Social media monitoring excels when it comes to gathering rich customer feedback because consumers tend to elaborate when discussing products and services on social media networks and online forums.

Social media monitoring excels when it comes to gathering rich customer feedback because consumers tend to elaborate when discussing products and services on social media networks and online forums.

In a prior Advisor (see "Something Is Happening Here"), I briefly described four megatrends shaping the world we live in. The topic of this Advisor, the end of anonymity, is worth a deeper look.

"When we started with Agile coaching, I thought we would have to transform dozens of bureaucratic waterfall organizations. Instead we have to start with mostly chaotic structures," a former colleague of mine once mentioned in an interview.

By shipping software, an executive agrees to assume the risk that the software will not cause some future costly event. However, there is still some possibility that some event will occur, creating a significant liability. By assuming this risk, the organization self-insures itself against future liabilities. This Executive Report explores how to price this self-insurance and how to use this price in the decision to ship or to invest further in improving software quality.

We often need to reason about the value of some quantity x that will occur in the future. We are not certain about the value of x because we do not have complete information.

You can (with computer assistance) compute functions of random variables. If y = f(x1, x2, ...) and each xi is a random variable, how would you find y? Note that y is a random variable.

Every software executive that faces the decision whether or not to ship code must answer the question, "Do the economic benefits of shipping outweigh the economic risks?" To decide, the executive must have a view of each. The hoped-for benefits are clear in that they are up front in the decision to build the software.

As with most new business disciplines, discussing business architecture with executives typically requires clarifying the value proposition. With business architecture in particular, clearly articulating and communicating its value is a prerequisite to launching a substantive and sustainable deployment effort.

Here is a planning exercise for your IT management:

Here is a planning exercise for your IT management:

The Target Board of Directors and CEO Gregg Steinhafel announced on 5 May that Steinhafel would step down as CEO. This is the first time in my memory that a CEO for a Fortune 50 company has been forced to step down because of cyber security problems.

We've come a long way from the skeptical reception Agile used to get in product development organizations. There was a time not that long ago when budding Agilists had to be prepared with a huge arsenal of arguments in favor of the young methodology in the face of traditional waterfall supporters.

Today, cloud services are the reincarnated, super-charged version of ASP. In the current decade, cloud has proliferated into many derivatives of XaaS, or "anything as a service" (e.g., SaaS -- software as a service, PaaS -- platform as a service, IaaS -- infrastructure as a service, and DRaaS -- disaster recovery as a service). The derivatives of XaaS are many and increasing daily. There are so many forecasts, it's impossible to determine the market size and growth trajectories.

Today, cloud services are the reincarnated, super-charged version of ASP. In the current decade, cloud has proliferated into many derivatives of XaaS, or "anything as a service" (e.g., SaaS -- software as a service, PaaS -- platform as a service, IaaS -- infrastructure as a service, and DRaaS -- disaster recovery as a service). The derivatives of XaaS are many and increasing daily. There are so many forecasts, it's impossible to determine the market size and growth trajectories.

Interoperability between components and integration of components are high on the contemporary EA agenda.

In this Executive Update we look at taxonomies and common vocabulary in EA. In particular, we look at whether a common language is necessary for communicating and reconciling critical business issues across a wide variety of stakeholders.

Last January, I discussed important new developments in IBM's Watson natural language-based analytics question-and-answering system (see "IBM Bets the Future on Watson").

Last January, I discussed important new developments in IBM's Watson natural language-based analytics question-and-answering system (see "IBM Bets the Future on Watson").

Social media, mobile, analytics, and the cloud (SMAC) is a quartet of technologies that builds on the interconnected (and even inseparable) nature of human endeavors. These technologies operate in a much broader and dynamic ecosystem of the business than a singular system. Therefore, Agile appears to be the right glue to bind these technologies together in order to produce value to the business. This Executive Update outlines how balanced Agile ensures the successful utilization of SMAC, as well as a few caveats in its usage.

We are on an annual mission to salvage our lawn. For years we have watched the slow descent into mud and murk, and this year, we decided to hire the big guns. In interviewing lawn services, I was frequently reminded of the sales pitches I had heard as an executive.

We are on an annual mission to salvage our lawn. For years we have watched the slow descent into mud and murk, and this year, we decided to hire the big guns. In interviewing lawn services, I was frequently reminded of the sales pitches I had heard as an executive.

In this on-demand webinar, Glazer addresses how high-performance operations successfully use probabilistic decision-making approaches instead of deterministic approaches. You'll discover how you can obtain performance data change from a deterministic approach to a probabilistic approach that uses performance prediction models.

In this issue on healthcare IT, we explore the field’s potential and examine how we can address the issues and challenges that IT and the healthcare industry face in realizing the promise of healthcare IT.