A close professional ally of mine, LeRoy Ward, recently completed the third edition of his Dictionary of Project Management Terms. At the same time (and on a seemingly unrelated note), our family adopted two kittens.

A close professional ally of mine, LeRoy Ward, recently completed the third edition of his Dictionary of Project Management Terms. At the same time (and on a seemingly unrelated note), our family adopted two kittens.

A close professional ally of mine, LeRoy Ward, recently completed the third edition of his Dictionary of Project Management Terms. At the same time (and on a seemingly unrelated note), our family adopted two kittens.

Recently, I was chatting with a couple of CIOs about virtualization in the data center.

"We're about 40% virtualized," one CIO said.

"We're up to about 30%. We hope to get to 80% by the end of the year," said the other.

Recently, I was chatting with a couple of CIOs about virtualization in the data center.

"We're about 40% virtualized," one CIO said.

"We're up to about 30%. We hope to get to 80% by the end of the year," said the other.

Recently, I was chatting with a couple of CIOs about virtualization in the data center.

"We're about 40% virtualized," one CIO said.

"We're up to about 30%. We hope to get to 80% by the end of the year," said the other.

There are many buyers and sellers of outsourcing services in the developed countries. Buyers have choices with whom to buy and under what conditions. Sellers are free to choose their clients and what to charge.

There are many buyers and sellers of outsourcing services in the developed countries. Buyers have choices with whom to buy and under what conditions. Sellers are free to choose their clients and what to charge.

I've been conversing with colleagues. Some are CIOs in traditional industries, some are entrepreneurs, some are in nonprofits, some in international businesses, and some smack dab in the middle of the financial meltdown. Some are front-line managers, some are middle-level, and some are precariously high. They can feel the ground shaking.

I've been conversing with colleagues. Some are CIOs in traditional industries, some are entrepreneurs, some are in nonprofits, some in international businesses, and some smack dab in the middle of the financial meltdown. Some are front-line managers, some are middle-level, and some are precariously high. They can feel the ground shaking.

Following a recent keynote by a service-oriented architecture (SOA) evangelist, who waxed lyrical about the business promises of SOA at an enterprise architecture conference, one delegate commented, "I have a fundamental issue with people who say that SOA is a way of doing business -- it is not; it is a way of engineering IT applications."

Back in March, I discussed the need for tools that can mine social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook (see "Mining Internet Social Media: Tomorrow's Tools Needed Today," 18 March 2008). Basically, I said that social media sites have become one of the leading mediums for publishing content on the Web.

A large part of the problem has been, of course, the failure to recognize that there was a financial contagion cooking in the Wall Street financial jungle. Like the beginnings of a pandemic that is not recognized, once the contagion started to take hold, it was just too late.

Recently, I attended a conference that had a thin but interesting service-oriented architecture (SOA) track, with sessions such as "SOA: Hype or Happening" and "Security and Governance of Online and B2B SOA Traffic." While I attended both sessions, here I focus on the discussion in "SOA: Hype or Happening" as a followup to Part I of this two-part Executive Update series.1

Complex event processing (CEP) is an emerging technology that combines business process modeling (BPM), enterprise integration, and rules-based technology to monitor and aggregate information in real time from distributed messaging systems, databases, and enterprise applications.

While much has been written about organizational learning and knowledge, it is still a mystery for many firms. The old school of planning and designing change is under attack. One could argue that planning, especially long-term planning, does not improve agility. For environments that are dynamic and complex, events can unfold in unpredictable ways, upsetting even the best plans.

While much has been written about organizational learning and knowledge, it is still a mystery for many firms. The old school of planning and designing change is under attack. One could argue that planning, especially long-term planning, does not improve agility. For environments that are dynamic and complex, events can unfold in unpredictable ways, upsetting even the best plans.

Some people seem to have their best ideas in the shower; mine seem to come on bike rides. In thinking further about leadership traits (in an earlier Advisor), I realized I needed to add a third.

For the IT community, the incoming US administration could be a very interesting one.

For the IT community, the incoming US administration could be a very interesting one.

Whatever gets built must be maintained or replaced.

-- Ken Orr

One common aspect of an enterprise architecture program is the use of an EA repository. While this can be an important and integral part to the value that architecture brings to an organization, it can also be a trap. Like most business solutions, technology alone is never the answer.

Approximately 24% of end-user organizations indicate they are using data mashups to feed BI, customer relationship management (CRM), and other decision-support applications with data from multiple sources.

Now that the economy is apparently in shambles, it may sound strange to assert that every business now needs to rethink its IT vision. Yet now's the time, for in chaos there often is opportunity.

For most of my adult life, I have been perplexed by a Pavlovian phenomenon: whenever I, as an engineering manager, released code to manufacturing, 1 the marketing folks reacted by conducting a three-week worldwide analyst tour. As much as I appreciate good public relations for my products, I viewed this phenomenon as a mystery that I might one day solve, perhaps when I retire.