In this Executive Report  we address these questions and explore what social networks mean to you and your enterprise. Specifically, we begin by examining the dark side of social networks, including dangers, risks, and privacy and security issues. We then look at the future of social networks, identifying and discussing several yet-to-be explored trends and your potential opportunities. We conclude by looking at the impact social networks have on the business and what IT can do to take advantage of its potential.

In this Executive Report  we address these questions and explore what social networks mean to you and your enterprise. Specifically, we begin by examining the dark side of social networks, including dangers, risks, and privacy and security issues. We then look at the future of social networks, identifying and discussing several yet-to-be explored trends and your potential opportunities. We conclude by looking at the impact social networks have on the business and what IT can do to take advantage of its potential.

In the earlier days of computers, data had to be encoded before it could be used by an electronic system. This meant that information that lived in its "natural" state -- unstructured, scattered around, written or spoken language -- could not be readily used by computers. It also meant that each system and program would work with information designed according to its own internal architecture, which often would not be compatible with other systems.

"There is no doubt that agile is much more suited for innovative companies than traditional waterfall methods are. But is agility the natural path to innovation?"

-- Jens Coldewey, Guest Editor

In and of themselves, agile practices do not foster innovation. In fact, left untended in product development situations, they are quite likely to become obstacles to innovation. However, when properly wielded, they can serve as a powerful tool for effectively managing the inherent risk in product innovation and promote innovation within the software development process itself.

In a perfect world, companies adopting an agile software development process would implement the process Jonathan Addelston and Theresa O'Connell describe in their Cutter Executive Report "Usability and the Agile Project Management Process Framework" [1]. Usability engineering would be incorporated in every step of the process, from preplanning to postrelease.

In early 2006, the world's leading supplier of criminal intelligence management software (I'll refer to them as BestSpy) was looking to take their company to the "next level." While impressive by most standards, BestSpy's 20% annual growth rate was a disappointment to the executive management team. Surely in the midst of the post-9/11 world's demand for intelligence sharing, they believed, BestSpy should be growing much faster. After all, BestSpy practically invented this market.

Agile software development approaches provide organizations with realizable benefits that are applied in the financial services community every day. By understanding the underlying principles, agile practitioners can better collaborate with business leaders who place decisions into a financial context. This article provides real-world examples of agile practices that provide three financially oriented benefits:

1. Efficient use of capital

Open source is finally reaching critical mass. It is no longer restricted to niche markets and early adopters, but is beginning to play a major role in the IT strategy of many companies. Companies can no longer afford to keep all their IT infrastructure development inhouse, and most are embracing open source to get an edge on the competition. Unfortunately, open source is not a silver bullet.

An out-of-control project is something with which far too many of us are familiar. However, failure is far from the only outcome. By focusing your efforts on certain key areas, it is possible to turn a project disaster into a project success. This Executive Report looks at the skills you need in order to reset expectations, communicate effectively in all directions, and turn conflict-ridden relationships into joint problem-solving partnerships.

Your project is behind schedule and overbudget. The customer is irate, and the president of the company has stepped in personally to micromanage the project, breaking up your work into miniature milestones, or "inchstones," and demanding constant progress reports. The project team members, exhausted and frustrated by the problems on the project and the project's slow progress, have no morale left to speak of.

The intent of this Executive Update is to compare the behavioral expectations of an agile leader/manager with those of a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and then to use that comparison to better define leadership in an agile environment.

IT technology

The trend toward higher-resolution displays promises to be expensive but unstoppable. Its effect on the desktop may pass unnoticed, but it is likely to cause serious retrofit of anything handheld.

IT technology

The trend toward higher-resolution displays promises to be expensive but unstoppable. Its effect on the desktop may pass unnoticed, but it is likely to cause serious retrofit of anything handheld.

Increasing availability of broadband Internet access combined with advances in multiplayer online gaming are starting to build a new concept of Web presentation that can no longer be ignored -- the virtual world, a concept that embraces what has also come to be called the 3D Internet (3Di) or the metaverse.

Increasing availability of broadband Internet access combined with advances in multiplayer online gaming are starting to build a new concept of Web presentation that can no longer be ignored -- the virtual world, a concept that embraces what has also come to be called the 3D Internet (3Di) or the metaverse.

China is a vast country with abundant human resources. Today, China is undergoing a rapid amount of change as its people build a modern, high-performance economy. Given continued rapid economic growth along with population concentration, China is moving into an age unprecedented in human history, the age of the Megalopolis.

China is a vast country with abundant human resources. Today, China is undergoing a rapid amount of change as its people build a modern, high-performance economy. Given continued rapid economic growth along with population concentration, China is moving into an age unprecedented in human history, the age of the Megalopolis.

China is a vast country with abundant human resources. Today, China is undergoing a rapid amount of change as its people build a modern, high-performance economy. Given continued rapid economic growth along with population concentration, China is moving into an age unprecedented in human history, the age of the Megalopolis.

China is a vast country with abundant human resources. Today, China is undergoing a rapid amount of change as its people build a modern, high-performance economy. Given continued rapid economic growth along with population concentration, China is moving into an age unprecedented in human history, the age of the Megalopolis.

The Agile Manifesto principle of "working software over comprehensive documentation" has often been misunderstood as either "no documentation" or an excuse for "ad hoc" development. In the principle statement, the word "over" implies that working software is more important than documentation, but not that the documentation isn't important or useful.

A few tenets of faith on risk management:

Risk management is a comprehensive evaluation of what may or may not go right within an organization, and a series of actions related to that evaluation.

Risk management is the challenge of establishing a common vision of when and how an organization should react and respond.

A few tenets of faith on risk management:

Risk management is a comprehensive evaluation of what may or may not go right within an organization, and a series of actions related to that evaluation.

Risk management is the challenge of establishing a common vision of when and how an organization should react and respond.

I'm not sure where the expression "Parts is parts" came from. I think it had something to do with fast-food chicken, but it implies that not all parts are the same, which certainly fits when we talk about services. After all, what someone means by "service" varies widely based on the context, even when we limit the scope to IT.