As they say about economics, you might ignore it, but it will not ignore you. If ignored, technical debt can lead to a broad spectrum of difficulties, from collapsed roadmaps to an inability to respond to customer problems in a timely manner and even to the code becoming "toxic." The seven articles in this issue of Cutter IT Journal explain how not to neglect technical debt, what to do in case neglect has already taken place, and how technical debt techniques could be applied in domains where they have not been used before.
October 2010
In this issue:- Technical Debt -- Opening Statement
- Modernizing the DeLorean System: Comparing Actual and Predicted Results of a Technical Debt Reduction Project
- The Economics of Technical Debt
- Technical Debt: Challenging the Metaphor
- Manage Project Portfolios More Effectively by Including Software Debt in the Decision Process
- The Risks of Acceptance Test Debt
- Transformation Patterns for Curing the Human Causes of Technical Debt
- Infrastructure Debt: Revisiting the Foundation
September 2010
The adoption of a new project management methodology as part of our business practices is always somewhat of a gamble. Will it work? Will it be an improvement over the processes we currently have in place? Will the time, energy, and resources that we invest now in implementing it prove worthwhile in the long run? These are all questions each of us as IT and business professionals must consider as we make decisions to move our organizations forward. Keeping operations humming along in the face of change and (sometimes) major budget crunches and keeping business practices current and in line with industry practices and technology progress are perhaps the greatest ongoing challenges we face. In this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review, we discuss one of the most recent methodologies to enter the spectrum of possible choices for systems development: Kanban.
September 2010
Leap Forward
Organizations that adopt mobile technologies can expect to achieve operational improvements and open up new business opportunities within, at the edge of, and outside the traditional boundaries of the enterprise.
In this issue:- Mobile Technologies in the Enterprise: Applications, Implications, and Trends
- Mobile Opportunities at the Edge of the Enterprise
- Swimming Against the Tide: What One Team Overcame to Develop and Deliver an Enterprise Mobile Application
- Breaching the Human Firewall: Risks and Security in the Mobile Workforce
- A Look at Mobile Device Security
- Mobile Computing, Spatial Intelligence, and Interoperability for Agricultural Field Data
- User and Enterprise Mobility: Mobile Social Networking and Mobile Cloud Computing
August 2010
In this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review, we do our part in unlocking the mystery of Gen-Yers/Net-Geners. We examine the powerful trend toward further integration of technology into everyday productivity and the creative processes of this highly innovative generation. Plus, we discuss ways in which we can successfully integrate these individuals into our organizations to the benefit of all involved.
August 2010
Platform of Opportunity
The Web as platform will enable firms to collaborate and manage relationships more effectively, deliver more value to new and existing markets, improve software development processes and products, and more fully integrate Web and mobile technologies.
In this issue:

