Cutter Consortium: Enterprise Suite

The Starfish and the Spider: Helping to Gauge Who's in Charge

5 Nov 2009 23:17:33 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 05 November 2009 | Agile Project Management

A spider is an eight-legged arachnid that has a head attached to a central body. Pull a leg off a spider and most can still walk, even if a little lopsided. Cut off the head, and the spider dies. Not so the starfish. While many people know that if you cut off a starfish's leg, it will grow back, most don't know that a starfish's major organs are replicated throughout its body. One species, Linckia, can regenerate an entire starfish from each of its severed parts. A starfish is a decentralized network. A final interesting factoid -- "for the starfish to move, one of the arms must convince the other arms that it's a good idea to do so." Talk about an excuse for uncoordination: "but I can't get my limbs to work together."

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091105.html

Flash! My Idea for an XML Blender

5 Nov 2009 23:16:19 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 05 November 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence

From a certain perspective, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software architecture is just plain silly.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091105.html

The Rise of the Semantic Enterprise Webinar

5 Nov 2009 23:15:02 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | Webinars/Multimedia | 05 November 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence

In this hour-long webinar, Cutter Senior Consultant Mitchell Ummel, answers your questions about what semantically-aware applications might mean for your enterprise. A follow-on to his wildly popular Cutter IT Journal issue of the same title, this webinar will help you better understand the implications of applying semantic web technologies to business problem domains where traditional enterprise systems have fallen short, such as BI, data mining, and CRM.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/webinar/2009/semantic-enterprise.html

How Swine Flu and Other Big-Bet Projects Require Honesty

5 Nov 2009 23:13:42 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 05 November 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As the death toll has reached 1,000, there has been a lot of press coverage in the US this past week concerning the shortages in the availability of the swine flu vaccine. Planned vaccination clinics for the millions of high-risk individuals in the US, including pregnant mothers, children under the age of 10, and healthcare workers across the country, have been postponed en masse with no word on when they will be rescheduled.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm091105.html

Enterprises Loosen Reins, Pave Way for Open Source

4 Nov 2009 23:00:12 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 04 November 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

Open source software (OSS) has been entering the enterprise almost invisibly for a number of years, initially in infrastructure as Web servers and replacement for proprietary Unix and then branching out into a diverse range of infrastructure components, embedded code, and applications. It has been invisible for a variety of reasons:

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit091104.html

How EA Shapes Urban/Transportation Planning, Part II

4 Nov 2009 22:58:46 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 04 November 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

In my last Advisor ("How EA Shapes Urban/Transportation Planning," 7 October 2009), I restated some of the reasons that my colleagues and I have chosen urban (and transportation) planning as the model for thinking about EA while developing the Business Enterprise Architecture Modeling (BEAM) methodology. The main reason, as I wrote, is that urban planning much more closely represents the kinds of complexity (networks of systems) and communication (intra- and interorganizational) issues that one finds in real-world EA work.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea091104.html

To Do or Too Due? Getting the Most out of Personal Productivity Tools

4 Nov 2009 22:57:41 GMT

Feller, Joseph | E-Mail Advisors | 04 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In my article in the July 2009 Cutter Benchmark Review (see "Looking at Personal Productivity Tools and Systems,"Vol. 9, No. 7), I wanted to identify some of the tools, techniques, attitudes, and environmental factors that could use a tune-up so that people could continue to get the job done but in a way that lets them go home at the end of the day without work lurking behind them. Specifically, I wanted to examine the extent to which practices and attitudes, revealed in the CBR survey on which that article was based, support or inhibit externalizing memory, making information actionable, and executing actions in a situated and agile fashion. Based on my analysis of the survey data, I offer a few pieces of advice.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091104.html

Mashups, Web Services, and the IBM Cognos BI Mashup Service

3 Nov 2009 22:53:35 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 03 November 2009 | Business Intelligence

I've said for some time now that the use of mashups in the enterprise would increase, especially when it comes to their use for BI and other applications that support decisions. One reason for this is that the technology has been evolving rapidly and vendors focusing on mashups have been growing in number. End-user organizations have also expressed a definite interest in using mashups. In addition, some of the BI tool vendors have seen the possibilities afforded by offering add-ons that allow the use of mashups with their respective BI platforms. Information Builders and Pentaho were two of the first to do so last year.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia091103.html

Protect Outsourced PII by Streamlining Compliance

4 Nov 2009 22:54:40 GMT

McCalmont, Stephen A.; Teller-Kanzler, Jeri | E-Mail Advisors | 04 November 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

In an outsourcing arrangement, many of the risks to personally identifiable information (PII) are the same as for internally processed information. Controlling the spread of PII within the outsourcer's IT environment is key, as is ensuring that access controls are effectively used, the outsourcers networks are secure, and encryption is used in association with organizational sensitive data and PII. Even administrative controls, such as employee background checks, have applicability in an outsourcing arrangement. Numerous security breaches have been made public involving call center personnel auctioning off PII for their client's customers.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2009/src091104.html

Key Activities of the Outsourcing Lifecycle: Part IV

1 Nov 2009 22:51:52 GMT

Cullen, Sara | Executive Summaries | 01 November 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

This is the final Executive Report in a four-part series by Dr. Sara Cullen on the outsourcing lifecycle. The series is based on a detailed understanding of the outsourcing experiences of 107 organizations. This report takes you through the last three building blocks focused on transition, management, and the next generation (that is, the next contract). It is during these building blocks that the work done (or not done!) in the earlier part of the lifecycle, discussed in the previous Executive Reports, can hit hard. And even if done well, there are many challenges, as you will see.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/reports/2009/04/index.html

Gaining Confidence Means Reconceiving Failure

29 Oct 2009 22:50:31 GMT

Devin, Lee | E-Mail Advisors | 29 October 2009 | Innovation; Business-IT Strategies

A big idea, that collaborative innovation requires us to reconceive our idea of "failure," seems to be taking hold. We're getting it that an iterative process will include segments that don't achieve closure, don't solve the problem, aren't ready for the market. We're getting it that, since we can't foresee an emergent outcome, we have no way of knowing when exactly we'll get there. Our industrially trained minds don't like this ambiguity, but we're also getting it that industrial minds don't usually produce anything new.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2009/iea091029.html

The Rise of the Semantic Enterprise

1 Oct 2009 23:19:02 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | Journals | 01 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In this issue we explore the Semantic Web and what it signifies for the enterprise. Learn how SWTs can help solve another perennial business problem -- data integration -- by providing dynamic data and a flexible architecture. Hear how these technologies can enable more flexible delivery of mathematical models to users, thereby enhancing business decision making. And find out how enterprises can exploit SWTs to create a people-machine continuum that improves business agility. Tune in to discover what a "meaningful Web" could mean for your organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2009/09/index.html

Lean Portfolio Management Needs Business Management Participation in Specific Ways

29 Oct 2009 22:49:26 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 29 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

For any IT governance to work, we need the active participation of business management in these decision-making areas:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091029.html

Inspiring a Shared Vision During Tough Times

29 Oct 2009 22:48:13 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | E-Mail Advisors | 29 October 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

One of the attributes that most distinguishes leaders from other people is the ability of leaders to envision the future and articulate this vision to their followers. In fact, being forward-looking is one of the things that most gives you credibility as a leader, and since your followers are often going to have great difficulty envisioning the future on their own, this is one area where they need you desperately. Envisioning the future for yourself and then getting others around you to share your excitement and sign on to your vision are actually two distinct tasks.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091029.html

Competencies of Architects: A Look at Project, Business Unit, and Enterprise Scope

29 Oct 2009 22:46:11 GMT

Teeuwen, Paul | Executive Updates | 29 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

This Executive Update takes the thinking presented in my last Update ("Enterprise Architects and Organizational Change: A Requirement or an Option?")1 one step further and looks at the requirements for different types of architects in terms of five colors, each representing a perspective that aims to bring change to an organization. Taking another step, we'll review the most important colors and associated competencies needed per type of architect.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2009/eau0920.html

Open Source Software and Agile Software Development: Parallels and Lessons for Enterprise IT

29 Oct 2009 22:45:01 GMT

Hassinger, Sebastian; Gat, Israel | Executive Updates | 29 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

The phenomenon of open source software (OSS) is a recognized and mature aspect of the global IT market with profound implications for enterprise IT. A newer trend emerging is the various disciplines and methodologies that fall under the rubric of agile software development, which has a number of interesting parallels with and similarities to OSS. With the adoption en masse of OSS projects, such as Linux and Apache, by the mainstream enterprise customer, there is a track record of more than 10 years with which to gauge the extent and the nature of the impact on the enterprise. While agile has not yet reached the level of adoption that OSS enjoys, all indications are positive for that occurring in the near future. By examining its parallels with OSS, one can make inferences about the nature of the long-term potential impact of agile.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0920.html

The Maturity of IT Governance: The "So What?"

28 Oct 2009 22:43:00 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 28 October 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

A client group recently asked about the use of maturity models to measure its current progress in applying IT governance processes. We assured them that maturity models are indeed used for that purpose, and we discussed how to go forward with applying the concept to the group's circumstance. In particular, we emphasized that such models are well suited for identifying the gaps in their current practices, distinguishing between their "as is" maturity with their "desired status" maturity. For example, the client might determine that its current status is a "2," but it really needs it to be a "4." This begs the question, of course, of what "2" and "4" really mean, and the exact business value of moving up the maturity scale (or not.)

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit091028.html

Going Green? EA to the Rescue!

28 Oct 2009 22:41:41 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 28 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

Is your organization going green, whatever that means? Well, that turns out to be a lot more than just server virtualization at the data center. Is the enterprise architecture (EA) team involved? Well, it should be. Let's take a look.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea091028.html

Control Issues: Import of Open Source Governance Advances

28 Oct 2009 22:40:05 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 28 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Open source software (OSS) has entered the enterprise through a variety of different avenues over the past several years. It has become extremely important within the infrastructure area revolving around the Linux operating system platform, where it has gained support from such leading software vendors as IBM and Novell. Support from major vendors has added to the credibility of open source, and its use is broadening in the enterprise. Where once open source was mainly focused on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) components, applications of numerous types are beginning to appear. For example, there has been movement toward creating open source platforms for business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as Compiere, training platforms such as Moodle, and so on.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091028.html

Master Data Management Picks Up Speed

27 Oct 2009 22:39:07 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 27 October 2009 | Business Intelligence

I've been seeing an increasing interest by organizations in master data management (MDM) for the past nine months or so. Talking with readers from various end-user companies, it's apparent that the big reason that organizations are undertaking MDM initiatives is to put the systems and practices in place necessary to help ensure that the definitive data pertaining to a company's products, customers, accounts, and partners (suppliers, etc.) remains accurate. For, despite the fact that IT and business leaders understand fairly well the importance of master data, at most companies, it is typically replicated and scattered across various applications and business processes throughout the organization. Thus, MDM increasingly is seen as a strategic priority for both business and IT leaders who are under pressure to improve the quality and consistency of their organization's data.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia091027.html

Business Technology Governance -- Now and Forever: Why the Pendulum Finally Stops Swinging

26 Oct 2009 22:37:37 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 26 October 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Pendulums swing back and forth in lots of areas. This is especially true in corporate and technology governance. But it may stop swinging for good very soon. Let's look at why things are so different now -- and likely to stay that way forever.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/updates/2009/ermu0910.html

Responsiveness or Efficiency -- Pick One, But Agile Works Better with the Former

22 Oct 2009 22:52:51 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 22 October 2009 | Agile Project Management; Business-IT Strategies; Business Intelligence; Innovation

In his book Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World, Michael Hugos, who is also a columnist for CIO magazine, talks about two fundamental business strategies: responsiveness and efficiency. While a company or business unit surely tries to be both responsive and efficient, one strategy tends to dominate; for example, no one does efficiency better than Wal-mart.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091022.html

Setting Sail Toward a New "SEA"

22 Oct 2009 22:51:54 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | E-Mail Advisors | 22 October 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Our two-decades-old World Wide Web architecture is long past due for an upgrade. During what we might call the "Web 1.0-2.0 epoch," demand for computing has grown across every enterprise, in every sector, around the globe. We continue to struggle to meet this demand using our traditional approaches to building and managing enterprise information systems. Mounting barriers of complexity and scalability continue to hinder business agility, increase costs, and constrain overall productivity. The Semantic Web (also often referred to as Web 3.0) is emerging as the prescribed solution, and it offers us a compelling architectural framework upon which to build next-generation Internet-ready applications.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091022.html

Cloud-Based, On-Demand Test Platform

22 Oct 2009 22:50:54 GMT

Deb, Brijesh; Tiwari, Nidhi | Executive Updates | 22 October 2009 | Innovation

Cloud computing promises myriad benefits -- including operational excellence through reducing capital and operating expenses, faster processing of Internet-scale data, and increased business agility to respond to changes faster. There are a number of business use cases wherein enterprises can accrue these benefits. One case involves the testing environment, which is a high-priority area for IT management. Any fault in end solutions or products not only has an adverse impact on the balance sheet but also leads to loss in customer confidence and brand value. In this Executive Update, we explore how cloud computing features, such as scalability, automated provisioning, and pay-per-use, can be leveraged for an on-demand testing platform.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/updates/2009/ieau0909.html

Give Yourself a Time-Out: Lower the Drama Level on Your Project

22 Oct 2009 22:49:30 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 22 October 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Agile Project Management; Business-IT Strategies

All of us know the joy that one can experience from a good movie. Dramatic tension creates humor, intensity, excitement, and exhilaration. For a movie, that's a wonderful experience. In our work environment, that wonder is gone. We really don't want or need drama in our management work, and yet we encounter it on a ritual basis. Drama is borne on the backs of three primary sources: situations, others, and ourselves. In all three of these scenarios, we have some degree of control over that drama. We have the ability to exert that control, but in most situations, we don't. We should. By bringing down the level of drama, we reduce the possibility that small events will suddenly blossom into issues to be managed. And by bringing down the level of drama, we enable people to do their jobs more effectively without outside interference. Drama is a source of risk and, wonderfully, it's one that we can control.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm091022.html

How to Glean Value from the Semantic Web

21 Oct 2009 22:48:33 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan; Murugesan, San | E-Mail Advisors | 21 October 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

A business can gain significant value from the Semantic Web by drawing on its capability to combine and interoperate with several technologies and services, encompassing data warehouses, disparate operating systems, and myriad types of messaging. The resultant "cohesive" technological platform allows in-depth user participation and collaboration that also reveals new and meaningful relationships among information silos and applications that may not be obvious otherwise to the business. By deploying a Semantic Web-based enterprise information platform, a business can launch new systems and applications that enhance enterprise agility and create synergy among networks, services, open technologies, and security measures, resulting in interoperability among data, applications, business processes, and services.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit091021.html

How to Win at Punkin Chunkin and Architecture

21 Oct 2009 22:47:31 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 21 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

I live in the state of New Hampshire, in the Northeast corner of the US. It's a major pumpkin-growing region of the country, and October is harvest season. Truckloads of pumpkins head south and west, and local farm stands are bursting with the orange globes. But what do you do with all the misshaped or leftover pumpkins? Chuck 'em, what else? A local farmer has turned this into an art with his World Champion 'Yankee Siege' Trebuchet (www.yankeesiege.com). This is something you really must see to comprehend. The top of the mast rises to more than 60 feet, and when the 12,000 pounds of weight are let loose, pumpkins fly for about 2,000 feet.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea091021.html

More on the Search for Low-Hanging Fruit: Improving Security and Privacy with Penetration Testing

21 Oct 2009 22:46:13 GMT

Miller, Bryan | E-Mail Advisors | 21 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Since my article appeared in the August issue of Cutter IT Journal (see "In Search of Low-Hanging Fruit: Improving Security and Privacy with Penetration Testing," Vol. 22, No. 8), I have talked with several clients and read other articles that have cited additional reasons for not properly auditing the security of networks and applications. In an August 2009 article [1], security researcher and blogger Jeremiah Grossman lists several reasons companies give for not performing adequate application testing. Some of these include the following:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091021.html

Back to Basics, Again: Sourcing

21 Oct 2009 22:45:21 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 21 October 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

Our inability to permanently kill very solvable problems is hurting the credibility and effectiveness of our profession. We cannot get out of our own way on so many issues, and it's not just the technology professionals I'm indicting here: just as many business professionals continue to misunderstand and mismanage the business technology relationship. Sourcing is one of the problems we need to solve by going back to basics.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2009/src091021.html

Viability of the Cloud Model Still Up in the Air

20 Oct 2009 22:43:32 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 20 October 2009 | Business Intelligence; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

Back in June, I discussed how, after almost four years, BI software as a service (SaaS) provider LucidEra was considering calling it quits (see "As SaaS Provider Quits, What Happens to Its Data?" 30 June 2009). Just to refresh your memory, LucidEra, founded in 2005, offers a number of on-demand BI applications, including those for customer lead insight and pipeline and order analysis. But unable to secure new funding, LucidEra reached the point where company officers began looking to sell off its intellectual property. It appears that, to some extent, this has now happened, as commercial open source BI provider Pentaho Corporation has acquired LucidEra's ClearView reporting tool technology. Pentaho plans to repackage the LucidEra tool and offer it as a front end friendly to business users for Pentaho's on-site open source BI platform and for use with SaaS deployments.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia091020.html

The Outsourcing Lifecycle Communications Strategy

20 Oct 2009 22:42:22 GMT

Cullen, Sara | Executive Updates | 20 October 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

When an organization is considering outsourcing in any of its "shore" forms (offshore, nearshore, onshore), rumors will spread like wildfire, fueled by rampant speculation regarding motive. This is driven by the FUD factors (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) -- not only with your staff, but also with current suppliers and customers or even outside organizations such as government bodies, the media, and unions.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/updates/2009/srcu0910.html

Back to Basics: Solving the Same Damn Problems Over and Over, Again and Again

19 Oct 2009 22:41:13 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | Executive Updates | 19 October 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

I am growing very tired of solving the same old problems over and over again. I realize that all of the consultants out there want me to keep quiet about this, since they make tons of money selling the same old solutions to the same old clients, but our inability to permanently kill very solvable problems is hurting the credibility and effectiveness of our profession. We cannot get out of our own way on so many issues, and it's not just the technology professionals I'm indicting here: just as many business professionals continue to misunderstand and mismanage the business technology relationship. So let's indict everyone: we know what to do but struggle endlessly about how to do IT. Figure 1 presents the back-to-basics picture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2009/bitu0912.html

Surviving the War: Deciding What Not to Do Well

15 Oct 2009 22:40:10 GMT

Austin, Robert D.; Ellyn, Lynne | E-Mail Advisors | 15 October 2009 | Innovation

The first priority in all wars is to live to fight another day. The economic war faced by most companies will be replete with reminders that survival is the near-term, full-time agenda. This is true for the IT department and for IT professionals, too. Being part of the survival plan requires a laserlike focus on eliminating any waste, frivolous activities, and all of the "nice-to-haves." Start by getting rid of the toys and hip trophies (e.g., BlackBerrys, iPhones, pagers). Only those individuals with a true business need for 24/7 communications should keep the always-on communication devices. Rotate a single device among the after-hours support crowd. While these savings will be minor, at least initially, they set the tone for the IT staff. Encourage your business partners to do the same. Not only will this get people's attention; it may boost productivity since there will be fewer trivial interruptions, allowing people to focus on the difficult task ahead.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2009/iea091015.html

Schism in the Scrum Community?

15 Oct 2009 22:39:03 GMT

Coldeway, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 15 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

Counting by numbers, Scrum is currently the leading agile methodology. About 70,000 attendants have visited a "ScrumMaster" course so far and thus received certification as "Certified ScrumMasters," about 1,000 people have taken the time to become "Certified Scrum Practitioners," and more than 80 "Certified Scrum Trainers" are available to spread the word and certify even more people. Large enterprises, such as SAP or Allianz, have strategically embarked on Scrum and have invested in an enterprise transition process that may last for five or 10 more years.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091015.html

Seriously Folks, Could These Games Aid Management Issues?

15 Oct 2009 22:37:40 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 15 October 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Like many people, I grow increasingly unhappy with the level of public discourse. In an age of "in-your-face politics" and "hardball" discussions in which two extreme positions are posed as the way to present public policy, it is difficult to imagine what the future of the world may be like. Then, the other day, I had a discussion that made me think that all was not lost.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091015.html

Service Orienting Your Business Processes, Part IV: Multichannel Capability

14 Oct 2009 22:36:13 GMT

Allen, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 14 October 2009 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

Increasingly, we find business processes that are offered in alternative ways using different channels. For example, purchasing vehicle highway tax in the UK over the counter or online over the Internet. At the same time, as well as offering a process in its entirety over one channel, the same process can be supported by different channels at different points in the process.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit091014.html

Economics of Cloud Computing: 5 Operational Steps

14 Oct 2009 22:35:15 GMT

Orr, Ken; Maher, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors | 14 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

In a recent interview, Mike Culver, the cloud computing evangelist for Amazon.com, clearly stated the cloud computing value statement for his company: "Amazon's goal is to take the fixed cost out of computing!" That's pretty simple. There has been a great deal of discussion of the TCO of one thing or another over the years, but rarely is the entirety of the operational overhead really factored in. We can learn what the TCO is for a desktop or a server or an Oracle product, for instance, but nobody goes to the trouble to include all of the factors involved.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea091014.html

The Flex Factor: Changing the Process Mindset

14 Oct 2009 22:33:37 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 14 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

A couple of recent client engagements with very large companies reminded me about the fixation on process in many companies. Having used agile, iterative methods for so many years, I lost track of how pervasive process orientation can be in some organizations. Explaining my high-level process (envision, speculate, explore, adapt, close) to one group, I finally realized that its members were looking for more -- much more -- detail. They were looking for subprocesses that were broken down into sub-subprocesses that were further broken down into steps and then tasks, with specifically defined inputs and outputs for each process, subprocess, step, and task.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091014.html

Opening Up Enterprise Mashups

13 Oct 2009 22:32:33 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 13 October 2009 | Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Enterprise mashups increasingly are becoming part of companies' toolkits when it comes to integrating data for BI and other decision-support applications. According to our research [1], approximately 24% of end-user organizations currently use mashups to combine multiple data sources into a single source to feed BI applications like dashboards, maps (i.e., mapping and GIS), visualization tools, desktop productivity tools (spreadsheets, etc.), customer relationship management (CRM), and other decision support systems. But while their popularity has grown, the problem of incompatibility across different vendors' mashup tools has been a thorn in the side of some end-user organizations' adoption plans due to fears of platform interoperability and vendor lock-in issues. The Open Mashup Alliance (OMA) seeks to correct this problem.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia091013.html

Enabling Multi-Tenant Architecture for Existing Applications

13 Oct 2009 22:30:59 GMT

Kothari, Chetan; Chhabra, Pawan | Executive Updates | 13 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

Cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) are two very strong "disruptive" innovations that are changing the IT landscape forever by providing services to a large number of independent customers. SaaS and cloud capabilities are a best-fit model and an attractive option for companies that look to deploy state-of-the-art technology while conserving capital resources. A robust, trusted software infrastructure offers key technical elements that deliver these assurances. One key requirement is to enable multi-tenancy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2009/eau0919.html

IT Governance in 2009: A Thorn in IT's Side

2 Sep 2009 01:01:12 GMT

Piccoli, Gabriele | Journals | 01 September 2009 | Cutter Benchmark Review

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review takes an in-depth look at one of the critical issues that typically emerges in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process: IT governance, which we define as the process of identifying responsibilities and implementing decision-making tools and structures for appropriate oversight of the management and use of IT resources. Stating that governance is of paramount importance is guaranteed to bring nods of approval from any audience; if the subject is IT governance, then the "approval meter" is likely to register even higher. This is not surprising given the significant financial impact of IT expenditures for most organizations, the role that IT alignment plays and has historically played, both in rhetorical exercises and in practice, as well as the intuitive necessity of control for informed decision making. Yet, in the very same presentations where the audience agrees on the importance of governance and governance mechanisms, the immediate follow-on is typically a statement about the intricacies and difficulties of implementing "effective" governance systems for something as far-reaching, complex, and ever-changing as IT.

http://www.cutter.com/content/benchmark/fulltext/2009/09/index.html

PII: You Don't Know Jack, But the Bad Guys Have His Personally Identifiable Information

2 Aug 2009 00:59:34 GMT

Lister, Tim; The Cutter Business Technology Council | Executive Reports | 01 August 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts

More major breaches have set the stage for regulations penalizing organizations when personal data in their files is compromised.

http://www.cutter.com/trends/fulltext/reports/2009/08/index.html

Webinar: BEAM 4.0

14 Oct 2009 00:58:00 GMT

Orr, Ken | Events | 20 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

In 2005, Cutter Fellow Ken Orr introduced Business Enterprise Architecture Modeling (BEAM), a state-of-the-art methodology that uses a business-driven strategy as the key to the long-term success of your enterprise architecture program. In these 5 years since it was announced, BEAM, which is based on real-world applications, has been successfully used by organizations to create a long-view of their current and future business architecture needs. In this webinar, Ken Orr will talk about what’s been learned on these projects that used BEAM, how it’s been updated to make it an even more robust tool, and how you can use it to guide business-IT alignment, support business initiatives, enhance IT strategic planning, manage IT projects more effectively, and understand your organization’s total set of IT assets and their context. Ken will be joined by Enterprise Architecture Practice Director Mike Rosen, and Senior Consultant Mitchell Ummel, with whom he recently completed an award-winning project using the BEAM methodology. Register now to join Ken Orr for this webinar on Tuesday, October 20, 12:00 EDT (see your local time here).

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/beam4.html

Keeping an Eye on the TDD Ball

9 Oct 2009 00:56:55 GMT

Maeda, Masa K. | E-Mail Advisors | 08 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

Like most agile-lean enthusiasts, I regularly attend interest group meetings in my area. When discussing test-driven development (TDD) at some recent gatherings, some folks commented that they have very senior developers within their teams who claim to have become so proficient with TDD that they can actually skip the test-coding step. These developers go straight to implementing the feature because the discipline is so well imprinted in their heads that they can do it all mentally. This may sound great, and some may see it as a goal every developer should strive for, but I disagree. TDD is more than meets the eye.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091008.html

Mindless Modeling and Headlong Hacking

9 Oct 2009 00:55:50 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 08 October 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

As a friend of mind was fond of pointing out, jobs are self-selecting. Accountants go into accounting because they like numbers, surgeons go into surgery because they like to cut, and psychiatrists go into psychiatry because they ... have issues. Various researchers make a good living by helping people understand their personality type and coming to understand what kind of work they would be good at. A good friend of mine spent five years getting an engineering degree, took an engineering job, and was bored out of his mind. On a whim, he took a personality/interest test, which told him that while it wasn't absolutely clear what kind of work he would be good at, it sure the heck wasn't engineering. He went on to be a very successful trial lawyer.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091008.html

Don't Make Me Chase You

9 Oct 2009 00:54:41 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 08 October 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business-IT Strategies

Last week, there was a most interesting interview in the New York Times with Lawrence W. Kellner, the soon-to-be-retiring chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines.1 The interview centered on the leadership lessons Kellner learned over his career, two of which resonated strongly with me and which I have written about.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm091008.html

Managing the Complete Product Lifecycle, Part VI: Product Lifecycle Phases

8 Oct 2009 00:53:39 GMT

Rasmussen, David N. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 October 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

In this E-Mail Advisor series, we will describe a five-phase product lifecycle (which really is a series of phases because the initiative never cycles back to the beginning). Other versions of the lifecycle may have four, six, seven, or more phases, but they all serve the same purpose. And that is to guide the work necessary to invent, produce, and deliver new products.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit091007.html

How EA Shapes Urban/Transportation Planning

8 Oct 2009 00:52:26 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 07 October 2009 | Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architects often ask me why the Business Enterprise Architecture Modeling (BEAM) EA approach is based on an "urban/transportation model" rather than the "building architecture model" favored by many organizations and groups. The short answer has to do with the similarity of the model to actual enterprise architecture in both change and complexity. By and large, buildings don't change1 as much as urban areas; nor do they change for the same reasons. Urban areas, on the other hand, are constantly changing: new buildings replace old ones, whole areas are torn down in order to make way for new shopping centers or expressways.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea091007.html

Understanding What Makes a Project "Fuzzy"

8 Oct 2009 00:51:24 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

A "fuzzy" project is one where something feels out of sorts. Maybe the goal statement is a bit aggressive and the project manager (PM) wonders whether or not it can be achieved. Maybe the proposed solution just doesn't seem to do the job. Or maybe the assumption of a cause-and-effect relationship between goal and solution is a bit of a stretch. Some managers would argue that all of their projects are fuzzy projects. For these people, it seems like all of the simple projects -- where both the goal and the solution are clearly defined and documented -- are already done. Those are the projects where managers feel that requirements are complete, and they have the comfort of a complete work breakdown structure (WBS). With those types of projects complete, all that's left are projects that have a goal statement that managers feel cannot be attained as currently framed or a solution that is far from complete -- or both. Effectively managing such projects is the biggest challenge that PMs face. The percentage of such projects among all projects is increasing, and that trend will not reverse itself.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091007.html

A Fresh Look at Software Requirements: Part II -- The Next Leap Is Cloud Software

8 Oct 2009 00:50:16 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 07 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

In this Executive Update, the second in a series of three comparing the results of the two surveys, we will begin by examining the changing attitude of software development organizations toward requirements specifications, particularly in their perception of the document's usefulness, and we will consider how these changes have affected requirements analysis training. We will then examine the effect these changes have had on the way software requirements are used throughout project development. Finally, we will view the survey findings within the context of cloud software, and we will risk several predictions concerning the way software development will evolve in the coming decade.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0919.html

Controlling Risk in the Cloud

8 Oct 2009 00:48:47 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 October 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

Cloud computing provides a great number of advantages, but the new risks that it entails can't be ignored. Every company that takes advantage of these services will need to perform an analysis that looks at the specific risks posed by the service provided, service conditions, and the risk profile of the firm. A small company taking limited advantage of online customer relationship management (CRM) provided through the cloud, for example, will likely be little exposed to risk. On the other hand, a larger company that uses SaaS or PaaS for a variety of operations is likely to face more serious risks and will need to evaluate each area in which risk might be encountered.

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2009/src091007.html

Don't Dismiss Open Source BI's Effect on Traditional BI Software Licensing

7 Oct 2009 00:47:39 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 06 October 2009 | Business Intelligence

The use of open source BI and data warehousing tools continues to gain increasing acceptance by end-user organizations. But one of the big questions on a lot of people's minds is: what effect is open source BI adoption having on traditional BI software licensing?

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia091006.html

Roiled Waters: Corporate BI and Data Warehouse Spending in Troubled Times

7 Oct 2009 00:45:27 GMT

Hall, Curt | Executive Updates | 06 October 2009 | Business Intelligence

In June and July 2009, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey that asked 79 end-user organizations about their various BI and data warehousing efforts. One set of questions sought to determine the impact of the economic downturn on BI and data warehousing spending. In short, my goal was to identify trends that you can use to gauge your own organization's BI and data warehousing spending efforts during this period of economic uncertainty.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2009/biau0912.html

Extracting Business Value from the Semantic Web

2 Oct 2009 00:44:12 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan; Murugesan, San | E-Mail Advisors | 01 October 2009 | Innovation

A business can gain significant value from the Semantic Web by drawing on its capability to combine and interoperate with several technologies and services, encompassing data warehouses, disparate operating systems, and myriad types of messaging. The resulting "cohesive" technological platform allows in-depth user participation and collaboration that also reveals new and meaningful relationships among information silos and applications that may not be obvious to the business. By deploying a Semantic Web-based enterprise information platform, a business can launch new systems and applications that enhance enterprise agility and create synergy among networks, services, open technologies, and security measures, resulting in interoperability among data, applications, business processes, and services.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2009/iea091001.html

The Agile Triathlete Times Four

2 Oct 2009 00:42:53 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 01 October 2009 | Agile Project Management

With significant input from fellow Cutter Consultant Ken Collier, I recently wrote a blog entry called "The Agile Triathlete" that discussed how becoming skilled at test-driven development (TDD) was analogous to becoming a skilled triathlete. The response to the blog was tremendous, as it was widely tweeted (or is it that "twittered"?). What I realized later was that there are actually four areas for agile triathletes: technical agility (TDD), managerial agility, agile values, and agile success criteria. Each of these is necessary to build overall business agility. First, a recap of the original blog:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm091001.html

Netbooks, 4G Networks to Spark IT's New Generation, Part II

1 Oct 2009 20:11:28 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 01 October 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Innovation

In my last Trends Advisor ("Netbooks, 4G Networks to Spark IT's New Generation," 3 September), I suggested that the netbook, as opposed to what folks like Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have been suggesting, is one of the major "disruptive technologies" of the decade. For those of you who don't know or remember, Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower coined the term disruptive technology1 in a 1995 article in the Harvard Business Review. A disruptive technology is "an innovation that creates a new and unexpected market by applying a different set of values" (e.g., the lower-priced Ford Model T).2 The idea came to Christensen as he did research for his Ph.D. on why none of the major 5¼-inch disk manufacturers in the 1980s became players in the 3½-inch market. He concluded that it often is not the most sophisticated technology that makes the biggest impact on a market, but rather a technology that allows for a much broader market. Often these developments occur in an "overserved market," where product capability have outstripped the core usage of an existing or emerging market. The 3½-inch disk didn't provide more storage to its users than the 5¼-inch disks; rather, it served a new market that didn't need 100-megabyte disks but did need smaller, lighter disks (i.e., the market for portable computers).

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt091001.html

Open Source Governance Within the Enterprise

1 Oct 2009 19:25:31 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Summaries | 01 October 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Open source software (OSS) is becoming increasingly important within the enterprise as it moves out from its original base within the IT infrastructure and server environment. It now has support from many top industry vendors, and there are strong offerings in the areas of server solutions, development solutions, applications, software components, and even desktop. OSS often enters the firm invisibly, bypassing the selection processes that have been applied to proprietary solutions. As open source grows to maturity and becomes important to the firm, establishment of adequate governance is likely to become increasingly important, which is the focus of this Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley. Open source licensing issues can be complex, costs need to be evaluated, and support needs to be arranged. A general policy is essential, and industry moves for stronger IT governance will make this a priority.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/summaries/2009/04/index.html

Where IT Governance Needs Improvement

30 Sep 2009 19:24:26 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 30 September 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

The September issue of the Cutter Benchmark Review (CBR) focuses on IT governance. In this Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor, we examine current practices and the relationship of governance to IT's value. For example, we examine whether IT governance contributes to the value IT delivers.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2009/bit090930.html

Defining Architectures for the Cloud, Part II

30 Sep 2009 19:23:05 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 30 September 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships

In my previous Advisor ("Defining Architectures for the Cloud, Part I," 23 September 2009), I looked at the enterprise architecture domains of business, information, and application and how cloud computing would affect those areas. This week, I'll finish the series on the cloud with the additional architectural considerations of technology, operations, security, and implementation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea090930.html

The Purpose of Vision, Purpose, and Goals: A Critical Dimension in Project Management

30 Sep 2009 19:22:06 GMT

Sampath, J.M.; Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 30 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

While walking, a young man reached a crossroad. Unsure of which road to take, he looked around and saw an elderly gentleman passing by. He approached him and asked, "Sir, where does this road lead to?"

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090930.html

The Role of the Agile Evangelist: Part III -- Succeeding with Your First Agile Project

30 Sep 2009 19:21:13 GMT

Fischer, Bob | Executive Updates | 30 September 2009 | Agile Project Management

As an agile evangelist, your ultimate job is to transform your organization's culture so you are faster at noticing and responding effectively to opportunities. The first agile project will enable you to show the benefits of a new way of working and enroll the support of others for future organizational transformation. This Executive Update, the third in a series, discusses three key aspects of this first project: choosing it, supporting it, and publicizing it.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0918.html

BIRT Meets Infobright -- Open Source BI Matures

29 Sep 2009 19:20:15 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 29 September 2009 | Business Intelligence

This week saw an interesting development in which Actuate and Infobright teamed up to offer an open source BI solution that combines the former's open source reporting tools with the latter's open source data warehousing database. This effort is interesting for several reasons. For one, the toolset is packaged as a virtual machine (VM), which allows users to try it out and start prototyping their own applications without installing or configuring the software. Moreover, it shows the kind of innovative, collaborative BI offerings that are now possible -- and which I expect to continue to see a lot more of -- due to the increasing proliferation of open source BI and data warehousing technology.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2009/bia090929.html

The Outsourcing Business Case: A Focus on the Financials

28 Sep 2009 19:18:35 GMT

Cullen, Sara | Executive Updates | 28 September 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

Before you invest heavily in an outsourcing initiative, you must make sure there is a compelling rationale based on sound economic analysis. An outsourcing business case is the basis on which each "go/no-go" decision will be made.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2009/bitu0911.html

The Key to Managing "Fuzzy" Projects

2 Sep 2009 01:50:57 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | Executive Reports | 01 September 2009 | Agile Project Management

In this Executive Report, I provide a strategy for the effective management of "fuzzy" projects. A fuzzy project is any project where the goal, the solution, or both are not clearly defined. Managing such high-risk projects is challenging. The most important things to remember are to understand the degree to which requirements are complete and clearly documented and to be confident that the client will be meaningfully involved. Although fuzzy projects can be hard to tackle, they become more manageable with a best-fit management approach.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/reports/2009/09/index.html

Leadership During Tough Times

2 Sep 2009 01:49:21 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | Executive Reports | 01 September 2009 | Business-IT Strategies

Leadership skills are tested when times are tough, when business is down, and when morale is low. So how do you motivate your people after 20% of their colleagues have been laid off? How do you focus their attention on future prosperity when the future seems so uncertain? As a leader within your organization, your words and actions influence both the tangible decisions that are made by your people as well as their morale. In difficult times, your behaviors matter more and can dramatically impact the effectiveness of your organization and the speed and vitality with which it emerges from the crisis. In this Executive Report by Moshe Cohen, we draw lessons from historical examples, share wisdom from successful leaders, and provide suggestions for getting your organization through the rough period and more on track for a prosperous future.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/reports/2009/09/index.html

Let's Focus on Features, Not Requirements

25 Sep 2009 01:47:44 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 24 September 2009 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

In a recent discussion, a manager kept asking me about requirements management in agile development, and it dawned on me that many traditionalist continue to focus on requirements, whereas agilists focus on features, capabilities, and stories. When we agilists talk about backlog management, we are really talking about feature management (acknowledging there may be more than just stories or features in the backlog). Another client recently showed me his "requirements" -- all 4,000+ of them catalogued in a requirements management tool -- but there wasn't a clear mapping of those requirements to features.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090924.html

Why a Top-Down Approach Leads to Death by Dogma

25 Sep 2009 01:46:34 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 24 September 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Architecture

Recently, a well-known IT advisory group brashly announced a "new" approach to enterprise architecture that it described as "emergent" and "nondeterministic," with central IT and its architects ceding some control and choice to constituents rather than trying to design and control everything. Wow. When I read the release, I had to pinch myself and ask, "What decade am I in? This news is so 1999." I double-checked the date on the release. Sure enough, it was this year. Why is this news in 2009?

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090924.html

Using Fear as a Tool: It Has Risky Limits

25 Sep 2009 01:45:36 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 24 September 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Fear is a tool. It can motivate the overweight to diet. It can motivate the lovelorn to try online dating. It can motivate management to hire consultants. It can motivate team members to work overtime. And yet, it has the potential to be overused and abused. If we are driven to a state of fear too frequently, there is the potential for us to become inured to the notion that harm may actually befall us or that the fear is well founded.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090924.html

Risk Management for SaaS and Cloud Computing

25 Sep 2009 01:44:41 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates | 24 September 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Cloud computing is the current state of the art in data center infrastructure and provision of computing resources as a service. It offers numerous advantages to businesses. The cloud makes it possible to outsource applications and infrastructure to companies whose core competence lies in providing these services as well as in maintaining the required infrastructure. This changes the way IT components are employed and how they are incorporated into infrastructure. The cloud is paradigm-shifting, and it incorporates fundamental change that requires new provisions for management. Because of the nature of this change, one of the most important impact areas is within security and risk.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/updates/2009/ermu0909.html