Recently, I read an article in one of the prominent computer magazines about XML databases. It was one of a number of similar articles that have found their way into the technical press in recent years.

When looking to innovate using information technology, what information should those in charge of business-IT innovation pay attention to? Where should they turn for inspiration? The following are the main channels of information for the business-IT innovation function to monitor and manage:

Often the executive board arrives at the conclusion that offshoring will result in improved quality or reduced costs -- or even both -- and mandates that the development of a system take place elsewhere. Yet project managers and technical staff of offshoring projects do not receive management support when it comes to making the project a success.

Oracle last week continued its acquisition spree by buying retail analytics and optimization software vendor ProfitLogic, Inc. Following closely on the heels of its purchase of Retek in March (see " Oracle Acquires Retek," 29 March 2005), this marks Oracle's second acquisition of a retail analytics vendor in the past four months.

An interesting question has recently come up in a number of client situations and informal discussions with CIOs and other IT professionals.

In spite of the length of what follows, be aware that this is just a top-level description of what agile methods do. Please suspend disbelief, work through any flaws in the prose, and ask "Yes, but ..." questions as they come up.

Here are aspects of scheduling that I'd like to address:

As is the norm on the 4th of July holiday weekend in the US, classic patriotic-themed movies such as Casablanca occupy the airwaves. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is where Captain Renault informs Rick that he is going to close down his nightclub.

One of the interesting aspects of enterprise architecture work within any big organization is taking the responsibility for setting up standards governing the development of information systems. The problem with standards is that they come in great numbers and vastly different qualities. Typically, a standard belongs to one of the following species:

No, I didn't write the title backwards. I believe that dedication among employees requires good performance from managers. Some people demonstrate dedication in exceptional circumstances. As managers, we should recognize such dedication and ensure that we do not squander their efforts.

Banking and financial services companies were the first to exploit the use of rule-based systems. Today, they remain the leading users of the technology and are actively seeking to employ it to effect enterprise decision management (EDM).

No, I'm not talking about having movie stars for clients (which is probably overrated anyway); rather, I'm talking about the clients we build into our enterprise applications. A lot has actually been happening in this space lately. To put these advances into perspective, let's review how we got there.

Perhaps I paint too pessimistic a picture, and maybe teamwork effectiveness and performance is better than it was 20 years ago. Maybe our expectations have outdistanced our ability to meet them. I don't know. However, when I ask IT professionals about their experience of teamwork effectiveness -- and I've asked tens of thousands in recent years -- I get a consistent "so-so" response.

In far too many mergers and acquisitions (M&As), companies conduct only legal and financial due diligence -- not IT. While it certainly takes less time and money initially to limit due diligence to a legal and financial perspective, the end result will ultimately cost the organization much more.

Increasingly, specialist knowledge in complex organizations is tacit rather than explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is know-what. Explicit knowledge is captured, documented, published, and shared formally through traditional journals, manuals, databases, and the Internet. Tacit knowledge -- sometimes called "tribal" knowledge -- is know-how rather than know-what.