Thanks to some initial findings from a recent Cutter survey, we now have a better understanding of the extent that organizations are actually implementing (or planning to implement) enterprise app stores.

Many still perceive agile development methods and CMMI best practices as opposite ends of a continuum. These misconceptions originate, in part, from a lack of accurate information. This Executive Update proposes noninvasive measurement as a technique to collect data about the agile software development process.

Cyber warfare has been in the news more and more and, increasingly, this news has dealt with the murky world of Internet/computer security attacks by nation states and other quasi-official groups. Over the last couple of years we've seen ominous terms showing up in a number of major developments widely reported in the media.

When done well, IT's role is easy to explain. IT serves the business by enabling its current goals and strategic ambitions while enlarging its plate of future opportunities. In effect, business and IT are an ecosystem.

Coherence is a highly desirable characteristic of every human enterprise. Everything should "hang together" and be "true as a whole," to quote common dictionary phrases. Yet one of the most frustrating and disturbing aspects of working life is that everything doesn't hang together and isn't true as a whole. Most things only "sort of" fit -- if they fit at all. Gaps and inconsistencies abound. Assumptions must constantly be made. Confidence is hard to muster.

The realm of Big Data is described by volume, velocity, and variety. Volume and variety have frequently been discussed, centering upon support for Hadoop and MapReduce. Volume, of course, refers to the sheer size of data sets, and variety is mainly about the increasing need to analyze unstructured data.

The realm of Big Data is described by volume, velocity, and variety. Volume and variety have frequently been discussed, centering upon support for Hadoop and MapReduce. Volume, of course, refers to the sheer size of data sets, and variety is mainly about the increasing need to analyze unstructured data.

"With world Internet usage quintupling per decade, there is no upper limit on the number and value of new business opportunities for those who can bend the swelling flood of data to their purposes."

-- Ralph Hughes, Guest Editor

Big Data has the potential to transform the way organizations do business and how we run society. From the ability to harvest vast forests on a just-in-time, lean manufacturing basis to the efforts by the UN's Global Pulse Unit to harness up to 2.5 quintillion1 bytes of Big Data to help enhance public policy making,2 it seems that Big Data and Big Data analytics (BDA) really can be the solution to many problems.

Companies are always searching for a competitive edge -- a "leg up," if you will, on their competition. As a result, many organizations today are looking to social media channels in an attempt to understand what consumers think of them or, better still, what those same consumers think about their competitors. In this article, we discuss the ramifications of drawing rapid conclusions from the analysis of social media discussions without a thorough understanding of the data.

The need for businesses to maintain and use data in new ways is rapidly growing. Instead of removing data, businesses are adding and using more data than ever. The lower cost of storage is part of the reason, but regulation, competitiveness, and the digital age are also key drivers. Healthcare organizations have to track their patients to improve patient outcomes and to be eligible for reimbursement bonuses.

The Semantic Web, a collection of technologies designed to add meaning and enable intelligent search across the Web, is now taking shape as a strategy to help navigate the challenges of Big Data, including how to find insights and leverage the ever-increasing volume of data available to us from sensors, social media posts, videos, pictures, and purchase transactions, just to name a few. But more than just size alone, Big Data is seen as the convergence of "3 Vs": volume, velocity, and variety.

Managing population health entails a complex set of activities involving many interconnected parts: health and its multiple determinants, healthcare delivery systems, information technology, and analytics. Personal biology and genetics; diagnosis, testing, and treatment across multiple providers and settings; and a host of environmental factors all affect health outcomes and the quality and cost of care delivery.

The analytics of Big Data promises to unlock vast amounts of information just waiting to be known and used. However, Big Data is characterized not only by its extraordinary volume, which grows exponentially every day, but also by its nature -- very unstructured, very raw, and far too voluminous to be analyzed using traditional methods such as relational databases.

In the first Advisor in this series ("What's a Knowledge Worker to Do? Part I"), I pointed out that knowledge worker jobs are increasingly being replaced due to the rise of Big Data analytics and significant improvements in high-performance computing.

This Executive Update presents a methodology and a set of tools designed to support the software development process based on the collection and analysis of a large set of information. The design of such a system faces several challenges, such as data reliability and generating useful and timely analysis for both developers and managers. Furthermore, the data and its related analysis are not enough to support the development process in an effective way.

This Executive Update presents a methodology and a set of tools designed to support the software development process based on the collection and analysis of a large set of information. The design of such a system faces several challenges, such as data reliability and generating useful and timely analysis for both developers and managers. Furthermore, the data and its related analysis are not enough to support the development process in an effective way.

"So when you come in here to help us start with agile, we also expect to benefit from your collection of best practices you must have as a consultant" is one of the more frequent client expectations we have to disappoint. "We don't have best practices," we answer, "and we don't think it's a good idea to have them."

In this recorded, on-demand webinar, Cutter Fellow Robert D. Austin will inspire you to take a break from the way you typically view product development to consider techniques borrowed from the arts.

Judging from the regular press, one might get the impression that Microsoft doesn't stand a chance when it comes to tablet computing.

In this recorded, on-demand webinar, Cutter Fellow Robert D. Austin will inspire you to take a break from the way you typically view product development to consider techniques borrowed from the arts.

China is an important market for software as a service (SaaS) due to its huge population and current rate of economic growth in an otherwise flat global economy. For the Chinese, as well as for other developing markets, SaaS offers the possibility of using advanced software without investing in expensive infrastructure.

China is an important market for software as a service (SaaS) due to its huge population and current rate of economic growth in an otherwise flat global economy. For the Chinese, as well as for other developing markets, SaaS offers the possibility of using advanced software without investing in expensive infrastructure.

China is an important market for software as a service (SaaS) due to its huge population and current rate of economic growth in an otherwise flat global economy. For the Chinese, as well as for other developing markets, SaaS offers the possibility of using advanced software without investing in expensive infrastructure.

The proliferation of mobile devices for business use, in part fueled by the popularity of the "bring your own device" (BYOD) strategy, is helping drive corporate interest in enterprise app stores. To date, however, adoption of enterprise app stores has been limited for the most part to larger organizations.