Many economists believe that the risks present in the current global economic downturn have the potential to repeat the Depression years of the 1930s.

In a recent discussion among international members of the Centre for Art and Leadership at the Copenhagen Business School, we considered the broad question: "What can art do for business in the current financial crisis?"

In a recent discussion among international members of the Centre for Art and Leadership at the Copenhagen Business School, we considered the broad question: "What can art do for business in the current financial crisis?"

In a recent discussion among international members of the Centre for Art and Leadership at the Copenhagen Business School, we considered the broad question: "What can art do for business in the current financial crisis?"

When the times get rough, competition gets tougher; that's a general law. Software companies have dozens if not hundreds of employees on their "underutilized" lists. The companies that view their employees as assets and not as cost fight to keep their jobs.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

This is the final Executive Update in a series exploring the idea of "the Web as platform," one of the cornerstone concepts of Web 2.0. 1 In Part I, 2 I discussed what it means to view the Web -- in its entirety -- as a platform.

The argument was getting heated. At one end of the table stood the Linux bigots, banded together and angry. At the other end were the Microsoft bigots, standing stalwart and snooty. At stake was the future of operating systems for a new business intelligence platform. Neither side would retreat from its position that its product was superior.

Editor's note: This Executive Update is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the author's book Best Practices in Software Engineering (McGraw-Hill, forthcoming 2009); Chapter 1 discusses 50 best practices. Here, we present the first topic: best practices for minimizing harm from layoffs and downsizing. As the recession deepens, layoffs, downsizing, and bankruptcies will increase in number. Past recessions indicate that these activities are often handled so poorly that they result in loss of operational efficiency for a period of years.

As discussed in the first Advisor in this series (see "A Capability Trilogy, Part I: The Politics of Capability," 25 March 2009), capability-oriented thinking is becoming increasingly influential in methodologies, enterprise architecture frameworks, and business strategy.

Recent developments have brought together parallel processing and cloud computing technologies in such a way that they are set to change the way organizations look at analyzing massive amounts of data. In fact, I believe that these developments hold the promise of ushering in a new era in high-end, affordable data analysis.

Recent developments have brought together parallel processing and cloud computing technologies in such a way that they are set to change the way organizations look at analyzing massive amounts of data. In fact, I believe that these developments hold the promise of ushering in a new era in high-end, affordable data analysis.

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.

After the publication of Part I of my two-part Executive Report series1, 2 on release management, I received some comments. Some of the issues mentioned could be seen as symptomatic of each organization that deals with release management.

Preparing for a couple of conference presentations recently, I started thinking about a graphic to illustrate the key components of scaling agile projects, many of which have been discussed in prior Advisors. Visualize a house structure with a roof, a foundation, and three pillars (see Figure 1).

Recently, I had a conversation with Julie Zawisza, director of communications for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Recently, I had a conversation with Julie Zawisza, director of communications for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Recently, I had a conversation with Julie Zawisza, director of communications for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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).

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).

Companies today are trying to lower costs and increase staffing flexibility by taking some, or even all, of their development activities overseas. Many of these same organizations have teams that are using agile development practices to increase quality and improve project performance. What happens when these two trends in our industry intersect?

One of the most difficult parts of project portfolio management is deciding how to rank the projects -- that is, determining which should be done now, later, and, most important, never. There are several ways to rank a project portfolio. Each is useful in specific situations and not so useful in others.

They say "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," and perhaps this is true for architects as well. I recently went through an experience that all architects and IT professionals should go through occasionally, but not too often. An insipid virus infected my computer, having evaded the defenses of my firewall/security product and, slowly but surely, rendered my laptop useless.

At the beginning of the year, I said that the most important BI-related initiative for organizations in 2009 would remain business performance management (see "Business Performance Management Tops '09 Strategy List," 6 January 2009).