Having attended the IT Architecture Practitioners Conference last week (23-25 January), held under the auspices of the Open Group, I cannot help thinking that after many years of effort, we are still a long way from a common understanding of what an architecture really is. What is more important is that this confusion certainly does not help IT architecture professionals to effectively communicate to business what an architecture is and why it is important.

Data integration vendor Informatica Corporation has acquired data quality tools vendor Similarity Systems in a cash-for-stock deal valued at approximately US $55 million. Informatica will integrate Similarity Systems' data quality technology within its PowerCenter data integration tools line.

Our Senior Consultants consider your business needs as well as your infrastructure requirements, and help you prioritize them based on criticality and potential return on investment (ROI). We'll help you develop a governance structure for your business intelligence initiative that includes prioritization, funding of projects, and resolution of conflict -- and we'll guide you through the necessary steps to develop an implementation strategy.

If extreme busyness and/or a reduction of strategic planning staff has left your enterprise without the time or dedicated staff to anticipate future trends and prepare for the effect new developments will have on it, Cutter Consortium's Fellows and Senior Consultants can fill that void

Cutter Consortium will help you put a strategic planning process and a strategic plan in place.

Our Senior Consultants help you determine where and how to target your knowledge management efforts, and help you outline a program to measure those efforts.

Steering complex deals requires fine-tuned negotiation skills — skills most IT executives are not trained in. But Cutter Senior Consultant Sara Cullen is. With a doctorate in contracts and the experience of assisting more than 140 deals, you could not put a better expert on your team than Sara Cullen.

Take advantage of the opportunity to take a more thorough look at how efficient and productive your software development efforts are ... and can be.

The offshore outsourcing specialists on Cutter Consortium's team are prepared to lead trips to India, Poland, or other countries, for client companies that are investigating offshore opportunities.

IT Organizational Assessments examine the strengths and weaknesses of your organization so you can capitalize on the former and correct the latter.

IT Organizational Assessments examine the strengths and weaknesses of your organization so you can capitalize on the former and correct the latter.

The Consortium is prepared to help you throughout the lifetime of your sourcing agreement.

Our Senior Consultants will work with you to design, build, and implement an independent Project Office that will enable you to consistently collect data, analyze it, and present the results.

Cutter's team will then help you identify the appropriate sourcing options and help you derive a short list of potential vendors, including their strengths and weaknesses.

Cutter's team can help you write RFPs that will elicit proposals that meet your requirements. We'll help evaluate the proposals that result from the RFP and make recommendations based on those proposals and our experience with similar sourcing and/or large software/hardware deals

Get assistance and ongoing support risk management oversight and guidance for your enterprise.

Get assistance and ongoing support risk management oversight and guidance for your enterprise.

By framing the questions explicitly in terms of a worst case; switching perspectives and allowing people to describe the best case; examining blame-free, blameworthy, and partial failures, and employing additional techniques, Tim Lister is able to overcome the hesitation that prevents most people in most companies from articulating many risks they are aware of.

By framing the questions explicitly in terms of a worst case; switching perspectives and allowing people to describe the best case; examining blame-free, blameworthy, and partial failures, and employing additional techniques, Tim Lister is able to overcome the hesitation that prevents most people in most companies from articulating many risks they are aware of.

Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole has developed a framework that can be used to conduct formal M&A technology due diligence. The framework addresses all aspects of the technology environment, and accommodates criteria weighting, among other methodological capabilities.

Get guidance in establishing and operating an IT Oversight Committee, and/or have Cutter's independent experts sit on your existing committee.

An effective project chartering session is the best way to ensure that a project gets started correctly. Cutter's project chartering sessions help establish a project's team values, vision, mission, objectives, project community, measures of success, scope and boundaries, committed resources, and working agreements.