After almost four years, BI software as a service (SaaS) provider LucidEra is calling it quits. LucidEra, which was founded in 2005, offers a number of on-demand BI applications, including those for customer lead insight and pipeline and order analysis.

The use of social networking sites by activists covering the recent Iranian election protests is a vivid example of how Web 2.0 can upset even the staunchest government's attempts to stifle dissent and the spread of "nonofficial" (i.e., uncensored) information.

Business process management (BPM) is a business science applied by organizations to evaluate various aspects of how work is completed. Today, the term implies incorporating methods based on technology and nontechnology for completing that work. This term is also used by some vendors to describe new and/or updated products that provide automated workflow technology, for the most part, within a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This Executive Update discusses a decision framework for evaluating BPM technologies.

"Maintenance has lived in a twilight world, hardly visible in the formal accounts of societies make of themselves," or so wrote David Edgerton in his The Shock of the Old (Profile Books: 2006). The same could be said of the software world.

In a recent Agile Product & Project Management E-Mail Advisor (see "Service-Oriented Agile Projects -- Contradiction or Necessity?" 4 June 2009), I assert that "agile projects have often struggled with delivering ...

Since mankind has been making images of things, mankind has seen those images fade. Our perception of the past is deeply reliant on our perception of the artifact that represents the past. Aged, yellow photographs in our hands match the mystic past of faded memories in our minds. Grainy, worn-out super-eight home movies from the 1970s leave much obscured.

Since mankind has been making images of things, mankind has seen those images fade. Our perception of the past is deeply reliant on our perception of the artifact that represents the past. Aged, yellow photographs in our hands match the mystic past of faded memories in our minds. Grainy, worn-out super-eight home movies from the 1970s leave much obscured.

Despite the branding, business process management (BPM) is actually not a new initiative but has evolved out of previous generations of both technology and practices. In this Executive Update, we examine the evolution of BPM using graphical examples.

Despite the branding, business process management (BPM) is actually not a new initiative but has evolved out of previous generations of both technology and practices. In this Executive Update, we examine the evolution of BPM using graphical examples.

Every organization uses software applications to support its business processes. Some organizations buy, some build, and some rent software as a service (SaaS). Buying and integrating proprietary applications are sometimes complicated by M&A activity; acquired or merged organizations often use different applications and systems than their new owners. CIOs facing this type of problem should think long and hard when considering integrating disparate applications.

We all know by now that the relationship between the parties of an outsourcing contract is paramount to the success of the deal. While there is a fair bit of advice out there, it is mainly process-orientated (e.g., communicate frequently, plan together, have improvement workshops). But what if you genuinely do not like your counterpart on the other side?

It may not be a simple personality clash with which you have to live. It could just be that your opposite number holds very different values from yours when it comes to managing contracts.

Recruiting is an important and sometimes overlooked portion of the IT portfolio. Its functions orchestrate the talent available to the firm and ensure that the right people with the right training are available to perform the jobs required for the firm to succeed. The processes falling within this area affect both the IT department and the corporation at large.

Recruiting is an important and sometimes overlooked portion of the IT portfolio. Its functions orchestrate the talent available to the firm and ensure that the right people with the right training are available to perform the jobs required for the firm to succeed. The processes falling within this area affect both the IT department and the corporation at large.

Going through an outsourcing exercise, even if theoretical, can prove illuminating.

Going through an outsourcing exercise, even if theoretical, can prove illuminating.

Going through an outsourcing exercise, even if theoretical, can prove illuminating.

In today's tight economic environment, business executives may well see "the cloud" as the answer to their cost-cutting prayers. Bloated and unproductive EA initiatives are rightly going to receive short shrift in this climate -- eclipsed behind the cloud, if you'll pardon the metaphor. How can EA get both leaner and meaner while remaining relevant to the business agenda?

The use of social networking sites by activists covering the recent Iranian election protests is a vivid example of how Web 2.0 can upset even the staunchest government's attempts to stifle dissent and the spread of "non-official" (i.e., uncensored) information.

The use of social networking sites by activists covering the recent Iranian election protests is a vivid example of how Web 2.0 can upset even the staunchest government's attempts to stifle dissent and the spread of "non-official" (i.e., uncensored) information.

Ineffective risk management is a symptom of a disease that has been spreading throughout corporations over the last two to three decades, leaving tremendous devastation in its path. The disease has been difficult to detect and, in many cases, the symptoms are masked. However, over time, this disease has wreaked havoc on employees, business, and even entire industries.

In recent years, many agile software development teams have used a Planning Poker practice to estimate the effort needed to complete the features chosen to be implemented in an iteration and/or release. Planning Poker is "played" by the team as a part of the iteration planning meeting, which is attended by product managers, project managers, software developers, testers, usability engineers, security engineers, and others.

Ever worry about stealing someone else's idea? Or worse still, stealing your own ideas while working from one client to the next? The ethical high road is a challenging one to take on an ongoing basis, when so many potential ethical lapses are the result of lapses, rather than intentional commitment of the act. Nowhere is this more true than in risk management.

Ever worry about stealing someone else's idea? Or worse still, stealing your own ideas while working from one client to the next? The ethical high road is a challenging one to take on an ongoing basis, when so many potential ethical lapses are the result of lapses, rather than intentional commitment of the act. Nowhere is this more true than in risk management.

The world of business technology is dramatically changing. Everything about it is changing, including what we acquire, deploy, support, the way we support it, and -- perhaps most important -- the way we manage it all.

The world of business technology is dramatically changing. Everything about it is changing, including what we acquire, deploy, support, the way we support it, and -- perhaps most important -- the way we manage it all.