A reader asked me to name the major goals and benefits that organizations should seek to obtain by implementing business performance management initiatives. I've recorded my thoughts in this Advisor.

A reader asked me to name the major goals and benefits that organizations should seek to obtain by implementing business performance management initiatives. I've recorded my thoughts in this Advisor.

In my last Advisor (see "Summer Reading: Blink, Mirror Neurons, Antonio Damasio, David Gelernter, and Real Intelligence," 5 July 2007), I talked about Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink and how it got me thinking about how experts often know something is wrong in an instant, like when a big project is probably

In my last Advisor (see "Summer Reading: Blink, Mirror Neurons, Antonio Damasio, David Gelernter, and Real Intelligence," 5 July 2007), I talked about Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink and how it got me thinking about how experts often know something is wrong in an instant, like when a big project is probably

In this Advisor, I'll tell you about integrity as a key to partnering. You can read about exchange and expansion in previous Advisors.

In the first part of this Advisor (see "A Stake on the Grill? Part 1: A Look at Drawing Information Out of the Right Stakeholders in the Risk Process," 19 July 2007), I traced the evolution of the stakeholder and stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is a critical component of risk management.

In the first part of this Advisor (see "A Stake on the Grill? Part 1: A Look at Drawing Information Out of the Right Stakeholders in the Risk Process," 19 July 2007), I traced the evolution of the stakeholder and stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is a critical component of risk management.

If you're heard of UML, then you've probably heard comments that it is big, unruly, and complicated, and that things are even worse with UML 2.0. Although I don't necessarily agree with the sentiment, I can understand where it's coming from. UML is a general-purpose modeling language, directed at IT systems. Well, IT systems are a big topic area.

We have been working with clients on establishing the project management office (PMO) function and pointing the PMO in the right direction. We have also been making presentations at conferences and at companies on this subject. Two questions often are asked: is the PMO important to achieving business value with projects, and what exactly is the charter for the PMO? Our answers are simple: the PMO is on the front lines of business value, and it plays a critical role in its achievement.

In The World Is Flat , author Thomas Friedman describes how a "connected" world has made it possible to do almost anything collaboratively with people around the planet.

In The World Is Flat , author Thomas Friedman describes how a "connected" world has made it possible to do almost anything collaboratively with people around the planet.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been the hottest topic in software for the past two or three years, and it looks as though it will continue to enjoy that status for some time to come. Like Java, XML, and Web services, it has attained buzzword superstardom -- membership in that select clique of terms that seem fated to be continuously analyzed and debated by analysts, bloggers, and the media.

The latest acquisition to affect the data warehousing/BI market is IBM's announcement that it is buying real-time data integration specialist DataMirror Corporation for approximately US $161 million.

No sooner have CIOs and IT departments come to terms with the demands of SOA and BPM than they find themselves confronted with a new challenge: Web 2.0. Enthusiasm for this new phenomenon is sweeping the world. It began in the ranks of bloggers, but quickly spread to the technorati, journalists, industry analysts, and would-be trendsetters.

No sooner have CIOs and IT departments come to terms with the demands of SOA and BPM than they find themselves confronted with a new challenge: Web 2.0. Enthusiasm for this new phenomenon is sweeping the world. It began in the ranks of bloggers, but quickly spread to the technorati, journalists, industry analysts, and would-be trendsetters.

I work with a lot of database and data warehouse practitioners who have a hard time seeing how agile software development practices can be adapted to the complexities of data-centric systems integration and development. Large data volumes, integration of commercial software, disparate systems integration, and so on, make this adaptation a challenging one.

Stakeholder management is a critical component of risk management. If we know the things that our stakeholders value, we have a much clearer sense of what's at risk. However, for many of us, the challenge is identifying the right players and then identifying their true passions associated with our project(s).

Stakeholder management is a critical component of risk management. If we know the things that our stakeholders value, we have a much clearer sense of what's at risk. However, for many of us, the challenge is identifying the right players and then identifying their true passions associated with our project(s).

If it hasn't happened already, eventually your organization is likely going to be faced with the question: should we use advertising-supported business software?

collaboration = innovation

collaboration = innovation

Just when you thought all the innovative sourcing ideas had been exhausted, an entrepreneur figures out a new way to offer potential value to an arable market while raising his nation's total international trade in services. Success here will remind us of important sourcing truths.

Just when you thought all the innovative sourcing ideas had been exhausted, an entrepreneur figures out a new way to offer potential value to an arable market while raising his nation's total international trade in services. Success here will remind us of important sourcing truths.

Since the term "Web 2.0" started appearing, the key questions that seem to keep coming back are: What does it mean? What is the relevance to the enterprise? Should we fear it?

As I recently helped update my company's knowledge management strategy (our business vitally depends on the effective transfer of knowledge from experts to novices, but then, what business doesn't?), I realized that leveraging Web 2.0 in the enterprise meant relinquishing traditional control mechanisms over the editing and publishing of corporate knowledge.

BI proponents -- including vendors, analysts, and consultants (myself included) -- have pushed the idea of ubiquitous BI, or "BI for the masses," for years. To date, however, most companies have found the widespread dissemination of BI practices to their more rank-and-file workers an elusive goal.