Nowadays, there is a huge popular demand for Agile as a means to enable change and accelerate value. Popularity, however, is something other than reality; for most companies, the introduction of Agile requires a significant mindset shift. This almost always meets resistance from several directions in the organization. In addition, Agile adoption is often accompanied by some element of inefficiency and chaos if left unguided. The authors of this Advisor describe some specific ways organizations have combined architecture with Agile thinking and methods to improve their results.

Fintech firms are bringing to market a variety of technologies to introduce new products and compete with existing firms. However, the financial markets have a long history of regulation, meant to protect depositors and stakeholders and maintain the safety and soundness of the financial system. The industry must begin by creating an experimental space (a small market), where technology and its related products can be introduced. This is known as a “sandbox.”

Most organizations do not begin creating and leveraging business architecture until they have reached a certain size and start to encounter challenges such as poor customer experience, complexity within the business and technology environment, or ineffective strategy execution. However, if organizations instead employed business architecture from the very beginning — even in a very lightweight manner — they could likely avoid these challenges as they scale.

Milestones are just an independent, simple, one-level hierarchy that stands side by side with our object list. That said, when milestone commitments (estimated end dates) change — or when teams deliver work ahead of, or lagging behind, the milestone estimated end date — these all become important changes and outcomes that we need to monitor. Monitoring these changes gives us insight into the nature of project scope changes and the interaction between our project management team and IT governance. 

Today’s chief data officer not only needs to rethink the relationship between data producer and data consumer but must become intimately familiar with the new requirements for predictive modeling (to unravel scenarios and identify patterns), advanced query (to follow an idea into discovery), and data visualization (to understand interconnections) — the big three for data analytics.

As has been our tradition over the past few years, we have gathered a group of Cutter Consortium experts to weigh in on the strategies, technologies, and business models that will impact business transformation efforts in 2019. We hope the articles in this issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal help you prioritize your business technology objectives and chart your journey forward in today’s digitally competitive world.

As has been our tradition over the past few years, we have gathered a group of Cutter Consortium experts to weigh in on the strategies, technologies, and business models that will impact business transformation efforts in 2019. We hope the articles in this issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal help you prioritize your business technology objectives and chart your journey forward in today’s digitally competitive world.

During this webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Jon Ward, you'll learn about an Agile team that was able to cut time-to-market in half and reduce the cost to deliver by 60%. He will address how AI could have been used to even further enhance the team's productivity, where AI might inhibit it, and he will outline where AI can be used to improve your productivity.

During this webinar with Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Jon Ward, you'll learn about an Agile team that was able to cut time-to-market in half and reduce the cost to deliver by 60%. He will address how AI could have been used to even further enhance the team's productivity, where AI might inhibit it, and he will outline where AI can be used to improve your productivity.

The technologies of this era — the postnormal era, the fourth industrial revolution, or any of its other synonyms — have accelerated society to such an extent that we have been, in effect, colonized by the future. Work is being futured at a pace driven by the advance of our fastest technologies and the consequent blurring among digital, physical, biological, and even cognitive systems. 

With twice the product in half the time™ being a generic goal for industry, what exactly is going wrong in today’s industrial environment? What stops or delays improvements in product delivery, despite embracing practices from Lean and Six Sigma? Why does it take years to get a new product out of the manufacturing plant? This Advisor seeks to demystify one of the myths that surrounds Agile product development: the myth that one way to optimize people’s time is to have them work on large batches: design the whole product, build a full prototype, test a full prototype, and design manufacturing only when the prototype passes all tests. The thinking is that this will reduce task-switching, eliminate mistakes, and achieve the desired high utilization of people. By planning the work in phases, we believe we can prevent problems in the phases that follow.

2019 is likely to shape up as a year in which the news is less about what technology can do for us than about what it can do to us.

2019 is likely to shape up as a year in which the news is less about what technology can do for us than about what it can do to us.

We’re going to make some business people cringe right off the bat with this claim: there is an ontology in your near future. In this article, we will explain what that means and why we assert it.

We’re going to make some business people cringe right off the bat with this claim: there is an ontology in your near future. In this article, we will explain what that means and why we assert it.

What’s in store for drones in 2019? Continued integration into business workflows and the national airspace, along with more innovations coming to market in UAS technologies.

What’s in store for drones in 2019? Continued integration into business workflows and the national airspace, along with more innovations coming to market in UAS technologies.

Using preliminary results from an ongoing Cutter Consortium survey, along with additional research, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Curt Hall has identified several trends and developments that organizations may want to consider when assessing their own CX management journey.

Using preliminary results from an ongoing Cutter Consortium survey, along with additional research, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Curt Hall has identified several trends and developments that organizations may want to consider when assessing their own CX management journey.

With 2019 here and 2020 around the corner, it is time to recognize there are new rules in analytics and data management. These rules have created a wildly different analytics environment from the past. It’s time for organizations to embrace these new rules.

With 2019 here and 2020 around the corner, it is time to recognize there are new rules in analytics and data management. These rules have created a wildly different analytics environment from the past. It’s time for organizations to embrace these new rules.

This article explores some of the ways in which effective risk management approaches, in particular the use of key risk indicators (KRIs) to drive proactive executive behavior, can reduce unnecessary risk exposure and minimize the potential for catastrophic events. We discuss the current state of risk-monitoring maturity in the business world, considerations for the selection of appropriate leading and lagging KRIs and their effective implementation, and then present insight for executives on what steps to take to improve risk monitoring.

This article explores some of the ways in which effective risk management approaches, in particular the use of key risk indicators (KRIs) to drive proactive executive behavior, can reduce unnecessary risk exposure and minimize the potential for catastrophic events. We discuss the current state of risk-monitoring maturity in the business world, considerations for the selection of appropriate leading and lagging KRIs and their effective implementation, and then present insight for executives on what steps to take to improve risk monitoring.

As we begin a new year and the world accelerates and shifts around us, it is important to take an honest look at where we are with enterprise architecture (EA) today and where we are — or should be — going.

Cutter Consortium Senior Consultants Rick Eagar, Gregory Pankert, Raf Postepski, and Sean Sullivan discuss how the role of a CEO in 2019 is very different from that of a decade ago, primarily because traditional business boundaries are blurring while the pace of business continues to accelerate. The authors explore the changes in the CEO role and propose a new framework to help CEOs map the right strategic direction for their organizations.