In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure.

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure.

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure. I often tell a story of a presentation that I made a few years ago to a financial organization that was on a long-term project to replace its 30-year-old core applications.

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure. I often tell a story of a presentation that I made a few years ago to a financial organization that was on a long-term project to replace its 30-year-old core applications.

The Internet is undergoing a rapid transformation from a web of hyperlinked documents to a web of semantically linked data. Recent observations lead me to believe we're seeing the emergence of what may qualify as Web 3.0 (or Semantic Web) applications.1 These applications are consumers and providers of semantically linked data. For the purposes of this Executive Update, I will refer to this new generation of Internet applications as semantically aware applications (SAAs).2

If frequent mention of business-IT alignment were a capital offense, I would have been executed long ago instead of writing this Executive Update, which intends to amend my various comments in earlier Cutter publications about business-IT alignment. It's no crime to champion the cause of an important business issue, but I must plead guilty to a misdemeanor in overlooking an important subtlety, a fine distinction in the topic whose importance is heightened in our current economic mess.

If frequent mention of business-IT alignment were a capital offense, I would have been executed long ago instead of writing this Executive Update, which intends to amend my various comments in earlier Cutter publications about business-IT alignment. It's no crime to champion the cause of an important business issue, but I must plead guilty to a misdemeanor in overlooking an important subtlety, a fine distinction in the topic whose importance is heightened in our current economic mess.

The Internet is undergoing a rapid transformation from a web of hyperlinked documents to a web of semantically linked data. Recent observations lead me to believe we're seeing the emergence of what may qualify as Web 3.0 (or Semantic Web) applications.1 These applications are consumers and providers of semantically linked data.

As organizations relentlessly seek cost-cutting opportunities in our darkening economic environment, energy consumption is likely a bright target. The IT organization should prepare for that day when an operations executive asks the CIO: how will your department contribute to the company's collective belt tightening with energy cost savings? Being prepared isn't just for Boy Scouts.

Pretend that you are either starting a new company or -- with the help of a magic wand -- completely reengineering the technology delivery model at your current company. What do you do? One of the steps that you should take involves enterprise architecture.

Like electrical service, computing has become a utility. You can draw on your required computing resources -- hardware, software, storage, applications, and infrastructure -- when and where you need them and in the amount you need.

Like electrical service, computing has become a utility. You can draw on your required computing resources -- hardware, software, storage, applications, and infrastructure -- when and where you need them and in the amount you need.

Microsoft has stepped up its efforts to become a serious enterprise data warehouse player with the introduction of its SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse (SSFTDW) offerings -- a set of reference architectures for data warehousing available on pretested, preconfigured standard hardware from Bull, Dell, and HP.

Cloud computing is and will be a major trend. By this, I specifically mean that there is a trend toward the progressive replacement by your organization of its owned facilities, hardware, and operations by virtual facilities housed somewhere in the great Wherever and rented on a pay-as-you-go basis.

(Editor's note: This Executive Update was revised in 2019.)

In Part I of this Executive Update series, I examined the notion of project volatility and set forth the assumptions that underlie my own project planning approach.1 Here in Part II, I delve more deeply into the definition of project volatility and the use of a project-volatility metric.

Negotiations become more challenging during economic hard times.

As you may have noticed, the current economic environment is causing people to behave differently. This stressful climate has likely changed the tenor of your negotiations by either making it easier for you to get what you want or making it near impossible to achieve your goals.

"Service-oriented architecture" (SOA) is a powerful term regularly abused by its constant reference to developmental technologies rather than its architectural approach. This Executive Report by Dr. Amit K. Maitra discusses SOA in the context of "services" as the term applies to architecture and to "architecture" as it applies to exposing the services.

The term "service-oriented architecture" (SOA) covers a wide range of definitions, applications, and approaches to implementation. A broad view of SOA encompasses business services, enterprise agility, and business transformation. A more restricted view treats it as the application and technology architectures, which limits its scope to strictly an IT concept.

The importance of the mobile platform as a tool in the arsenal of modern organizations is undeniable. What is less clear is how firms should incorporate the potential of mobile technologies into their IT and process infrastructure. That's the challenge our authors in this installment will help you meet in your own organization.

To effectively compete in a global economy, today's organizations need to be connected to their employees, suppliers, and customers from anywhere and at any time. Mobile technologies support these connectivity needs and enable companies to access their data and applications remotely.

Mobile technologies create opportunities for an enterprise to be flexible and dynamic in an agile business world.1 These opportunities are primarily resulting from a creative and strategic application of information and communications technologies (ICT). The role of ICT in business has gone beyond merely providing data and information to businesses and has become a core business initiator that few could have imagined.

Last month's installment of CBR took us into unchartered territory. This month we get back to what we do best: we evaluate an emerging or evolving trend and benchmark it through a survey of our readership. The focus in this issue is the mobile platform. Mobile technology, its applications, and the services that are delivered over the wireless channel continue to evolve.

SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS

Ontology engineering is now a desirable skill for professionals working in IT as well as for managers who have to weigh the costs of related projects. It consists of a complex combination of specialized activities and is a bit of an art as well as a science.