In July 2005, we conducted a survey that asked 111 end-user organizations (of various sizes based worldwide) about their efforts to consolidate and standardize their BI tools platforms (query, reporting, OLAP, dashboards, etc.). Findings from this survey help to shed some light on current BI tools usage trends as well as the status of corporate BI tools standardization efforts.

Twenty years ago, "information overload" was all the rage. Well, here we are a couple of decades later and we're not only buried in information, we're paralyzed by it. Why are we so obsessed with knowing everything? Why must we be in the loop of every threaded (and thread-barren) conversation?

We often talk about enterprise architecture (EA) as having a primary objective of aligning IT systems with business strategy. But underlying this is the unstated but assumed clarification "over time, as things change." In other words, we expect EA to be as much about accommodating change as it is about aligning IT systems.

Americans saw the television images of people affected by Hurricane Katrina waiting for food, water, and transportation. Help came, but much later than most people wanted, as something went amiss with the relief project. Some good old project management might have helped. Come to think of it, some good old project management might help most IT projects and project managers.