A client recently solicited my help to run an extensive set of Monte Carlo analyses on their projects. It seemed a compelling prospect at first, but as I examined the opportunity more closely, I instead offered it to a peer, seeing it as definitely more of a numbers-crunching exercise, rather than an examination of overall risks in their program.

A client recently solicited my help to run an extensive set of Monte Carlo analyses on their projects. It seemed a compelling prospect at first, but as I examined the opportunity more closely, I instead offered it to a peer, seeing it as definitely more of a numbers-crunching exercise, rather than an examination of overall risks in their program.

I've been thinking recently that the term "self-organizing" has outlived its usefulness in the agile community and needs to be replaced. While self-organizing is a good term, it has, unfortunately, become confused with anarchy in the minds of many. Why has this occurred? Because there is a contingent within the agile community that is fundamentally anarchist at heart and it has latched onto the term self-organizing because it sounds better than anarchy. However, putting a duck suit on a chicken doesn't make a chicken a duck.

In my last Advisor, "Ten Things an Architect Does to Add Value" (29 August 2007), I provided a list of activities that an architect performs, roughly organized along the lifecycle of creating and applying architecture.

Several Business-IT Strategies Advisors ago (see "Understanding Change in the Context of IT Investment," 6 December 2006), I discussed the concept of change and the need to understand its powerful influences to manage information technology for value effectively. Change is the belle of the IT management ball, which is why within an array of business contexts it frequently attracts our attention.

Organizations seeking total visibility into a sourcing initiative's financial impact will find the task easier if they explore the cost/value equation through the lens of IT asset management (ITAM). The principles of ITAM offer managers a unique perspective into cost and value drivers. Here's how.

Organizations seeking total visibility into a sourcing initiative's financial impact will find the task easier if they explore the cost/value equation through the lens of IT asset management (ITAM). The principles of ITAM offer managers a unique perspective into cost and value drivers. Here's how.

In the Cutter IT Journal, "Exploring the Agile Frontier" (Vol. 20, No. 5), I pointed out the importance of coming up with teams that are structured around features (see "Agile Development in the Face of Global Software Projects"). As I explained in that article, these so-called feature teams will have to assemble all roles, knowledge, and skill that are necessary to deliver a complete feature.

Wikipedia described customer relationship management and, indirectly, customer analytics, along these lines:

Active: A centralized database for storing data, which can be used to automate business processes and common tasks.

The latest acquisition to affect the BI/business performance management market is Cognos's announcement that it is buying multidimensional database and performance management analytics vendor Applix, Inc. for approximately US $339 million.

Published after his death, Max Weber's famous essay titled The City first appeared in German in 1921. The essay represented a fundamental look at the history of the occidental city spanning from the establishment of craft guilds to the formation of a political system that involved early aspects of medieval democracy.

Published after his death, Max Weber's famous essay titled The City first appeared in German in 1921. The essay represented a fundamental look at the history of the occidental city spanning from the establishment of craft guilds to the formation of a political system that involved early aspects of medieval democracy.

Published after his death, Max Weber's famous essay titled The City first appeared in German in 1921. The essay represented a fundamental look at the history of the occidental city spanning from the establishment of craft guilds to the formation of a political system that involved early aspects of medieval democracy.

Published after his death, Max Weber's famous essay titled The City first appeared in German in 1921. The essay represented a fundamental look at the history of the occidental city spanning from the establishment of craft guilds to the formation of a political system that involved early aspects of medieval democracy.

Agile software development attempts to enhance our ability to make changes during the product development process. This is valuable because the business world is becoming increasingly chaotic in the following ways:

Customers change their minds or use the product in unanticipated ways.

New competitors appear or existing ones introduce threatening products.

New product technologies arise or planned technologies don't work out as anticipated.

Over the years, I've had the pleasure of working in a range of IT organizations around the world, and I've often worked with, or at least reviewed, many of the enterprise architecture (EA) teams within those organizations. In all cases, the EA team is staffed with some of the best and brightest within IT, all of whom have the organization's best interests at heart.

If you periodically conduct surveys of the users of IT services in your organization, how confident are you that the surveys measure everything in which you might -- or should -- be interested?

IT has been a critical part of the production of running a business since the early days of the IBM 360. IT supports every aspect of the business from human resources to operations -- yet it has primarily been perceived to be a part of the backstage crew.

When data warehousing and BI appliances (i.e., prepackaged offerings that include software and sometimes hardware designed for data warehousing and BI applications) first appeared on the scene, many initially thought they'd prove most popular as a way for small and mid-sized organizations that lacked a data warehouse to get one up and running quickly.

We're bombarded with articles, papers, reports, and books on technology trends. Every year the major trade publications unveil their "top 10" list of technologies to watch. Even the major news magazines weigh in with their top technology picks for the year.

The accompanying Executive Report focuses on five broad business technologies that deserve our attention: software development and delivery; Web 2.0; master data management (MDM) for business intelligence (BI); convergence customer relationship management (CRM); and access d

The accompanying Executive Report focuses on five broad business technologies that deserve our attention: software development and delivery; Web 2.0; master data management (MDM) for business intelligence (BI); convergence customer relationship management (CRM); and access d

The arrival of a new CEO can bring about fairly profound cultural change. The chosen leader might introduce new strategic goals or a new way to execute existing ones, while installing a personally selected senior executive team. As the leader of the IT organization, the implications for the CIO are equally profound, especially if technology will be called upon to support the new leader's vision.

Agile architecture teaches us that while effective enterprise architecture (EA) needs to have a broad perspective, it also must have a focused contribution. There is no more powerful contribution than providing the data that is ultimately used to make specific decisions in support of the goal of "aligning IT and business."  This report focuses on alignment of the EA program as a whole, in a partnership with business.