html

Lessons Learned: Taking a Page from Risk Management History

1 Apr 2008 15:48:17 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | Executive Reports | 01 April 2008 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

This Executive Report by Carl Pritchard uses lessons learned from three classic examples to get at the heart of risk perception and risk management. The examples -- the construction of Saint Paul's Cathedral; the promotion, construction, shipment, and installation of the Statue of Liberty; and the implementation of the US Social Security program from legal authorization through the first benefit payment -- offer powerful, specific, actionable lessons that can be applied in the modern business environment.

http://www.cutter.com/risk/fulltext/reports/2008/04/index.html

The Agile Project Management Revolution

15 Mar 2008 15:45:50 GMT

Bauer, Martin | Executive Updates | 15 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

With any new approach, there will be those who think it's the best thing since sliced bread, those who think it's just a fad, and those who simply don't care. When it comes to agile project management, however, everyone should be paying attention, because it really does matter. It's not just a management fad; it's a wake-up call for an industry that has an awful track record and is in need of serious help.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0806.html

The Business Implications of SOA

1 Mar 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates | 01 March 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is meant to enable greater flexibility and improved alignment between business processes and applications. By separating individual services and permitting them to be provided in composite applications, the concept has some revolutionary consequences for IT infrastructure. It is also aligned with business process management (BPM), and some tout it as a paradigm-shifting technology. Most large companies are now implementing SOA in some form, and success stories are starting to command attention.

http://www.cutter.com/architecture/fulltext/updates/2008/eau0805.html

Packaging Architecture for Reuse

1 Feb 2008 15:41:48 GMT

Sims, Oliver | Executive Reports | 01 February 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

In industries other than IT, an architect's skills and experience are often packaged and reused across multiple projects without the architect necessarily being involved. This Executive Report by Oliver Sims describes how, for systems or applications of a similar kind, the same can be achieved in IT. The report shows how software architecture can be packaged and reused across multiple projects. In this way, the reach of scarce architecture skills is multiplied, resulting in faster project completion and higher architectural quality.

http://www.cutter.com/architecture/fulltext/reports/2008/02/index.html

Disassembling the Nokia Test

10 Apr 2008 15:32:59 GMT

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 10 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

The Nokia Test is a quick assessment of practices to determine whether your Scrum implementation is up to snuff, based on how it is done at Nokia. Let's take it apart to see whether there are any user-serviceable parts inside. The first few elements identify whether or not you are really iterative.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080410.html

How Risk Management Mystery Is Deepening at UBS

10 Apr 2008 15:32:04 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 10 April 2008 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As I wrote recently (see "The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Risk Managers -- Again," 31 January 2008), the management of Swiss bank UBS admitted in January that, even after writing off US $13.4 billion from the bank's books in the fourth quarter in response to its holdings in subprime mortgages, "We cannot, at this time, accurately predict the future development of the US residential mortgage markets and therefore the ultimate impact of our positions in subprime-mortgage-related securities."

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2008/erm080410.html

When Applying a Standard, Use Your Judgment

10 Apr 2008 15:30:07 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 10 April 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence; Agile Project Management

I was talking to someone recently who had used a requirements approach about which I was skeptical.

"How many times have you worked on a project that used this approach?" I asked.

"I'd guess 25 or 26," he replied.

"Did it work?" I asked. "It didn't," he replied.

"Why are you recommending it on this project?" I asked, as my voice got louder.

"It is a standard," he answered, after a little consideration.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080410.html

Do We Need a New Undergrad Business Technology Degree?

9 Apr 2008 15:29:04 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 09 April 2008 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

In this Advisor, Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole offers his expert advice as to the type of business technology education today's undergraduates should be receiving. These students will be your future IT employees. What do you think these students should be learning from their coursework? Read on to see whether you agree with this recommendation, framed as a letter to business school deans.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2008/src080409.html

Principles of Planning: Effective Delegation

9 Apr 2008 15:28:05 GMT

Rasmussen, David N. | E-Mail Advisors | 09 April 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

In my last Advisor (see "Principles of Planning: Managing Stakeholder Expectations," 12 March 2008), I described the importance of actively managing stakeholder expectations. I went on to state that as much as 50% of a manager's time can be spent on this task -- communicating with board directors, executives, employees, vendors, customers, and the other myriad of organizations that have an interest in the company's performance.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit080409.html

What Are the Possibilities of Internet Social Media Analysis?

8 Apr 2008 15:26:18 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 09 April 2008 | Cutter IT Journal

What if someone established a blog whose sole purpose was to engage disgruntled consumers in a running commentary about how lousy your company's customer service is and to tell people to "do themselves a favor" and avoid buying, banking, renting, etc., from your business? Or what about a video on YouTube that slams your company's product? Or a video about how environmentally unfriendly your SUV is because it is a "gas hog." Or how about a popular chat room where teenage girls are raving about one of your products -- a product that, though it's been on the market for some time, has just begun to experience increasing sales?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080409.html

Why Mining Internet Social Media Is Difficult

8 Apr 2008 15:25:06 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 08 April 2008 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

The problem with mining blogs, message boards, online forums, and other social media is that it requires the use of text-mining tools that can analyze unstructured data. Similar to structured data mining, text mining uses sophisticated algorithms, such as neural networks, case-based reasoning (CBR), probabilistic reasoning, advanced statistical methods, and other machine learning techniques, to automate data analysis and discovery in unstructured data. But a key differentiator between the two is that text mining can also makes use of natural language processing (NLP) techniques, such as lexical processing and analysis, word/phrase parsing, and other methods, to enable text mining systems to identify and highlight key concepts and relationships among words in text. All of these techniques, however, are not widely understood by most corporate IT departments. Consequently, the mining and analysis of unstructured data is not widely used by mainstream organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080408.html

Chartering Agile Projects

3 Apr 2008 15:23:30 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 03 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

The title of this Advisor is very specific: "chartering agile projects," not "developing an agile charter." In the latter, "charter" is a noun; in the former, a verb (taking some liberties with the English language). Chartering is a collaborative process that an agile team uses to make sure the team understands the vision, scope, and the release plan for the project and that management agrees with the team's plan. A charter documents the collaborative effort, while chartering is the process of interacting.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080403.html

A Solid Innovation in Laptop Storage Begins to Emerge

3 Apr 2008 15:22:14 GMT

Berry, John | E-Mail Advisors | 03 April 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

As is the case with many technology innovations compared to existing solutions, the market price starts high and the benefits taken in the context of the costs involved start low. Price and benefits move toward each other until joining at that inflection point of value where the innovation presents an affordable alternative to the existing technology. We might be quickly approaching the affordability inflection point in solid-state storage.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080403.html

Innovation of the Second Kind: Cultivating a Frame of Mind, Part 2

3 Apr 2008 15:20:24 GMT

Devin, Lee | E-Mail Advisors | 03 April 2008 | Innovation

Looking to the future, we see a new revolution looming. The Industrial Revolution transformed life in the developed economies and is beginning to do the same for the rest of the world. However, the Industrial Revolution depends on limitless amounts of energy and supplies -- which we're (finally!) discovering that we don't have. Just as Eli Whitney reconceived how to make things (interchangeable parts) and Henry Ford how to assemble (the moving line) and sell them (economies of scale), we now need to reconceive what we mean by value and profit.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2008/iea080403.html

Business Performance Management: Benefits, Implementation Strategies, and Key Issues

15 Mar 2008 17:23:54 GMT

Hall, Curt | Executive Updates | 15 March 2008 | Business Intelligence

In January 2008, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey of 101 end-user organizations regarding their use of business performance management practices. The goal was to determine the degree to which companies are implementing business performance management techniques and technologies. In addition, I wanted to identify business performance management development issues and trends, discern how companies are progressing with their initiatives, and provide findings you can use to measure your own organization's business performance management efforts.

http://www.cutter.com/bia/fulltext/updates/2008/biau0806.html

Tactics for a New Era: What Startups and Wind-Downs Do Now

1 Mar 2008 17:21:54 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 01 March 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

After 25 years on the corporate platform, there has been a massive shift; we're now moving outside of the corporate firewall into "the cloud" of the Internet platform (see Figure 1). So what does this mean for startup and wind-down companies?

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/updates/2008/bttu0805.html

What the Kids Need to Know About IT: An Open Letter to B-School Deans

15 Mar 2008 17:20:32 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 15 March 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

In this Executive Update, Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole offers his expert advice as to the type of business technology education today's undergraduates should be receiving. These students will be your future IT employees. What do you think these students should be learning from their coursework? Read on to see whether you agree with his recommendations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2008/bitu0806.html

Avoiding Buyer's Remorse with Agile: Part II

1 Mar 2008 17:17:51 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Updates | 1 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

Leaders who want to implement an agile approach need to build bridges between functional areas, so that any new processes are deemed appropriate by all the internal stakeholders. To build these interconnections, leaders must stay focused on creating a process of organizational change, establishing team working agreements, and developing and improving the skills and behaviors of the people who lead agile initiatives. This Update examines each of these areas.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0805.html

Developing Core Application Systems for the 21st Century

1 Feb 2008 17:09:51 GMT

Orr, Ken | Executive Reports | 01 February 2008 | Business Intelligence

In this Executive Report, Ken Orr discusses the major sets of options currently available to business and IT planners today concerning their current legacy systems: leave them alone, replace them with COTS, replace them with open source applications and components, or replace them with state-of-the-art service-oriented architecture (SOA) or cloud applications. The report suggests that there are problems with all of these approaches and discusses the primary characteristics that the core application systems of the 21st century should include. Principal among these characteristics are that they should: (1) be platform-agnostic, (2) utilize agile development environments, and (3) be semantically aware.

http://www.cutter.com/bia/fulltext/reports/2008/02/index.html

Reinventing Enterprise-Wide Security: Dispatches from an Embedded Journalist at the Edge of SOA -- Part I

15 Feb 2008 17:07:58 GMT

Teti, Frank | Executive Updates | 15 February 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

This two-part Executive Update series focuses on enterprise-wide security. Here in Part I, we'll discuss the standards and specifications used for enforcing WS-Security within a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Essentially, standards implement the corporate security policy, whereas the security architecture implements the standards. It is important to point out that this Update aims to provide guidance and recommendation for securing the SOA infrastructure, not for establishing security policy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2008/eau0804.html

Innovation and the Role of the Enterprise Architect: Charting the Course for Business Transformation

1 Feb 2008 17:07:00 GMT

Moturu, Praveen; Navalpakkam, Sri | Executive Updates | 01 February 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

Given the complex and global nature of today's business world, organizations are looking for ways to deal with realities and turn them into advantages. As a result, a focus on innovation has become a key strategic differentiator, resulting in competitive, sustainable advantage and maximized stakeholder value.

http://www.cutter.com/architecture/fulltext/updates/2008/eau0803.html

Business Architecture

1 Mar 2008 17:03:32 GMT

Orr, Ken | Journals | 01 March 2008 | Enterprise Architecture; Cutter IT Journal

Business architecture is the link between business and technology, current and future - especially future. In recent years, IT has been devoted to cutting costs and people. Today IT must show how it will add value and flexibility to the organization’s structure. With global competition on the rise, companies have to adapt to rapidly changing conditions - world-class, forward-looking IT is a necessity. Business architecture is a key tool for aligning technology with current/future business goals and aligning business with current/future technology opportunities. In this issue we'll examine business architecture, an IT issue that’s moving to the front burner in many organizations. Hear how the Wealth Management Group at Wells Fargo launched a highly successful business architecture program through a combination of BPM and “servant leadership.” Learn what attributes are required in a great business architect, whether you’re seeking the “horizontal” or “vertical” model. Discover how poorly aligned enterprise governance structures can hamper business architecture deployment - and how you can sidestep the problem by embracing collaborative governance. If you’re in the market for strategic transformation, don’t miss this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2008/03/index.html

EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 4

2 Apr 2008 16:59:41 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 02 April 2008 | Business-IT Strategies

In this Advisor, I pick up on our conversation on the "Experience Analysis and Design" (EAD) methodology (see "EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 1," 2 January 2008, "EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 2," 23 January 2008, and "EAD: The Architecture of the Customer Experience, Part 3," 20 February 2008). Last time, I discussed the term "offering" and reviewed some of the problems customers and employees have in understanding or delivering on the various attributes of the offering. Companies frequently deploy IT solutions to address these problems. The EAD methodology is designed to more precisely identify these gaps, find ways to measure these gaps, and then, most important, link the IT investment more clearly to closing these gaps.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit080402.html

The Power of Gray in Architectural Credibility

2 Apr 2008 16:59:00 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 02 April 2008 | Enterprise Architecture

A little over a year ago, I wrote an Advisor called "Should Your Architect Write Code?" (29 November 2006). In it, I gave the typical consultant's answer: "it depends." Each organization is different, and each has more or less different requirements for their architects. Many argue that for architects to be effective with development teams (especially an agile one), they need to get their hands dirty helping to write the code. Moreover, I've certainly seen this work well in organizations that equate IT architecture with software architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2008/ea080402.html

Underestimating End-User Training for Business Performance Management Initiative

1 Apr 2008 16:56:34 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 01 April 2008 | Business Intelligence; Agile Project Management

Many organizations continue to underestimate end-user training requirements for their business performance management efforts. This finding comes from a recent Cutter Consortium survey conducted in January 2008 of 101 end-user organizations (based worldwide). The survey was designed to measure the extent that organizations are implementing business performance management and the techniques and tools they are using and the issues they are encountering.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080401.html