For some time now, tablets routinely have been touted as an ideal platform for making mobile BI practical. But to what extent are end-user organizations actually adopting tablets to support their mobile BI initiatives?

For some time now, tablets routinely have been touted as an ideal platform for making mobile BI practical. But to what extent are end-user organizations actually adopting tablets to support their mobile BI initiatives?

Agile development methodologies represent an ongoing challenge for developers, as they impose processes and requirements that are at odds with traditional waterfall methodologies and do not map well to conventional lifecycle models. While new methodologies naturally create a need for process change, it is important to understand that lifecycle processes have been established to support a range of requirements beyond the needs of development itself.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

No matter what goals your company has set or planned for 2013 — a clean end game for an ongoing set of initiatives, an accelerated start for new ones, radical changes, or battening down the hatches — now is the time to take stock and turn plans into action. To help us do that, this issue of CBR provides us interesting data with two compelling perspectives from our authors.

Another industry characteristic makes our prediction task even more difficult. Ours is an industry that launches more ideas than it lands. It's an industry full of announcements that are sometimes short on substance.

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of CBR, and that both the survey data and our authors' analysis gave you food for thought as you consider your strategies and operations for the rest of 2013 and beyond. I'll close off the issue by addressing the key point Jim poses at the beginning of his article: "it's not what we know -- it's what we will do with that knowledge that defines our collective future."

This survey explored interest in, and adoption of, various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 68 organizations worldwide. Fifty percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 22% in Asia/Australia/Pacific, and 18% in Europe, with the remainder in South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

"No matter what goals your company has set or planned for 2013 -- a clean end game for an ongoing set of initiatives, an accelerated start for new ones, radical changes, or battening down the hatches -- now is the time to take stock and turn plans into action."

-- Joseph Feller, Editor

"No matter what goals your company has set or planned for 2013 -- a clean end game for an ongoing set of initiatives, an accelerated start for new ones, radical changes, or battening down the hatches -- now is the time to take stock and turn plans into action."

-- Joseph Feller, Editor

With flat economic numbers, austerity measures kicking in, and armed conflicts roiling most areas of the world, last year came to a close much as it began. Although most equity markets are looking good today, debt levels still make investors, politicians, and credit-rating agencies nervous.

With flat economic numbers, austerity measures kicking in, and armed conflicts roiling most areas of the world, last year came to a close much as it began. Although most equity markets are looking good today, debt levels still make investors, politicians, and credit-rating agencies nervous.

"On a clear day, you can see six weeks." A friend overheard this comment between two IT executives at a conference a few years back. It's become one of my favorite quotes. It beautifully illustrates the difficulty of making predictions about the future of technology.

"On a clear day, you can see six weeks." A friend overheard this comment between two IT executives at a conference a few years back. It's become one of my favorite quotes. It beautifully illustrates the difficulty of making predictions about the future of technology.

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of CBR, and that both the survey data and our authors' analysis gave you food for thought as you consider your strategies and operations for the rest of 2013 and beyond.

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of CBR, and that both the survey data and our authors' analysis gave you food for thought as you consider your strategies and operations for the rest of 2013 and beyond.

This survey explored interest in, and adoption of, various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 68 organizations worldwide. Fifty percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 22% in Asia/Australia/Pacific, and 18% in Europe, with the remainder in South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

This survey explored interest in, and adoption of, various relatively new IT technologies and initiatives and investigated staffing and outsourcing trends in 68 organizations worldwide. Fifty percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 22% in Asia/Australia/Pacific, and 18% in Europe, with the remainder in South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

The more agile software development becomes mainstream, the more often I run into a typical pattern of management mismatch. It comes in several flavors. A recent client CTO who is responsible for the IT of an online store illustrates one example.

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. If the connection between I and T is not clear, then the cost of the technology becomes the only common ground between IT and its customers, and this ground is business quicksand.

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. If the connection between I and T is not clear, then the cost of the technology becomes the only common ground between IT and its customers, and this ground is business quicksand.

Every company has some form of organizational chart. We're all used to seeing the hierarchy of boxes and lines and names that are characteristic of traditional reporting structures.

Driven by several converging and complementary factors, cloud computing is advancing as an IT service delivery model at a staggering pace. It is also causing a paradigm shift in the way we deliver and use IT.