It may be my narrow experience, but most Agile teams I encounter develop few to no diagrams or high-level views of the architecture they’re implementing. Instead, they allude to “being Agile,” where architectural docu­mentation is unnecessary, which implies that you simply collaborate around the code and magic (emergent architecture) occurs. In this Advisor, I suggest documentation as a good tool for striking the right balance between architecture and agility.

How can business architecture help execute strategic vision? This two-day workshop led by Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Brian Cameron explores the ways you can structure your business architecture to effectively facilitate strategy execution.

Despite the emphasis on and investment in cyber security, traditional approaches are failing to protect businesses and their customers. In this Advisor, we explore the benefits of adopting a new, unified approach that brings together technology and risk management processes, enabling organizations to better protect themselves against cyber threats and safeguarding their businesses, data, and revenues.

Despite the emphasis on and investment in cyber security, traditional approaches are failing to protect businesses and their customers. In this Advisor, we explore the benefits of adopting a new, unified approach that brings together technology and risk management processes, enabling organizations to better protect themselves against cyber threats and safeguarding their businesses, data, and revenues.

To some extent, pursuit of new technologies without a clear problem-to-be-solved is natural for basic research, such as for developing new materials. For applied R&D, defining the need to be met is essential, yet many times teams are not able to begin with a clear understanding of the user’s problem. Integrating the end customer into the team would clearly be ideal, but this is often not possible in large industrial development work (for software and non-software teams). So what’s a team to do to span the gap between its work and the customer market?

In this Advisor, we explore some of the areas in which specific Industry 4.0 technologies can create advances within regulated industries.

In 2011, the developer of the Netscape browser and cofounder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz stated that “software is eating the world.” I remember thinking at the time that this was a memorable aphorism, but while it captured the increasing importance of software, it seemed somewhat cryptic or vague. Little did I realize that, over the next 10 or so years, it would come to articulate a profound transformation of the world we live in and, especially, the enterprises we lead and operate within.

In 2011, the developer of the Netscape browser and cofounder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz stated that “software is eating the world.” I remember thinking at the time that this was a memorable aphorism, but while it captured the increasing importance of software, it seemed somewhat cryptic or vague. Little did I realize that, over the next 10 or so years, it would come to articulate a profound transformation of the world we live in and, especially, the enterprises we lead and operate within.

In this on-demand webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Hillel Glazer, you’ll discover what needs to be “in your center” to ensure your organization is a high-performance operation. You'll learn how to become confident in your measures, find meaning in your results, and have realism in your goals. 

In this on-demand webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Hillel Glazer, you’ll discover what needs to be “in your center” to ensure your organization is a high-performance operation. You'll learn how to become confident in your measures, find meaning in your results, and have realism in your goals. 

There is no single career path for the business architecture professional today. Today’s business architecture professional requires educational career options that provide the flexibility needed to enable multiple career paths and choices.

Would your organization benefit from business executives who foster overall operational stability, while at the same time use a wide array of options for handling uncertainty? How about a line staff that is empowered to deal with routines decisively? Of course it would. With expert guidance from Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Hillel Glazer, it can.

Would your organization benefit from business executives who foster overall operational stability, while at the same time use a wide array of options for handling uncertainty? How about a line staff that is empowered to deal with routines decisively? Of course it would. With expert guidance from Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Hillel Glazer, it can.

This edition of The Cutter Edge explores what it takes to push beyond the status quo and achieve high-performance results, how to address the skills crisis, how to facilitate strategy execution with BA, and more!

The authors examine how a limited view of digital transformation impedes organizations from fully benefiting from the new, Agile ways of working. They attribute this failure, fundamentally, to reliance on traditional architectural stacks where multiple teams and products rely on large, shared layers, and a change in a layer to meet the needs of one product may inadvertently break other products. To support a feature team–based organization, each team must have full end-to-end ownership of its stack, which consists of smaller, decoupled parts — microservices — that are loosely bound together. The authors advocate domain-driven design and the atomic design principle as the basis for enabling reuse.

The authors examine how a limited view of digital transformation impedes organizations from fully benefiting from the new, Agile ways of working. They attribute this failure, fundamentally, to reliance on traditional architectural stacks where multiple teams and products rely on large, shared layers, and a change in a layer to meet the needs of one product may inadvertently break other products. To support a feature team–based organization, each team must have full end-to-end ownership of its stack, which consists of smaller, decoupled parts — microservices — that are loosely bound together. The authors advocate domain-driven design and the atomic design principle as the basis for enabling reuse.

Paul Pagel discusses the key importance of a modern software labor strategy for organizations hoping to remain competitive in today’s digital and innovative world. The right team is key to crafting software systems capable of supporting innovation. Software delivery talent, however, is extremely difficult to find for a multitude of reasons. The solution, according to Pagel, is to structure software teams to deal with fragility and to thrive on change.

Software evolution and changes in software development imply that software will become ever more pervasive and affordable, that firms must master disciplined autonomy in order to follow dual strategies, and that the role of IT professionals is being redefined.

Software evolution and changes in software development imply that software will become ever more pervasive and affordable, that firms must master disciplined autonomy in order to follow dual strategies, and that the role of IT professionals is being redefined.

Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole examines the extent of software’s rule in the areas of process automation, privacy and security, enterprise software, intelligent software engineering, and converged convenience. For each area, he evaluates in what ways software’s reign is good (rewarding us), bad (punishing us), or ugly (threatening us).

Cutter Consortium Fellow Steve Andriole examines the extent of software’s rule in the areas of process automation, privacy and security, enterprise software, intelligent software engineering, and converged convenience. For each area, he evaluates in what ways software’s reign is good (rewarding us), bad (punishing us), or ugly (threatening us).

Software evolves in the environment of the marketplace, where the forces of innovation, cost reduction, growth, regulation, and coevolution drive change. As with biological evolution, only the fittest will survive.

Software evolves in the environment of the marketplace, where the forces of innovation, cost reduction, growth, regulation, and coevolution drive change. As with biological evolution, only the fittest will survive.

The rise of software represents the biggest single hurdle and opportunity to business. This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal will inspire you to conquer the fundamental challenges facing your organization today and help you unlock your full value-creating potential.

The rise of software represents the biggest single hurdle and opportunity to business. This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal will inspire you to conquer the fundamental challenges facing your organization today and help you unlock your full value-creating potential.