Happy New Year! I wish everyone a terrific 2009 and success in all projects you undertake.

We face a crisis that is affecting everyone, not just one business or one industry, or even one country. Many businesses will survive this recession, or as some assert, a depression, but a number of companies will either go bankrupt or be acquired. A few businesses will figure out how to thrive and take advantage of this situation.

"May you live in interesting times" is an ironic Chinese curse about to be experienced by more than a few CIOs in the US. Our truly terrifying current economic climate is sure to impact IT organizations profoundly as organizations call on business units to do more, maybe far more, with less. In the name of sound IT management, CIOs are reminded to consider the most common sources of technology management failures that happen in the good times because in bad times like these, managerial vulnerabilities are often magnified.

"May you live in interesting times" is an ironic Chinese curse about to be experienced by more than a few CIOs in the US. Our truly terrifying current economic climate is sure to impact IT organizations profoundly as organizations call on business units to do more, maybe far more, with less. In the name of sound IT management, CIOs are reminded to consider the most common sources of technology management failures that happen in the good times because in bad times like these, managerial vulnerabilities are often magnified.

BI and data warehousing have moved way beyond basic extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL), as well as canned reporting. The trend today is for companies to apply BI techniques across the organization in a variety of formats.

When introducing an agile approach to IT development into an environment that has known only a structured, start-to-finish, planned approach, you will likely encounter resistance. Thus, you will find yourself needing to compromise and adapt your methodological approach, to institute control points we call "traffic cops," and to learn to depict what you are delivering in a way that proponents of the previous "waterfall" methodology will not just understand but also accept.

Many companies are decentralized these days, though the number that are reverting to centralization is increasing. The essence of the centralization/decentralization dance spins around the value of shared services. But it's also about discipline and governance.

Many companies are decentralized these days, though the number that are reverting to centralization is increasing. The essence of the centralization/decentralization dance spins around the value of shared services. But it's also about discipline and governance.

The recent downward economic spiral has predictably put IT in the spotlight as a target for cost reduction. As I've noted in past years,1 the fact that IT has historically been viewed as an expense while at the same bearing the expectation of delivering strategic value has caused a long-lasting macro-headache that still plagues corporate IT across all industries.

The recent downward economic spiral has predictably put IT in the spotlight as a target for cost reduction. As I've noted in past years,1 the fact that IT has historically been viewed as an expense while at the same bearing the expectation of delivering strategic value has caused a long-lasting macro-headache that still plagues corporate IT across all industries.

IT strategy

With more and more companies unwilling or unable to invest in up-front capital costs for projects, lots of noise is being made about cloud computing as a fast and efficient deployment environment. Most companies will be wary but willing. Can you afford not to get involved?

In a time of aggressive cost-cutting, CIOs and other decision makers in an IT organization can play a key role in helping business units find cost-cutting quick-wins while also reducing the risks that such cost-cutting will compromise IT's future service abilities.

Cost-cutting, freeing up cash, and generally preserving financial health is the order of the day for companies in our current recession. The IT organization finds itself in a uniquely awkward position. It is expected to pony up savings like every other unit, but can this be accomplished without compromising valuable resources and capabilities needed for the future?

Application developers need to handle a surprising amount of software technology. Platform suppliers cater to many architectural styles, thereby leaving a gap between their platforms and an application's business function. Filling this gap takes time and effort and reduces the "agility" -- simplicity and resilience -- of the application code.

The typical application development team is required to understand and code a great deal of relatively low-level software technology, including event management, transaction integrity, complex GUI frameworks, customization of development tools, configuration of code generators, error management, and logging.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT trends and technologies for the coming year. As you know if you have been following CBR, at the beginning of every year we ask our practicing and academic contributors to take stock of current trends. Based on our benchmarking survey of investment priorities, we ask our contributors to explain the results and look ahead to extrapolate these to create some guidelines for our readers on how to tackle the new year in the IT shop.

The year 2009 is set to become one of the most turbulent years ever seen in the IT industry worldwide. We anticipate many changes and a substantial amount of restructuring both in the industry and in companies that make use of IT.

Given the stunning economic events of the past few months, it comes as no surprise that the data for this year's CBR survey on IT trends reveals some significant activity across industries to cut costs and spend money wisely. Respondents across the board report taking such obvious measures as sharply cutting back hiring, reducing headcount, and taking on fewer projects.

This issue of the Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on technology and IT trends for the incoming year. Our focus here is to evaluate new technologies and IT trends you should be watching in 2009 and to draw some trending based on the survey results over the last four years. The latter part of 2008 was an extraordinary time for the global economy, and the results of our survey reflect the uncertainty that permeates the organizations for which our respondents work.

This survey explored interest in and adoption of various relatively new IT technologies in 80 organizations worldwide. Forty-one percent of respondents hold senior management/policy making or IS/IT management titles, with consulting, project management, and software engineering/programming being among the other job titles reported. Fifty-three percent of responding organizations are headquartered in North America, 18% in Europe, and 20% in Asia/Pacific, with the remainder in South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

In this Executive Report, Ken Collier and Dan O'Leary introduce an enhanced data warehousing architecture designed to enable developers to respond quickly to new requirements and to adapt easily to change. The Message Driven Warehouse uses a generalized Java Message Service format to push rather than pull source data into a domain-independent, adaptive data model in the warehouse.

The business intelligence (BI) landscape has changed. New technologies enable more advanced BI applications for users. BI is no longer limited to an exclusive group of executives and analysts. Today's decision makers, from executives to frontline customer service representatives, need BI for decision support. BI is no longer just for strategic and tactical planning. Operational and near-real-time BI for the masses is the order of the day.

Companies that have adopted agile methods have realized faster throughput and higher business customer satisfaction on individual projects. Yet despite undeniable wins at the project level, sustained large-scale adoptions of agile methods are fewer and further between. What is preventing more comprehensive adoption of agile within organizations? Many agile experts point to a significant misalignment between the way agile projects are run and the way IT projects are governed in general. IT program and portfolio management, in particular, seem to be at the root of many of these alignment issues.

In this issue we'll explore ways to scale agile methods beyond individual projects so that their associated programs and portfolios can thrive. Hear how one agile consultant saved a failing 100-person company by introducing an agile portfolio planning game - and convincing the company to stop acquiring new customers (a much tougher sell)! Learn effective methods for ranking your projects - and the equally important lesson that "ranking isn't forever." Discover how to blend the adaptability of agile with the context and focus of traditional portfolio management to begin to deliver not just functions, but new organizational capabilities. Are the agile teams in your organization ready to level up?