Much of the agile literature deals with applying agile principles to software development, project management, program management, and (possibly) portfolio management. To succeed with applications in these disciplines, employees must first be won over to wholeheartedly adopt agile.

Mashups are lightweight integrations of one or more Web applications used to create a synergistic result, with the outcome often delivered through the Web.

Open innovation does not have the solid brand recognition that Joe Feller and I were expecting to see from the vast majority of the respondents to a recent Cutter Benchmark Review survey (see "Open Innovation: The

Open innovation does not have the solid brand recognition that Joe Feller and I were expecting to see from the vast majority of the respondents to a recent Cutter Benchmark Review survey (see "Open Innovation: The

Not all SOA projects are created equal. Indeed, we might question the very notion of an "SOA project." At one end of the spectrum is the "services in advance" (SIA) approach. At the other end of the spectrum are more tactical, bottom-up approaches.

"Hey, Honey, what happened to my 1984?"

"Hey, Honey, what happened to my 1984?"

Compared with other areas of the enterprise, human resources (HR) has been the "weak kid on the block" when it comes to the application of BI analytics.

Use of virtual teams in an agile development environment has always been controversial. Many consider that the close communications required to enable development methodologies such as Scrum are simply impossible to achieve with virtual teams.

Portfolios are widely accepted and used by IT organizations to help manage sets of related IT assets, activities, and resources. These include projects, applications, infrastructure components, and IT services. The goals and intentions of using portfolios as management tools are all related to improving the business value delivered or derived from IT assets and capabilities by:

What do we mean by green computing or sustainability? Does it mean a focus on energy efficiency in the data center through less heat-producing and lower power-consumption server blades? Is it virtualization and shifting computing into the cloud to reduce carbon footprint or reducing paper consumption through new paperless processes?

Security and privacy concerns remain the leading issues preventing more organizations from using on-demand/cloud-based BI and data warehousing solutions. Infrastructure control issues and strategic considerations pertaining to the perceived value of in-house BI operations follow this.

Capital assets are long-term investments whose ROIs are expected to more than repay their capital. Conventional software components rarely satisfy this definition. A prominent reason is that our industry demands components be used as is, much like physical parts. Yet unlimited malleability is software's greatest asset (and its greatest liability).

Aristotle summed up the general principle of holism in Metaphysics: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts." The opposite view -- that a complex system is no more than the sum of its component parts -- is known as reductionism.

The gap between what the business requires and what IT delivers is well recognized. The premise of this two-part Executive Update series is that although approaches such as enterprise architecture go some way toward closing this gap, a fundamental problem remains with the way systems are specified and delivered.

The gap between what the business requires and what IT delivers is well recognized. The premise of this two-part Executive Update series is that although approaches such as enterprise architecture go some way toward closing this gap, a fundamental problem remains with the way systems are specified and delivered.

In his recent Advisor "Achieving Agile Software: Fail to Scale -- Prepare to Fail" (25 June 2009), Cutter Senior Consultant Paul Allen had raised the issue of the connection between agile and SOA.

The first week of July was a momentous occasion in the annals of cybercrime. Coordinated attacks on US and South Korean government systems created charges and countercharges in an international, Internet-based whodunit.

The first week of July was a momentous occasion in the annals of cybercrime. Coordinated attacks on US and South Korean government systems created charges and countercharges in an international, Internet-based whodunit.

Cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) have captured plenty of industry and press attention, but they have also created an equal share of confusion and even controversy. While there are solid reasons to be cautious about how to approach these rapidly evolving Web-based alternatives, there is also growing evidence that they are no passing fad.

Cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) have captured plenty of industry and press attention, but they have also created an equal share of confusion and even controversy. While there are solid reasons to be cautious about how to approach these rapidly evolving Web-based alternatives, there is also growing evidence that they are no passing fad.

It's no secret that these are tough times. Technology budgets are being slashed over and over again. But the need to develop new products, solve tough R&D problems, creatively improve customer service, and reengineer business processes has never been greater.

It's no secret that these are tough times. Technology budgets are being slashed over and over again. But the need to develop new products, solve tough R&D problems, creatively improve customer service, and reengineer business processes has never been greater.

Within the world of IT vendors, the gap between rhetoric and reality looms large.

Like you, I try to keep up with what's going on in the industry by reading magazines, articles, and so on. Perhaps it's the economy, or just coincidence, but in the past few months, there seem to have been more than enough articles about the impotence of IT.