collaboration = innovation

Quite often, people complain that they have been asked to provide an estimate before they have enough information.

This usually happens in the very early stages of a software project, but will also occur anytime we need to look at a major change. We need to figure out how long it will take to get the job done.

Good governance has been a topic of great interest in business in recent years. Recent corporate governance failures and corporate scandals including Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, which gave rise to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act), are certainly one factor.

The recent announcement by TJX Companies, Inc. that its computer systems had been compromised, leading to credit and debit card purchase information being stolen and used for fraudulent purposes, dramatically underscores the nasty experience that companies can expect to go through should they suffer a customer data breach.

The recent announcement by TJX Companies, Inc. that its computer systems had been compromised, leading to credit and debit card purchase information being stolen and used for fraudulent purposes, dramatically underscores the nasty experience that companies can expect to go through should they suffer a customer data breach.

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Wal-Mart is rolling out new software that will allow it to better allocate the amount of workers based upon customer occupancy in stores at any given time [1]. The approach is rather crude but when Wal-Mart does anything involving technology it is worth exploring.

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Wal-Mart is rolling out new software that will allow it to better allocate the amount of workers based upon customer occupancy in stores at any given time [1]. The approach is rather crude but when Wal-Mart does anything involving technology it is worth exploring.

Continuing with my ten tips for an agile project manager, tip number four is "practice management by wandering around" (MBWA) (for tips one, two, and three, see "Ten Tips for an Agile Project Manager, Part 1," 10 August 2006, "Agile Project Success Factors -- Red

"At TJX, we are fully committed to operating our business with the highest standards of business ethics, not merely in accordance with applicable law. We expect our vendors to maintain these same high standards." Or so reads a statement on the Massachusetts, USA-based $16-billion, off-price apparel retailer's Web site.

"At TJX, we are fully committed to operating our business with the highest standards of business ethics, not merely in accordance with applicable law. We expect our vendors to maintain these same high standards." Or so reads a statement on the Massachusetts, USA-based $16-billion, off-price apparel retailer's Web site.

"At TJX, we are fully committed to operating our business with the highest standards of business ethics, not merely in accordance with applicable law. We expect our vendors to maintain these same high standards." Or so reads a statement on the Massachusetts, USA-based $16-billion, off-price apparel retailer's Web site.

While IT project management techniques are mature and effective, the discipline is inherently designed to support the completion of IT-related work without regard to the successful management of other IT projects. Certain business circumstances arise, however, when several IT projects share a common attribute, and their successful completion helps achieve some higher strategic objective sought by the organization.

Certain business circumstances arise that reveal traditional project management's limitations. For instance, an organization may face a critical business objective that requires the execution of a number of IT projects. Instead of managing the planning, execution, and completion in isolation, the organization should implement a new concept in IT management that coordinates project management functions and drives measurably stronger alignment between strategic goals and the technology supporting them.

Achieving business and IT integration is a strategic goal for many organizations -- it has almost become the "holy grail" of organizational success. In this environment, enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages have become the de facto option for addressing this issue. Integration has come to mean adopting ERP -- through configuration and without customization -- but this all-or-nothing approach has proved difficult for many organizations.

Business architecture is a key link, perhaps the key link, between the enterprise and technology.

In an increasing number of organizations, business architecture is now on the front burner. It is not enough these days for CIOs to just focus on the management of their enterprise's complex technological environments. Indeed, today, CIOs need to be more strategic and transformational.

It is time for a new framework for enterprise architecture (EA). It has been exactly 20 years since John Zachman published his first article on information systems architecture in IBM Systems Journal [1]. Since that time, Zachman's model has evolved to become what is known today as the Zachman Framework.

In an effort to take stock of this growing phenomenon -- and the surrounding propaganda -- and in an effort to provide you with some unbiased no-hype analysis and guidance, we focus this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review on Web 2.0. Our academic contributor on this installment is Joseph Feller, a Senior Lecturer of Business Information Systems at University College Cork (Ireland). Providing our view from the trenches of business is Tom Welsh, a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Enterprise Architecture advisory service and former Editor of Cutter Consortium's monthly Web Services Strategies. Together, Joe and Tom pool their years of experience and do a great job dissecting the Web 2.0 phenomenon in all its facets.

In an effort to take stock of this growing phenomenon -- and the surrounding propaganda -- and in an effort to provide you with some unbiased no-hype analysis and guidance, we focus this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review on Web 2.0. Our academic contributor on this installment is Joseph Feller, a Senior Lecturer of Business Information Systems at University College Cork (Ireland). Providing our view from the trenches of business is Tom Welsh, a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Enterprise Architecture advisory service and former Editor of Cutter Consortium's monthly Web Services Strategies. Together, Joe and Tom pool their years of experience and do a great job dissecting the Web 2.0 phenomenon in all its facets.

I was delighted to discover that I was named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2006 (as were you -- well done!) [3]. What did we do to deserve the honor? Apparently it was our willingness to use the Web. Or rather, our willingness to use the Web to congregate, communicate, collaborate, create, and exchange content -- not just to consume. In short, it was our participation in a phenomenon that has been dubbed "Web 2.0."

I was delighted to discover that I was named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2006 (as were you -- well done!) [3]. What did we do to deserve the honor? Apparently it was our willingness to use the Web. Or rather, our willingness to use the Web to congregate, communicate, collaborate, create, and exchange content -- not just to consume. In short, it was our participation in a phenomenon that has been dubbed "Web 2.0."

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. We have now reached the point where vendors are apt to feel naked if they appear in public without a convincing Web 2.0 story.

This issue of CBR focuses on a trend that is gathering strength: Web 2.0. The increasing attention being garnered by the Web 2.0 phenomenon is reminiscent of the buzz and excitement of the dot-com days. In December 1999, Time Magazine named dot-com pioneer Jeff Bezos the Person of the Year. In December 2006, the magazine put "you" on the cover. The picture was the console of the YouTube player with a mirror instead of the screen.

This issue of CBR focuses on a trend that is gathering strength: Web 2.0. The increasing attention being garnered by the Web 2.0 phenomenon is reminiscent of the buzz and excitement of the dot-com days. In December 1999, Time Magazine named dot-com pioneer Jeff Bezos the Person of the Year. In December 2006, the magazine put "you" on the cover. The picture was the console of the YouTube player with a mirror instead of the screen.

This survey examined current views on Web 2.0 and its importance to the enterprise. The geographic distribution of the 133 respondents is worldwide, with 45% of responding organizations headquartered in North America, 25% in Europe, 23% in Australia/Pacific, and the rest in other parts of the world. Organization size varies, with 17% reporting more than 50,000 employees, 17% reporting between 5,000 and 50,000 employees, 25% reporting between 500 and 5,000 employees, 17% reporting between 100 and 500 employees, and the remainder reporting 100 or fewer employees.