A company is a collection of distinct units that are supposed to collaborate well with each other in order to deliver a superior product or service. But do all the parts work together well? In times of transition and significant change, how firms do things can also change significantly, requiring the units within the firm to learn how to realign and collaborate in new ways.

A key objective of enterprise architecture (EA) is to deliver to business strategies and imperatives. This is also the basis for measuring the success of EA investment. While architectural models, specifications, standards, and so on are, of course, important; they will not, in and of themselves, enable this on their own. A foundational set of organizational capabilities must be in place that enables businesses to realize architecture-based solutions on a sustained basis.

The term "agile" has been used extensively over the years. "Agile leaders," "agile teams," "agile projects": these are some of the common phrases we get to hear often in the context of agile project management (APM). When a new concept takes birth, the core understanding behind it also evolves over a period of time. With time, however, it also presents a danger of getting camouflaged and of being taken for granted. Hence, revisiting the same from time to time can bring a deeper level of understanding and clarity to the existing concept and keep its essence intact.

BI search (i.e., tools and applications combining BI reporting and analysis with functionality like Internet search engines) has received a fair amount of attention over the past few years.

Much of the perceived successes of outsourcing are merely the initial honeymoon reports (i.e., the initial announcement of a deal). These are focused on celebrating a deal that has been signed and its anticipated benefits. Rarely do we get the followup report regarding whether any of the expected outcomes were actually achieved.

There are two broad categories of topics related to scaling agile projects: organization and product. Several previous Advisors have focused on organizational scaling; this one will begin to focus on the product side, including such topics as architecture, roadmaps, backlogs, and multilevel release planning.

The past week saw several news stories that remind us how fragile IT security has become and how the opportunities created by the tremendous power of the Internet to share information can also create major risks.

I have been using two devices since they launched: the BlackBerry (since 1999) and the iPhone (since July 2007), and neither has left my side since its launch, except for a five-month trial separation from my BlackBerry. As I write this, two devices -- the BlackBerry 9000 and the iPhone 3G -- are charging.

Staffing has taken an expected hit, according to our recent research on IT trends for 2009.1 While still about half of companies thankfully remain in a stable IT hiring situation, only a quarter of companies are currently hiring, and the remaining 25% are downsizing.

This month I gave a cost-containment workshop at a national conference on IT financial management. While there, I spent three good days listening to a variety of speakers who mostly focused on how better to manage IT investment. I've written about some of the high points and my impressions here.

We are beginning to hear more serious thought given to the concept of third-party providers managing desktop environments via the cloud.

Enterprises need to be competent to perform well and succeed. However, it is often less clear what enterprise competence means. In our context of knowledge management (KM), we focus on ways in which knowledge contributes to competence and how KM-related initiatives must be considered to maintain and build it.

Virtualization is one of the hottest IT trends today. But when it comes to data warehousing, you'd hardly know it, because virtualization has made little impact in the data warehousing space. There's a good reason for this, which I'll get to in a minute.

Initiating the "right" projects is just one aspect of portfolio management; you must also appropriately monitor and guide ongoing development projects as well as systems that are in production or being retired. During development, it is critical to monitor your organization's standard metrics (more on this in a minute), as well as those issues that are specific to the individual project.

Conception --> Closure --> Delivery

Agile methods (Scrum, XP, Crystal, DSDM, Feature-Driven Development, etc.) have moved into the mainstream over the past few years. Earlier in their adoption cycle, industry leaders such as BMC Software, British Telecom, Capital One, DTE Energy, and Yahoo!

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure.

In general, it is easier to obtain money, even in these hard times, than it is to "buy time." Many times every year, I find someone pressuring me or some hapless CIO or project manager into committing to some schedule that everyone knows is so nearly impossible that agreement is tantamount to eventual failure. I often tell a story of a presentation that I made a few years ago to a financial organization that was on a long-term project to replace its 30-year-old core applications.

As organizations relentlessly seek cost-cutting opportunities in our darkening economic environment, energy consumption is likely a bright target. The IT organization should prepare for that day when an operations executive asks the CIO: how will your department contribute to the company's collective belt tightening with energy cost savings? Being prepared isn't just for Boy Scouts.

Pretend that you are either starting a new company or -- with the help of a magic wand -- completely reengineering the technology delivery model at your current company. What do you do? One of the steps that you should take involves enterprise architecture.

Like electrical service, computing has become a utility. You can draw on your required computing resources -- hardware, software, storage, applications, and infrastructure -- when and where you need them and in the amount you need.

Microsoft has stepped up its efforts to become a serious enterprise data warehouse player with the introduction of its SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse (SSFTDW) offerings -- a set of reference architectures for data warehousing available on pretested, preconfigured standard hardware from Bull, Dell, and HP.

Cloud computing is and will be a major trend. By this, I specifically mean that there is a trend toward the progressive replacement by your organization of its owned facilities, hardware, and operations by virtual facilities housed somewhere in the great Wherever and rented on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Every so often, I like to revisit some of the threads of thought that wove themselves into the agile movement. One of these is complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory, which could be considered a science of adaptation. CAS concepts, found in several agile methods, are an important backdrop to many agile principles and practices.

Anyone who has been in the work force more than a matter of weeks has had the experience. You think you know what management wants. You believe you're working in the organization's best interests. You want to show some measure of independence and personal vision. And you act. No sooner do you show just a modicum of initiative, you are crushed like a grape!