Cloud computing discussions are fraught with apprehension about security, privacy, interoperability, reliability, and so on. While the advocates of cloud computing emphasize the importance of IT governance to address these issues,1 most of the practitioner literature is confined to surface-level analysis of the cloud computing concerns. Here I will focus on the nuances of some issues. In doing so, my first goal is to stimulate more thought about all issues that can mar cloud computing.

The Cutter IT Journal from August 2011 asks, "Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making?" (Vol. 24, No.

Last month I began an Advisor series that I am unofficially calling the "Scrum Ain't Enough" series (see "Agile

How does the explosion of social media and the blogosphere relate to your company? Are customers using Twitter and Facebook to talk about their experiences with your products or services? How do global geopolitical events impact your business?

How does the explosion of social media and the blogosphere relate to your company? Are customers using Twitter and Facebook to talk about their experiences with your products or services? How do global geopolitical events impact your business?

What should your "enterprise social media adoption roadmap" look like?

Consider this Advisor a very pragmatic recommendation to the software development manager/director/VP. I have a feeling that the opinion I express here might get me in hot water, but what would life be like without some risk?

I was recently asked by a client to evaluate a product in terms of scalability. The client had invested in a custom case management system that had 100 users and wanted to know whether the current architecture would support scaling to 3,000 users.

Tim Brown, president of the iconoclastic design firm IDEO, says that the question CEOs most often ask him is "How can I make my company more innovative?" 1 It is a pervasive and frustrating concern driven by a marketplace that is demanding ever-higher levels of creative engagement.

We hear executives talk about customer experience and how excellent customer experience drives business. The intent is clear, but the execution is often poor. Why? Because customer experience is a deliberate choice and involves careful planning. Only when the right customer experience matches the customer goals will the plan succeed. But how do we achieve this?

The business analysis profession is in the midst of change. Work is underway within organizations and associations to formalize and standardize what it means to be a business analyst (BA). The role has had a long and tortuous existence. A child of necessity, the role evolved to bridge the gap between what those responsible for operating an organization wanted to do and what those responsible for implementing technology were able to deliver.

Big initiatives require big thinking. Transformational initiatives magnify the struggles of a typical project: vague objectives, compressed timelines, scope creep, and communication issues. They also introduce their own unique challenges: vast stakeholder lists, extreme complexity, and unknown interdependencies. These undertakings require a different approach, a bigger type of thinking than for a traditional IT project.

Over the last two decades, medical science has made significant progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of cancer, and this progress has been accompanied by the development of new and more effective treatments. Yet the way in which cancer care is delivered and coordinated has by and large remained the same. Once diagnosed with cancer, most patients receive their care in a linear fashion.

Security of information is a hot topic these days. That is probably because cyber crime has reached a level of popularity that far outstrips the drug trade in terms of ROI for everybody from old-fashioned Mafiosi types to any kid in the Ukraine with a computer. And given the fact that crime on the Internet is all about money, any CEO who does not take all of the steps necessary to secure their organization against cyber attacks is rolling the dice with their company's assets. At least that's what current doctrine would like you to believe.

Over the past year, business architecture crossed a major threshold in terms of standardization, industry awareness, and business engagement. It is now viewed as an important business discipline that executives should pursue. While early efforts emphasized capability mapping and value stream analysis, other aspects of business architecture are now being incorporated into more and more projects. In addition, business architecture in practice is currently being leveraged by a growing body of business professionals, such as planning teams, business analysts, portfolio managers, and management teams.

Over the past year, business architecture crossed a major threshold in terms of standardization, industry awareness, and business engagement. It is now viewed as an important business discipline that executives should pursue. While early efforts emphasized capability mapping and value stream analysis, other aspects of business architecture are now being incorporated into more and more projects. In addition, business architecture in practice is currently being leveraged by a growing body of business professionals, such as planning teams, business analysts, portfolio managers, and management teams.

Tim Brown, president of the iconoclastic design firm IDEO, says that the question CEOs most often ask him is "How can I make my company more innovative?"1 It is a pervasive and frustrating concern driven by a marketplace that is demanding ever-higher levels of creative engagement.

Tim Brown, president of the iconoclastic design firm IDEO, says that the question CEOs most often ask him is "How can I make my company more innovative?"1 It is a pervasive and frustrating concern driven by a marketplace that is demanding ever-higher levels of creative engagement.

We hear executives talk about customer experience and how excellent customer experience drives business. The intent is clear, but the execution is often poor. Why? Because customer experience is a deliberate choice and involves careful planning. Only when the right customer experience matches the customer goals will the plan succeed. But how do we achieve this?

The business analysis profession is in the midst of change. Work is underway within organizations and associations to formalize and standardize what it means to be a business analyst (BA). The role has had a long and tortuous existence. A child of necessity, the role evolved to bridge the gap between what those responsible for operating an organization wanted to do and what those responsible for implementing technology were able to deliver.

Big initiatives require big thinking. Transformational initiatives magnify the struggles of a typical project: vague objectives, compressed timelines, scope creep, and communication issues. They also introduce their own unique challenges: vast stakeholder lists, extreme complexity, and unknown interdependencies. These undertakings require a different approach, a bigger type of thinking than for a traditional IT project.

Big initiatives require big thinking. Transformational initiatives magnify the struggles of a typical project: vague objectives, compressed timelines, scope creep, and communication issues. They also introduce their own unique challenges: vast stakeholder lists, extreme complexity, and unknown interdependencies. These undertakings require a different approach, a bigger type of thinking than for a traditional IT project.

Over the last two decades, medical science has made significant progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of cancer, and this progress has been accompanied by the development of new and more effective treatments. Yet the way in which cancer care is delivered and coordinated has by and large remained the same. Once diagnosed with cancer, most patients receive their care in a linear fashion.

First came the realization that the collective knowledge of an organization or, for that matter, the individual knowledge of its members, is not solely held in libraries of documents.