BP PLC Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward did not come across very well in his testimony in June before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is looking into the loss of the oil-drilling platform Deepwater Horizon.

In my last Advisor on this subject (see "Semantics, Pragmatics, Outsourcing Shape 'Net's Future: Part I," 1 July 2010), I explored the two dimensions of information (semantics and pragmatics) and identified a continuum of tolerance for error in interpretation (from none

Apple continues to make waves with the iPad and the iPhone. The iPad is probably already a US $2 billion line of business in a scant 80 days. Name another product that generated so much revenue so fast. I am finding how Apple pulled off that feat to be a more significant lesson in the design and engineering of a businesses than the glitz and splash of the iPad usability.

One of the biggest problems we face as architects is enabling the transition from architectural specification to executing systems. As I've said many times, the value of architecture does not come from creating the architecture, but rather from applying it. By applying it, I mean influencing the selection, analysis, design, and implementation of an enterprise's IT systems.

The January 2010 issue of the Cutter IT Journal ("The Great Recession Fallout: Will CIOs Be Elevated or Exterminated?" Vol. 23, No. 1) focused on the future of the CIO.

Cloud computing continues to gain momentum as a description of service offerings based on a virtualized data center infrastructure and provided over the Internet on an as-needed basis. Public clouds, such as Amazon EC2, first brought attention to this model, followed by private clouds built within an organization, as exemplified by IBM's Blue Cloud initiative.

EMC Corporation announced it is acquiring data warehousing database vendor Greenplum, Inc. for an undisclosed amount. This deal is important because the addition of Greenplum's analytic database and cloud data warehousing infrastructure offerings will enable EMC to form a new data warehousing/analytics division within its information infrastructure business.

Sports broadcasting is an industry that does not wait for competitors to vet new technology; rather, it rushes to use new technology, and by doing so, creates a more innovative product -- a uniquely compelling, highly rated broadcast.

In my last Advisor (see "Has Agile Grown Up Yet? Assessing the Maturity of Your Process," 24 June 2010), I discussed the need for assessing agile process maturity. This week, I provide some methods for going about performing assessments.

There's a brand-new layer of digital intelligence being conceived on the world's century-old electric power grid by way of your regional electric power utility, through your new smart meter, and extending into your future home and business energy-management systems and smart appliances. It's called the Smart Grid.

Here's how the Electric Power Research Institute defines it:

In the chaotic world of IT, frontline leaders sometimes struggle to keep up with the pace. Projects and productivity expectations can push the most important asset -- people -- to the back of the pack. Successful organizations know, however, that no matter how good the technology, it is the people who make it work. When people come first, customers win.

Sometimes you get lucky. For the better part of my career, I have been a researcher, consultant, and teacher. Teaching, I find, gives me the most short-term fun, because I get immediate feedback. I think that I learn more when I am consulting, because I'm constantly faced with solving problems in real time. And researching gives me some perspective and ties everything together.

Be honest. How well are you managing your compliance to technical regulations, requirements, policies, and procedures?

The applicability of statistical process control (SPC) to software development has been debated since 1989, when the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) endorsed its use in the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Proponents of the use of SPC techniques in software grasped how powerful the techniques could be beyond traditional manufacturing processes.

Back in the 1970s, there was a very popular show called "Happy Days," starring Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, who played Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli. Five years into the series, an episode aired in which Fonzie is shown improbably water skiing and jumping a shark to show his bravery.

Recently, I was having a short exchange with Dr. Ken Calvert, chair of our computer science department at University of Kentucky. The topic was relational databases. The question: are they relevant anymore? Do we need still need to teach formal means of describing, searching, and using information?

Recent media coverage of BP and the spill in the Gulf of Mexico reveals that BP's management decisions and actions have been dominated by cost considerations. Rather than taking lower-risk actions or investing in better solutions, BP apparently took the low road. The low-cost road, that is. We in IT of course are very familiar with this.

Several forces are converging in the industry to spotlight the idea of architecture certification. First, EA has become a commonly accepted practice. As the complexity of IT continues to increase, so does the need for architecture. Yet, few organizations really understand what EA is, how to apply it, or what an architect does.

A lot of advice has been given about the "how" and "why" of agile. Yet, in human resources (HR), there is still a need for an internal push on several counts. What would enable HR to create and support an agile environment? First, the ability to let go of all the earlier beliefs about people's functions and requirements, and second, a move to experiencing and understanding the agile employee from a different paradigm.

Due to the depressed economy, many companies have sought to streamline processes and reduce staff, leaving many compliance organizations leaner while new regulations and updates to existing regulations continue.

Based on our research over the past few years, it's apparent that the need to consolidate disparate data warehouses and data marts has become an ongoing trend among organizations wanting to upgrade their BI capabilities.

There are good reasons to step back and assess where we are as an organization in our adoption of agile (or any other process model). Executives should concern themselves with these questions:

We've spent a lot of money and political capital on agile. Where are we in terms of our capability? Are we still at a beginner level organizationally, or are we fairly mature now?

What percentage of our teams are at an advanced level of practice?

Back in March, I discussed some of the important developments involving the incorporation of social computing techniques (i.e., blogs, wikis, social networks) with enterprise software (see "Facebook for the Enterprise: The New Business

And the winning numbers are:

16 ... 8 ...