Being a collaborative leader requires a clear set of beliefs and disciplined practices to back up those beliefs.

Being a collaborative leader requires a clear set of beliefs and disciplined practices to back up those beliefs. If you are a leader who wants people to work together better, deliver results faster, and exceed basic customer satisfaction, you will need to look in the mirror and see how your behaviors compare to the collaborative leader role expectations discussed in this Executive Report by David Spann. The key is to create an environment in which others succeed.

As an executive coach, I continuously hear new clients say, "All I want are results. Is it too much to expect people to deliver on their commitments?" After a few minutes of additional dialogue, we typically discover several organizational, technical, and managerial challenges that have culminated in some noticeable and negative result.

Outsourcing firms tend to market themselves as partners in innovation, and firms consider adopting an outsourcing strategy as a way to attain competitive edge. While outsourcing is a promising approach, it can also be a risky endeavor, as it may deter the firm's inherent ability to bring innovative products to market.

Outsourcing firms tend to market themselves as partners in innovation, and firms consider adopting an outsourcing strategy as a way to attain competitive edge. While outsourcing is a promising approach, it can also be a risky endeavor, as it may deter the firm's inherent ability to bring innovative products to market.

A participant in a recent technical debt workshop was quite anxious to determine the best indicator for quality (or lack thereof) of code. Specifically, the participant inquired whether technical debt analysis is more insightful than bug tracking, or is it the opposite way around?

In my last Trends Advisor ("Learning from Disaster -- Again," 28 April 2011), I talked about disaster planning and how the recent earthquake had reawakened our thinking about the unthinkable.

In February/March 2011, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey asking 60 end-user organizations various questions about the adoption and use of predictive analytics. The goal was to uncover corporate adoption trends and examine application development issues to discern how organizations are applying predictive analytics technology and practices to structured data analysis.

Location-based services have many features and applications that all executives need to be aware of, as their organizations likely are, or will be, using them. The purpose of this two-part Executive Update series is to present a panorama of the varied location-based services accompanied by an analysis of the legal issues raised. The privacy implications of geolocation have to be evaluated according to the role played by the data subject and the collection and processing of personal information.

Location-based services have many features and applications that all executives need to be aware of, as their organizations likely are, or will be, using them. The purpose of this two-part Executive Update series is to present a panorama of the varied location-based services accompanied by an analysis of the legal issues raised. The privacy implications of geolocation have to be evaluated according to the role played by the data subject and the collection and processing of personal information.

This webinar presents an overall enterprise architecture that incorporates the many different perspectives of the cloud, addresses the range of issues, and describes a framework to govern what can be moved to the cloud, what should not be moved, what IT should do proactively, what the business can do on its own, and what it must coordinate with IT.

Tyler Cowan, an economics professor at George Mason University, came out with an interesting little electronic book (US $3.99 -- it's more of a long essay than a book) earlier this year entitled The Great Stagnation (Dutton Adult, 2011).

Tyler Cowan, an economics professor at George Mason University, came out with an interesting little electronic book (US $3.99 -- it's more of a long essay than a book) earlier this year entitled The Great Stagnation (Dutton Adult, 2011).

In my last Advisor, I discussed the characteristics that you should expect from an enterprise application architecture (see "Are You Ready for New Media?" 27 April 2011). This week, I'll explore two fundamental concepts of the application architecture: layers and tiers.

This on-demand webinar presents an overall enterprise architecture that incorporates the many different perspectives of the cloud, addresses the range of issues, and describes a framework to govern what can be moved to the cloud, what should not be moved, what IT should do proactively, what the business can do on its own, and what it must coordinate with IT.

First, it is important to know that the Adaptive Project Framework (APF) is not a methodology. If you are like a cook and need a recipe in order to manage your project, APF is not for you because it doesn't contain any recipes.

This on-demand webinar presents an overall enterprise architecture that incorporates the many different perspectives of the cloud, addresses the range of issues, and describes a framework to govern what can be moved to the cloud, what should not be moved, what IT should do proactively, what the business can do on its own, and what it must coordinate with IT.

According to our research, interest in using predictive analytics by end-user organizations is very high. More than half of organizations say they consider predictive analytics strategically important. Yet use of the technology, although increasing, is still fairly limited. So what are the biggest issues standing in these organizations' way? Cost? Although always an issue, it is by no means the biggest.

Do you know how electricity is produced? You probably know that it has something to do with turbines and magnets, but don't worry about it; most people don't really know. How about water? How does it get to your kitchen sink? Let's be honest; you don't really care, do you? Well, neither do most people. They just want it to be there when they need it.

Many of the discussions I am exposed to as an agile consultant are about this question, "Have Agile methods crossed the chasm?" The client wants to know whether he or she will be using a software method that has reached a certain level of maturity and acceptance. Needless to say, the question is of critical importance.

"We don't pay people to sleep."

"We don't pay people to sleep."

Let's face it. We are at the end of Moore's Law. The common version of this law says computing power doubles every 18 to 24 months. Advances in silicon engineering have made this possible. But this natural law of silicon is driven by the fundamentals of materials science and the laws of physics.

Let's face it. We are at the end of Moore's Law. The common version of this law says computing power doubles every 18 to 24 months. Advances in silicon engineering have made this possible. But this natural law of silicon is driven by the fundamentals of materials science and the laws of physics. Unless we find a way to change the gravitational constant of the universe or surpass the speed of light, we are likely to face another four decades of computing unlike the past four decades.

Businesses are faced with ever-increasing complexity, competition, and cost pressures. Vendors espouse new products and "silver bullet" solutions, but more often than not, they fall short of expectations, and worse, add to the complexity of IT challenges. Yet there is hope for getting a handle on this complexity and finally addressing the challenge of business/IT alignment. The approach is not based on a new product or technology but on an architectural foundation that brings the complexity of IT into focus from a business perspective.