Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has generated a lot of hype, touting how embedded sensors combined with mobile technologies will lead to a multitude of connected devices and services (all generating a deluge of data), which will open up a gold rush of opportunities in the consumer, business, technology, and industrial worlds. We've also learned that the IoT is not just about sensors and a lot of data and analytics; it also involves the application of new technologies including drones, wearable computers, and smart networks, as well as new practices such as predictive maintenance.

While Agile is commonly considered a successful methodology to add value to software development, is it possible to adapt Agile to bring better beliefs and practices to other areas of the organization beyond IT? If sales, branding, operations, or other business units were to be transformed for greater agility, what changes would be needed?

Although we see our people as our greatest assets, we don't do a good job of developing them. In many cases we don't use the training budget for training. If we do train, we tend to use inferior delivery mechanisms. We train on the wrong things. We don't evaluate the training. We don't spend our training budget wisely. But it doesn't have to be this way, as we'll point out in this Executive Update.

Forget big data, digital exhaust, data lakes, and all the other trendy terms created to describe big piles of data. Gang-tackling new terms to describe stores of data isn't going to advance the current state of affairs much. While we are at it, throw in the term "chief data officer." I have a simultaneously oscillating aversion and desire for that title, just like a pigeon that skittishly jumps back and forth between pecking at the bird feed and scattering away from the oncoming wreck of a car. Should I grab it or should I flee from it?

I always look forward to attending Agile conferences. It is a great place to hear speakers sharing their experiences and secret recipe behind their success. However, I have come to realize over a period of years that what I hear at conferences needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, analyzed well before implementing in our organizations. In this Advisor, I would like to share a few tips to keep in mind while borrowing new ideas and rolling out in the organization. There are some situations that could do more harm than being useful.

A good way to make predictions is to recognize current trends and then extrapolate them into the future. The longer the trends, the more confident you can be about the predictions. Thinking about software development processes, we see two long-term paths that software development has taken. These paths are the basis of both our joint prediction for the coming year and the kind of holistic consulting we will focus on in 2015.

In a recent Executive Report, we looked in detail at how contemporary architecture teams use roadmaps. Here, we summarize some of the key learning points -- drawn from the experiences of organizations with widespread use of roadmaps -- to provide tips and suggestions for creating better and more useful EA roadmaps (see "EA Roadmaps and Strategic Vectors"):

Enterprise architecture is reemerging as a practice that allows business and technology to respond to major transformation in an orchestrated way, paving the way for the CIO to approach technology enablement with a new mindset.

This Executive Update takes a practitioner's lens to business architecture and explains what the concept embodies. It also outlines some pitfalls to avoid while introducing the function to an organization.

People made decisions for many millennia without the benefit of IT, and it's not self-evident that we make our really big decisions in the computer age consistently better than before. Smaller decisions, in relatively information-rich situations, are another matter. But IT, properly used, has become and will continue to be important to decision makers in critical ways:

People made decisions for many millennia without the benefit of IT, and it's not self-evident that we make our really big decisions in the computer age consistently better than before. Smaller decisions, in relatively information-rich situations, are another matter. But IT, properly used, has become and will continue to be important to decision makers in critical ways:

We've recently noticed considerable discussion about the role of IT and the CIO in these turbulent, IT-intensive times. Generally, the discussion ranges from whether the CIO/IT will exist as a distinct, enterprise-level construct in the future, to "It's a technology management role" and on to quite lofty strategic business transformation/leadership roles for the CIO and senior IT folks.

This Executive Update examines survey findings pertaining to the status of mobile collaboration in the enterprise; types of mobile collaboration platforms organizations use (i.e., on premise or cloud-based); and trends in functionality organizations seek to provide with their mobile collaboration platforms

This Executive Update examines survey findings pertaining to the status of mobile collaboration in the enterprise; types of mobile collaboration platforms organizations use (i.e., on premise or cloud-based); and trends in functionality organizations seek to provide with their mobile collaboration platforms

Part II of this Executive Update series completed an overview and critique, begun in Part I, of the results of a Cutter survey on developing privacy-sensitive software.

There are a great many ways to consider software. For example, software can be thought of as pastime, a profession, or a science. Clearly, it can also be thought of as a branch of technological marketing. And one of the great software marketing coups of our time was the Agile Manifesto. Short and to the point, it asked its adherents to adopt a "new" approach, which combined a number of software organizational and management ideas, and which became the rallying cry of a generation of "Agile" developers and managers.

Agile development can be difficult to fit into existing practices because its management structure and oversight are different from traditional organization. Its team-oriented and self-organizing characteristics demand a high degree of cohesion within the team, but teams also need to fit the tasks at hand and exist within an overall organizational context.

Here in Part II ir this Executive Update series, we continue with an enterprise view of SRM (rather than an interpersonal one) -- but from the supplier perspective. What do suppliers think of your organization? Do they even care if you consider them strategic or otherwise?

Partitioning is a key technique in enterprise architecture (EA). Architects can use partitioning to make it easier to manage development, evolution, and governance of architectures and to simplify the overall architecture landscape. In a recent Executive Update (see "Best Practices in Partitioning Enterprise Architectures"), we take a close look at today's best practices in partitioning enterprise architectures.

Mobility ranks high on the list of must-have technologies organizations are seeking to implement in the coming year. A recent Cutter Consortium survey (conducted in July–October 2014) that asked 49 organizations about their mobile technology practices and adoption plans helps shine some light on corporate mobility spending trends for 2015.

Mobility ranks high on the list of must-have technologies organizations are seeking to implement in the coming year. A recent Cutter Consortium survey (conducted in July–October 2014) that asked 49 organizations about their mobile technology practices and adoption plans helps shine some light on corporate mobility spending trends for 2015.

It’s that time of the year again —the annual Cutter Predicts … series. See what Cutter Fellows and Senior Consultants envision for 2015 (and in some cases, beyond) as business technology continues to morph. 

It’s that time of the year again —the annual Cutter Predicts … series. See what Cutter Fellows and Senior Consultants envision for 2015 (and in some cases, beyond) as business technology continues to morph. 

The IoT should not be viewed as only a technological opportunity. It has the potential to transform how people and business interact in significant ways. Therefore, people must be placed at the center of the IoT conversation.

The IoT should not be viewed as only a technological opportunity. It has the potential to transform how people and business interact in significant ways. Therefore, people must be placed at the center of the IoT conversation.