This Executive Update outlines a methodology developed by me and my colleagues to help assess the commercial potential of specific technologies. It involves the following four steps toward developing a plan for the exploitation of alternative technology opportunities:

Technology trends analysis

Market identification and business case development

This Executive Update outlines a methodology developed by me and my colleagues to help assess the commercial potential of specific technologies. It involves the following four steps toward developing a plan for the exploitation of alternative technology opportunities:

Technology trends analysis

Market identification and business case development

How can you be satisfied that you've gotten what you've paid for? The issue is very familiar to anyone who has contracted for roofing repairs or had their car serviced.

There have been a lot of announcements pertaining to open source business intelligence (BI) tools (query, reporting, OLAP, dashboards, etc.) over the past 12 months or so. But the important question is: To what extent are companies actually adopting open source BI tools?

At the close of 1998, Time magazine chose the 100 most important people of the last 100 years. Neatly listed alphabetically between Walt Disney and Bill Gates, was titan Henry Ford. Lee Iacocca, a former Ford company president and something of a legend himself, was appropriately invited to write the Henry Ford item for Time.

Many problems with outsourcing deals stem from the supplier taking over activities that were not well understood by the client organization prior to engaging the supplier. Very early in the outsourcing lifecycle, the activities that are candidates for outsourcing are identified by the organization. But it is not enough to just target the services; a detailed understanding of the targeted services is essential or the organization faces the risks of providing inaccurate information to its suppliers.

Many problems with outsourcing deals stem from the supplier taking over activities that were not well understood by the client organization prior to engaging the supplier. Very early in the outsourcing lifecycle, the activities that are candidates for outsourcing are identified by the organization. But it is not enough to just target the services; a detailed understanding of the targeted services is essential or the organization faces the risks of providing inaccurate information to its suppliers.

Many problems with outsourcing deals stem from the supplier taking over activities that were not well understood by the client organization prior to engaging the supplier. Very early in the outsourcing lifecycle, the activities that are candidates for outsourcing are identified by the organization. But it is not enough to just target the services; a detailed understanding of the targeted services is essential or the organization faces the risks of providing inaccurate information to its suppliers.

Outsourcing contracts can be notorious because of their complexity and the inability of parties to interpret them in a reliable manner. But the contract conditions represent only one type of document that parties deal with in an outsourcing arrangement. Along with the contract, three other key documents -- service-level agreements (SLAs), price schedules, and procedure manuals -- comprise the basic suite of governing documents.

Outsourcing contracts can be notorious because of their complexity and the inability of parties to interpret them in a reliable manner. But the contract conditions represent only one type of document that parties deal with in an outsourcing arrangement. Along with the contract, three other key documents -- service-level agreements (SLAs), price schedules, and procedure manuals -- comprise the basic suite of governing documents.

My advice regarding business technology strategy often repeats itself, not in terms of the same recommendations to different companies but in terms of the big questions that need to be asked of all organizations as they try to optimize their technology investments.

This Executive Update outlines a template -- a 5x7 matrix -- that can be used to launch business technology strategy assessments.

My advice regarding business technology strategy often repeats itself, not in terms of the same recommendations to different companies but in terms of the big questions that need to be asked of all organizations as they try to optimize their technology investments.

This Executive Update outlines a template -- a 5x7 matrix -- that can be used to launch business technology strategy assessments.

How much do senior (nontechnology) executives know about IT? Not much, I would argue, and here's the worst part: they seem to know less and less over time. In fact, I believe that senior executives know less about IT today than they did 20 years ago.

How much do senior (nontechnology) executives know about IT? Not much, I would argue, and here's the worst part: they seem to know less and less over time. In fact, I believe that senior executives know less about IT today than they did 20 years ago.

In Part 1 of this Advisor (see "Organizational IT Asset Management Framework, Part 1," 4 May 2006), we wrote about the operational risk management framework for IT asset management (ITAM), which consists of a policy, standards, and processes. We conclude our discussion in this Advisor.

In Part 1 of this Advisor (see "Organizational IT Asset Management Framework, Part 1," 4 May 2006), we wrote about the operational risk management framework for IT asset management (ITAM), which consists of a policy, standards, and processes. We conclude our discussion in this Advisor.

In the first in this series of Advisors (see "LoTech -- HiFi: The Evolution of Story Cards and User Stories," 23 March 2006), I stated that capturing stories in a malleable form is paramount to building a strong product backlog. I also discussed the use of a story wall as a simple way to see the project, along with various tools that can be used for organizing and tracking/planning with stories.

"If you want higher quality, build less stuff." That, in essence, is what Cutter Business Technology Council Fellow Tom DeMarco once said about a daring strategy for quality improvement: reduce quantity. Tom went on to say, "Whatever it is that your organization makes, make less of it. Make less, and choose much more carefully what you make" [1].

The good news is, Tom's advice is something that can be done immediately to reduce defects. Talk about being agile! Quality is inversely proportional to quantity -- simple as that.

As any software customer knows, it is extraordinarily important to spell out all of its rights in the license or development contract. The customer's ability to withhold payment, take possession of source code, or even terminate the contract, among other important terms, are usually spelled out in black and white.

As any software customer knows, it is extraordinarily important to spell out all of its rights in the license or development contract. The customer's ability to withhold payment, take possession of source code, or even terminate the contract, among other important terms, are usually spelled out in black and white.

One of the reasons that it is so hard to find enterprise data architects (EDAs) these days is that most of the training on database (or data warehouse design) is focused far too much on technique and far too little on basic concepts. And since most EDAs are taken from the ranks of DBAs, database models, or data warehousing experts, that means that the folks with experience haven't learned the basics.

In a recent Enterprise Architecture E-Mail Advisor ("EA Maturity Models," 15 March 2006), I introduced a variety of different models that are being used to evaluate enterprise architecture programs. Just like many EA programs that unfortunately go down the "EA for EA sake" path, we often take a "maturity for maturity sake" approach, forgetting that the maturity model is there for a purpose.

I'm hearing increasing talk (again) about how organizations need to extend BI capabilities to their rank-and-file employees. To date, however, most companies have found this "BI for the masses" movement difficult to carry out. True, the growing popularity of digital dashboards and scorecards have helped extend -- in somewhat limited fashion -- BI capabilities across the enterprise.

I'm hearing increasing talk (again) about how organizations need to extend BI capabilities to their rank-and-file employees. To date, however, most companies have found this "BI for the masses" movement difficult to carry out. True, the growing popularity of digital dashboards and scorecards have helped extend -- in somewhat limited fashion -- BI capabilities across the enterprise.

Just when I was beginning to think that the market's view of Google is far too optimistic, the company does something really smart: this time Google bought a company called @Last Software, which makes a product called SketchUp. This is quite a coincidence, since for the past five or six months, I've been telling all my friends that they really need to look at SketchUp because it is one of the slickest products I've seen for a long, long time with one of the most inventive user interfaces I've ever seen.