In the face of COVID-19 over the past year, companies across the globe have had to act quickly to adapt to new realities — or risk certain ruin. It is no longer “business as usual.” The global pandemic has undeniably changed the status quo of HR management. In this Executive Update, we reflect on the use of technology to enable HR’s new, critical role in light of social distancing and smart working.

In this Advisor, the introduction to the Cutter Business Technology Journal issue addressing digital twins, you'll explore the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of this next phase of digital transformation.

This Advisor explores how to fine-tune the processes of strategic planning, initiative delivery, technology optimization, and portfolio management/budgeting process to achieve the right balance between up-front planning and agility.

Mike Rosen explores the circular economy concept, its broad impact on business and operating models, and the role of architects in facilitating the shift to a circular economy.

This Advisor discusses how data doesn't really "go" bad, but the use to which it was put was dramatically changed and that new use drove the collection of even more categories and volumes of personal behavior data, without a comprehensive ethical review. In this series, we’ll point out what can go wrong with data — and what to do about it.

Cutter Consortium conducted a survey, along with a set of interviews of participants, from mid-2020 to early 2021 on how organizations are adopting, or planning to adopt, intelligent process automation (IPA). We also sought to identify important trends, issues, and other considerations organizations are encountering, or foresee encountering, in their efforts. Here in Part III of this Executive Update series, we examine findings pertaining to surveyed organizations’ plans for establishing budgets to support their IPA initiatives.

Data architect Richard Veryard explains the four dimensions of data and why they are critical to achieving information superiority — the idea that the ability to collect, process, and disseminate an uninterrupted flow of information can give you operational and strategic advantage.

This Executive Update seeks to help IT better advocate for cloud. First, we offer a solution to cloud’s most significant financial risk. Next, we translate some IT concepts into their financial equivalents.

This Executive Update seeks to help IT better advocate for cloud. First, we offer a solution to cloud’s most significant financial risk. Next, we translate some IT concepts into their financial equivalents.

It's widely believed that creep — changes to requirements that supposedly have been settled — is due to unclear requirements. This Advisor looks at project creep differently, enabling us to see that most creep involves requirements that should and could have been identified but weren’t, and that this happens so often that it’s a certainty rather than a risk.

Last year, Barry M. O’Reilly predicted that 2020 would be “the year that Agile got found out.” Well, we all know that 2020 took an unexpected turn. So, in this Executive Update, let’s look deeper into the outcome of my prediction and explore how Agile and agility, especially in the face of a global pandemic, has truly panned out since my “before the world changed” assertion.

Last year, Barry M. O’Reilly predicted that 2020 would be “the year that Agile got found out.” Well, we all know that 2020 took an unexpected turn. So, in this Executive Update, let’s look deeper into the outcome of my prediction and explore how Agile and agility, especially in the face of a global pandemic, has truly panned out since my “before the world changed” assertion.

This Advisor explores an intelligent system using AI tech­nologies to automate data extraction to any one of many structured formats. The system performs minimal manual annotations to capture the semantics of specific sections for any particular document tem­plate. Once that has been done, millions of documents can be fed through the system to extract information automatically. This Advisor provides a brief look at that system.

The role of data architects is sometimes vaguely defined and tends to fall on the shoulders of senior business analysts, data scientists, or database and ETL specialists. As with any kind of architecture, designing for uncertainty is a key requirement with data architecture.

Łukasz Paciorkowski and Piotr Karolczak present a digital twin maturity model that can help organizations make better decisions around the structure of digital twins applied to industrial applications. The model presents several capabilities that organizations can explore across several maturity levels.

Łukasz Paciorkowski and Piotr Karolczak present a digital twin maturity model that can help organizations make better decisions around the structure of digital twins applied to industrial applications. The model presents several capabilities that organizations can explore across several maturity levels.

Jacqueline Corbett, Adnène Hajji, and Sehl Mellouli discuss how digital twins can promote smart, agile, sustainable cities. First, the authors present the concept of organizational agility and the ways it promotes organizational success. Then, they explain how digital twin dimensions and capabilities support and contribute to organizational agility. The authors also present some examples and conclude with recom­mendations for cities in their consideration for the use of digital twins.

Jacqueline Corbett, Adnène Hajji, and Sehl Mellouli discuss how digital twins can promote smart, agile, sustainable cities. First, the authors present the concept of organizational agility and the ways it promotes organizational success. Then, they explain how digital twin dimensions and capabilities support and contribute to organizational agility. The authors also present some examples and conclude with recom­mendations for cities in their consideration for the use of digital twins.

Jon Geater investigates the relationship of security and trustworthiness to digital twins. He looks at the possible security impact of the analog world on the digital world and how to address it. His application of the “nature versus nurture” analogy to digital twins is compelling. Geater discusses several security-related topics that organizations should consider, and he ends with a look at how to address digital twin security as we move forward.

Jon Geater investigates the relationship of security and trustworthiness to digital twins. He looks at the possible security impact of the analog world on the digital world and how to address it. His application of the “nature versus nurture” analogy to digital twins is compelling. Geater discusses several security-related topics that organizations should consider, and he ends with a look at how to address digital twin security as we move forward.

Madison White explores how digital transformation in the transportation industry is being combined with automotive digital twins to produce the next generation of autonomous vehicles. She looks at the challenges facing production-scale deployment of digital twins, including digital twin accuracy, connec­tivity, data accuracy, interoperability/standardization, and trust/security. She concludes with the cost benefits of developing a vehicle using digital twins, including predicting maintenance, and thus lowering cost of ownership during the lifetime of a vehicle, and cleaner air.

Madison White explores how digital transformation in the transportation industry is being combined with automotive digital twins to produce the next generation of autonomous vehicles. She looks at the challenges facing production-scale deployment of digital twins, including digital twin accuracy, connec­tivity, data accuracy, interoperability/standardization, and trust/security. She concludes with the cost benefits of developing a vehicle using digital twins, including predicting maintenance, and thus lowering cost of ownership during the lifetime of a vehicle, and cleaner air.

Chloé Audigier and Dileep Mangsuli explore digital twins in the medical domain, specifically regarding modeling humans and their care. They explore the complexity of data related to various organs and scenarios, especially how models must be based on the behavior of many people yet personalized to a specific person. Medical digital twins can help predict therapeutic outcomes and how an individual will react to a particular approach. This is a promising field with endless applications and possibilities.

Chloé Audigier and Dileep Mangsuli explore digital twins in the medical domain, specifically regarding modeling humans and their care. They explore the complexity of data related to various organs and scenarios, especially how models must be based on the behavior of many people yet personalized to a specific person. Medical digital twins can help predict therapeutic outcomes and how an individual will react to a particular approach. This is a promising field with endless applications and possibilities.