The authors examine the interdisciplinary theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS) and how this theory can be useful in digital transformation. They define nine properties of CAS theory, such as a constant state of flux. For each property, they describe the challenges and opportunities for digital transformation. Finally, they present CAS-based practices that enable change management.

Bill Fox focuses on the importance of forward thinking. He believes that this kind of thinking creates an environment where digital transformation occurs organically. Fox describes 13 foundational forward-thinking abilities, along with three approaches that help create a forward-thinking workplace.

Digital transformation is not for the faint of heart. It means disrupting your company before your competitors do. It means experimenting, without any guaran­tee of success. It means creating something new and unproven, while sabotaging what’s already working. Digital transformation means taking big risks. We are pleased to have nine authors share their change leadership insights in this issue.

It pays to really assess your current marketplace situation and learn from disruptors in your own or adjacent marketplaces. Enterprise architecture (EA) is an asset that you can use to counter the threat of disruptors. The three generically applicable scenarios we introduce in this Advisor may help you choose the right pattern for your EA, depending on the business model of the disruptor, your choice of counter-strategy, and your current EA maturity.

This Executive Update focuses on surveyed organizations’ use of in-house developers versus outside specialists for blockchain development efforts as well as a general overview of open source and commercial vendor blockchain platforms.

This Executive Update focuses on surveyed organizations’ use of in-house developers versus outside specialists for blockchain development efforts as well as a general overview of open source and commercial vendor blockchain platforms.

The most exciting development coming out of the recent consumer electronics show CES 2018 is Kodak's announcement that it plans to develop a blockchain-based photographic rights and royalties management platform (KODAKOne) and accompanying cryptocurrency (KODAKCoin). The goal is to enable photographers and other agencies to take more control over how images are commercially managed and licensed.

In this first episode of The Cutter Pod, Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole outlines his proven methodology for successful corporate digital transformation. Steve has witnessed a lot of digital transformation efforts in the past few years, and he’s culled the lessons learned into a methodology for digital transformation success. Steve begins this podcast by detailing the 5 steps to successful digital transformation. Then he reveals 5 myths that are swirling around digital transformation.

Shadow IT exists in your company. Some form of DevOps is being implemented, and somewhere online tools and the public cloud are being used without your approval. Shadow IT can create many risks and bad economic management of IT resources. You can choose to go to war and forbid the use of the new methodologies and tools or learn how to leverage them. This Advisor advocates for the latter.

Modern software systems are routinely very complex, comprising millions of lines of code with many thousands of dependencies. Moreover, software engineer availability, workloads, and turnover compound the problem of keeping track of the complexities of systems. In this Advisor, we examine the benefits of contextual software analysis for mitigating business risk.

The notion of architecting for flexibility so that enterprises can change is not new. But what about disruptive change? And why does disruptive change matter? Why now?

In this Advisor, the authors demonstrate their analytical approach with a direct and practical example of using Twitter data in real time to understand the sentiments (positive or negative) of trade show participants and to gain insights from them.

Agility is about being adaptable to changing environment conditions, delivering or acting swiftly to fulfill customer needs, and in turn becoming a successful and sought-after organization. Being connected to the fundamentals of agility and tracking the transformation progress based on the Agile principles described in this Advisor helps organizations to be on track toward transformation progress and stay connected to the big picture.

I suspect that of all things, big data will address the human mind last. For whatever reason, people approach the science of the mind differently than they approach the science of the body.

The dynamic nature of the business capability architecture (BCA) aptly lends itself to modeling the new paradigm of big data analysis.

The commercialization of cognitive systems is impacting both the consumer and enterprise worlds; in effect changing the way people interact with computers along with the methods for data analysis. In short, with the ability to ingest, analyze, and summarize massive data sets and facilitate self-service analytics, intelligent decision support, and smart advisory systems via the application of various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies — including natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and other intelligent reasoning capabilities — cognitive computing is starting to transform information-intensive industries.

Don MacIntyre has led large and small organizations through successful transformations. And now you can benefit from his on-the-job experience. Don MacIntyre’s Agile Leadership training is designed to help leaders make Agility a priority, enabling their organizations to transition quickly to new ways of doing business.

As has been our tradition for the last several years, we've compiled the five most intriguing articles published by the Business Technology & Digital Transformation Strategies practice this year for today's Advisor.

Here are the Agile Product Management & Software Engineering Excellence articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2017. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter's most intriguing articles of the year!

Here are the Agile Product Management & Software Engineering Excellence articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2017. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter's most intriguing articles of the year!

Here are the Business & Enterprise Architecture articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2017. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter's most intriguing articles of the year!

As has been our tradition for the last several years, we've compiled the five most intriguing articles published by the Data Analytics & Digital Technologies practice this year for today's Advisor. How did we come up with this list? We chose the articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients and those that created controversy among Cutter Senior Consultants and Fellows.

In this webinar with Cory Casanave, you'll discover how to design the terms and concepts in conceptual reference models so that they represent the “stuff of the business,” not the stuff of IT, and make sense to business stakeholders.

The change to an Agile mode of operation demands a manager who is able to act as a leader with an emphasis on inspiration, motivation, learning, and giving responsibility and trust.

Cloud has paved the way for the rapid growth of the IoT, but with such growth, businesses need faster and more efficient solutions than ever, since information that is as new as one day old can lose value. Compa­nies are turning to fog computing for higher efficiency, better security, faster decision-making processes, and lowered operating costs.