There are many purposes and potential opportunities based on an architectural view of the enterprise. One that may not be readily apparent is the use of a rigorous and holistic understanding of business to detect health issues for the enterprise itself.

In this Update, we explore an important aspect of architecture: its ability to stretch the imagination into the future, into possibilities that promise much. The word "sparkitecture" seems so appropriate in this context. It is compelling as an abstract frame -- a scaffolding to stand on to undim this important window into architecture.

There is a lot of confusion among practitioners about what "digital" really means. Does it refer to a set of technologies (i.e., social, mobile, big data/analytics, the cloud, the Internet of Things), or is there more to it? To give digital a more precise focus, we have coined the term "ExConomy." It defines what digital entails from a business-value point of view and pinpoints why it deserves consideration in executive committees.

There is a lot of confusion among practitioners about what "digital" really means. Does it refer to a set of technologies (i.e., social, mobile, big data/analytics, the cloud, the Internet of Things), or is there more to it? To give digital a more precise focus, we have coined the term "ExConomy." It defines what digital entails from a business-value point of view and pinpoints why it deserves consideration in executive committees.

Predictive maintenance is becoming one of the more killer applications to arise out of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet movements. We are now seeing companies ramp up their efforts to develop machine analytics with the intent of increasing equipment availability, lowering production costs, and enhancing their customer relationship and loyalty efforts.

Predictive maintenance is becoming one of the more killer applications to arise out of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet movements. We are now seeing companies ramp up their efforts to develop machine analytics with the intent of increasing equipment availability, lowering production costs, and enhancing their customer relationship and loyalty efforts.

In our recent workshop on the integrative framework, we emphasized that one cannot apply a single software method to all kinds of software efforts. For example, trying to develop a whole new software platform with the same process one uses to fix production bugs is a path to failure. Likewise, performance measures that are appropriate for staying on top of an input stream of production bugs differ greatly from those needed for the development of a brand new platform. Hence, to successfully manage your overall project portfolio you need to mix and match various practices and measures.

Technology backlash is as old as technological innovation. It is inevitable that people will grouse about new technologies and adopt them with varying degrees of acceptance. Yet, with one caveat, the cool stuff will take hold and prevail on the basis of its functionality and actual worth to people. The caveat is that this will happen only if these products do not give people some absurd reason to do a double-take and say, "What? You didn't tell me this amazing product" -- and here, take your pick -- "uses triangulation to share my location with perverts," "shares my aimless meandering around department store aisles with marketers," "leaves my television camera running," or "records my child babbling away to a beloved toy."

There are many tools and techniques for exploring and investigating the impact of technology, and evaluations are often performed as part of the risk assessment process, such as those recommended by the standards bodies. Here we outline some of the technology assessment methods currently in use.

In this article, Paul Clermont suggests that our mostly positive history of adjusting to technological innovations may not be a trustworthy guide to the future when we consider the extraordinary scope and pace of IT innovation. To assume that any backlash against IT is no more than the latest futile manifestation of Luddism may be too optimistic.

Society lacks the time to detect and purge the worst of the bad ideas before widespread adoption. This responsibility is left to technologists.

This article explores some of the historical roots behind technology backlashes related to automation introduction and its impacts on employment. It then looks at the generator of technology unemployment backlashes, namely the automation job destruction/creation cycle. Finally, it examines whether today's fears of technological unemployment are well founded or, as in the past, overblown.

To the optimists, pushing back against technology is about as effective as King Canute trying to stop the tides. However, backlashes do sometimes influence the future direction of a technology. The disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl definitely heightened the perceived risks of nuclear power and checked nuclear power plant construction around the world. Similarly, the perceived risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have significantly slowed their acceptance globally Nor is automation immune. While Terminator-type robots may not be just around the corner, weaponized drones with autonomous "fire" decision capability certainly are, and thus the UN has begun discussions on whether to ban the development and use of "killer robots."Scholars are also debating what controls may need to be put into place before self-driving cars or robots become ubiquitous.

When it comes to analyzing the unintended consequences of technology acceleration, it resembles a scenario often quoted in management guru Eliyahu M. Goldratt's book Theory of Constraints. According to the scenario in an industrial context, it wouldn't help if the production unit alone runs efficiently and perfectly unless the sales and marketing department works at the same pace and clears the inventory. The idea here is not to pursue local unit-level optimization for productivity improvements and elimination of bottlenecks; that would only lead to excess inventory and increased costs. Instead, the company must consider and optimize the whole system, its parts, and their relationships/dependencies in order to improve the overall performance of the system.

At a conference in Monaco, James Dow, VP Global Engineering at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) stated that the banking sector now regards technology companies as serious competitors in the finance industry. Dow further pointed out that several US technology companies were each in a position to purchase the entire shareholding of multiple major banks in all-cash transactions.

What is true with financial models is even truer with enterprise models that are even more abstract and expansive in their scope. The point is that it is all too easy to create poorly thought-out models that shine radiantly as PowerPoint slides, Visio diagrams, and financial spreadsheets, but which mislead. It takes time and a labor of love to design views that are less about emotional appeal and aesthetics than they are about representing truths that are sometimes ugly, but always revealing.

The Internet of Things (IoT) promises companies many benefits from connecting products and services. But once you start examining the requirements of the connected device ecosystem, it soon becomes apparent that implementing and managing IoT products and their supporting infrastructure is a complex undertaking.

The Internet of Things (IoT) promises companies many benefits from connecting products and services. But once you start examining the requirements of the connected device ecosystem, it soon becomes apparent that implementing and managing IoT products and their supporting infrastructure is a complex undertaking.

This Executive Update reviews key legal issues that businesses face when reviewing and negotiating contracts for IaaS. It discusses key requirements related to the service itself, remedies if the service fails in one or more of these requirements, and ways to ensure that if a "provider divorce" is necessary, it can be conducted with minimal mess and expense.

This Executive Update reviews key legal issues that businesses face when reviewing and negotiating contracts for IaaS. It discusses key requirements related to the service itself, remedies if the service fails in one or more of these requirements, and ways to ensure that if a "provider divorce" is necessary, it can be conducted with minimal mess and expense.

As a method for practicing continuous improvement on a day-to-day basis, the improvement kata complements Agile methods and integrates with familiar Lean tools.

This article shows how Agile is attempting to scale from a small, inwardly focused, team-based set of tools to an organizationally inclusive set of tools. The article asserts that Lean is a necessary adjunct to Agile ideas in order to operate at scale, particularly the Lean concept of the value stream. (Not a client? Download your complimentary copy of this article now.)