Visual Discovery

Brian Dooley

There is no question that we are becoming more visually oriented in our approach to thinking today. You can see it in the increasing numbers of PowerPoint presentations given with the admonition that fewer words will suffice.


Are You Relying on Data -- or Information?

Carl Pritchard

Truly savvy managers know the value of information. It's the stuff intelligent decisions are borne of.


Software As an Asset

Jens Coldewey

In a recent Advisor I took the stance that nearly all software development is part of what we call an infinite game and therefore should be managed like a product rather than a project, which is a management approach for finite games (see "On Projects, Products, and Gaming Theory").


Complex Event Processing Heats Up

Curt Hall

Complex event processing (CEP) has received considerable interest among organizations because of its ability to increase operational efficiency by identifying and interpreting the effect of seemingly unrelated events taking place across the enterprise and then notifying the appropri


The New Techniques of Fifth-Generation EA: Part I

Roger Evernden

An earlier Executive Update of mine described enterprise architecture using an approach similar to the various epochs in building architecture as a way to depict the different styles of EA through the years.1 This historical perspective revealed five


Cultivating Effective Leadership in the IT World, Second Edition

Kerry Gentry, David Caruso
Abstract

Leadership is critical to the success of all enterprises. Nowhere is this need more apparent than in the IT world. The best technologists are often promoted and then left without guidance to learn the leadership ropes on the job, resulting in demoralized teams, overbudget projects, and a lack of project direction. This Executive Report argues that a more structured approach to leadership is both possible and necessary.


Cultivating Effective Leadership in the IT World, Second Edition

David Caruso, Kerry Gentry, David Gentry

Leadership is critically important to corporate success, yet it is poorly understood and even more poorly managed as a commodity within most enterprises. Nowhere is this more evident than within the IT community. And while IT professionals tend to view their industry as somehow different from others, our research and experience support the fact that universal principles, behaviors, and capabilities underlie effective leadership.


Big Brother and the Big Data Holding Companies

Curt Hall

The electronic surveillance practices of the US National Security Agency (NSA) are hot, front-page news around the world.


Big Brother and the Big Data Holding Companies

Curt Hall

The electronic surveillance practices of the US National Security Agency (NSA) are hot, front-page news around the world.


Realizing the Benefits of Agile Outsourcing

Sebastian Hassinger

When my cofounders and I began in 2007 to create a software development services firm in Vietnam, one of our most powerful motivations was to create a shop that could support innovative projects. Outsourcing had historically been very much geared toward low-risk, low-innovation work at the large-enterprise level.


FEAPO Summit Report

Mike Rosen

Last month I attended the annual meeting of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO). I first became aware of FEAPO in the spring of 2010 when it was initially being formed. At that time, Dr.


The NSA Surveillance Leaks

Peter Kaminski

The past week has seen unprecedented leaks about the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the way it monitors the world's electronic information. The primary whistleblower has identified himself; he is Edward Snowden, who has been an NSA contractor through Booz Allen Hamilton and a former CIA technical employee.


The NSA Surveillance Leaks

Peter Kaminski

The past week has seen unprecedented leaks about the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the way it monitors the world's electronic information. The primary whistleblower has identified himself; he is Edward Snowden, who has been an NSA contractor through Booz Allen Hamilton and a former CIA technical employee.


Finding the Common Ground Between Customers and IT

Bob Multhaup

There's a fundamental problem between the IT profession and its customers: there's an abundance of focus on the cost of the technology (the "T"), yet a dearth of focus on the value of the information (the "I") side of the equation.


"Whiteware" for the Mind: The Continuing Role of Appliances in the Big Data Environment

Brian Dooley

IT appliances are undergoing a metamorphosis in response to a variety of pressures within the data center. This is particularly evident in the area of analytics and Big Data, which have been the crucible of appliance development.


Value, Benefits, Outcomes, Results, Returns, and Options: Justifying Architectural Overheads

Roger Evernden

Enterprise architect teams struggle to explain and justify their role, and to demonstrate tangible, practical, and measurable benefits from their work. The rewards from architecting are seen as long-term outcomes, value from EA is not measured effectively, and EA is only seen as an optional consideration. This Executive Report shows how organizations are replacing this mind-set with one that regards enterprise architecture as essential and nonoptional. 


Value, Benefits, Outcomes, Results, Returns, and Options: Justifying Architectural Overheads

Roger Evernden

Enterprise architect teams struggle to explain and justify their role, and to demonstrate tangible, practical, and measurable benefits from their work. The rewards from architecting are seen as long-term outcomes, value from EA is not measured effectively, and EA is only seen as an optional consideration. This Executive Report shows how organizations are replacing this mind-set with one that regards enterprise architecture as essential and nonoptional. 


Value, Benefits, Outcomes, Results, Returns, and Options: Justifying Architectural Overheads

Roger Evernden

This Executive Summary and its accompanying Executive Report set the record straight by explaining why IT organizations feel the need to justify enterprise architecture, and what we can do to prove the value from EA.


Value, Benefits, Outcomes, Results, Returns, and Options: Justifying Architectural Overheads

Roger Evernden

This Executive Summary and its accompanying Executive Report set the record straight by explaining why IT organizations feel the need to justify enterprise architecture, and what we can do to prove the value from EA.


Contrasting Efficiency with Effectiveness

David Snowden

Efficiency has been the mantra of systems approaches from early work on time and motion, through the business process reengineering movement, to the latest manifestation in Six Sigma. The organization has been seen as a machine or manufacturing process to be managed through the definition and measurement of defined outcomes. In consequence, method and tools have imitated the manufacturing process: defining output, managing process, monitoring for deviation.


Viewing Future Requirements

Bob Benson

Ever since I began teaching IT at the university (in 1966, actually), I have wondered how best to prepare students for a professional life in computing. Of course, we called the field various things at different times and in different academic contexts: data processing, management-information-systems, computer information systems, computer science.


Contrasting Efficiency with Effectiveness

David Snowden

Efficiency has been the mantra of systems approaches from early work on time and motion, through the business process reengineering movement, to the latest manifestation in Six Sigma. The organization has been seen as a machine or manufacturing process to be managed through the definition and measurement of defined outcomes. In consequence, method and tools have imitated the manufacturing process: defining output, managing process, monitoring for deviation.


Understanding the Mobile Environment

Giancarlo Succi

In this on-demand webinar, Professor Giancarlo Succi, Cutter Senior Consultant, covers a range of topics that will help you understand the mobile environment, the characteristics that make it so unique and how they contribute to a new business model. He will explain what channels are available for distribution to your organization’s mobile applications. And Succi also reviews various strategies to monetize your mobile apps.


A Leadership Approach for a Metrics Program: Part III -- Using Expectations Instead of Targets

Martin Klubeck

In the first two Executive Updates in this series,1 we discussed the importance of using a root question for your metrics and of "staying out of the kitchen." Recall I asked you to think in the abstract rather than going to the data level and to focus on the customer's viewpoint and avoid playing with efficiency measures.


A Leadership Approach for a Metrics Program: Part III -- Using Expectations Instead of Targets

Martin Klubeck

In the first two Executive Updates in this series,1 we discussed the importance of using a root question for your metrics and of "staying out of the kitchen." Recall I asked you to think in the abstract rather than going to the data level and to focus on the customer's viewpoint and avoid playing with efficiency measures.