While agile methods remain at the forefront in popularity and value, development effort is only a fraction of the overall time, money, and effort spent in maintaining systems.

I sometimes describe architecture as fundamentally about managing complexity and change. Change comes from several different places at the same time. Technology is always evolving and, let's hope, we're used to managing this type of change with architecture.

There are several problems that proper data collection and analysis can partially address. However, collecting and managing data in a proper way is not only difficult from the technological point of view but also from the management point of view. From the technical side, new technologies for managing huge amounts of information have emerged in the last few years. Moreover, many of these technologies (e.g., Cassandra, Hadoop) are open source and easily adoptable inside any organization.

Today's data production occurs at a faster and faster rate. The volume of data available within an enterprise -- and externally to it -- is phenomenal. As a consequence, the role of information architecture is changing, from the passive structuring and managing of data to a smarter, more active role of information effectiveness.

At the risk of gross simplification, when it comes to dealing with too much data, architecture needs to address two concerns:

Today's data production occurs at a faster and faster rate. The volume of data available within an enterprise -- and externally to it -- is phenomenal.

In my work with CEOs and other corporate executives, the question I get asked the most is (paraphrased): What don't I even know to ask? My response is that most CEOs, on the morning after launching an agile initiative, wake up with several concerns, most of them related to what I call the "five fears of an agile leader." These can be identified as the fear of:

While the so-called "Superstorm Sandy" that struck the East Coast of the United States last week did not inspire any Hurricane Katrina-like "heck of a job" mispronouncements in its aftermath, the effective communication of risk took more of a beating than it should have. And as with Katrina, a sizable portion of the US populace is suffering for it.

While the so-called "Superstorm Sandy" that struck the East Coast of the United States last week did not inspire any Hurricane Katrina-like "heck of a job" mispronouncements in its aftermath, the effective communication of risk took more of a beating than it should have.

In my work with CEOs and other corporate executives, the question I get asked the most is (paraphrased): What don't I even know to ask?

I recently had a conversation with several IT leaders about initiating an architecture program in their organization.

By the time you get to the bottom of this Advisor, you will have at least three new ideas on how to get people engaged in your meetings. That's a powerful suggestion. In fact, the only reason that some of you continue to read this is because I just made that promise.

By the time you get to the bottom of this Advisor, you will have at least three new ideas on how to get people engaged in your meetings. That's a powerful suggestion. In fact, the only reason that some of you continue to read this is because I just made that promise.

Thanks to some initial findings from a recent Cutter survey, we now have a better understanding of the extent that organizations are actually implementing (or planning to implement) enterprise app stores.

Cyber warfare has been in the news more and more and, increasingly, this news has dealt with the murky world of Internet/computer security attacks by nation states and other quasi-official groups. Over the last couple of years we've seen ominous terms showing up in a number of major developments widely reported in the media.

When done well, IT's role is easy to explain. IT serves the business by enabling its current goals and strategic ambitions while enlarging its plate of future opportunities. In effect, business and IT are an ecosystem.

Coherence is a highly desirable characteristic of every human enterprise. Everything should "hang together" and be "true as a whole," to quote common dictionary phrases. Yet one of the most frustrating and disturbing aspects of working life is that everything doesn't hang together and isn't true as a whole. Most things only "sort of" fit -- if they fit at all. Gaps and inconsistencies abound. Assumptions must constantly be made. Confidence is hard to muster.

[From the Editor: This week's Cutter IT Advisor is from Cutter Senior Consultant Ralph Hughes's introduction to the October 2012 issue of Cutter IT Journal, "Turning Big Data into Big Benefits" (Vol. 25, No. 10).

The realm of Big Data is described by volume, velocity, and variety. Volume and variety have frequently been discussed, centering upon support for Hadoop and MapReduce. Volume, of course, refers to the sheer size of data sets, and variety is mainly about the increasing need to analyze unstructured data.

In the first Advisor in this series ("What's a Knowledge Worker to Do? Part I"), I pointed out that knowledge worker jobs are increasingly being replaced due to the rise of Big Data analytics and significant improvements in high-performance computing.

"So when you come in here to help us start with agile, we also expect to benefit from your collection of best practices you must have as a consultant" is one of the more frequent client expectations we have to disappoint. "We don't have best practices," we answer, "and we don't think it's a good idea to have them."

Judging from the regular press, one might get the impression that Microsoft doesn't stand a chance when it comes to tablet computing.

I recently worked with two client management groups on the basics of trust and partnership between IT and business. This is a continuing and ongoing issue that affects our profession and is somewhat amazing to me, since we have been dealing with this problem for so many decades. It continues, however, and the question is exactly what is to be done.

The proliferation of mobile devices for business use, in part fueled by the popularity of the "bring your own device" (BYOD) strategy, is helping drive corporate interest in enterprise app stores. To date, however, adoption of enterprise app stores has been limited for the most part to larger organizations.

By the time you get to the bottom of this Advisor, you will have at least three new ideas on how to get people engaged in your meetings. That's a powerful suggestion. In fact, the only reason that some of you continue to read this is because I just made that promise.

The "conversation" paradigm of agile methods provides a quantum leap in terms of the philosophy of managing IT projects. A crucial element that beseeches discussion in agile projects is not just what to measure or not to measure but, in fact, whether to measure at all.