Every discipline develops its own terminology, and there is a period of time when those terms need to be explicitly defined every time they are used, because they have not yet become household words.

Data volumes across almost all industries are literally exploding with event data streaming from a wide range of sources -- including distributed messaging systems, blogs, databases, enterprise applications, telemetry feeds, and sensor devices like RFID. The volume and frequency of the data make it difficult to analyze.

Three core questions need to be satisfactorily answered to effectively govern a software development project:

Why are we doing the project?

Can we afford the project?

Is the risk associated with the project acceptable?

When we hear the term "IT governance," our minds invariably are drawn to such topics as management, control, compliance, and ultimately the avoidance of the multitude of IT disasters that litter our IT implementation experience to date. After more than half a century of experience, why are we still bemoaning embarrassing time and cost overruns, functional mismatches, and IT infrastructure issues?

The need has never been greater. The promises are many. A new generation of customer relationship management (CRM) is combining with the promise of Web 2.0 and the promise of social networks. Is this finally the elusive breakthrough that we have been searching for so long to find? Or is it just another case of overpromise and underdeliver?

Cloud computing has a lot in common with longstanding forms of outsourced data processing services. There are some key differences, however, and these differences need to be appreciated. The expertise that user organizations have garnered from these older practices will serve them well in harnessing cloud computing, but it is advisable to extend that expertise. The potential benefits need to be sifted through, and measures need to be put in place to ensure that the full potential of cloud computing is realized.

The accompanying Executive Report investigates the impact of two contrary impacts of device usage on corporate IT. On the one hand, young and progressive users are adopting new devices and using them on the move. On the other, large numbers of people move much more slowly and retain a strong preference for the devices, interfaces, and behaviors that worked well for them in the past and that they are habituated to.

There is an increasing realization that EA cannot work in technological isolation but must work collaboratively as a capability within the culture of the organization. The EA team should act as one -- albeit key -- cog in the organizational engine with the overall goal of improving the effectiveness of the business itself.

Science fiction has been preparing us for what the future of artificial intelligence may bring: doors that open without keys, lights that switch on and off as people enter or leave rooms, ambient temperatures that automatically regulate themselves, watches that monitor our healthcare and call the ambulance if something is wrong, coffee that makes itself, fridges that order food directly when fresh supplies are needed, components that self-assemble,

In the accompanying Executive Report, we first get a bird's-eye view of a robust requirements management lifecycle (RMLC) and then a description of the project landscape. This gives us a foundation to discuss how the RMLC and the various project management lifecycles (PMLCs) integrate and interact.

Cloud computing has a lot in common with longstanding forms of outsourced data processing services. There are some key differences, however, and these differences need to be appreciated. The expertise that user organizations have garnered from these older practices will serve them well in harnessing cloud computing, but it is advisable to extend that expertise.

The accompanying Executive Report aspires to make a significant contribution to the literature on environment, sustainability, and green ICT as these issues relate to business.

There's a digital revolution descending squarely upon an industry that time (and TCP/IP) nearly forgot: our aging, yet highly reliable, electric utility grid.

The promise of business intelligence (BI 1.0) is finally turning the performance corner. While we're still cleaning, migrating, and securing data -- and worrying about platform compatibility -- we've also connected BI to business performance management, a step that reflects rising expectations about what the BI endgame looks like.

Documentation is one of those issues that many of us in software development feel are sometimes wasteful. It is also one of those issues that is unclear in the agile community. How much documentation should we create and maintain? Which documents should we create?

Everyone loves to negotiate from a position of power. It is satisfying, easy, and fun to play the game when you hold all of the aces in your hand. It is much more challenging to try and negotiate effectively when you have a disadvantage in power, when the other party is bigger, better funded, and more experienced or has access to information that you cannot obtain.

The Zachman Framework, initially published in 1987, generally marks the birth of enterprise architecture (EA). Accordingly, EA reached a symbolic milestone at the start of the 2008 meltdown, when it turned 21.

In March 2009, a major hospital system -- which we will call NEP -- began a multimillion-dollar IT project. The objective: to replace its hodgepodge of legacy back-office systems with one integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution and a single database housing all enterprise information.

The popularity of agile methods in software development can be attributed to their promise to accommodate change and deliver rapidly with regard to the expectations of business. The agile approach encompasses the natural way to write code: conversational, visible, and responsive.

With the experiences of corporate disasters such as Enron, WorldCom, and Lehmann Brothers in recent years, organizational board members and executive management have realized the impact of ineffective risk management. Could these failures be attributed to their risk management practices, business acumen, or a combination of both?

The shift in power from the CIO/CTO to the CFO for technology project justification is a fact of life that all of us in the technology industry are familiar with. We no longer have to sell the techies on the value of new IT projects, we have to sell to the financial part of the organization: the business.

The project overview statement (POS) is the first document you create as part of the process for getting approval of a new proposed project. It is a document you will forward to a senior manager to get his or her approval as well as the resources you will need to plan the project.

Enterprise 3.0 is about trends -- and outcomes. It's about radical changes that, taken together, move us away from silly debates about business technology "alignment" and closer to business technology convergence.

Enterprise 3.0 is about trends -- and outcomes. It's about radical changes that, taken together, move us away from silly debates about business technology "alignment" and closer to business technology convergence.

Although some business and IT practitioners would not consider SOA to be the "next big thing" anymore -- as they progress to a new set of emerging technologies -- most practitioners would still agree that SOA has evolved during this decade to become one of the most effective architectural approaches for consistent information exchange or data sharing.