Even after five years and many papers, the Agile Manifesto principle of "Working software over comprehensive documentation" is misunderstood. What any organization strives for is understanding, not documentation, and that understanding comes from a transfer of knowledge. Furthermore, knowledge transfer occurs within a context; a context that is often complex.

What would it take to shut down your project intentionally? What state of nature would be required to actually drive you to formally terminate it? The unfortunate thing is that most project managers don't have an answer for that question, and the organizations that support them don't have the information either. All too often, we don't have a clear definition of an approach, terms, and process to shut down projects, which puts the organization at risk for continuing projects that are no longer profitable or that no longer serve their original intent.

What would it take to shut down your project intentionally? What state of nature would be required to actually drive you to formally terminate it? The unfortunate thing is that most project managers don't have an answer for that question, and the organizations that support them don't have the information either. All too often, we don't have a clear definition of an approach, terms, and process to shut down projects, which puts the organization at risk for continuing projects that are no longer profitable or that no longer serve their original intent.

A service-oriented approach helps in comparing and evaluating alternative implementations of the same service and choosing the best one. The organization is decoupled from vendor lock-in. This leads to much better control of the provider relationship, with consequent business benefits. These benefits often center on cost reduction.

A service-oriented approach helps in comparing and evaluating alternative implementations of the same service and choosing the best one. The organization is decoupled from vendor lock-in. This leads to much better control of the provider relationship, with consequent business benefits. These benefits often center on cost reduction.

In my last Advisor (see "OASIS SOA Reference Model," 1 November 2006), I described the OASIS Reference Model for SOA as a set of fundamental concepts about services and service orientation. The Reference Model document talks about these concepts being the basis for a "reference architecture." To add fuel to the fire, Accenture recently announced the Accenture SOA Reference Architecture and other consulting organizations are expected to follow suit.

A friend of mine was recently hired as a CIO by an association representing trade union members in the northeastern US. One of the most astonishing discoveries he made in becoming acquainted with the organization was the certainly obscene amounts of money paid to consultants for all sorts of menial tasks. He soon figured out why this situation existed and it reminds us what is the right and wrong culture in which to cultivate and manage a disciplined IT organization.

We've all had a chance to think about project management discipline and how project management offices (PMOs) are doing. For about a decade now, many companies have implemented formal PMOs to help them deal with project inefficiencies usually defined as "late and overbudget." But where are we now in this area? Have PMOs been successful, or have they just added another bureaucratic layer to our projects?

The concept of enterprise architecture (EA) is not new, yet harnessing the power of EA is still not easy today.

In November 2006, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey that asked 102 end-user organizations worldwide about their use of text mining and analysis software for analyzing unstructured information.

In November 2006, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey that asked 102 end-user organizations worldwide about their use of text mining and analysis software for analyzing unstructured information.

Consider this: "We know why projects fail, we know how to prevent their failure -- so why do they still fail?" [5]. These oft-quoted words from Canadian government official Martin Cobb seem to highlight our frustrations with failing projects.

Public companies subject to the requirements of the US Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) are now entering adolescence in the lifecycle of SOX compliance. The next steps in the lifecycle include rationalization of spending, not only on SOX but on all compliance efforts the company is undertaking. Then, the next step is to find ways to automate the process in order to reduce cost.

Public companies subject to the requirements of the US Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) are now entering adolescence in the lifecycle of SOX compliance. The next steps in the lifecycle include rationalization of spending, not only on SOX but on all compliance efforts the company is undertaking. Then, the next step is to find ways to automate the process in order to reduce cost.

The results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 97 business-IT professionals, reported in my previous Executive Update (Vol. 7, No. 20), reveal a complex structure of business process outsourcing (BPO) risks. The strategic risks that BPO client organizations face are tangled up with the project risks and means to reducing those project risks. It is not enough to manage and succeed in a BPO project.

The results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 97 business-IT professionals, reported in my previous Executive Update (Vol. 7, No. 20), reveal a complex structure of business process outsourcing (BPO) risks. The strategic risks that BPO client organizations face are tangled up with the project risks and means to reducing those project risks. It is not enough to manage and succeed in a BPO project.

The results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 97 business-IT professionals, reported in my previous Executive Update (Vol. 7, No. 20), reveal a complex structure of business process outsourcing (BPO) risks. The strategic risks that BPO client organizations face are tangled up with the project risks and means to reducing those project risks. It is not enough to manage and succeed in a BPO project.

Take a hard look at your business technology organization. What do you think you do well -- and poorly? This Executive Update presents an agenda for your team to consider. Review it and see what makes sense for your organization. Assess how well you understand trends -- and optimal responses to those trends -- as well as some of the best practices you may or may not be practicing.

Take a hard look at your business technology organization. What do you think you do well -- and poorly? This Executive Update presents an agenda for your team to consider. Review it and see what makes sense for your organization. Assess how well you understand trends -- and optimal responses to those trends -- as well as some of the best practices you may or may not be practicing.

You'll notice that I've shamelessly put the term "SOA" right at the beginning of the title of this Advisor. I'm as eager to attract attention as the next guy, and these days SOA is a near-irresistible little acronym. Any conference, organization, Web site, or product line that promises help in getting up to speed on "service-oriented architecture" is guaranteed an avid audience.

In our survey covering the use of open source software for data warehousing and BI, conducted last April, I noted that 14% of end-user organizations surveyed indicated that at that time they were using open-source databases for (target) data warehousing and data mart databases. Another 7% said they planned to do so within the next 6-12 months.

I recently worked with a company that would like its technology professionals to become better partners with its internal business clients. A great objective, but several of the participants in the workshop I was running noted that they needed partnership training, that it wasn't so easy to just become better partners.

I recently worked with a company that would like its technology professionals to become better partners with its internal business clients. A great objective, but several of the participants in the workshop I was running noted that they needed partnership training, that it wasn't so easy to just become better partners.

In my last Advisor (see "Collaborative Leadership Basics, Part 4: Keys to the Boat -- Generating Positive Interdependence in Groups," 5 October 2006), I offered four keys you can use to get people feeling and acting like they are in the same boat together.

The year 2007 portends to be a very contentious one for US corporate governance, which may have implications around the world. Both Congressman Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat from Maryland, and Congressman Michael Oxley, Republican from Ohio, are retiring from the US Congress this year.