The Middle Ages used a phrase to describe a term that was not meaningful as "a distinction without a difference." Oftentimes, in the desire to catch a technological/marketing wave, salespeople and consultants overuse terms coined to describe one thing to mean something entirely different.

We must refrain from the male altogether.

So spoke Lysistrata, the heroine main character in Aristophanes's circa 410 BC comedic play of the same name, who forms an alliance among the women of Greece in which they agree to withhold sex from their husbands until the men decide to end the Peloponnesian War.

We must refrain from the male altogether.

So spoke Lysistrata, the heroine main character in Aristophanes's circa 410 BC comedic play of the same name, who forms an alliance among the women of Greece in which they agree to withhold sex from their husbands until the men decide to end the Peloponnesian War.

"Context over content" is a good metaphor to keep in mind when considering a technical debt assessment, reduction, and prevention engagement. Specific patterns in your code and the intricacies of your programming environment are paramount factors in determining how general insights will be turned into actions. In other words, it is unlikely that a technical debt engagement in your company will evolve along similar lines to those taking place in your competitor's "shop" down the street.

The primary definition of "architecture" in the Oxford English Dictionary is "the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings." However, the secondary definition of architecture is "the complex or carefully designed structure of something." It is this second definition of

A recent Cutter Consortium survey (conducted July through September 2013) of 39 end-user organizations based worldwide helps shed some insight into corporate BI and data warehousing spending trends for the upcoming year.

A recent Cutter Consortium survey (conducted July through September 2013) of 39 end-user organizations based worldwide helps shed some insight into corporate BI and data warehousing spending trends for the upcoming year.

The rise of pervasive connectivity and social media certainly means more opportunities to look bad -- but also more opportunities to learn and look good. In this changing environment, companies that make the commitment to be a learning organization, become truly curious about their customer experience, and take on continuous improvement will be the ones that take the best advantage of "the Connected Age." In this Executive Report, we will explore what has changed about collecting customer research since the rise of the cloud and what these changes mean. We'll enumerate the many ways you can learn more than ever before about your company, your products and services, and your customers -- and how they interact.

The rise of pervasive connectivity and social media certainly means more opportunities to look bad -- but also more opportunities to learn and look good. In this changing environment, companies that make the commitment to be a learning organization, become truly curious about their customer experience, and take on continuous improvement will be the ones that take the best advantage of "the Connected Age." In this Executive Report, we will explore what has changed about collecting customer research since the rise of the cloud and what these changes mean. We'll enumerate the many ways you can learn more than ever before about your company, your products and services, and your customers -- and how they interact.

From the 1920s to the 1990s, radio and television dominated our lives and drove a one-way connection from companies to customers.

From the 1920s to the 1990s, radio and television dominated our lives and drove a one-way connection from companies to customers.

Building products that customers love is the mantra for this century. As such, there are no defined processes or methods that provide a magic formula for achieving this. Building innovative products still requires creative people with good leaders driving the process. Even the most popular method embraced in the IT industry -- Scrum -- does not provide the needed support.

For those of you who track such things, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) in the US. As you know, I am really concerned with cyber security. I'm not sure, however, that we really need a precise month for this right now.

Building products that customers love is the mantra for this century. As such, there are no defined processes or methods that provide a magic formula for achieving this. Building innovative products still requires creative people with good leaders driving the process. Even the most popular method embraced in the IT industry -- Scrum -- does not provide the needed support.

Successful organizations have a dilemma. Should they continue growing what is making them successful, or should they disrupt the market that they are successfully leading? What if they choose to grow their current business and later get disrupted by an upstart innovation? Or what if they disrupt a successful business too early? What if they overestimate the potential of an external disruption?

The Internet of Things (IoT) as a topic of interest is arising again, and with good reason. The IoT envisions a world in which all devices are attached to the Internet, providing enormous possibilities in control, data acquisition, and, most importantly, analysis.

The Internet of Things (IoT) as a topic of interest is arising again, and with good reason. The IoT envisions a world in which all devices are attached to the Internet, providing enormous possibilities in control, data acquisition, and, most importantly, analysis.

On a recent day, The New York Times was down. Not the publishing plant, not the news gathering service, not even the New York Times Internet site that contains its Internet content. All of that was working fine; you just couldn't get to it. Now, this was something of a blow to me personally.

Hadoop has generated considerable interest among mainstream organizations, but many have encountered difficulties in determining suitable applications in which to apply it in order to obtain business value.

Traditional enterprises have been very interested in using Hadoop. But until recently, they have been hampered by a lack of suitable uses case for applying it.

In his recent Cutter IT Journal article "Out of the Gate & Running Wild: Why There's No Stopping IT Now," Cutter colleague and Fellow Steve Andriole foresees and foretells a new kind of equipoise between IT and the business units it supports.

Natural resources are precious and in limited supply. Business environments are inherently complex and unpredictable. As we face these and other constraints on our ability to manage change, is it possible to produce sustainable enterprise architectures?

Data exploration is an attractive use case for traditional enterprises seeking to capitalize on Hadoop's extreme processing capabilities.

Data exploration is an attractive use case for traditional enterprises seeking to capitalize on Hadoop's extreme processing capabilities.

This Executive Report outlines a major Australian bank's four-year journey from using Agile models for some software development projects to an enterprise-wide agility model in responding to and delivering change, all