Let's role-play. 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? Here are 10 steps to follow.

Many organizations struggle with getting practical business results from their service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects. In this Executive Update, we examine pragmatic approaches for joining SOA with your solution projects.

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.

With organizations of all sizes across every industry sector facing unprecedented business challenges, IT and corporate decision makers are taking a close look at every aspect of their operations and considering new ways to address their day-to-day requirements and achieve their long-term objectives.

With organizations of all sizes across every industry sector facing unprecedented business challenges, IT and corporate decision makers are taking a close look at every aspect of their operations and considering new ways to address their day-to-day requirements and achieve their long-term objectives.

With organizations of all sizes across every industry sector facing unprecedented business challenges, IT and corporate decision makers are taking a close look at every aspect of their operations and considering new ways to address their day-to-day requirements and achieve their long-term objectives.

I was drinking coffee and talking agile with colleague and Cutter Senior Consultant Ken Collier the other morning, and the topic turned to project management or, more precisely, agile project managers.

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.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

-- Charles Dickens

The good news: The American presidential election is finally over.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

-- Charles Dickens

The good news: The American presidential election is finally over.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

-- Charles Dickens

The good news: The American presidential election is finally over.

Many of the major trends occurring in the industry are related to technology delivery through alternative forms of outsourcing. Alternative delivery models are all the rage. Software as a service (SaaS), hardware as a service (HaaS), storage as a service, and communications as a service all have a familiar on-demand/pay-by-the-drink ring.

Many of the major trends occurring in the industry are related to technology delivery through alternative forms of outsourcing. Alternative delivery models are all the rage. Software as a service (SaaS), hardware as a service (HaaS), storage as a service, and communications as a service all have a familiar on-demand/pay-by-the-drink ring.

We must remember that a budget is a plan and plans are a stated intention for some future action. In other words, when we plan, we are attempting to make our actions and resources meet some future need or goal.

"Architecture is a verb" -- Anonymous

Here's an interesting finding: approximately 18% of end-user organizations indicate that they are using or developing embedded or "process-aware" BI analytics.

Here's an interesting finding: approximately 18% of end-user organizations indicate that they are using or developing embedded or "process-aware" BI analytics.

To give you a clear understanding of the journey through the contemporary world of project management and of becoming an exemplary project manager, we can make a strong parallel with the idea of being a cook or a chef. There is a difference. You can learn to be a cook and be able to routinely follow the recipes of others, or you can learn to be a chef and be able to create recipes for cooks to follow.

Even for the well prepared, an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementation is a formidable prospect. Before organizations roll up their sleeves and plan tactical projects that fulfill this methodology's vision, as in a configuration management database or business services catalog, they might consider an ITIL readiness self-assessment first.

Enterprise search is applicable to just about any vertical market because organizations in all of them increasingly demand "findability" of information that translates to big benefits. This Executive Update, the second of a three-part series on enterprise search, defines categories for the various enterprise search products and identifies and describes the characteristics of a product in each category.

What has the TV series NCIS got to do with software project estimation? Probably not much, but I wish I had had one of its episodes in my pocket a few years back.

Anyone who spends time supporting complex IT environments will experience a major outage at some point in his or her career. In many cases, the experience is traumatic, leaving a lasting and painful impression.

Anyone who has spent time supporting complex IT environments will experience a major outage at some point in his or her career. In many cases, the experience is traumatic, leaving a lasting and painful impression on those involved or worse, precipitating significant job changes for some.

Recent developments in the area of technology management show pr