The accompanying Executive Report begins with a brief overview of the outsourcing lifecycle and its components to provide you with the necessary context. This first part of the series then looks at seven cases in detail to provide you with insights into how the organizations did or did not apply the lifecycle. These seven cases, representing large, IT-using firms in Australia, volunteered for theoretical sampling, not statistical sampling, in the study to provide generalization validity. The rest of the reports in the series will explain each of the building blocks and related activities of the lifecycle, giving many examples from the 107 cases.

Organizational matters

Many organizations are depleting their systems analysis staff -- or have no systems analysts at all. This is not a matter of job titles; this is an important loss of systems skill sets. While the world is demanding IT efficiency and effectiveness, many IT organizations are turning to amateurs, yet expect these novices to somehow magically be professionals.

Organizational matters

Many organizations are depleting their systems analysis staff -- or have no systems analysts at all. This is not a matter of job titles; this is an important loss of systems skill sets. While the world is demanding IT efficiency and effectiveness, many IT organizations are turning to amateurs, yet expect these novices to somehow magically be professionals.

There are four critical areas in managing large projects: people, product, plans, and tools.

There's a compelling phenomenon that happens with the commonplace aspects of our lives. The boredom that is frequently associated with the average concerns in our day-to-day existence evolves into a willing ignorance that those concerns even exist. In our cars, we sometimes become oblivious to the fact that speeding inherently carries with it a higher level of risk.

There's a compelling phenomenon that happens with the commonplace aspects of our lives. The boredom that is frequently associated with the average concerns in our day-to-day existence evolves into a willing ignorance that those concerns even exist. In our cars, we sometimes become oblivious to the fact that speeding inherently carries with it a higher level of risk.

It is just over a week since US President Barack Obama's inauguration, and people are wondering what to talk about next. There are a number of obviously significant issues (war, global warming, the economy, etc.). All are of momentous concerns, and how Obama handles them will affect many of us.

It is just over a week since US President Barack Obama's inauguration, and people are wondering what to talk about next. There are a number of obviously significant issues (war, global warming, the economy, etc.). All are of momentous concerns, and how Obama handles them will affect many of us.

Such service-oriented factors as business capability, process networks, core competency, and collaboration in the global marketplace tend to be ignored in many business process management (BPM) projects. At the same time, a service-oriented paradigm shift in BPM is not practically possible for most organizations.

This Executive Update aims to present a framework for monitoring and maintaining information quality in data warehouses. The framework includes:

The definition of information quality assessment rule

Methods to enable, monitor, and maintain the assessment process

A generic logical data model to hold the assessment data

A sample presentation layer for information health

A center of excellence (COE) is not a new concept in business management. Even in offshoring, the creation of IT development centers to more effectively coordinate the application development work of distant service providers is a well-established type of COE. Yet the COE concept in offshoring has matured from its development center roots, taking on a more strategic aspect. The features of the evolved offshoring COE that offer value to managers are worth exploring for what they say about the evolution of offshoring as a management discipline.

A center of excellence (COE) is not a new concept in business management. Even in offshoring, the creation of IT development centers to more effectively coordinate the application development work of distant service providers is a well-established type of COE. Yet the COE concept in offshoring has matured from its development center roots, taking on a more strategic aspect. The features of the evolved offshoring COE that offer value to managers are worth exploring for what they say about the evolution of offshoring as a management discipline.

A good friend of ours who is very active in business strategic thinking in many industries has mentioned to us that only 20% (or less) of business strategies and goals actually are worked on. This squares with our own experience in working with more than 100 companies worldwide. How can we plan IT to support business strategies if 80% of those strategies do not in fact drive business activities? On the other hand, we know that business managers undertake many initiatives that are not, strictly speaking, connected to the business strategy statements.

A recent blog post from the Burton Group on the alleged "Death of SOA" has been causing quite a stir.1 The contention is that the bad economic situation has finally finished the "SOAsaurus" off and that we must now concentrate on services, along with mashups, cloud computing, and software as a service (SaaS) -- and not service-oriented architecture (SOA).

As the global economic situation continues to deteriorate, companies are becoming increasingly concerned about costs. Budgets for nonessentials must be cut. But it is important to make sure that money remains for the essentials. And one essential is ensuring a continuing flow of innovation.

As the global economic situation continues to deteriorate, companies are becoming increasingly concerned about costs. Budgets for nonessentials must be cut. But it is important to make sure that money remains for the essentials. And one essential is ensuring a continuing flow of innovation.

With all due respect to Clint Eastwood and his fans, the IT workforce in early 2009 is clearly a mixture of the bad, the good, and the ugly. 1 I hope the juxtaposition of the film's title will have meaning as you read on. I have been following workforce trends since 2000 and decided it might be interesting to see how things were unfolding in the US as we entered the New Year.

With all due respect to Clint Eastwood and his fans, the IT workforce in early 2009 is clearly a mixture of the bad, the good, and the ugly. 1 I hope the juxtaposition of the film's title will have meaning as you read on. I have been following workforce trends since 2000 and decided it might be interesting to see how things were unfolding in the US as we entered the New Year.

I think that many end-user organizations are going to have serious reservations about deploying their data warehouses permanently to the cloud, certainly at least initially. This is quite understandable, given that most companies tend to view their data -- especially customer data -- as a strategic asset.

I think that many end-user organizations are going to have serious reservations about deploying their data warehouses permanently to the cloud, certainly at least initially. This is quite understandable, given that most companies tend to view their data -- especially customer data -- as a strategic asset.

The production systems environment in its basic role should serve production and commercial purposes. If left unaddressed, the cloud of changes delivered by various software development initiatives would be implemented in the production environment independently, with each introducing some sort of risk and disruption to production systems work.

I think that many end-user organizations are going to have serious reservations about deploying their data warehouses permanently to the cloud, certainly at least initially. This is quite understandable, given that most companies tend to view their data -- especially customer data -- as a strategic asset.

I think that many end-user organizations are going to have serious reservations about deploying their data warehouses permanently to the cloud, certainly at least initially. This is quite understandable, given that most companies tend to view their data -- especially customer data -- as a strategic asset.

To make something new, you have to decide when it's done. If it's really new, it's unique, and you don't have anything to base a decision on but the thing itself. So you're in exactly the same position as an artist deciding on closure.