A client asks about methods to increase the trust between IT and business managers and staff. It seems the relationship is currently broken: business managers don't trust IT, and the feeling is mutual.

All of a sudden, Microsoft seems to be moving aggressively -- at least, aggressively for Microsoft -- into the area of high-level architecture. I have read about this recently with some hope.

Data integration tools provider Talend has introduced an open source data profiling toolset. Talend Open Profiler, as the new software is called, rounds out Talend's open source data integration platform by providing tools to help developers evaluate and document the quality of their data.

In the IT world, most things happen in 10-year cycles. However, the evolution of project management (PM) seems to be on a 20-year cycle. The 1960s and 1970s used a consolidated mainframe approach to project management. The 1980s and 1990s saw a more distributed, desktop-oriented PC approach. Today, in the new millennium, we return to the consolidated approach -- but with a difference.

This article is a continuation of last month's Advisor on quality; specifically, intrinsic quality (see "Investigating Agile: Inside and Out," 19 June 2008). Agile development focuses on delivering customer value as its highest priority.

There was a story not too long ago in the Wall Street Journal on the lessons CEOs are trying to learn from the subprime mess and how these lessons might be applied in their own markets [1]. One of the critical lessons the article highlighted was the importance -- and extreme difficulty -- of being able to deliver bad news to senior executives quickly.

There was a story not too long ago in the Wall Street Journal on the lessons CEOs are trying to learn from the subprime mess and how these lessons might be applied in their own markets [1]. One of the critical lessons the article highlighted was the importance -- and extreme difficulty -- of being able to deliver bad news to senior executives quickly.

There was a story not too long ago in the Wall Street Journal on the lessons CEOs are trying to learn from the subprime mess and how these lessons might be applied in their own markets [1]. One of the critical lessons the article highlighted was the importance -- and extreme difficulty -- of being able to deliver bad news to senior executives quickly.

Over the last six months, I have interviewed a number of CIOs or IT people that work in large corporations (more than 5,000 people). What I have found is that there is not a rapid adoption of collaboration or Web 2.0 technologies in these organizations.

Over the last six months, I have interviewed a number of CIOs or IT people that work in large corporations (more than 5,000 people). What I have found is that there is not a rapid adoption of collaboration or Web 2.0 technologies in these organizations.

Negotiators from different cultures differ in numerous ways. The very base concept and attitude toward negotiations vary from an extreme win-lose paradigm in some cultures, in which the assumption is that the other parties are out to beat you and that you can only succeed by limiting the gains you allow them, to win-win, collaborative negotiations in which the goal is to find solutions that meet all parties' interests.

Negotiators from different cultures differ in numerous ways. The very base concept and attitude toward negotiations vary from an extreme win-lose paradigm in some cultures, in which the assumption is that the other parties are out to beat you and that you can only succeed by limiting the gains you allow them, to win-win, collaborative negotiations in which the goal is to find solutions that meet all parties' interests.

Is yours one of the few organizations that has broken with tradition and hired a new CIO from outside technology? Don't be embarrassed if it is. More are likely to do it, albeit at a slow pace. And if more and more are doing it ... well, it can't be all bad, can it?

Pay attention to this hiring strategy. It speaks gigabytes about the future of one very important aspect of IT management; that is, who oversees it. Let us count the ways.

In the first two Advisors in this series (see "How to Talk to Architects, Part I: The Enterprise," 28 May 2008, and "How to Talk to Architects, Part II: Business and Information," 18 June 2008), we discussed the issues involved in communicating with archi

I've been doing a lot of research on BI search -- tools that combine the ease of use of enterprise search engines with the reporting and analysis capabilities of BI tools. The goal of BI search is to enable organizations to distribute BI functionality to (nontechnical) business users in a manner that makes self-service BI practical.

I really love maps. I'm something of a map freak. When I was a kid, my folks got me an encyclopedia that had a volume called "Places and People," and I spent whole summers browsing the maps and pictures, trying to get the relationships of those maps and the rest of the globe clear in my mind.

What works for corporate environmental and energy strategies has absolutely nothing in common with marketing savants, buzzwords, or cheerleading from green biz promoters and gurus. Meaningful and enduring solutions are hard to accomplish.

What works for corporate environmental and energy strategies has absolutely nothing in common with marketing savants, buzzwords, or cheerleading from green biz promoters and gurus. Meaningful and enduring solutions are hard to accomplish.

No amount of green cheerleading or wishful thinking can contravene the lessons learned through experience by business professionals over the past several decades. Meaningful and enduring solutions for corporate energy and environmental problems are hard to accomplish. IT does not change the reality.

No amount of green cheerleading or wishful thinking can contravene the lessons learned through experience by business professionals over the past several decades. Meaningful and enduring solutions for corporate energy and environmental problems are hard to accomplish. IT does not change the reality.

In January, a Cutter survey reported that a growing number of organizations now use virtualization technologies, with application development and testing as the most common use.1 More recently, a Business Technology Trends & Impacts Executive Update noted that virtualization "has become increasingly important in data centers over the past several years, as companies have sought to contain costs, reduce physical server use, and improve efficiency."2

Responsive, highly functional, and customizable, rich Internet applications (RIAs) are more than a cool front end for a traditional Web application. A RIA turns the browser into a fully programmable platform, relocating user interface (UI) code, cleaning up the application architecture, and simplifying the development job.

Rich Internet applications (RIAs), which have been enlivening the Web-browsing experience for several years now, are making their way into the enterprise. RIAs are Web applications that seem super responsive, with browser screens that react almost instantly to keyboard input and mouse clicks.

We were ramping up on a new engagement, going over the architecture and technology choices the team had made for the project, and it seemed like something wasn't quite right.

This month's Cutter Benchmark Review marks the third installment in our annual series on IT budgets and the yearly IT budgeting process. The budgeting process is one of critical importance to IT and business professionals in our subscriber base. It is the importance of this process that leads us to address it each year. Doing so also allows us to comment on year-over-year changes and monitor how the priorities of the organizations we survey change over time.