It is relatively easy to develop architectural capability through the first few levels of maturity. But it is the higher levels of maturity that deliver the most value and benefit from enterprise architecture (EA) efforts. In this Executive Report, we look at EA maturity, focusing on jumping the maturity gap and making the transition from average to excellent. We reveal the real issues behind the barrier and show how EA teams can bridge this barrier to reach higher levels of maturity.

Numerous reports show that a lack of client involvement is the second most critical factor for project failure. ThisExecutive Report introduces a complex project team structure and four co-manager models for use in complex project management (along with briefly describing a fifth variation). One co-manager is from the development side. The other is from the product side. The report describes all the models, along with when and how to use them.

By shipping software, an executive agrees to assume the risk that the software will not cause some future costly event. However, there is still some possibility that some event will occur, creating a significant liability. By assuming this risk, the organization self-insures itself against future liabilities. This Executive Report explores how to price this self-insurance and how to use this price in the decision to ship or to invest further in improving software quality.

We often need to reason about the value of some quantity x that will occur in the future. We are not certain about the value of x because we do not have complete information.

You can (with computer assistance) compute functions of random variables. If y = f(x1, x2, ...) and each xi is a random variable, how would you find y? Note that y is a random variable.

This Executive Report is an opinion piece on Scrum versus Kanban. Lead author Johanna Rothman sets forth her argument that one is not necessarily better than the other; they are just different and it’s up to the organization to figure out which method is best under which circumstance. In response, seven of Cutter’s Agile experts discuss their views on crossing the Agile divide.

This Executive Report examines the current status and possible applications of the IoT in business, industry, and government. We also consider technologies for managing sensors and other data associated with IoT applications as well as issues that could possibly limit the growth and acceptance of the IoT.

In this Executive Report, we examine these emerging domain architectures and answer the following questions: What are these domain-specific architectures? What impact will they have on EA in general? And, finally, how do they fit with existing architectures and reference models?

This Executive Report suggests temporary fixes that can be adapted by project managers constrained by traditional models when facing Agile projects. These fixes include: management reserve, a bundled change-request process, and integrated release strategies. The report also provides an enterprise-level permanent solution for the effective management of Agile and other complex projects.

 Negotiating within relationships is difficult. The importance of the relationship causes you to want to give in to the other party, making it harder to negotiate effectively for your own needs. Your own preconceptions, narratives, fears, and emotions also impact these negotiations, causing difficulties in thinking clearly and behaving strategically. Indeed, to be effective, you must prepare extensively, listen for the other person’s needs, and manage your emotions in real time. This Executive Report outlines how to take these steps, so you can negotiate effectively to meet your interests while simultaneously maintaining and building your relationships.

Transcending software development, this Executive Report outlines fundamental reasons for the popularity of Agile, the risks associated with the subjective element of Agile, and how to balance the flexibility with planning through a well-established Composite Agile Method and Strategy (CAMS).

This Executive Report looks at the many new challenges social technologies pose for enterprise architecture -- around the use of social media in an enterprise context; challenges around ownership and control of social infrastructure that lies beyond the perimeter of an enterprise; and challenges around the nature of architecture components and the architecture landscape -- and what they mean for EA teams, the enterprise architecture, and the enterprise.

If one combines mobile consumer technology with Big Data analytics, one gets a host of new possibilities ranging from new ways of providing students with basic support to new ways of getting students to learn what the faculty needs them to learn. If we can get the right information flowing through the minds of students, perhaps we can improve their success. We can potentially help transform the classroom from the 19th century to the 21st.

As business problems become more complex, so do their associated risk and uncertainty. Frequently, organizations try to deal with risk through the application of standard processes -- often supported by rigid structures of compliance. Despite this, risk still creates huge problems for all sorts of activities, from banking to major investment projects. Yet, some organizations seem to thrive on uncertainty, and although they have encountered inevitable adversity, they remain considerably resilient.

The success of enterprises depends upon their ability to define, prioritize, and execute mission-critical projects successfully. Project management is essential, but which project managers (PMs) best serve the organization?

Companies today require both an enduring focus on continuous improvement and an organization-wide emphasis on exceeding customer expectations to achieve operational

The rise of pervasive connectivity and social media certainly means more opportunities to look bad -- but also more opportunities to learn and look good. In this changing environment, companies that make the commitment to be a learning organization, become truly curious about their customer experience, and take on continuous improvement will be the ones that take the best advantage of "the Connected Age." In this Executive Report, we will explore what has changed about collecting customer research since the rise of the cloud and what these changes mean. We'll enumerate the many ways you can learn more than ever before about your company, your products and services, and your customers -- and how they interact.

Hadoop has generated considerable interest among mainstream organizations, but many have encountered difficulties in determining suitable applications in which to apply it in order to obtain business value.

This Executive Report outlines a major Australian bank's four-year journey from using Agile models for some software development projects to an enterprise-wide agility model in responding to and delivering change, all

The information revolution of the past decade or two will do little to improve anemic global economic growth. Several factors are converging that will frustrate the technocentric optimists, including automation improvements that enable companies to do more with less people, massive global demographic shifts as the world ages and as population rates begin to slow, and, perhaps most important, IT innovations that might be benefiting the most highly capable among us and leaving behind those less so.

Cyber security is an oxymoron in the age of the Internet. Despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, CIOs, CSOs, corporate officers, governmental officials, and agencies charged with protecting critical assets continue to talk and behave as though cyber security is not real.

Enterprises and large projects increasingly express interest in using Agile methods due to its success in small teams. In this Executive Report, we discuss expanding Agile for the enterprise through techniques for scaling, extending, and embracing Agile methodologies. Through the "discovery curve" technique, we show that discovering needed knowledge constitutes the largest obstacle any project team faces. Agile shortens discovery times in small teams.