For the past few years, I've started out the new year of Advisors with some suggestions for resolutions. To continue with this popular feature and as a service to Enterprise Architecture Advisor readers, here again is a list of ready-made resolutions that you can adopt for 2008.

In my last Advisor (see "Principles of Planning, Part 6: When and How?" 26 December 2007), I introduced the topic of effective communication and its importance as a critical factor for successful implementation of business initiatives. In this Advisor, I'll dive a little deeper into this topic.

Vendors have been offering on-demand BI and other analytic and data management solutions since 2000, though at that time they were typically referred to as analytic or business intelligence ASPs. Many of these pioneers focused on offering hosted applications and services for analyzing data associated with e-commerce companies.

Vendors have been offering on-demand BI and other analytic and data management solutions since 2000, though at that time they were typically referred to as analytic or business intelligence ASPs. Many of these pioneers focused on offering hosted applications and services for analyzing data associated with e-commerce companies.

In the last year or two, I've become very interested in cyberflexing. Because I'm a member of a National Academy of Sciences study (in progress) on the subject of "Ethical and Political Implications of Offensive Information Operations," I must mention that what I'm saying here are personal opinions on many of the issues and not conclusions of the study group.

Last week, Microsoft announced plans to acquire enterprise search software specialist Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) for 6.6 billion Norwegian Kroners, or approximately US $1.2 billion. This deal is important because it gives Microsoft high-end, cutting-edge search technology it can use to bolster its low- and medium-end search products.

Today, the skill set required to upgrade data center energy efficiency echoes the very same knowledge required to rapidly downsize IT operations during an energy emergency. As a data center manager, do you have that skill set? If you were tasked with developing a plan in a few weeks to lower IT power consumption by 50% as quickly as possible, could you write a plan while minimally affecting operations? What would you do first, second, and third?

In the previous parts of this Executive Update series, I focused on the application of the concept of refactoring needs to various processes related to software development -- refactoring needs being an ingredient of enterprise architecture (EA) [1-4]. Here in Part V, I share some insights regarding the value that EA and its management processes gain from the concept.

In the previous parts of this Executive Update series, I focused on the application of the concept of refactoring needs to various processes related to software development -- refactoring needs being an ingredient of enterprise architecture (EA) [1-4]. Here in Part V, I share some insights regarding the value that EA and its management processes gain from the concept.

Web 2.0 is the most talked about emerging technology trend today; it is creating quite a splash as it stretches the boundary of what the traditional Web can do. In the absence of any industry consensus, Web 2.0 can best be explained as the second phase in the evolution of the Web that provides an enriched end-user experience and enhanced online social collaboration.

There are many hollow buzzwords floating around, and "crowdsourcing" may sound like one, but it isn't. It is a fascinating term that was coined just a couple of years ago [2], and if you google it, you'll get more than half a million hits. Crowdsourcing refers to the way consumers participate in the creation of the products they use, and it has caught on quickly.

While software-as-a-service (SaaS) has gained plenty of attention and acceptance within the business units of a growing number of companies of all sizes, IT managers and their staffs have been apprehensive about the operational and organizational implications of SaaS.

While software-as-a-service (SaaS) has gained plenty of attention and acceptance within the business units of a growing number of companies of all sizes, IT managers and their staffs have been apprehensive about the operational and organizational implications of SaaS.

If you do agile planning, you probably use the "yesterday's weather" metaphor of Extreme Programming: your team collects the backlog of stories or features, sorts them by priority, and estimates them -- let's say, using story points. Then you take the "velocity" -- the sum of story points finished during the last iteration(s).

The Web has not yet reached its full potential; it's a moving post.

The Web has not yet reached its full potential; it's a moving post.

collaboration = innovation

After listening, naturally comes talking. (Alas, it's all too often the other way around.) Collaboration requires four broad categories of talking. I'll take up two of them today, two more next time.

collaboration = innovation

After listening, naturally comes talking. (Alas, it's all too often the other way around.) Collaboration requires four broad categories of talking. I'll take up two of them today, two more next time.

As we all know, enterprise architecture (EA) is not a technical affair; it is not just for the technologists and architects to demonstrate the technical marvels in developing IT solutions or services for the business world. Instead, EA is now the widely regarded conduit for developing a collaborative environment for both business and IT.

We engaged a client's business executive team members this week in an extended conversation about their priorities and plans for IT. The discussion focused on their key issue: how to think about their need for ongoing IT investments, meaning maintenance and support of their application portfolio.

Faced with more opportunities for the use of technology than there are resources available for their simultaneous development, organizations are faced with the task of prioritizing or ranking opportunities. Often organizations use a single ranking factor, such as ROI (return on investment).

Because customer data breaches continue to make headlines almost every week, it seems appropriate to ask how much of a financial hit an organization should expect to take should it suffer such an incident.

Happy New Year! I wish everyone a terrific 2008. May you realize success in all your projects and endeavors.

Happy New Year! I wish everyone a terrific 2008. May you realize success in all your projects and endeavors.

Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) complied with a US congressional request that the space agency release the findings from a four-year airline-safety study it conducted involving thousands of interviews -- including those with 24,000 pilots. The trouble is, NASA released the information in a format that makes it all but impossible to analyze further.