This Advisor is a continuation of the "Scrum Ain't Enough" series (see "Agile Analytics: Community, Customers, and and Collaboration," 18 October 2011, and "

This Advisor is a continuation of the "Scrum Ain't Enough" series (see "Agile Analytics: Community, Customers, and and Collaboration," 18 October 2011, and "

Enterprise architecture has moved away from a purely IT role and is increasingly involved in business architecture and strategy planning. This is particularly evident in the rapid adoption of capability-based analysis.

This is a positive change. Enterprise architecture -- as the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure -- has become more widely recognized as the embodiment of strategy.

With the term "devops" picking up steam, vendors are now (re)branding their tools as devops tools. Similar to unit-test tools that supported an agile workflow, the current discussion on deployment automation supports the devops ideas. Even though tools have their merits, after reading the August 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal -- "Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making" -- it should be clear that tools are merely one aspect of devops and must be complemented with other aspects. The nice thing about tools is that they give you something concrete to discuss, as compared to the more intangible notion of "culture." Within large enterprises, tools are probably the easy part. Therefore, this issue focuses on the harder aspects, like "people and processes," or as the Agile Manifesto puts it, "Individuals and interactions."

The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there.

-- US President Lyndon Baines Johnson

On the dev2ops blog (one of the primary locations for seminal devops thought), Alex Honor states his chosen methodology as "People over Process over Tools."1

It would seem that the devops discussion is mostly driven by development's incentives, and appropriately so, given developers' focus on building functionality for the business user.

Agile software development strategies took the world by storm in the early 2000s.

Devops as a cure for the dysfunctional gap between development and operations is here to stay. Complex applications built as an orchestration of highly distributed services, some internal, some outsourced, demand that development and operations find a common language in which to collaborate.

Release 3.2 of our team's software product was the latest in a series of painful releases that had missed promised delivery dates. The pressure to get the thing out the door meant that our customers ran afoul of several bugs, forcing us to hurriedly squeeze out two bug fix releases in quick succession.

Cross-silo communication is harder in large enterprises, but they’re the ones that need it the most.

Bad ITIL implementations often resist change because of risks, but making frequent, small changes can reduce the risks.

The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there.

-- US President Lyndon Baines Johnson

On the dev2ops blog (one of the primary locations for seminal devops thought), Alex Honor states his chosen methodology as "People over Process over Tools."1

It would seem that the devops discussion is mostly driven by development's incentives, and appropriately so, given developers' focus on building functionality for the business user.

In this Cutter IT Journal article, seasoned agilist Scott Ambler points out that agile needs to become more enterprise aware and discusses an approach he calls "Disciplined Agile Delivery." Elements such as release and deployment should be integral parts of your agile vision and your daily activities. Keep a focus on the real business requirements not merely by developing software, but by providing a complete solution that can run stably in production. Not a member? Download your complimentary copy of this article when you complete our special offer form.

Devops as a cure for the dysfunctional gap between development and operations is here to stay. Complex applications built as an orchestration of highly distributed services, some internal, some outsourced, demand that development and operations find a common language in which to collaborate.

Release 3.2 of our team's software product was the latest in a series of painful releases that had missed promised delivery dates. The pressure to get the thing out the door meant that our customers ran afoul of several bugs, forcing us to hurriedly squeeze out two bug fix releases in quick succession.

It’s that time of the year again! The time of the year when Cutter’s Senior Consultants and Fellows make their predictions about the trends they see for the business technology landscape over the next year or so. We’re looking forward to reading and responding to your reactions to these predictions. And all of us at Cutter wish you all the best for the coming year!

It’s that time of the year again! The time of the year when Cutter’s Senior Consultants and Fellows make their predictions about the trends they see for the business technology landscape over the next year or so. We’re looking forward to reading and responding to your reactions to these predictions. And all of us at Cutter wish you all the best for the coming year!

"The company is fundamentally sound. The balance sheet is strong. Our financial liquidity has never been stronger. And we again have record operating and financial results."

Enterprise architecture is more than IT. It is more than the embodiment of strategy.

My Cutter colleagues will give you excellent advice on some of the key elements to making Lean-Agile work at scale. Even with their advice, however, implementing any large-scale change is very difficult.

Several months after 9/11, I received an article that had been submitted to a journal I was guest-editing.

As a manager and a leader it's imperative for you to develop good habits, systems, and strategies around time manage

Whether you lead IS departments, manage IT projects, provide information and services to internal and external clients, develop software, or procure hardware, there's never enough time to get all the work done. To be a successful IT leader, you must develop time management skills to set priorities, optimize workflows, manage urgent needs and interruptions, and set an example for others in your organization.

In June/July 2011, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey asking 61 end-user organizations about the adoption and use of text mining and analysis.

Since I wrote the Cutter IT Journal article "Operational Excellence, the CIO, and Cloud Computing" (Vol. 24, No.