The Web, in the last couple of years, has changed dramatically. Tens of millions of people are now -- for the first time -- actively participating in online communities. Social and professional networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, have attracted millions, and the average age of users continues to rise.

The Web, in the last couple of years, has changed dramatically. Tens of millions of people are now -- for the first time -- actively participating in online communities. Social and professional networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, have attracted millions, and the average age of users continues to rise.

The Web, in the last couple of years, has changed dramatically. Tens of millions of people are now -- for the first time -- actively participating in online communities. Social and professional networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, have attracted millions, and the average age of users continues to rise.

I have been thinking about measuring performance, again. Part of this thinking results from reading Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the Performance Potential by Bjarte Bogsnes.

As more and more enterprises realize a need for architecture, the vendors of tools that support architecture are jumping on the opportunity. I'm seeing a growing trend in the acquisition of enterprise architecture repositories. Unfortunately, I haven't yet seen most organizations realize the value that these tools can bring.

Information security incidents and privacy breaches often result from risky behavior by personnel who are unaware that the way they are handling information is unsafe. A significant factor for this problem can be attributed to a lack of security policies, along with inadequate or nonexistent training and lack of awareness communications. According to a recent Cisco study:1

The iterative and incremental approach to software development has become a well-established best practice, as evidenced by its centrality to any number of software development methodologies, including agile and variations on the Unified Process.

On a broader scale, this approach provides a valuable strategy for developing an effective enterprise architecture program. We won't bother to argue that a "big bang" approach to EA doesn't work: many able experts have overwhelmingly made that case.

In a strange twist of fate, the annual MySQL Conference was just getting underway in Santa Clara, California, USA, when news hit that Oracle Corporation was acquiring Sun and, along with it, MySQL. That the most aggressive enterprise software company was buying the world's leading open source database struck like lightning.

In a strange twist of fate, the annual MySQL Conference was just getting underway in Santa Clara, California, USA, when news hit that Oracle Corporation was acquiring Sun and, along with it, MySQL. That the most aggressive enterprise software company was buying the world's leading open source database struck like lightning.

It's déjà vu all over again. The cycle has repeated. The economy is and will continue to shed jobs. Businesses are trying to get leaner. Again, IT is expected to not only shrink itself, but help other units in the firm shrink themselves. A key approach for doing so involves reengineering the business process (BPR).

I've been developing software professionally since 1988, long enough to have encountered multiple fads and movements within the software industry. A goal that has endured from my first few months as a developer to the present day: software should be reusable. Object orientation promised it. Component-based software promised it. Now, Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) promise that holy grail of substantially reduced costs through the reuse of code.

On more than one occasion in my career, someone has used the metaphor about changing an engine in flight. Yes, it's hard to fix things in motion or to be creative when budgets are tight. But when times are tough, we need to innovate (cheaply and quickly) more than when things are good. But how?

On more than one occasion in my career, someone has used the metaphor about changing an engine in flight. Yes, it's hard to fix things in motion or to be creative when budgets are tight. But when times are tough, we need to innovate (cheaply and quickly) more than when things are good. But how?

Several years ago, according to BusinessWeek, 1 Victor Tsernialov, a 36-year-old Moscow software consultant, scraped together enough money -- $6,050 -- to buy a new car. He chose a 1999 Russian Lada and has regretted it ever since. He complained of Soviet loutishness, poor-quality spare parts, and high prices.

My last Advisor (see "In Time of Testing, Remember Values, Communication, Slack, Part I," 26 March 2009)1 raised this question: how do you perform in such difficult times while maintaining the company's values? Is it possible at all? The answer is "yes," and the evidence can be found in history.

With the current state of the economy, there has been a seemingly endless stream of articles about scarcity and the natural human reactions to it. Almost to a one, the articles examine the propensity of individuals to focus on what they might not have if the situation doesn't improve, prompting the reaction of thrift. People save. People hoard.

With the current state of the economy, there has been a seemingly endless stream of articles about scarcity and the natural human reactions to it. Almost to a one, the articles examine the propensity of individuals to focus on what they might not have if the situation doesn't improve, prompting the reaction of thrift. People save. People hoard.

Before you do anything else, please go and read the Boston Globe article headlined "Electronic Health Records Raise Doubt" (13 April 2009).

Before you do anything else, please go and read the Boston Globe article headlined "Electronic Health Records Raise Doubt" (13 April 2009).

Before you do anything else, please go and read the Boston Globe article headlined "Electronic Health Records Raise Doubt" (13 April 2009).

People have diverse beliefs as to what a successful contract is. Some would consider a contract successful if it did not end up in court. Others believe it to be successful if they did not need to manage the contractor too much. In a recession, it will be about getting it cheaper than before.

People have diverse beliefs as to what a successful contract is. Some would consider a contract successful if it did not end up in court. Others believe it to be successful if they did not need to manage the contractor too much. In a recession, it will be about getting it cheaper than before.

I met with several CIOs recently and discussed their approaches to cost containment. In the discussion, one made the interesting point that cost containment is merely the current crisis. CIOs have regularly faced others: innovation (last year), alignment (the year before), demonstrated value of IT (the year before that), and so forth.

As an architect, I'm constantly challenged to help organizations come up with better ways to do things. Unfortunately, in IT, we don't usually bring in architecture before there is some kind of mess to clean up.

Silicon Valley startup Kickfire, Inc. has developed a new data-warehousing appliance based on the open source MySQL database. Kickfire is a "true" appliance. By which I mean it packages both software and hardware designed specifically to support data warehousing and BI applications (as opposed to just providing specifications or reference architectures for various hardware/software bundles).