This week, we're taking a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Enterprise Risk Management & Governance practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles.

This week, we thought we'd take a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Business Technology Trends & Impacts practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and choose just five articles.

This week, we're taking a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Business-IT Strategies practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our nine practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 45 most intriguing articles of the year.

This week, we're taking a look back at the five most read articles in Cutter's Enterprise Architecture practice over this past year. Each article offers unique insight into the challenges of creating and deploying a successful enterprise architecture. Look for these lists from each of our nine practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 45 most intriguing articles of the year.

This week, we're taking a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Cutter IT Journal over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our nine practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 45 most intriguing articles of the year.

This week, we're taking a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Sourcing & Vendor Relationships practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our nine practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 45 most intriguing articles of the year.

This week, we're taking a look back at the five most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Business Intelligence practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our nine practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 45 most intriguing articles of the year.

A few months back I was at eBay's headquarters in San Jose, California, USA, having a conversation about performance reviews with one of its executives. Like most large companies, eBay offers bonuses to its employees based on individual performance, which is expected to have improved from the previous work period, be it yearly, semiannually, or quarterly.

Hace algunos meses estuve en las oficinas generales de eBay en San Jose, California, conversando con uno de sus ejecutivos acerca de evaluaciones de desempeño de empleados.

It's hard to discuss transformation when the current state is so anchored in the previous century. But as more and more 20th-century warriors pass the baton to the next generation of business technology leaders, we'll see major changes in the whole business technology relationship.

I had the pleasure of hearing Cutter Senior Consultant Michael Mah present to Latin American CIOs at the recent Cutter Latin America Summit in Mexico City.

Last week, while in a discussion about architecture, someone in the group said, "We don't really have architecture, we're not big enough to justify the cost." Unfortunately, this is a common misconception about the size of a company and the value of architecture. Actually, it is often smaller companies that can demonstrate the benefits most quickly.

When it comes to measuring carbon emissions, especially across medium-sized to large businesses, there is an urgency to measure and report carbon data. Two important things related to carbon emissions stand out: the need to comprehend how much carbon is being generated by the business activities, and even more importantly, the lack of standardized and detailed measurements to do so.

Since we're approaching the end of the year, I thought I'd offer some predictions and comments on some of the key developments I see taking place with the market for, and the application of, BI and data warehousing in the New Year.

Cost reductions in business operations in this turbulent economy have affected IT spending for software and application or system development as well as for integration projects. Many companies and their visionary leaders have used agile methodologies, including XP, Scrum, and Feature-Driven Development, with mixed success.

"How are you doing"

There's a nice, benign, safe question. But in today's economy, I've noted that I get one of two very dichotomous responses:

Response #1: "We're holding it together. I think we're going to make it, but it's been a tough year."

There is nothing like the prospect of getting hanged in the morning to focus one's attention.

There is nothing like the prospect of getting hanged in the morning to focus one's attention.

Participants in a recent Cutter Benchmark Review survey who indicated that their organizations are not using or testing social networks cite a lack of perceived business value as the main reason (see, "Unlocking the Organizational Potential of Social Networking," Vol. 9, No. 5). What can organizations do to make sure their investments in social networking applications pay off? First, organizations need to make sure that their social networking applications are aligned with their corporate strategy.

Participants in a recent Cutter Benchmark Review survey who indicated that their organizations are not using or testing social networks cite a lack of perceived business value as the main reason (see, "Unlocking the Organizational Potential of Social Networking," Vol. 9, No. 5). What can organizations do to make sure their investments in social networking applications pay off? First, organizations need to make sure that their social networking applications are aligned with their corporate strategy.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

-- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

In project management, as long as things move the way they are envisaged, there is no problem. If there is a hurdle, however, the project manager is expected to respond in the least time possible. This hurdle may be either technical or human, and in either case, arriving at the best alternative or finding the exact error requires absolute openness and being in the present moment.

A project manager's inability to be open and receptive can become a block in finding creative solutions to the problems that crop up. It's like the following story:

Your IT organization has certain skills and capabilities that you deploy to solve various business technology problems. Ideally, you market these skills and capabilities to your internal clients (as well as your external stakeholders -- vendors, partners, etc.).

Slightly fewer than half of the organizations using on-demand/cloud-based BI and data warehousing solutions have had to modify their business processes in order to use the on-demand software. This finding comes from a Cutter Consortium survey conducted in May-July 2009 of 79 end-user organizations based worldwide.