Anyone who follows my Trends Advisors on security will know that I am not a big fan of the current Internet and Windows operating system approaches to security. At base, this is much like the road systems in many major metropolitan areas: it is old and complex and used too much to be worked on.

Anyone who follows my Trends Advisors on security will know that I am not a big fan of the current Internet and Windows operating system approaches to security. At base, this is much like the road systems in many major metropolitan areas: it is old and complex and used too much to be worked on.

Anyone who follows my Trends Advisors on security will know that I am not a big fan of the current Internet and Windows operating system approaches to security. At base, this is much like the road systems in many major metropolitan areas: it is old and complex and used too much to be worked on.

Many organizations assume that if an obligation has been stated in a contract, the provider will comply with it and no further work needs to be done. However, astute organizations do not assume compliance, they ensure it. The time to discover the provider has not done so is not when your organization is seeking to invoke the clause, as the following case illustrates.

Many organizations assume that if an obligation has been stated in a contract, the provider will comply with it and no further work needs to be done. However, astute organizations do not assume compliance, they ensure it. The time to discover the provider has not done so is not when your organization is seeking to invoke the clause, as the following case illustrates.

We have heard a lot recently about the ongoing and imminent integration of business and IT. Some example discussions range from "the CIO is dead" to the "cloud eliminates the IT department" and "business unit IT alignment won't matter" -- even to the agile argument that there aren't any IT projects any more, just business projects with an IT component.

Many practitioners recognize that IT governance is the cornerstone in achieving success when it comes to creating and delivering the right business value for their enterprises. In other words, IT governance is the key to business and IT alignment.

As a conceptual tool, enterprise architecture (EA) can assist IT organizations with their understanding of their own structure and the way it works. To begin applying EA concepts within an IT organization, an EA content framework has been defined with various models that describe the enterprise architecture. This framework defines a set of models along four dimensions:1

Many organizations assume that if an obligation has been stated in a contract, the provider will comply with it and no further work needs to be done. However, astute organizations do not assume compliance, they ensure it. The time to discover the provider has not done so is not when your organization is seeking to invoke the clause, as the following case illustrates.

Many organizations assume that if an obligation has been stated in a contract, the provider will comply with it and no further work needs to be done. However, astute organizations do not assume compliance, they ensure it. The time to discover the provider has not done so is not when your organization is seeking to invoke the clause, as the following case illustrates.

"You heard me right. They said they'd do the project for $1!" Those were the startling words from a friend who headed up an outsourcing practice. He had called to commiserate about the recent loss of a project his company was bidding on. It was a few years ago now, but I still remember it clearly.

"You heard me right. They said they'd do the project for $1!" Those were the startling words from a friend who headed up an outsourcing practice. He had called to commiserate about the recent loss of a project his company was bidding on. It was a few years ago now, but I still remember it clearly.

As the 21st century proceeds, we are entering an era where basic assumptions about business organization and employment are evolving. This is resulting in a number of fundamental changes to expectations and skills requirements. People entering the workforce will need new sets of skills and new ways of working. This will be true across all business sectors, but the impacts within IT are likely to be profound.

As the 21st century proceeds, we are entering an era where basic assumptions about business organization and employment are evolving. This is resulting in a number of fundamental changes to expectations and skills requirements. People entering the workforce will need new sets of skills and new ways of working. This will be true across all business sectors, but the impacts within IT are likely to be profound.

Several weeks ago, a reader contacted me regarding a BI Advisor in which I said that I'd noticed a growing interest by end-user organizations in using data mining technology -- particularly for predictive customer analytics (see "How Do Your Data Mining and Predictive Analyti

Several weeks ago, a reader contacted me regarding a BI Advisor in which I said that I'd noticed a growing interest by end-user organizations in using data mining technology -- particularly for predictive customer analytics (see "How Do Your Data Mining and Predictive Analyti

Change is a fact of life and has many benefits, but it is hardly ever easy and brings huge stress. How you manage the change process can determine not only the ultimate success of the change effort, but also the health of your organization during and after the change.

Change is a fact of life. While change can have many benefits, it is hardly ever easy and often brings huge stress to an organization. Many people fear change and prefer to stay in a situation that feels familiar and comfortable. Since all change also alters the dynamics within an organization, it can evoke anxiety and stress and stir conflict.

In the accompanying Executive Report, we consider the pressures on organizations to master the art of change and present a fractal metaphor for the tandem role of strategy and architecture. This metaphor derives from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's observation that strategy happens fractally at Amazon -- set at different scales throughout the business. Strategy is a mechanism for business leaders to create coherence of purpose and identity among organizational elements and to create cross-organizational synergies.

In the accompanying Executive Report, we consider the pressures on organizations to master the art of change and present a fractal metaphor for the tandem role of strategy and architecture. This metaphor derives from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's observation that strategy happens fractally at Amazon -- set at different scales throughout the business. Strategy is a mechanism for business leaders to create coherence of purpose and identity among organizational elements and to create cross-organizational synergies.

This month, we have tapped into the expertise and knowledge of two contributors with significant backgrounds in e-learning. On the academic side is Aurelio Ravarini, Senior Assistant Professor of IS at Università Carlo Cattaneo (LIUC, Italy) and Director with LIUC's CETIC, Research Center on Information Systems. Many of you will recall Aurelio as a past contributor to CBR; he was our academic expert on the issues on content management systems (Vol. 6, No. 4) and software as a service (Vol. 9, No. 4 ). Our practitioner author is Gianni Maria Strada, a former HR executive of several US corporations and current Managing Partner of PeoplePoint, a boutique HR consulting firm focused on major organizational change processes. Both contributors have considerable experience with the organizational implementation of software applications and their consequential organizational change processes.

It was more than half a century ago when scholars in management science began speculating about the role of information technology in organizations. Back in the late 1950s, Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler envisioned the organizational impacts of IT, including its implications on the design of organizations with their seminal article in Harvard Business Review.1

Fifteen years of technological development has paved the way toward more flexible and virtual organizations. Many activities and processes have been delocalized, both on the individual and enterprise levels. IT -- and all its advancements -- has allowed employees to choose not only where their jobs can be performed but also when to undertake their daily activities. Even with traditional fixed due dates for each activity, work has become bound by nearly no time frame.