Cutter IT Journal

Reflections on Innovation -- Part VI: More About Art

12 Apr 2012 16:59:22 GMT

Devin, Lee | E-Mail Advisors |

In my last Advisor ("Reflections on Innovation � Part V: Words, Words, Words"), I suggested that you read Ian McGilchrist's book The Master and His Emissary, where McGilchrist defined "science" as "patient and detailed attention" to the world; to what is. In that Advisor, I promised to pay some patient and detailed attention to the mysteries of making by describing a research project organized and led by Cutter Fellow Rob Austin. This project itself consisted in putting patient and detailed attention into 30 cases, descriptions, and accounts of making process by innovators of all kinds, from individuals to giant companies.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2012/bit120412.html

Gaining Customer Insight

11 Apr 2012 16:57:36 GMT

Mohandoss, Ramaswami | E-Mail Advisors |

Habits form an important and inevitable part of our lives. We are all about baselining our routine activities into habits and conserving our energy for more productive and interesting tasks. These habits exist as patterns in customer behavior data (e.g., clickstream, logs, social media, sales). The right kind of data, aided by an intelligent analytical solution, can identify these habits and yield valuable customer insights. When these insights are focused inward (e.g., when used to refine a product offering or enhance the customer experience), you create a possibility of winning the customer's trust.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120411.html

Cloud Security: A Red Herring?

16 Apr 2012 16:21:57 GMT

Baudoin, Claude | E-Mail Advisors |

It may seem reckless to challenge the notion that cloud computing poses new security risks. IT magazines are full of dire warnings, and cloud providers, as well as security consortia, are now holding regular conferences such as SecureCloud. Yet some claims may be overstated, while others are ignored.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120404.html

Is Leadership a Science?

28 Mar 2012 19:49:59 GMT

Ellyn, Lynne | E-Mail Advisors |

When we think of leaders, we may think of charismatic politicians like John F. Kennedy, successful corporate executives like Jack Welch, or inspiring leaders like Mahatma Gandhi. What do these people have in common, if anything? What made them successful at getting others to vote for them, work for them -- even trek across a vast country with them? Can leaders in IT and business learn from these successful leaders, or were they just born with leadership ability?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120328.html

Enterprise Agility

21 Mar 2012 19:22:45 GMT

Watson, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |

Agile development has revolutionized the way systems are developed from a waterfall or phased-based approach to an iterative-based approach that continuously reexamines development progress, current priorities, and sufficiency of solution.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120321.html

ITIL: Handicap, Booster or Poison for IT Operational Excellence?

21 Mar 2012 19:20:58 GMT

Keyworth, Bill |

In the last 15-20 years, IT practitioners have come to recognize the contribution of "process" in maturing their IT operations, and with experience gained by implementing these service management processes -- ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) has become a frequent byword within competent IT circles -- surfacing a passion both for and against ITIL projects. Looking back, the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) exhibited foresight in capturing best practices for IT Service Management when it was too common to simply ignore managing IT.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

Leadership Development: Intuition, Science, or Luck?

20 Mar 2012 19:15:42 GMT

Houston, Richard T.; Houston, Douglas | Journals |

In their well-researched article, Richard and Douglas Houston propose "a scientific approach to leadership" and explain how organizations can develop a leadership competency model to bring this about. Drawing on their deep experience and database of thousands of leadership profiles, they provide a useful, empirical framework for assessing and improving leadership skills.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203c.html

Is Leadership a Science?

20 Mar 2012 19:13:00 GMT

Ellyn, Lynne | Journals |

Is leadership a science? Whether you subscribe to the notion of leadership as science or consider it more of an art, we hope that this issue of Cutter IT Journal will provide tools and insights to improve leadership development in your own organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/index.html

Expertise and Access to Data: Managing Their Impact on Team Learning and Performance

20 Mar 2012 19:09:51 GMT

Hughes, Michael | Journals |

Michael Hughes reminds us not to forget the team and how they learn. While team learning might seem somewhat tangential to the topic of leadership, Hughes persuasively argues that "it move[s] the problems of understanding and managing team dynamics out of the sometimes slippery realm of 'soft' leadership skills -- with their emphasis on interaction styles -- into the more prescriptive science of learning theory." Through the use of learning theory, IT leaders are better able "to manage their teams for the correct balance of innovation and efficiency."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203e.html

Leadership Is Situational, Is It Not?

20 Mar 2012 19:06:20 GMT

Chan, David; Woodman, Mark | Journals |

In this article, David Chan and Mark Woodman dispute the idea that leadership is a science but acknowledge the contribution neuroscience may make to understanding leadership. They assert that leadership is situational and provide many examples. Fair enough. However, the examples given from history are basically military in nature -- certainly a very different situation from trying to implement SAP or complete code reviews for a new product. I would suggest that it is time to drop the war/sports/conquest context for leadership and focus on employees and business leaders trying to make a living and find meaning in their work. And, as Chan and Woodman note, we can definitely skip the "wild, drunken orgies" as a means of team building!

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203a.html

IT Leadership: You Must Be All In

20 Mar 2012 19:03:37 GMT

McComb, Craig M. | Journals |

Unlike the authors of our previous two articles, Craig McComb discounts the notion of leadership as science and declares instead that "leadership is an endeavor of passion." While skills are necessary -- and McComb makes a strong case that technical knowledge is required to lead well in IT -- he insists that leaders need passion to succeed. I would agree, since leadership can be so challenging and exhausting. McComb provides us with some of his personal story, relating how his passion for leadership development drove his quest to become a better leader.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203d.html

Mind the Gap: Avoiding the Abyss Between Leadership and Management

20 Mar 2012 18:54:35 GMT

Charette, Robert N.; Gentry, Kerry F. | Journals |

Cutter Fellow Robert Charette and coauthor Kerry Gentry take on the differences between management and leadership and tell us some depressing tales of modern leadership failures in business and government. They assert that the failures signal a dearth of leadership and an excess of management. In the end they provide us with a useful model -- the Leadership Wheel -- for assessing leadership traits and emphatically argue that leadership is a science!

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203b.html

What Can Open Source Teach Us About Building Software?

14 Mar 2012 15:08:50 GMT

Feller, Joseph | E-Mail Advisors |

Open source software (as I am sure you know) is software that can be freely copied, modified, and redistributed, either in its original or derived form, for sale or for free. There are many variations in open source licenses defining the conditions for these activities, but those are the core issues. To enjoy these freedoms, software users need access to the source code behind the software, hence the label "open source."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120314.html

Call for Papers: The Consumerization of IT: Blessing or Curse?

9 Mar 2012 14:55:15 GMT

Love, Jim |

In the recent Cutter IT Journal issue -- Hot IT Trends 2012 -- I made the case that the so-called "consumerization of IT" was much more than a new or trendy phrase. I argued rather than being a single trend, going beyond "Bring Your Own Device," or BYOD, it represented a culmination of a number of forces which have converged to bring about a radical change in how IT will be structured and delivered. It represented a "tipping point" which would have far reaching ramifications for companies, for employees and for the industry in general.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers01.html

Killing Projects: Resource Allocation for Portfolio Management

7 Mar 2012 14:41:07 GMT

Youker, Robert | E-Mail Advisors |

For most corporations, killing old projects is probably as important as approving new projects. Most of the resources of a corporation are used for regular operational work, which, it is hoped, produces a profit that will allow a small percentage of resources to be used for new development, such as new products and new infrastructure -- including IT. It is critically important for those resources used on IT projects that they pay off in improved efficiency of operations and increased revenue and profits. In fact, surveys show that not all IT projects pay off handsomely nor are they always completed on time and on budget.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120307.html

Big Agile

1 Mar 2012 15:41:41 GMT

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |

"Small is beautiful" in software. While big software might not be beautiful, more often than not, it's in the nature of what needs to be accomplished. This contrast between the beauty of the small and the requirements of the big generates systemic tension in many software projects, organizations, and companies. Resolving this conflict is the focus of the February 2012 issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120229.html

Big Agile Isn't "One Big Agile"

28 Feb 2012 15:35:30 GMT

Heintz, John | Journals |

In this article, John Heintz looks beyond "just" the software method. He stresses the importance of anchoring Big Agile in an underlying management theory such as evidence-based management or real options theory. Utilizing the underpinnings that such theories provide, a Big Agile initiative is much more likely to succeed than an initiative that merely replicates agile at the team level time and time again.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/itj1202e.html

What Does It Mean to Be "Big"? The Agile Scaling Model

28 Feb 2012 15:19:06 GMT

Ambler, Scott W. | Journals |

Scott Ambler examines the Big Agile challenge from a scaling perspective. For Ambler, scaling requires considering a broader context than "just" the software method. He identifies eight scaling factors that individual teams will inevitably face in the course of doing Big Agile. Coping with these scaling factors requires a disciplined approach that must address, and quite possibly reformulate, the entire product delivery process. In other words, to succeed with Big Agile, one needs to implement agile on an end-to-end basis.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/itj1202a.html

Big Agile

28 Feb 2012 15:16:29 GMT

Gat, Israel | Journals |

"Small is beautiful" in software. While big software might not be beautiful, more often than not, it's in the nature of what needs to be accomplished. This contrast between the beauty of the small and the requirements of the big generates systemic tension in many software projects, organizations, and companies. Resolving this conflict is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/index.html

To Be or Not to Be: That's the Leadership Question for Going "Big Agile"

28 Feb 2012 15:13:07 GMT

Spann, David | Journals |

David Spann sees Big Agile as a fundamental collaborative leadership challenge. He takes the reader through the ups and downs of an agile transformation embarked upon by a company that almost went under, demonstrating how leadership (or lack thereof) played a decisive role at critical junctures in the agile journey. Based on this case study, Spann offers a blueprint for large-scale agile rollout that the reader can apply (with some context-driven adaptations) in his or her own company.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/itj1202c.html

Laying the Foundation for Big Agile Transformation

28 Feb 2012 15:07:47 GMT

Rooney, Dave | Journals |

Dave Rooney views the incremental approach to Big Agile as inadequate. Using a construction metaphor, he highlights the need to prepare a Big Agile initiative with the same thoroughness that one would apply to preparing the foundations for a 20-story office building (as distinct from preparing a site for a single-family home). Rooney's rule of a thumb is that any agile initiative of more than three teams needs to be prepared as if it were the metaphorical site for a 20-story office building. He draws upon his consulting, training, and coaching experiences to describe how this metaphor explains the dynamics that prevailed in three agile engagements.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/itj1202b.html

Big Anything Depends on the People: An Exploration of the Human Factor in Scaling Agile Methods

28 Feb 2012 15:05:04 GMT

Bragg, Tom | Journals |

In his article "Big Anything Depends on the People," Tom Bragg takes a critical view of the gains to be made through software methods. As a factor in project success, he considers methods (agile or otherwise) a distant second to capable individuals. Specifically, Bragg conjectures that reported successes of agile projects might be due to the fact that agile is more fashionable than other software methods nowadays and thus attracts better people -- and as we all know, more competent knowledge workers produce better software than less competent ones. If Bragg's hypothesis is right, the "secret sauce" of agile is not the method per se. Rather, it is the popularity of the method that makes the difference.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/02/itj1202d.html

Using Cloud to Rethink the Enterprise IT Portfolio

22 Feb 2012 14:29:29 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors |

No matter how disciplined a company is about its IT governance, the average enterprise has many years of legacy applications in its portfolio that need to be rationalized. Over time, even the best-run company will acquire what a coworker affectionately refers to as "glops and legacy linguini." We all know the recipe: start with a couple of semisuccessful enterprise application implementations (where the company is continuing to use both the old and the new systems), throw in a few mergers and acquisitions (include a handful of management regime changes and reorganizations to add spice), then stir in thousands of undocumented patches and temporary fixes that turn permanent. Bake until solidified into an impenetrable morass of siloed functions and tangled application interdependencies. These are the nightmares that keep IT executives awake at night. Enterprise clouds offer a solution that allows IT to take governance control back to where it belongs in the company without stifling business innovation or blocking the organization's ability to meet its objectives.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120222.html

Duct Tape Collaboration

15 Feb 2012 14:36:37 GMT

Love, Jim | E-Mail Advisors |

I'm currently working with a medium-sized organization confronting collaboration problems. How do we unleash our true collaborative power? It's not an academic question. We are in a hypercompetitive industry with new competition hitting us from every direction. We are squeezed for revenue as the recession makes our customers even more and more budget and cost constrained. We are all working hard -- harder than ever before. The only direction to go in is to work smarter. We can't afford to waste any resources. We can't afford to duplicate efforts. We need to constantly innovate and roll that innovation out across the company -- quickly. If you have knowledge or information, it has to disseminate quickly.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120215.html

Leadership Versus Management

8 Feb 2012 13:30:08 GMT

Youker, Robert | E-Mail Advisors |

The general literature on leadership is very confusing. There are over 250 different definitions of leadership in the literature! Many of these definitions are not operational in that they don't provide guides to action. What specifically does a leader do? There is confusion over how leadership contrasts with the words "management" and "authority." Educational institutions like the Harvard Business School say their mission is to train leaders, but every professor has his or her own definition of leadership. We need a definition that tells people exactly what they need to do to provide leadership to a group.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120208.html

The Implications of the Cloud in 2012 and Beyond

27 Jan 2012 15:52:21 GMT

Kellen, Vince |

Vince Kellen takes on the entirely obvious trend of cloud computing and discusses the different ways it is likely to impact organizations in 2012 and beyond. Once again, if we think about what has been happening to computing's three components, it becomes clearer that cloud computing is a logical consequence. Why? Commodity-class, large-scale clusters are already commonplace, Web services have been maturing over the past decade to allow for better integration, and server virtualization has matured, with three or four dominant ad hoc standards emerging (hypervisors from VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, and KVM). Large-scale and reasonably well-integrated infrastructure has now been made available as a commodity product on demand. As regional networks achieve 40 gigabit (and beyond) speeds, cloud providers and cloud consumers can build virtual data centers spanning multiple data centers across the globe.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/01/itj1201d.html

Social Media Speaks Out

27 Jan 2012 15:49:18 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J.; Schiavone, Vincent J. |

Advances in the components of computing have enabled massive social media sites and application tools like Facebook and Google. It is the scale of these platforms that makes social networking interesting and economically viable, politically potent, and of great interest to businesses. As Cutter Fellow Steve Andriole and Cutter Senior Consultant Vincent Schiavone point out in their leadoff piece on social media, this new form of computing is powerful because of its massive reach and its massive volume of data and interactions. With social media now so globally pervasive, the authors pose a simple question: why wouldn't a company invest in social media, especially in the analytics of social media? They deftly delve into the critical elements of a social media strategy, how companies ought to take advantage of this technology, and how the future of social media may unfold. Here in 2012, any company that thinks social media is a passing fancy or isn't relevant to them simply hasn't been paying attention.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/01/itj1201a.html

The Consumerization of IT: Predictions, Wishes, and Dart-Throwing Monkeys

27 Jan 2012 15:46:36 GMT

Love, Jim |

Cutter Senior Consultant Jim Love, is correct in pointing out that the tension between the current consumer market and the resistant IT organization will be a challenge in 2012. Love argues forcefully that we in IT should not resist this change but embrace it. If we think more broadly about what is going on, it becomes clear that cell phone data networks are continuing to grow faster (although sometimes not fast enough); are being augmented with WiFi networks at home, work, and play; and are being used to reach hundreds of millions of user devices with powerful CPUs distributed across the globe. With the ubiquity of Internet protocols and with HTML5 poised to be a common-enough user interface development environment, consumer devices and software can now reach unprecedented scale at lower costs than ever. Love writes that the "tipping point" for consumerization is near. I would argue it is past us already, and the rest is merely denouement. Laggard IT shops will have to catch up to those organizations that sprinted ahead.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/01/itj1201c.html

Hot IT Trends 2012

27 Jan 2012 15:01:43 GMT

Kellen, Vince |

Each of these trends described in this issue is powerful on its own and requires devoted study from IT planners and leaders. Taken collectively, they can be a rather large tsunami that engulfs organizations faster than they can adjust. 2012 will likely emerge as a critical transition year in which two well-established trends, social media and consumer technology, meet up with two emerging trends, Big Data and cloud computing, and transform corporate IT from the inside and the outside. There is a lot of promise and peril in these trends. To some, they represent the beginning of the end of the modern IT organization. I -- and I think our authors -- would disagree. This is merely the end of the very early phase of an important transformation that will require all the best and brightest IT leaders across the globe. New tools enable new strategies, and, boy, do we have new tools available to us in 2012! To sort this out, I encourage you to read on and learn how these trends will impact you and your organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/01/index.html

An Executive Primer on Big Data

27 Jan 2012 14:56:03 GMT

May, Thornton |

Thornton May, pokes holes in the term "Big Data," pointing out that it has no clear definition and that the focus on "big" may miss the mark. May makes clear that the variety of types of data, the variation in analysis methods, and the speed of business decision making should also be considered when looking at the Big Data trend. He then goes on to give several current, real-world examples of organizations that have successfully used Big Data methods for business advantage (and one that didn't).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/01/itj1201b.html

Hot IT Trends 2012

27 Jan 2012 14:47:52 GMT

Kellen, Vince |

What a difference a few years makes! At the end of 2008, we were entering the depths of the great recession, and everyone in IT had battened down the hatches, shuttered the windows and doors, and scrambled for their shelters to wait out the storm. Innovation was erased from the CIO agenda, and just as prior downturns had done, this one prompted a collection of pundits to question the viability of the role of the CIO and the modern IT organization. Rome was burning. The end was near.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/introduction.html

Playing the Customer Role Is Easier for the 21st-Century IT Professional

25 Jan 2012 14:33:20 GMT

Malladi, Suresh |

Last September's Cutter IT Journal contains many insightful contributions about 21st-century IT professionals to help you gear up for the new world in which products like smartphones and tablets are playing a growing role (see "21st-Century IT Personnel: Tooling Up or Tooling Down?" Vol. 24, No. 9). The articles touch on the essentials for the 21st-century IT professional, including usability, user interfaces, smart devices, and so on. The authors also discuss the skills demanded of these professionals and suggest roles for them to play. I believe another role that IT professionals can play more effectively than ever is that of the customer. I see this as a byproduct of the smartphone and tablet revolution itself. In this Advisor, I highlight the following points in the 21-century professional world:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120125.html

Cutter IT Journal Call for Papers: Enterprise Security Architecture: Trends and Best Practices

25 Jan 2012 14:31:06 GMT

Rosen, Michael |

Hardly a day goes by without some security issue, information or identity theft event making the news. Although still a concern, teenage boys hacking your system are the least of your worries these days. Organized cyber crime is establishing a stronghold with determined and concerted efforts to move into the 21st century. Even governments are getting into the act. Whereas from an enterprise perspective we often say 'information is an enterprise asset', from a security perspective we say 'lost information is a liability'. Concepts like de-perimeterisation tell us that we can't secure the enterprise by building a wall around it, and the cloud and mobile devices just make it that much harder. So what is an enterprise to do in the age of increased threat and reduced budget?

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers03.html

Weeding and Seeding Internal Crowdsourcing Initiatives

18 Jan 2012 19:38:28 GMT

McLellan, Sam; Muddimer, Andrew | E-Mail Advisors |

A 1983 New Yorker cartoon shows a man taking his son on a walk. "It's good to know about trees," he says to the boy, then adds almost as an afterthought, "Just remember, nobody ever made big money knowing about trees."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120118.html

Cloud Computing: Don't Miss the Forest for the Trees

11 Jan 2012 18:57:58 GMT

Malladi, Suresh | E-Mail Advisors |

Much has been discussed about the potential and perils of cloud computing. While there is promise in provisioning elasticity on demand, cautionary tales point to security, interoperability, portability, and privacy, among others. A recent edition of Cutter IT Journal was forward-looking with excellent suggestions on architectural and operational strategies for effective cloud sourcing (see "Cloud Computing: A CIO's Perspective," Vol. 24, No. 7). In fact, this echoes well with a call by institutions like the World Economic Forum that it might be time to move beyond the concerns about cloud computing and investigate the possibilities it can offer.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120111.html

Embedding Devops in the Enterprise

4 Jan 2012 18:44:48 GMT

Debois, Patrick | E-Mail Advisors |

With the term "devops" picking up steam, vendors are now (re)branding their tools as devops tools. Similar to unit-test tools that supported an agile workflow, the current discussion on deployment automation supports the devops ideas. Even though tools have their merits,1 after reading the August 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal -- "Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making" -- it should be clear that tools are merely one aspect of devops and must be complemented with other aspects. The nice thing about tools is that they give you something concrete to discuss, as compared to the more intangible notion of "culture." Within large enterprises, tools are probably the easy part. Therefore, in this issue, we would like to focus on the harder aspects, like "people and processes," or as the Agile Manifesto puts it, "Individuals and interactions."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120104.html

Inciting Infrastructure Insights

21 Dec 2011 18:07:24 GMT

Baker, Steven W. | E-Mail Advisors |

ood infrastructure is like having a good dinner party planner -- when everything goes well, few guests notice or appreciate the careful plans and up-front investments that went into the event. Yet if and when something does go wrong, things seem to come to an abrupt halt, often with embarrassing results.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111221.html

Reducing Software Release Pain by Releasing More Often

19 Dec 2011 15:49:49 GMT

Morris, Kief | Journals |

Our operations director put forward a counterintuitive suggestion -- rather than releasing less often, why not try releasing more often? Initially this seemed ridiculous. If our team wasn't capable of getting a release out in six months without running overschedule and overbudget, the idea of an even shorter release cycle seemed like a fantasy. But the operations director outlined his thinking, which was based on the concepts of Continuous Delivery. Over the rest of the year, we made some radical changes to the way we worked and saw some very practical benefits to delivering one or more software release(s) every month.

http://www.cutter.com/index.html;jsessionid=9307A462AC1CF6F18202C8ECB59AA60D

Embedding Devops in the Enterprise

19 Dec 2011 15:45:58 GMT

Debois, Patrick | Journals |

With the term "devops" picking up steam, vendors are now (re)branding their tools as devops tools. Similar to unit-test tools that supported an agile workflow, the current discussion on deployment automation supports the devops ideas. Even though tools have their merits, after reading the August 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal -- "Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making" -- it should be clear that tools are merely one aspect of devops and must be complemented with other aspects. The nice thing about tools is that they give you something concrete to discuss, as compared to the more intangible notion of "culture." Within large enterprises, tools are probably the easy part. Therefore, in this issue, we would like to focus on the harder aspects, like "people and processes," or as the Agile Manifesto puts it, "Individuals and interactions."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/12/index.html

Where Is IT Operations Within Devops?

19 Dec 2011 15:42:59 GMT

Keyworth, Bill | Journals |

It would seem that the devops discussion is mostly driven by development's incentives, and appropriately so, given developers' focus on building functionality for the business user. So it's no surprise that development is the originator of the whole devops lifecycle, but are there any dangers lurking in a one-sided focus on devops issues?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/12/itj1112b.html

Devops and the People Who Practice It: Winning Their Hearts and Minds

19 Dec 2011 15:37:41 GMT

Mueller, Ernest | Journals |

On the dev2ops blog (one of the primary locations for seminal devops thought), Alex Honor states his chosen methodology as "People over Process over Tools." This is of course a riff on the Agile Manifesto's value statement of "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools." I believe that devops is at its heart an extension of agile as applied to include operations, so this makes sense as an analogous principle. Why, then, is so much of the devops discussion about those lower-priority items and not the people?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/12/itj1112a.html

Disciplined Agile Delivery and Collaborative DevOps

19 Dec 2011 15:34:38 GMT

Ambler, Scott W. | Journals |

In this article, I present an overview of Collaborative Development and Operations ("Collaborative DevOps" for short) and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). More important, I will describe how DAD explicitly "bakes" devops strategies right into the process framework.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/12/itj1112c.html

Metrics-Driven Devops

19 Dec 2011 15:32:06 GMT

Le-Quoc, Alexis | Journals |

Devops as a cure for the dysfunctional gap between development and operations is here to stay. Complex applications built as an orchestration of highly distributed services, some internal, some outsourced, demand that development and operations find a common language in which to collaborate. Rather than discussing the toolkit du jour, I focus in this article on the necessity to anchor the devops conversation in shared and actionable metrics. To that end, I will examine the recent transformations in the way we build and run applications, discuss the resulting need for better metrics, and introduce a simple framework for evaluating a metrics-driven devops practice in the enterprise.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/12/itj1112d.html

Embedding Devops in the Enterprise

19 Dec 2011 15:29:40 GMT

Debois, Patrick |

With the term "devops" picking up steam, vendors are now (re)branding their tools as devops tools. Similar to unit-test tools that supported an agile workflow, the current discussion on deployment automation supports the devops ideas. Even though tools have their merits,1 after reading the August 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal -- "Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making" -- it should be clear that tools are merely one aspect of devops and must be complemented with other aspects. The nice thing about tools is that they give you something concrete to discuss, as compared to the more intangible notion of "culture." Within large enterprises, tools are probably the easy part. Therefore, in this issue, we would like to focus on the harder aspects, like "people and processes," or as the Agile Manifesto puts it, "Individuals and interactions."

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/introduction.html

Call for Papers: Is Leadership a Science?

12 Dec 2011 19:22:27 GMT

Ellyn, Lynne |

In today's challenging business climate, technical teams are being asked to be more productive, more efficient, more creative, more collaborative, more customer focused and more business savvy. More, more, MORE! Challenged to produce technical innovation that moves the business forward and do it on time and on budget, CIOs and their management teams are facing a leadership crises.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

Testing Assumptions About Security Awareness

7 Dec 2011 18:59:46 GMT

Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence | E-Mail Advisors |

It's clear that our once-a-year, work-your-way-through-a-slide-set approach to computer security training doesn't work. Even with this training, people still write down their passwords, click on links in emails from untrusted sources, and download free software with unknown provenance. For example, last year, 10,000 New York State employees were sent a phishing email to test their ability to recognize suspicious email and links. Three-quarters of the recipients opened the email, and 17% clicked on the embedded link. Fifteen percent even supplied the requested passwords and confidential data! A similar test at West Point involved an email that appeared to come from a colonel. It fooled even more people: 80% of recipients clicked on the link. It is through means such as these that criminals glean confidential data and load malicious code onto the systems of unknowing recipients.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111207.html

Business Architecture on the March

30 Nov 2011 14:09:32 GMT

Ulrich, William M. | E-Mail Advisors |

Over the past year, business architecture crossed a major threshold in terms of standardization, industry awareness, and business engagement. It is now viewed as an important business discipline that executives should pursue. While early efforts emphasized capability mapping and value stream analysis, other aspects of business architecture are now being incorporated into more and more projects. In addition, business architecture in practice is currently being leveraged by a growing body of business professionals, such as planning teams, business analysts, portfolio managers, and management teams.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111130.html

Cloud Computing: Checking for Blind Spots

23 Nov 2011 15:51:02 GMT

Malladi, Suresh | E-Mail Advisors |

Cloud computing discussions are fraught with apprehension about security, privacy, interoperability, reliability, and so on. While the advocates of cloud computing emphasize the importance of IT governance to address these issues,1 most of the practitioner literature is confined to surface-level analysis of the cloud computing concerns. Here I will focus on the nuances of some issues. In doing so, my first goal is to stimulate more thought about all issues that can mar cloud computing. Second, I hope this can galvanize planning and action to realize the true benefits the cloud promises.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111123.html

The Town Planners of Enterprise Innovation

16 Nov 2011 15:04:14 GMT

McClure, Dan; Villela, Carlos | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111a.html

Business Architecture in Practice: Lessons from the Trenches

16 Nov 2011 15:00:44 GMT

Ulrich, William | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/index.html

Effective Customer Requirements Definition Using Business Architecture

16 Nov 2011 14:54:14 GMT

Guitarte, Andrew | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111b.html

A Capability-Based Approach to Strategic Transformational Initiatives

16 Nov 2011 14:29:42 GMT

Krohn, Diana | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111d.html

The Tale of Two BAs: Why Business Architecture Is the Business Analysis Practice�s Best Friend

16 Nov 2011 14:26:25 GMT

McWhorter, Neal |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111c.html

Creating a New Multidisciplinary Cancer Center Using Business Architecture

16 Nov 2011 14:22:57 GMT

Libutti, Steven; Zahavi, Ron |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111e.html

Security and the Enterprise

16 Nov 2011 17:14:17 GMT

Shoemaker, Dan | E-Mail Advisors |

Security of information is a hot topic these days. That is probably because cyber crime has reached a level of popularity that far outstrips the drug trade in terms of ROI for everybody from old-fashioned Mafiosi types to any kid in the Ukraine with a computer. And given the fact that crime on the Internet is all about money, any CEO who does not take all of the steps necessary to secure their organization against cyber attacks is rolling the dice with their company's assets. At least that's what current doctrine would like you to believe. But the problem is that cyber criminals can pillage your company in an infinite number of ways.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111116.html

Need Software Engineers to Develop Secure Software? Put It in Your Job Descriptions!

9 Nov 2011 15:33:07 GMT

Mead, Nancy | E-Mail Advisors |

Recently I had occasion to review software engineering position descriptions to try to understand what skills were sought after for entry-level software engineers. Much to my chagrin, I found that the top-level requirements, and for the most part the secondary requirements, made no mention of knowledge of how to develop secure software, how to avoid coding vulnerabilities, how to do threat modeling, and so on. Generally, the position descriptions followed the age-old practice of emphasizing knowledge of specific programming languages, database applications, and operating systems. It seems that unless a security specialist is sought after, there is no mention of secure development.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111109.html

When Strategies Masquerade as Objectives

2 Nov 2011 18:11:52 GMT

Schildkraut, Laura | E-Mail Advisors |

Have you ever overloaded your dishwasher? You focus completely on getting every last dish, every last glass, and every last utensil loaded. Then you breathe a sigh of relief as you press start. An hour later, as the wash cycle completes, you return to find that the dishes, glasses, and utensils aren't really clean. Have you ever had three loads of laundry to do, but because of lack of time or lack of quarters, you forced it into two loads? What happens? The clothes just don't get clean.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111102.html

Creative Destruction: How to Keep from Being Technologically Disrupted

26 Oct 2011 17:46:36 GMT

Adams, Dennis A. | E-Mail Advisors |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. In some cases the technology was used by existing competitors, but in others the competition seemed to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111026.html

Disruptive Technology in the Real World: The Cloud Computing Example

21 Oct 2011 17:32:58 GMT

Cohen, Beth | Journals | 21 October 2011 |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/itj1110e.html

Disrupt This! The (Mostly) Good, the (Occasionally) Bad, and the (Always) Inevitable

21 Oct 2011 17:26:00 GMT

Clermont, Paul | Journals | 21 October 2011 |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted??

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/itj1110a.html

Technology Disruption in Service Industries

21 Oct 2011 17:21:04 GMT

Brennan, Kevin | Journals | 21 October 2011 |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/itj1110c.html

Disrupting the Disruptors: Three Design Patterns for Combatting Disruption in Incumbent Organizations

21 Oct 2011 17:18:07 GMT

Gordon, Dan | Journals | 21 October 2011 |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/itj1110b.html

Cloud Y

21 Oct 2011 17:15:21 GMT

Braithwaite, Francis; Woodman, Mark | Journals |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/itj1110d.html

Creative Destruction: How to Keep from Being Technologically Disrupted

20 Oct 2011 17:00:47 GMT

Adams, Dennis A. | Journals |

Borders. Blockbuster. Polaroid. Kodak. Teen magazine. Tower Records. Virgin Megastores. When we think about these names, we recall once major brands that have undergone dramatic shifts that, in some cases, led to their demise. These companies were beset by external changes in their competitive environments brought about at least partly by disruptive technologies. We see these changes happening today as the newspaper and music industries are being transformed by new entrants with new technologies. In some cases the technology is used by existing competitors, but in others the competition can seem to materialize out of thin air. The entrepreneurial innovators are out there; the rest of us need help. And so we find that the debate about disruption isn't about whether it happens or not. The debate is, what should companies do to keep from being disrupted?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/10/index.html

Employee Monitoring on Social Networking Services: Employers Must Wake Up!

11 Oct 2011 18:52:24 GMT

Peshin, Esti | E-Mail Advisors |

Most employers opt to monitor what their employees do while at work. The employer's interest is to ensure that the employees perform their jobs adequately and refrain from performing harmful actions, either intentional or unintentional, that may harm the company. A few examples of such harmful actions, which an employer might want to be alerted to and potentially circumvent, include the following:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111012.html

Should You Staff Your Organization with Certified Project Managers?

5 Oct 2011 14:00:31 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors |

This must be a question that tugs on CEOs, CIOs, VPs, and PMO directors at every company across the nation and around the world whenever they consider PM staffing. Wouldn't it be? PMP certification -- the most well-known and widely regarded certification in the project management world -- is a great default requirement, right? Require certification of all your incoming project managers -- and require that your current ones get certified in the next year -- and you're set, right? If you've required the industry standard, how can you go wrong?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj111005.html

21st-Century IT Personnel: Tooling Up or Tooling Down?

28 Sep 2011 17:26:13 GMT

Scott, Robert D. | E-Mail Advisors |

The recent global recession has demonstrated just how tightly integrated the world's economy has become. Organizations are now forced to closely examine every aspect of their business to address the unrelenting and accelerating forces of globalization, emerging technologies, and demographic change that are reshaping how business gets done.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110928.html

21st-Century IT Personnel: Tooling Up or Tooling Down?

22 Sep 2011 16:51:36 GMT

Scott, Robert D. | Journals |

It is clear that organizations are setting new expectations for their IT departments. Historically, the mission of IT was to reduce business and technology costs by optimizing existing IT assets and processes. While there is still demand for asset optimization and process efficiencies, organizations expect innovative breakthroughs from their IT departments in such areas as virtualization of work and leveraging the consumerization of technology. In many cases, the CIO is expected to lead these breakthroughs, both from a championing and execution point of view. So information and information technology have been (and will continue to be) drivers for a fundamental shift in business operating models. But will IT as a function be a relevant part of this? And, if so, at what impact to the oft-maligned IT worker? Is there a 21st-century IT professional?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/09/index.html

Versatility and Innovation: The Keys for Survival of 21st-Century IT Personnel

22 Sep 2011 16:47:01 GMT

Dhakshinamoorthy, R | Journals |

It is clear that organizations are setting new expectations for their IT departments. Historically, the mission of IT was to reduce business and technology costs by optimizing existing IT assets and processes. While there is still demand for asset optimization and process efficiencies, organizations expect innovative breakthroughs from their IT departments in such areas as virtualization of work and leveraging the consumerization of technology. In many cases, the CIO is expected to lead these breakthroughs, both from a championing and execution point of view. So information and information technology have been (and will continue to be) drivers for a fundamental shift in business operating models. But will IT as a function be a relevant part of this? And, if so, at what impact to the oft-maligned IT worker? Is there a 21st-century IT professional?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/09/itj1109a.html

Force of Habit: Seven Essentials for 21st-Century IT Professionals

22 Sep 2011 16:35:04 GMT

Bavani, Raja | Journals |

It is clear that organizations are setting new expectations for their IT departments. Historically, the mission of IT was to reduce business and technology costs by optimizing existing IT assets and processes. While there is still demand for asset optimization and process efficiencies, organizations expect innovative breakthroughs from their IT departments in such areas as virtualization of work and leveraging the consumerization of technology. In many cases, the CIO is expected to lead these breakthroughs, both from a championing and execution point of view. So information and information technology have been (and will continue to be) drivers for a fundamental shift in business operating models. But will IT as a function be a relevant part of this? And, if so, at what impact to the oft-maligned IT worker? Is there a 21st-century IT professional?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/09/itj1109c.html

The Mindset of a Successful IT Professional

22 Sep 2011 16:32:33 GMT

Capmany, Gabriel; Jose Pedro Pagano; Ronchese, Jorge V.A. | Journals |

It is clear that organizations are setting new expectations for their IT departments. Historically, the mission of IT was to reduce business and technology costs by optimizing existing IT assets and processes. While there is still demand for asset optimization and process efficiencies, organizations expect innovative breakthroughs from their IT departments in such areas as virtualization of work and leveraging the consumerization of technology. In many cases, the CIO is expected to lead these breakthroughs, both from a championing and execution point of view. So information and information technology have been (and will continue to be) drivers for a fundamental shift in business operating models. But will IT as a function be a relevant part of this? And, if so, at what impact to the oft-maligned IT worker? Is there a 21st-century IT professional?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/09/itj1109d.html

Cultivating Millennials and Harvesting the Value They Produce

22 Sep 2011 16:29:45 GMT

Bess, Charlie; Bartolini, Claudio | Journals |

It is clear that organizations are setting new expectations for their IT departments. Historically, the mission of IT was to reduce business and technology costs by optimizing existing IT assets and processes. While there is still demand for asset optimization and process efficiencies, organizations expect innovative breakthroughs from their IT departments in such areas as virtualization of work and leveraging the consumerization of technology. In many cases, the CIO is expected to lead these breakthroughs, both from a championing and execution point of view. So information and information technology have been (and will continue to be) drivers for a fundamental shift in business operating models. But will IT as a function be a relevant part of this? And, if so, at what impact to the oft-maligned IT worker? Is there a 21st-century IT professional?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/09/itj1109b.html

How 21st-Century Enterprises Grow

22 Sep 2011 16:20:35 GMT

Evernden, Roger | Executive Updates |

To meet this challenge, architects are discovering new tools and techniques to raise awareness and debate about architectural opportunities and constraints at the executive and board levels across the enterprise. So what are these new techniques, and how do they help large and complex enterprises to grow?

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1111.html

How 21st-Century Enterprises Grow

22 Sep 2011 15:27:02 GMT

Evernden, Roger | Executive Updates |

The risks associated with personally owned devices in the enterprise are significant, warrant serious consideration, and are poorly understood. So why are we still having the teenage-esque debate over them when we should be engaging in meaningful dialogue aimed at making decisions in the best interest of the enterprise? Is it that we truly do not understand how to frame the discussion? Is it that we do not have the courage to engage? Anecdotally, it is both (with a little bit of the "rock star CEO intimidates nerdy IT security analyst" sprinkled on top).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110921.html

Elevating the Discussion of Mobile Security: Let's Be Adult About It

21 Sep 2011 15:55:30 GMT

Ingalsbe, Jeffrey A. | E-Mail Advisors |

The risks associated with personally owned devices in the enterprise are significant, warrant serious consideration, and are poorly understood. So why are we still having the teenage-esque debate over them when we should be engaging in meaningful dialogue aimed at making decisions in the best interest of the enterprise? Is it that we truly do not understand how to frame the discussion? Is it that we do not have the courage to engage? Anecdotally, it is both (with a little bit of the "rock star CEO intimidates nerdy IT security analyst" sprinkled on top).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110921.html

Being a Collaborative Leader (And Getting Things Done)

14 Sep 2011 15:37:13 GMT

Spann, David | Consulting |

General Overview: The Being a Collaborative Leader course will help you discover how you can be a leader who motivates people to work better together, deliver results faster, and exceed basic customer satisfaction by creating an environment in which others succeed. You'll understand the organizational and behavioral barriers that prevent your teams from being as agile and adaptive as they could be. By developing an understanding of the beliefs, behaviors, and practices of successful Collaborative Leaders, you'll become one, and be better positioned to serve your teams so they can reduce cycle times, increase customer satisfaction and enhance organizational value.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/agilebehaviors.html

Theory of Constraints Approach

13 Sep 2011 15:18:39 GMT

Keyworth, Bill | E-Mail Advisors | 14 September 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

During the last decade, vendors, standards bodies, user organizations, and consulting houses have all attempted to capture the promise of business service management (BSM) -- with notable success. Yet the existence of multiple definitions of BSM illustrates the current confusion surrounding this IT discipline.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110914.html

The Proof Is in the Certification

7 Sep 2011 18:47:56 GMT

Shoemaker, Dan | E-Mail Advisors ::

The person who cuts my hair has a formal license on the mirror. The guy who fixes the pipes in my old house has a license, as does my doctor, my lawyer, and the guy who flies me around the country. Heck, even the kid next door has a driver's license. But the person who developed the architecture, wrote the code, and manages my IT operation is not only unlicensed, he or she has no formal proof whatsoever of competence beyond a college degree and some experience.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110907.html

Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making?

2 Sep 2011 18:18:09 GMT

Debois, Patrick | E-Mail Advisors ::

Despite all the great methodologies we have in IT, delivering a project to production still feels like going to war. Developers are nervous because they have the pressure of delivering new functionality to the customer as fast as possible. On the other side, operations resists making that change a reality because it knows change is a major cause of outages. So the usual finger-pointing begins when problems arise: "It's a development problem"; "Oh no, it's an operations problem." This tragic scene gets repeated over and over again in many companies, much to the frustration of management and the business, which is not able to predict releases and deliver business value as expected and required.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110831.html

Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making?

25 Aug 2011 14:35:43 GMT

Debois, Patrick | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Agile Project Management; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over -- devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/index.html

Next-Generation Process Integration: CMMI and ITIL Do Devops

25 Aug 2011 14:31:50 GMT

Phifer, Bill | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Agile Project Management; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over � devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/itj1108d.html

Devops at Advance Internet: How We Got in the Door

25 Aug 2011 14:28:55 GMT

Shamow, Eric | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over -- devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/itj1108b.html

Why Enterprises Must Adopt Devops to Enable Continuous Delivery

25 Aug 2011 14:25:24 GMT

Humble, Jez; Molesky, Joanne | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Agile Project Management; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over � devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/itj1108a.html

Devops: So You Say You Want a Revolution?

24 Aug 2011 14:22:57 GMT

DeGrandis, Dominica | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Agile Project Management; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over -- devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/itj1108e.html

Finding Our Balance

24 Aug 2011 14:08:30 GMT

Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence | E-Mail Advisors | 24 August 2011 | Cutter IT Journal; Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

On 17 July 2011, the Boston Globe reported on the predicament of a driver seemingly "caught in a dragnet." John Gass's Massachusetts driver's license had been revoked; "An antiterrorism computerized facial recognition system that scans a database of millions of state driver's license images had picked his as a possible fraud ... It turned out Gass was flagged because he looks like another driver, not because his image was being used to create a fake identity." It was up to Gass, who drives for a living, to prove who he is, and it took him "10 days of bureaucratic wrangling" to have his driver's license reinstated. http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110824.html

Cutter IT Journal Call for Papers: Business Architecture in Practice: Lessons from the Trenches

24 Aug 2011 14:03:36 GMT

Ulrich, William | 24 August 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Over the past year, business architecture crossed a major threshold in terms of industry awareness and acceptance. Business architecture is now viewed as an important business discipline that executives should pursue. While early efforts have focused on capability mapping -- value stream analysis and other aspects of business architecture are now being incorporated into increasingly more projects. And more important is the fact that business architecture is being used to enable a variety of business solutions that range from ongoing operational improvements to major transformation scenarios. While widespread acceptance continues to build, business architecture discussions are refocusing on lessons learned and the growing number of success stories. The focal point of these discussions revolves around the following topics.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers03.html

Building Resilience Against Threats

17 Aug 2011 16:44:29 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 17 August 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Events move along quickly today, partly due to the onrush of new technology, but also due to the economic and market upheavals of recent years. New risks are emerging in every sector, from missed opportunity to IT security threats, economic hazards, and natural disasters. Companies need to develop the capacity to recover from serious threats and the agility to respond quickly.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110817.html

Arming the Fortress: Principles for Securing Your Enterprise

10 Aug 2011 16:49:38 GMT

Shoemaker, Dan | E-Mail Advisors :: We as a nation -- and each CEO as the individual custodian of a business enterprise -- are going to have to rethink how we define "secure." On most planets there is no way anybody would consider him or herself safe if the average evil-doer could penetrate a defense simply by walking around it. Nevertheless, that is precisely the situation when it comes to cybersecurity.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110810.html

Four Things the Project Manager Should Expect of Senior Management

3 Aug 2011 16:48:27 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors :: Project managers (PMs) are used to working fairly solo. If you have a PMO of, say, 15 PMs, each of whom is running, on average, five projects, then that's 75 projects that may be going on at any given time in the organization. Are we going to involve senior management in every one of those 75 projects? No. Should we, as project managers, expect that our senior management wants to have intimate knowledge of the status of each of those 75 projects? No. Do we really want senior management's hand in each of those projects and have them looking over our backs as we try to lead both staff and customers on each of those projects? I know I don't.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110803.html

Cloud Computing: A CIO's Perspective

27 Jul 2011 15:32:34 GMT

Blitstein, Ron | E-Mail Advisors | 27 July 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Though the cloud computing model offers the promise of significant cost savings coupled with increased IT agility, it is essential that organizations not only carefully consider how and where to apply this approach, but also understand the implications to the rest of the IT ecosystem. Simply accelerating server provisioning will not deliver improved time to market for IT solutions. The IT system must move in synchrony. And that is the focus of this month's issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110727.html

Call for Papers: Creative Destruction: How to Keep From Being Technologically Disrupted

22 Jul 2011 14:52:17 GMT

Adams, Dennis | 22 July 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Below is the call for papers for the upcoming Cutter IT Journal issue Creative Destruction: How to Keep From Being Technologically Disrupted, guest edited by Dennis Adams.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers01.html

Cascading Mobile Capabilities and Keeping an Eye on Android

20 Jul 2011 14:30:29 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 20 July 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

The onslaught of mobile devices into the office is no surprise. It has been going on for years, with workers bringing their PDAs, BlackBerrys, and smartphones to work, and, most recently, their iPhones and iPads. The latest generation of smartphones and tablets offer a new range of functionality that makes them both more useful and more dangerous to the enterprise. While some accommodation has been made already within the enterprise for Apple's devices, the new range of Android phones and tablets is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Android offers several considerations that could very well cause these devices to be treated differently.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110720.html

KM Boundaries Disappear

13 Jul 2011 15:26:44 GMT

Baudoin, Claude | E-Mail Advisors | 13 July 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Recently, I wrote about the transition from a document-centric approach to knowledge management (KM) -- with its emphasis on content management systems (CMSs) and search engines -- to "social KM," in which, to quote myself: "It's not (just) what you know; it's who you know" ("It's Not (Just) What You Know; It's Who You Know," Cutter Consortium Business Intelligence Executive Update, Vol. 10, No. 9, 2010).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110713.html

Establishing a Reserve Data Center

6 Jul 2011 14:09:39 GMT

Gerden, Eugene | E-Mail Advisors | 06 July 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

At present, establishing reserve data centers could be recommended to almost any organization and company that hopes to ensure business continuity and avoid possible financial losses associated with the failure of the main databases.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110706.html

IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?

29 Jun 2011 15:15:11 GMT

Feller, Joseph | E-Mail Advisors | 29 June 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

For several years now, I've been writing articles and reports for the Cutter Consortium about crowdsourcing in general, about the emergence of innovation intermediaries to support crowdsourcing, and about the various phenomena that demonstrate the power of crowds, such as open source software and user-generated content. I was therefore delighted to serve as Guest Editor for June's Cutter IT Journal, in which we sought to better understand how organizations can effectively interact with this curious beast called "the crowd."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110629.html

What Is "Big Data"?

22 Jun 2011 13:36:27 GMT

Reeve, April | E-Mail Advisors | 22 June 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Technology around Big Data management has become of interest to most organizations due to the huge leap in the volume of data currently available and the expected geometric growth in volumes in the near future. One reason for the massive growth in data volumes comes from the reduction in size and cost of monitoring equipment, such as location monitoring of cell phones and RFID tag technology. People and things are constantly giving out information about their location and status.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110622.html

Preventing Confidential Data Leaks

15 Jun 2011 16:52:06 GMT

Gerden, Eugene | E-Mail Advisors | 15 June 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

The requirements from business for protecting confidential information are constantly growing because the damage from disclosing such information may result in a loss of a company's competitive advantage and profits, sanctions by regulatory authorities, and even administrative and criminal liability. It is no secret that successful business performance depends on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of corporate information.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110615.html

Basic Capability Principles

8 Jun 2011 14:41:54 GMT

Ulrich, William M.; Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors | 08 June 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Understanding, using, and representing a set of business capabilities for a business is challenging for many management teams. Establishing certain principles ("agreed-upon truths to guide our actions") streamlines efforts to understand, explain, define, map, and use capabilities for planning and executing business/IT transformation efforts. These 10 principles are:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110608.html

Green Methods for Managing IT Projects

2 Jun 2011 15:23:20 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors | 01 June 2011 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

t's been increasingly evident over the past three to four years that "going green" is a business movement that is here to stay -- partly out of necessity as businesses struggle with increasing costs from fuel and energy. But also partly out of having an environmental conscious. Certainly organizations, publications, activist groups, and news stories are making the masses aware of our duties to help protect and preserve the world we live in.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110601.html

The Nature of the Cyber Threat

25 May 2011 14:57:06 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors | 25 May 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Over the past few weeks, I have received nearly a half-dozen notifications from companies that I do business with saying that my email address, along with possibly some personal information, has been compromised due to "unauthorized intrusions" at third-party Internet retail marketing provider Epsilon. Each company profoundly apologized for the "inconvenience" this breach in cyber security may have caused me, warned me to beware of possible phishing emails flooding my inbox, and promised that they will be working hard to ensure that such an occurrence won't ever happen again.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110525.html

Can Private Industry Learn from E-Government Applications?

18 May 2011 14:51:40 GMT

Alanis, Macedonio | E-Mail Advisors | 18 May 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

There are many ways people interact with e-government applications. Some people work for the government and others work for companies that supply solutions to this very large and interesting market. However, most people interact with e-government applications as end users. Many countries share the idea that government is "for the people," but there are times -- such as when one is waiting in interminable lines at some government office -- when that idea can be hard to believe. I have seen government areas that could learn a lot from other service industries, but more often than not, I see specialists at government IT offices working very hard with little budget, applying very creative solutions that could be copied by private industry.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110518.html

Using the Adaptive Project Framework for a Best-Fit Project Management Approach

11 May 2011 19:18:00 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | E-Mail Advisors | 11 May 2011 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

First, it is important to know that the Adaptive Project Framework (APF) is not a methodology. If you are like a cook and need a recipe in order to manage your project, APF is not for you because it doesn't contain any recipes. However, if you are like a chef and are looking to build a recipe for a best-fit approach to managing your project, then APF should be the tool of choice for you. APF was designed to be a framework for understanding, analyzing, planning, and continuously adapting the best-fit management approach to any project. In order to meet the needs of the chef, APF embraces all project management methodologies with a rationale for selecting and adapting from among them and building the best-fit approach. And it does that quite effectively. As the collection of project management methodologies increases so does the breadth and depth of APF. Understand then that APF is an agile framework and is constantly evolving and expanding. Further development of APF is a process-improvement project. It will never be finished. Like a fine Bordeaux, it only improves with age.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110511.html

Can We Stop Mobile Privacy Armageddon?

4 May 2011 14:47:47 GMT

Lineman, David | E-Mail Advisors | 04 May 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

The "smart" phone is becoming more dangerous to information than the PC. Can we learn from the past to secure the mobile workforce and stop a global mobile-security meltdown? IT folks have always been worried about mobile device security, but the fear was a little vague. Were phones really that dangerous? Would phone viruses become a reality or just a lab experiment? Now our fears are crystallizing into a real vision.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110504.html

The Golden Rule of Customer Service: Some Implications

27 Apr 2011 19:04:00 GMT

Clermont, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 27 April 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

The various articles in the "Technology and the Customer Experience" issue of the Cutter IT Journal (Vol. 24, No. 2), including mine, had, as their most basic notion, "Do unto your customers as you would have your vendors do unto you." This sounds like a pretty simple and basic idea, but it has, as the writers show, quite a few ramifications -- only some of which are technical. They could be summarized as a customer's manifesto as follows:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110427.html

Making BI Accessible to the Rest of Us

20 Apr 2011 15:25:53 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 20 April 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Bringing BI down to the coalface has long been a goal for both vendors and IT managers -- in light of the fact that BI remains largely confined to the 15%-20% of workers in an organization who analyze data. While analysts require sophisticated information and provide essential services in dissecting long-term trends and strategic possibilities, decision makers in the operations area require increasingly sophisticated real-time analysis of data presented in an accessible manner to which they can respond. This has resulted in continuing pressure for "BI for the masses" or "BI for the rest of us."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110420.html

Steps to Restarting a Stalled Project

13 Apr 2011 14:33:06 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors | 13 April 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

In an age when rates of project failure sadly top 50%, having the chance to actually restart a project that has been stalled, cancelled, or put on hold for whatever reason can be very positive. But it's no small undertaking to restart a stalled project. The project manager may tend to think that he and his team have nothing to lose since they can't do any worse than the first team. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. This isn't a scenario where you're coming in as the superman manager trying to rescue a project that is in progress but is failing. I've been there, usually experiencing success and recognition, but not always.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110413.html

Cutter IT Journal Call for Papers: Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making?

13 Apr 2011 14:27:10 GMT

Debois, Patrick | 13 April 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Below is the call for papers for the upcoming Cutter IT Journal issue Devops: A Software Revolution in the Making?, guest edited by Patrick Debois.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers03.html

Not Your Normal Risks, and Using Five Quotients to Find Them

6 Apr 2011 14:51:17 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 06 April 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Risk management is a formal process owned by senior executives responsible for keeping everyone safe and sound day and night. They report to internal and external audit committees or, actually, prefer to avoid any and all interaction with audit folks since even a casual discussion with auditors can result in a boatload of work for entire teams of already overworked professionals. So the game is simple. Meet with internal auditors when you must, and satisfy their every desire -- especially during board reviews and at year's end, when all the reporting takes place. At the end of the day, auditors can provide air cover for initiatives that might otherwise take years to get approved. It's easy to simply say, "The auditors made me do it."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110406.html

Five Expectations the Project Manager Should Have of the Customer

29 Mar 2011 18:42:49 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors | 30 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

No one will argue the fact that the overall responsibility for managing a project falls to the project manager. By definition, that is true. By job description, that is true. All project managers understand, or should understand, that the target is on them when they accepted the role, and it simply can't be passed along to someone else.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110330.html

Business Technology Management: The Evolution of IT Governance

23 Mar 2011 18:33:05 GMT

Mendelovich, Rachel | E-Mail Advisors | 23 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Over the past few decades, the perception of IT has evolved dramatically from an internal unit that provides back-office support to a meaningful group that supports the organization's business processes and, finally, to a revenue-generating division. This "new era" IT is more involved in the business elements that allow the organization to grow, profit, and prosper. In many ways, IT is now responsible for providing the technical leverage that ultimately leads to gaining advantage over competitors. The processes aimed to maintain the linkage between business and IT are known as IT governance.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110323.html

Call for Papers: IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?

18 Mar 2011 18:19:25 GMT

Feller, Joseph | 18 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Below is the call for papers for the upcoming Cutter IT Journal issue IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?, guest edited by Joseph Feller.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers01.html

Invest in Social Media Intelligence

16 Mar 2011 17:29:03 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J.; Schiavone, Vincent J. | E-Mail Advisors | 16 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

There's no question that social media intelligence is a priority. Without social media intelligence, how can anyone know what their customers think, who they like, and who they hate? But there's more to social media than meets the eye. Understanding the nature and trajectory of the cloud is a significant factor. It also enables additional primary and secondary business analyses. For example, the entertainment industry's social media intelligence might well focus on what people are saying about specific movies, television programs, and radio spots. Tweets, posts, and blogs can add depth and color to commentary on various entertainment venues, but they can also provide insights into viewer/listener involvement.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110316.html

Call for Papers: IT + Crowds: Wisdom or Madness?

18 Mar 2011 19:14:32 GMT

Feller, Joseph | 18 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

"Crowdsourcing"1 is the practice of leveraging large groups of (often anonymous) people to complete tasks, to generate ideas, to make decisions and to solve problems. Crowdsourcing has emerged as a compelling alternative to the traditional processes that firms rely on to innovate and to create and capture value. This is particularly true in the IT industry (hardware, software and services) and indeed in a variety of IT-intensive sectors. In these areas, crowds are being used in a number of different ways -- to generate ideas for future products/services, to test and improve existing products/services, to add functionality/content to a company's platform, to process large information spaces and to solve thorny innovation problems, just to name a few. Perhaps most notably, open source software -- software designed and built by crowds -- has had a major impact on the strategies and operations of a wide variety of firms.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers01.html

How to Help Them to Help You to Help Them

2 Mar 2011 16:35:43 GMT

Baker, Steven W. | E-Mail Advisors | 02 March 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Building on the November 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal, "E-Government: Embracing the Challenges and Opportunities" (Vol. 23, No. 11), this Advisor further explores how local governments and citizens may use IT to better communicate and collaborate. While the focus here is on IT use by municipalities, these concepts translate into the worlds of business (with customers), nonprofits (with clients), and other domains.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110302.html

How to Avoid Stupidity: First, Acknowledge It

23 Feb 2011 18:52:45 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 23 February 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

When all's said and done, getting anything right depends on the people in our lives: smart people, stupid people, and nasty people, among other descriptors we might use. Worse, all these people exist in the insane asylums we call teams, organizations, and corporations. But tell me how many organizations are sane and improve the mental health of the inmates?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110223.html

Call for Papers: Surviving a Cyberattack: From Phishing to Cyberwar

17 Feb 2011 18:26:28 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | 17 February 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Some argue that a cyber-Armageddon -- or a "digital Pearl Harbor" -- may be just around the corner, while others counter that while cybersecurity needs to be taken seriously, the overall cyberthreat and its consequences are vastly overblown and are merely a convenient excuse to sell over-priced security software and consulting. The quotes below represent just a small range of views regarding cyber-related threats and their potential impacts on society.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

Five Qualities the Project Manager Should Expect of the Team

16 Feb 2011 18:24:05 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors | 16 February 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

You staff a project with experienced professionals to carry out a project for a customer who is expecting the best that you can give. Likewise, as the project manager, you have similar expectations for those professionals that are reporting to you on the engagement. You expect the best from them, and you expect them to perform on the assignments given to them. Project success involves some luck -- no one can argue that. But the real basis for project success is the assembled team of project pros working together like a well-oiled machine and separately like the very skilled resources that they are. Professionalism, period.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110216.html

Managing Your Emotions As You Negotiate

9 Feb 2011 17:32:53 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | E-Mail Advisors | 09 February 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Back in the 1970s, Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann defined five styles that negotiators bring to the table, based on the degree to which they care about the outcome of a particular negotiation versus the degree to which they care about the relationship with the other party.1 If you are a person who cares much more about outcomes than relationships, you have a competing style; you tend to push hard for your outcome, potentially to the detriment of your long-term dealings with the person. If, on the other hand, you care more about relationships than outcomes, then you have an accommodating style, which is great for building long-term relationships but often leaves you with little to show for in the negotiation. If you try to achieve both relationship and outcome, you have a collaborative style, which is ideal for creating value and win-win solutions but requires a good deal of effort, time, and skill to achieve. If time and closing the deal are paramount in your mind, then you have a compromising style; you emphasize getting some outcome for yourself while also investing somewhat in the relationship. Finally, if you find negotiations too stressful to engage in, you have an avoiding style; you neither achieve your outcomes nor build a relationship with the other side.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110209.html

What's the Cost of Your Untested Assumptions

2 Feb 2011 19:00:28 GMT

You've driven 420 miles from your last fill-up. Your gas gauge reads 1/8th full. You assume that means you still have 60 miles' worth of gas. You bypass gas stations, as you are in a hurry to reach your destination. The car stalls out two miles from the nearest gas station. You don't make it. What happened? Your assumption was incorrect. Had you ever tested the assumption by driving around with a spare gas can and seeing how far you could go after reaching the 1/8 mark? If not, it is an untested assumption. http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110202.html

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

26 Jan 2011 18:42:07 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 26 January 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

If you're new to technology management, then much of what appears in this Advisor may strike you as opinionated, cynical, and arrogant. But if you've been at IT for a while now, you'll see the contents as accumulated wisdom. This Advisor is for those who have been in the trenches for a long time as well as for those who want to jump right into the advanced course in gonzo technology management, skipping the pleasantries of undergraduate interning at your average consulting firm or within the discontented ranks of your typical struggling company.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110126.html

Savvy Steps for Retaining an Organization's Knowledge

19 Jan 2011 17:27:26 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors | 19 January 2011 | Cutter IT Journal Knowledge provides the basis for strategies and policies in an organization. Examples of knowledge that affect business strategies include new competitors, regulatory changes, innovative processes to create products and services, new ways of putting together business portfolios, and upcoming technologies. IT systems (e.g., content management, portals, document management, business intelligence, CRM, groupware, and Webcasting) help share such knowledge within and across organizations. Business organizations and individuals interacting with them are keen to make good use of codified knowledge in all their operations. The ongoing creation and use of such knowledge is part of a learning organization. http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110119.html

Bridging Gaps in Agile Project Management

12 Jan 2011 18:20:36 GMT

Sampath, Kalpana; Sampath, J.M. | E-Mail Advisors | 12 January 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Among the many and varied conflicts that we experience in life, the toughest ones are value conflicts. Conflicts can be either external or internal in nature. External conflicts are those that can emerge due to decisions in everyday life that may not be appropriate to the context. Internal conflicts are those that are epic battles between the two forces that are inside us, the ego and the conscience. One of the challenges that agile teams have to be wary of is the conflicts that come due to the several gaps that agile project team members may experience. These gaps can derail many of the critical processes and slow down the productivity. They can be classified into three basic spaces:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110112.html

Getting Good Requirements from a Bad Situation

5 Jan 2011 18:06:43 GMT

Egeland, Brad | E-Mail Advisors | 05 January 2011 | Cutter IT Journal

Customers are not often known for providing good requirements for the solutions they seek from our project teams. In fact, sometimes all they bring to us is a problem. Even worse, sometimes all they come to us with is a symptom of the actual, as yet undiscovered, problem.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2011/itj110105.html

Technical Debt

1 Oct 2010 15:25:08 GMT

Gat, Israel | Journals | 01 October 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

As they say about economics, you might ignore it, but it will not ignore you. If ignored, technical debt can lead to a broad spectrum of difficulties, from collapsed roadmaps to an inability to respond to customer problems in a timely manner and even to the code becoming "toxic." The seven articles in this issue of Cutter IT Journal explain how not to neglect technical debt, what to do in case neglect has already taken place, and how technical debt techniques could be applied in domains where they have not been used before.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2010/10/index.html

E-Government: Embracing the Challenges and Opportunities

1 Nov 2010 15:23:30 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | Journals | 01 November 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

The November 2010 issue of Cutter IT Journal is a call-out to innovators in government and/or the private sector who are embracing the idea of e-Government, and realizing the promise of a new level of digital government maturity.

http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2010/11/index.html

Crowdsourcing: Behind the Buzzword

15 Dec 2010 19:27:57 GMT

Feller, Joseph | E-Mail Advisors | 15 December 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Over the last decade, the emergence of new technological functionalities (particularly those associated with Web 2.0), combined with the widespread "everyman" use of these technologies, has enabled an ever-increasing number of ways in which organizations can leverage the effort and intelligence of crowds to solve problems, innovate, and get work done (crowdsourcing).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101215.html

Getting the Most out of Business Relationship Management

8 Dec 2010 19:17:00 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 08 December 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

As we move well into the 21st century, there will be several skill sets critical to the impact of IT on the businesses we enable. One of those skills is business relationship management (BRM). BRM is the face of IT. Business partners "sell" IT and simultaneously enable business models and processes through the application of technology to business problems and opportunities. Let's look at what it takes to get BRM right, to get your business partners to true partnership status, and to optimize the relationship between technology and business.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101208.html

Sponsorship of Mission-Critical Projects: Failure Is Always an Option

1 Dec 2010 16:57:44 GMT

Hall, Payson | E-Mail Advisors | 01 December 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

There is a dramatic scene in the movie Apollo 13 in which a mission specialist essentially gives a group of engineers a round peg and a square hole to put it in and proclaims, "Failure is not an option!" Lives were at stake. The moment represented great drama but a terrible model for project leadership and communication.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101201.html

Explore the Fringes to Find the Killer App

24 Nov 2010 16:35:59 GMT

Nickolaisen, Niel | E-Mail Advisors | 24 November 2010 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Cutter IT Journal

When a group of Baby-Boomer IT professionals get together, it is not unusual for a game of “IT Codger One-Upmanship” to break out. In this game, the old-timers usually start talking about who remembers programming in FORTRAN or COBOL. Someone then ups the ante by talking about punch cards. If the participants are old enough, a winner emerges by explaining how he or she used to program in hexadecimal using toggle switches!

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101124.html

Businesses Look to Capitalize on Social Media

17 Nov 2010 18:06:16 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 17 November 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

It's no secret that corporate use of social media as a valuable source for better understanding and engaging customers is still fairly limited at this time. Likewise, current usage of data acquired from social media sites to bolster corporate BI efforts is also quite limited. That said, and having given a lot of thought to the current state of social computing, I still believe that social media analysis is set to experience considerable growth in the near future.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101117.html

Technology Created the Angry Customer

10 Nov 2010 17:57:02 GMT

Love, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 10 November 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Instead of technology improving the customer experience, I would suggest quite the opposite. Technology has actually created the angry customer. It did so over decades and in at least three successive waves; each has deeply influenced customer behavior and attitudes fundamentally at the subconscious level.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101110.html

Security in Wireless Devices: Whose Problem Is It?

3 Nov 2010 16:02:07 GMT

Passerini, Katia | E-Mail Advisors | 03 November 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

While the number of players involved in the delivery of mobile applications and services is large, the ultimate responsibility for security protection rests with the organization that does not want its reputation to be damaged by "whomever" of the players in the mobile value chain -- be it the equipment manufacturer, the network provider, the application vendor, or the end user/employee of the organization. The recent e-mail security breach on Apple's iPad underscores this point.1

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101103.html

The Story of eBay: Building Social Capital With and Between Customers

27 Oct 2010 15:46:02 GMT

Lee, Laurence Lock | E-Mail Advisors | 27 October 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

eBay is undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories to come out of the dot-com boom and continues to thrive. In terms of market capitalization over its 15-year life, eBay has consistently and significantly outperformed the market, including such big names as Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101027.html

Tips for Keeping Outsourced Departments in Touch

20 Oct 2010 20:20:19 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 20 October 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Outsourcing is continuing to evolve toward a wider uptake by businesses of different sizes and in different domains, as well as toward more comprehensive process-oriented offerings. Outsourcing to departments or workgroups, in which related processes are brought together, represents an important development in business process outsourcing (BPO). In the best of cases, numerous benefits can accrue, including economies of scale, improved integration between like processes, added expertise brought to bear on the consolidated area, and greater efficiency. However, this level of integration demands careful attention to management issues, as well as to meeting the needs of interfacing departments on both a technical and a social level. There are issues of collaboration to be considered, as well as requirements for greater modularity in overall company organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101020.html

Flex Your VMs: The Benefits of Desktop Virtualization

13 Oct 2010 20:06:45 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 13 October 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Server virtualization has made considerable headway in the enterprise. But the use of virtualization for desktop (client) computing has been rather limited. This has been primarily attributed to technical issues that have made for a poor end-user experience and difficulties in managing and scaling virtual desktop infrastructure environments. Confusion around determining suitable application scenarios and licensing issues have also hindered adoption of desktop virtualization. Recent advancements in virtualization technology, however, have made virtual desktop environments much more practical, and this is expected to facilitate broader mainstream adoption of desktop virtualization [1] by end-user organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101013.html

CIO As Hero? A Crucial Role As Process Emerges At C-Level

7 Oct 2010 03:05:09 GMT

Gammage, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 06 October 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Business-IT Strategies

Some people label it as Enterprise 2.0; others see it just as a new faster pace in ongoing business transformation. Whatever you call it, there’s a seismic shift underway. Process is at the heart of it, and CIOs have a critical role in enabling the enterprise to ride this incoming tide.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj101006.html

Service IT Spreads Its Wings

30 Sep 2010 02:51:50 GMT

Raj, Pethuru | E-Mail Advisors | 29 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Industry leaders are optimistic about the great success of service-oriented architecture (SOA) in realizing adaptive, real-time, and on-demand enterprises. Services have emerged as the proven construct for rapidly implementing and sustaining mission-critical, enterprise-scale business systems. They provide the most efficient units for realizing business realities and requirements. Services are publicly addressable, discoverable, accessible, and manageable. In addition, they are interoperable and reusable. Furthermore, services can be loosely coupled, fine- and coarse-grained, virtualized, and be part of technology-agnostic modules.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100929.html

Mobile Technologies in the Enterprise: Applications, Implications, and Trends

1 Sep 2010 14:26:59 GMT

Passerini, Katia | Journals | 01 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

This issue of Cutter IT Journal looks at both the opportunities as well as the difficulties of implementing mobile technologies in enterprises. While all the articles take a positive view of the opportunities opened up by mobile technologies, the stories they narrate also show that challenges persist, and that organizations are slowly dealing with them by expanding their strategies, scoping their markets, implementing better security, or piloting enhancements and new business models supported by novel architectures. As you read the articles, we are confident that you will recognize this tension. We hope that they will be a starting point for further reflection on how to join an evolution that will require agility, flexibility, and working at increasing data transfer rates, from anyplace and at anytime.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2010/09/index.html

CORDS -- A Nurturing HRD Climate for Agile Professionals

22 Sep 2010 14:15:02 GMT

Sampath, Kalpana; Sampath, J.M. | E-Mail Advisors | 22 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "profession" means business, calling, career, employment, job, line of work, occupation, office, position, sphere, walk of life, and so on. This is also the foundation of the word "professional," which we think of as the person who is employed on the said work or occupation. According to Webster's, professional means adept, competent, skilled, efficient, experienced, masterly, polished, practiced, proficient, qualified, slick, trained, and so on. In a similar way, the word agile is marked by "an ability to think quickly, mentally acute or aware, active, lively, quick and well coordinated movement."1 Both words indicate that a professional is expected naturally to be agile. The question, then, is what kind of human resources climate would enable a professional to be agile?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100922.html

Try IT Governance: As a Hedge Against Chaos, You Might Like It

15 Sep 2010 14:01:48 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 15 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Technology governance is something every company needs. But it's also something that most companies would prefer not to discuss -- or publish. The fact is that without explicit, consistent, well-communicated, and well-supported governance, you will experience some degree of chaos in the technology acquisition, deployment, and support process.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100915.html

Web as Platform: Opportunities and Challenges Abound

1 Aug 2010 21:54:22 GMT

Feller, Joseph | Journals | 01 August 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

The four articles in this issue of Cutter IT Journal provide a wide variety of perspectives on the challenges and opportunities created by the Web as an execution, development, and hardware platform.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2010/08/index.html

To Protect and to Serve -- Take an Organizational Approach to Digital Assets

8 Sep 2010 21:41:48 GMT

Davis, Christine | E-Mail Advisors | 08 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

The digital age is in full force. Organizational assets are not merely physical; they are becoming more and more digital. Executives and boards have the responsibility to protect both the physical and digital assets of their organizations. Although organizations have been taking steps to protect digital assets from a security standpoint and more recently from a privacy standpoint, cyberattacks and incidents that compromise data are continuing to escalate. Security and privacy have become hot topics in the news where we almost daily gasp as we read about organization after organization being discredited through public embarrassment, leaving their clients, customers, students, employees, and/or business compromised and violated. Most organizations appear to be on the defensive, with little knowledge of how to prevent these problems and don't seem to know where to turn or whom to blame. Of course, IT is right in the middle of it all.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100908.html

IT Taking the Lead with Green IT in the Public Sector

1 Sep 2010 21:19:57 GMT

Cohen, Ralph | E-Mail Advisors | 01 September 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In fits and starts, green IT is emerging as a significant issue for the public sector. The driving forces are practical and virtuous. Soaring energy costs, the threat of catastrophic climate change, and the more mundane (but nevertheless very real) risk inherent in fossil fuel-based air pollution have compelled regional and national governments to take remedial action. Increasingly, government programs to deal with the incipient crisis are being formulated and implemented, but time is critical, and planning needs to be more comprehensive and be infused with a greater sense of urgency.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100901.html

Moving from Control to Influence

25 Aug 2010 20:31:31 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 25 August 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Words convey meaning, and some words convey meaning within a historical context. Sometimes, in order to overcome historical context, new words are coined. The term "ScrumMaster," for example, has been substituted for "project manager." To the Scrum community, the historical baggage of the project manager term (having to do with management style) was, and is, too great to overcome by trying to redefine the project manager's role -- a new word was necessary.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100825.html

The Move to Thin: A Mobile Diet Plan

18 Aug 2010 20:13:06 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 18 August 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

There's no lower-hanging fruit than thin fruit. The adoption of Web-enabled smartphones is outpacing just about every technology in history [1]. As form factors have improved, so has functionality. Lots of assumptions have been challenged along the way. For example, how many of us believed that no one would watch video on a one-inch-by-one-inch screen? As it turns out, lots of Gen Xers and Yers are quite comfortable watching short -- and long -- videos on very small screens. Many of the digerati also believed that soft keyboards would never be accepted by hard-core text messagers. Wrong again. Device adoption is not driven by form factors or exotic functionality but by connectivity and reliability around basic services. Put another way, the assumptions that the traditional "human factors" crowd have made over the years about usability, form factors, ease of use, and even aesthetics may not always be valid.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100818.html

Letting Go: Responses to Change in an Organization

11 Aug 2010 20:13:37 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | E-Mail Advisors | 11 August 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

All change involves loss, and people are therefore often resistant to making changes. Even if the benefits of the change are huge and obvious, the process of change involves letting go of things that might be comfortable. If you buy a new car and trade in your old one, sure, the new car is better, more reliable, and nicer, but your old car was comfortable, familiar, and yours. You had gotten used to the exact placement of the cup holder in your old car, and the new one doesn't feel exactly right. Besides, you might have a lot of memories and associations with your old car that your new car simply can't replace.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100811.html

As Workplace Changes, Question Arises: Train for What?

4 Aug 2010 19:55:28 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 04 August 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

As the 21st century proceeds, we are entering an era where basic assumptions about business organization and employment are evolving. This is resulting in a number of fundamental changes to expectations and skills requirements. People entering the workforce will need new sets of skills and new ways of working. This will be true across all business sectors, but the impacts within IT are likely to be profound.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100804.html

Move to Agile Requirements, Avoid Analysis Paralysis

28 Jul 2010 14:51:52 GMT

Brennan, Kevin | E-Mail Advisors | 28 July 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

In the last few years, agile methodologies have rapidly gained acceptance and moved into the mainstream. Currently, it seems like a majority of companies are running at least one agile pilot program and many large organizations have converted completely to agile methods.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100728.html

The Paradoxical Role of IT in Leading IT Governance

21 Jul 2010 14:30:04 GMT

Van Grembergen, Wim; De Haes, Steven | E-Mail Advisors | 21 July 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Governance is one of those concepts that suddenly emerged and became an important issue in IT. It is not clear when exactly the concept originated as we understand it now. In 1998, the IT Governance Institute was founded to disperse the IT governance concept. In academic and professional literature, articles mentioning IT governance in the title began to emerge during the late 1990s. In the context of the leading academic conference Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS), IT governance was defined in 2001 as the organizational capacity exercised by the board, executive management, and IT management to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy and in this way ensure the fusion of business and IT.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100721.html

Business Intelligence 2010: Delivering the Goods or Standing Us Up?

1 Jun 2010 19:53:45 GMT

Higgins, Dave | Journals | 01 June 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Business Intelligence has no doubt come a long way. Everyone certainly has more data in a more timely fashion than they used to (well, almost everyone) — but is it better data? Has BI promised much more than the insight and business objectives it has actually delivered? In this issue we have five articles, with views from several of the BI hills and a couple from some of the valleys.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2010/06/index.html

For CIOs, Hyperevolution Looms

14 Jul 2010 19:40:54 GMT

Moroney, Patrick E. | E-Mail Advisors | 14 July 2010 | Cutter IT Journal
The January 2010 issue of the Cutter IT Journal ("The Great Recession Fallout: Will CIOs Be Elevated or Exterminated?" Vol. 23, No. 1) focused on the future of the CIO. The article I wrote for the issue (see "Yielding to Darwin: The Evolution of the CIO") offered the advice that the CIO who leads going forward -- paying attention to changing times in technology, business, and global economic shifts -- would be the leader who will thrive at the top of the heap. Since publication of this CITJ issue, the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) has released a 2010 study titled "The Future of Corporate IT," exploring similar territory, as certainly the role of the CIO and the state of corporate IT are inextricably linked. The report cites trends that the CEB predicts will force changes in what corporate IT does and looks like. What should be unsettling for anyone working today in corporate IT is the CEB's prediction that in five years the size of corporate IT will shrink by 75% or more.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100714.html

THIS Is What I Would Have Meant

7 Jul 2010 19:24:09 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 07 July 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Sometimes you get lucky. For the better part of my career, I have been a researcher, consultant, and teacher. Teaching, I find, gives me the most short-term fun, because I get immediate feedback. I think that I learn more when I am consulting, because I'm constantly faced with solving problems in real time. And researching gives me some perspective and ties everything together. For me, research, consulting, and teaching are all ultimately linked. But while teaching gives me immediate feedback, the most rewarding feedback often comes years later when someone shows me something he did with one of my ideas.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea100707.html

Manage Risk with a Centralized Technology Compliance Office

7 Jul 2010 19:23:18 GMT

Szpindor, Catherine L. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 July 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Be honest. How well are you managing your compliance to technical regulations, requirements, policies, and procedures? With the onset of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Customer Propriety Network Information (CPNI), and state privacy regulations, organizations are challenged to manage all of the requirements. Meanwhile, data breaches continue to happen, exposing sensitive corporate financial and proprietary information, including personally identifiable information (PII) of employees and customers. The potential monetary and legal ramifications to a corporation can be significant.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100707.html

The Challenges to Encourage an Agile HR: A Process of Letting Go

30 Jul 2010 19:42:00 GMT

Sampath, Kalpana; Sampath, J.M. | E-Mail Advisors | 30 June 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

A lot of advice has been given about the "how" and "why" of agile. Yet, in human resources (HR), there is still a need for an internal push on several counts. What would enable HR to create and support an agile environment? First, the ability to let go of all the earlier beliefs about people's functions and requirements, and second, a move to experiencing and understanding the agile employee from a different paradigm.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100630.html

Security, Privacy Loom As Key Challenges

23 Jun 2010 19:30:29 GMT

Davis, Christine | E-Mail Advisors | 23 June 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Security and privacy challenges are growing and will more than likely become a central focus for CEOs and CIOs during this next decade. Most IT organizations have been dealing with challenges in this area for many years; however, the level of risk continues to escalate as our cyberworld becomes more and more complex. Internet crime is up, complaints about cyberattacks are up, and arrests are rare {1}. The defensive approach is not working. During this next decade, I predict organizations will be revamping their operations to make security and privacy one of their highest strategic priorities.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100623.html

Through the IT Looking Glass: Mirrors for Managers

9 Jun 2010 19:54:24 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 09 June 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

As project managers, being aware of ourselves is one of the better things we can do. What may help us with this awareness is to utilize the behavioral mirrors of the people who work with us.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100609.html

Measuring Your Way Toward Green IT

2 Jun 2010 22:54:46 GMT

Donnellan, Brian | E-Mail Advisors | 02 June 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

[From the Editor: In recognition of International Green IT Awareness Week (1-7 June 2010), we offer the following excerpt from Brian Donnellan's article, "Green IT Metrics: Enhancing Brand Value While Meeting Compliance," which originally appeared in the Cutter Benchmark Review (Vol. 9, No. 10).]

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100602.html

Finding the IT Governance Sweet Spot

26 May 2010 22:41:51 GMT

Clermont, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 26 May 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In a recent blog post, Cutter Fellow Stephen J. Andriole quite aptly called governance a "necessary evil" (see "Governance Where IT Counts: Try It, You Might Like It," 20 April 2010). It’s kind of like government regulation; too much led to the infamous OSHA inspections of the 1970s, where companies were fined if their washroom stalls were inches narrower than standard. But then too little led to financial market meltdown and a catastrophic oil spill.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100526.html

Business Process Management: Alternative Views

1 May 2010 22:36:43 GMT

Baudoin, Claude R. | Journals | 01 May 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

BPM has become such an important topic in the last couple of years that six articles, even of the highest quality, cannot do justice to the topic or answer all the questions we posed earlier. The five articles in this issue of Cutter IT Journal are qualitatively different from the first six in that they provide alternative, or perhaps complementary, views on BPM's place in the enterprise.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2010/05/index.html

Making It Work: Facing the Challenges of the Project Management Lifecycle

19 May 2010 14:27:54 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | E-Mail Advisors | 19 May 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

A recent report lists the following top 10 factors as challenges to projects [1]: 1. Lack of user input; 2. Incomplete requirements and specifications; 3. Changing requirements and specifications; 4. Lack of executive support; 5. Technology incompetence; 6. Lack of resources; 7. Unrealistic expectations; 8. Unclear objectives; 9. Unrealistic time frames; 10. New technology At least seven of these factors can be mitigated through a collaborative effort on the part of the project manager (PM) and the business analyst (BA).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100519.html

Green IT: Environmental Measurement Challenges

12 May 2010 14:16:31 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors | 12 May 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Environmental metrics and measurements (also known as carbon metrics or even green IT metrics because of the predominance of IT in the carbon space) play a pivotal role in reducing the carbon footprint of businesses. Reductions in carbon emissions by businesses need to be measured for justification and reporting. The CEO of an organization is easier to persuade and, in turn, is able to persuade his or her board to undertake carbon initiatives provided the business case is supported by measurable data. The acute need for carbon emissions data to be regularly and accurately recorded, calculated in detail, analyzed, reported, and used for optimization purposes cannot be overstated. Such data analysis can be used to ascertain the green IT readiness and maturity of an organization, its corresponding industry, and its place at a global level [1]. This need of businesses to have reliable carbon data, however, does not appear to be served well with the existing carbon metrics and measurements. The environmental issues today are perhaps akin to the issues of the early Industrial Revolution, wherein new metrics and measurements had to be invented rapidly and be standardized across the industry. Therefore, as is true with most nascent approaches, the dearth of concrete carbon measures that would enable comparison, justification, and optimization of an organization's green credentials needs to be addressed urgently.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100512.html

Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part III: The Limitations of Self-Interest and the 80/20 Rule

5 May 2010 15:38:56 GMT

Simon, Phil | E-Mail Advisors | 05 May 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In the first part of this series (see "Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part I: Diminishing Marginal Utility," 3 March 2010), I discussed diminishing marginal utility with respect to social media. In the second installment ("Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part II: Opportunity Cost," 7 April 2010), I discussed opportunity cost (OC) and how even "free" things have costs -- specifically, time.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100505.html

Cultivating Leadership: It's About the People

28 Apr 2010 15:25:12 GMT

Bauer, Martin | E-Mail Advisors | 28 April 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In reading the latest Cutter IT Journal issue on cultivating leadership (see "Cultivating Leadership Throughout the IT Organization," Vol. 23, No. 3), one thing struck me. Every single article, in its own way and for different reasons, came to the same conclusion.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100428.html

Software Programming as Craft: The Impact of Agile Development

1 Apr 2010 13:42:30 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | Journals | 01 April 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

The promoters of the software craftsmanship movement claim that programming is a skill that requires lifelong learning. They argue that you learn professional programming not only from a textbook, but also by collaborating with skilled peers. Of course, there are rules for good code, but building good code requires more than theoretical knowledge of these rules -- it requires tacit knowledge and experience. And this is where craft enters the scene: craftsmanship is the traditional means of teaching and transferring tacit knowledge and experience. So is this a battle cry against software engineering? Some people think so. This issue of Cutter IT Journal aims at providing you with an overview of the different aspects of the current discussion of software craftsmanship.

http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2010/04/index.html

Build Risk Resiliency with a Strong Risk Management Culture

21 Apr 2010 13:26:00 GMT

Doughty, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 21 April 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Developing a risk management culture in any organization is a significant undertaking, particularly if the organization has not formally considered risk management as an integral part of running the business. Risk management culture is nothing that is hard and clearly definable, but is an attitude. In other words, "It is the way we do business here."

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100421.html

"Mindful Learning" -- A Critical Attribute of an Agile Project Manager, Part II

14 Apr 2010 13:16:59 GMT

Sampath, J.M.; Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 14 April 2010 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

The traditional way of managing projects was born out of knowledge. Soon, project managers started managing projects mindlessly, and all the issues of project management began to surface. With a view to finding a solution to those problems and advancing the ways of managing projects, agile project management was born. While the founders of agile project management had a great degree of clarity about what it means to be agile, the clarity seems to be getting lost by the time it reaches the front-line agile project manager (APM). As agile project management evolves, many more explorations are needed to understand and integrate the same into real-time project management. In Part II of this Advisor, we deal with the distinction between being mindless and being mindful and how these distinctions can be compared to traditional project management and agile project management.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100414.html

Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts

15 Apr 2010 20:27:52 GMT

Rosania, Mark | Events | 15 April 2010 | Agile Project Management

Please join Cutter Senior Client Research Manager Mark Rosania for tips, tricks, and shortcuts to navigating Cutter’s Resource Centers. Whether you’re a new client or a veteran, you’re sure to gain a better notion of what you’ll find at the Cutter website and discover something new during this interactive demonstration!

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/cutterdemo.html

Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part II: Opportunity Cost

7 Mar 2010 20:21:06 GMT

Simon, Phil | E-Mail Advisors | 07 April 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In the first part of this series (see "Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part I: Diminishing Marginal Utility," 3 March 2010), I maintained that the benefits of social media are subject to the same economic principles as just about any other good or service.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100407.html

For Successful Agile Transformation, Engage Your Middle Manager

31 Mar 2010 20:09:30 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 31 March 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Agility is not reaching far enough into organizations. Too many agile development initiatives fall far short of their potential. Too many organizations have a few successful agile projects, but fail to sustain agility. Success on a few, or even more than a few, projects doesn't translate to wider acceptance of agile principles and practices in the organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100331.html

"Mindful Learning" -- A Critical Attribute of an Agile Project Manager, Part I

24 Mar 2010 21:38:27 GMT

Sampath, J.M.; Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 24 March 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

What gives agility to a project manager? The capacity to learn. Learning is critical to efficient project management. Ironically, this is the factor that we take for granted the most. Having gone through years of education to qualify oneself as a manager, many times being a technical wizard, we believe learning is something automatic and is happening all the time. But how many of us ask the question: how is our learning happening? How many of us "learn to learn"? How mindful is our learning?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100324.html

Back-to-Basics Job 1: Governance

17 Mar 2010 21:26:37 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 17 March 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

When experienced consultants walk into an organization, the first thing they try to assess is the control structure that defines the company. We're all familiar with the venerable "command and control" power structure; some of us are just as familiar with collaborative management structures. Matrix management was very popular a few decades ago, and today everyone's confused about the impact that Web 2.0 tools will have on collaboration, decision making, and, ultimately, control. The reason that consultants -- and everyone -- are so sensitive to control structures is that the distribution and specificity of power relationships inside all organizations determine what gets done.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100317.html

Fly'n, Eye'n, Buy'n

10 Mar 2010 14:41:43 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 10 March 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

A fundamental of configuration management is a baseline: a description of a large group of items. Baselines can be powerful tools to help manage an endeavor.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100310.html

Economics 101 and Social Media Strategies, Part I: Diminishing Marginal Utility

3 Mar 2010 14:28:38 GMT

Simon, Phil | E-Mail Advisors | 03 March 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Perhaps because it is so new, social media could be one of the least understood emerging technologies around. In this three-part series of Advisors, I will apply three tried-and-true economic principles to this rapidly evolving medium:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100303.html

To Manage Privacy Risks, Make Your Information Anonymous

24 Feb 2010 14:18:05 GMT

El Emam, Khaled | E-Mail Advisors | 24 February 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Businesses and governments collect a large amount of personal information, some of it quite sensitive, about their clients, employees, patients, and citizens. At the same time, a random scan of media reports on any given day will find multiple stories of personal data lost by or stolen from corporations and governments. For instance, between January 2007 and August 2009, there were at least 1,306 reported breaches of personal information affecting almost 176 million records in the US and Canada.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100224.html

Social Networking in Business Today

1 Mar 2010 23:54:22 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 17 February 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Web 2.0 and social networking sites are continuing to develop in response to user needs. They provide an important new form of communication and social interaction with numerous repercussions in the world outside, as reflected in recent stories about Facebook and YouTube celebrity and use in the 2008 US presidential campaigns. Social networking provides an evolution of Web-based communication formats, which had already supplanted older forms of communication, such as postal mail, community bulletin boards, and CB radio. Evolution has been swift, it's accelerating, and there's no immediate end in sight. The phenomenon of social networking is merging with messaging and collaboration -- and becoming increasingly international. In addition, niche products are coming into play.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100217.html

Business Process Management: The Missing Link Between Business and IT?

1 Feb 2010 23:40:28 GMT

Baudoin, Claude R. | Journals | 01 February 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

In this issue, seven authors from very diverse backgrounds will help you understand and explore -- if not entirely resolve -- some of the challenges and myths affecting the current preoccupation with BPM. Their thoughtful analyses provide guidance to those who wish to raise the awareness of business processes in their organizations and arrive at better control over their design, execution, monitoring, and optimization.

http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2010/02/index.html

The Great Recession Fallout: Will CIOs Be Elevated or Exterminated?

1 Jan 2010 23:19:02 GMT

Kellen, Vince | Journals | 01 January 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Welcome to the Cutter "Future of the CIO" pool! At one end of the pool, we hear all the paranoid negatives. IT is not strategic, so CIOs will be reduced to technology caretakers and vendor managers, as they should be. CIOs are strategically dim-witted and not as sharp as the business in matters of IT and business value, so good riddance to the role. IT is now a consumer product that business leaders will buy themselves, bypassing a central IT purchasing and EA regime that seemed to exist only to stymie the strategy artisans in the business units. Web and Enterprise 2.0 have freed the business from the clutches of central IT and enabled so many benefits that we can stop thinking about corporate IT in the old way. http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2010/01/index.html

Clarity on Both Sides Helps Resolve Conflicts

2 Feb 2010 00:33:56 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | E-Mail Advisors | 27 January 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Too often people leave conflict resolution to chance, relying on people's skills and ad hoc efforts. Conflicts happen every day, and good planning can both reduce the incidence of conflict and bring conflicts to resolution more quickly and productively, generating better outcomes and preserving relationships. Consider the survey results from a recent Cutter Benchmark Review survey ("Client-Vendor Relationships: Toward a Relationship Paradigm," Vol. 9, No. 11). Amazingly, less then a quarter of the companies surveyed have processes for conflict resolution in place and train people in how to use them, while, more specifically, only 27% have formal processes expected to be used. Now, although more than 70% of companies have some type of conflict resolution process, many do not use these systems in practice and still leave most of the dispute resolution to ad hoc efforts by their employees. Note that nearly a quarter of companies have no systems for conflict resolution at all. While giving people skills through training is critical, an overreliance on people and their skills, without the systems to back up and support them, is likely to diminish the effectiveness of their efforts and degrade satisfaction with client-vendor relationships.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100127.html

Understanding What Makes a Project "Fuzzy"

21 Jan 2010 00:24:00 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | E-Mail Advisors | 20 January 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

A "fuzzy" project is one where something feels out of sorts. Maybe the goal statement is a bit aggressive, and the project manager (PM) wonders whether or not it can be achieved. Maybe the proposed solution just doesn't seem to do the job. Or maybe the assumption of a cause-and-effect relationship between goal and solution is a bit of a stretch. Some managers would argue that all of their projects are fuzzy projects. For these people, it seems like all of the simple projects -- where both the goal and the solution are clearly defined and documented -- are already done. Those are the projects where managers believe that requirements are complete, and they have the comfort of a complete work breakdown structure (WBS). With those types of projects complete, all that's left are projects that have a goal statement that managers believe cannot be attained as currently framed or a solution that is far from complete -- or both. Effectively managing such projects is the biggest challenge that PMs face. The percentage of such projects among all projects is increasing, and that trend will not reverse itself.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100120.html

Of Bravery, Cowardice, and Recognizing Fatigue

13 Jan 2010 15:43:50 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 13 January 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Fatigue comes to each of us every day and affects us at work. There are things we can do to reduce or increase the fatigue and ways we can work through and around the fatigue.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100113.html

A BI Cloud Also Rises

6 Jan 2010 15:34:04 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 06 January 2010 | Cutter IT Journal

Business intelligence (BI) solutions continue to rise in importance in the corporate decision-making processes at every level. At the same time, the size of the data sets that need to be analyzed and the complexity of integration processes have resulted in strains in traditional data warehousing infrastructure models and significant gaps in capability to provide a growing number of less sophisticated users with the insight that they require. This has led to proliferation of unattached data marts within the enterprise, direct development of Web-based analysis, and presentation tools as mashups, difficulties in keeping up with increasingly urgent real-time analysis demands, and problems in taking advantage of processor-intensive predictive analysis strategies.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2010/itj100106.html

Leveraging IT Governance When the Chips Are Down

1 Dec 2009 14:38:42 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | Journals | 01 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In this month’s Cutter IT Journal, our authors focus on IT governance in these turbulent times. What’s particularly exciting about the articles in this issue is that they present real data on these questions and reflect perspectives from all parts of the world.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2009/12/index.html

Green IT Measurement Challenges

23 Dec 2009 14:13:26 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors | 23 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

When it comes to measuring carbon emissions, especially across medium-sized to large businesses, there is an urgency to measure and report carbon data. Two important things related to carbon emissions stand out: the need to comprehend how much carbon is being generated by the business activities, and even more importantly, the lack of standardized and detailed measurements to do so. Currently, there are myriad factors that get overlooked, double calculated, or confused with other things when it comes to ascertaining carbon emissions. And the IT support for these calculations is also limited. For example, even an Australian official tool for calculating carbon emissions comes with a disclaimer [1]! Similarly, at an individual level, we have a much lesser "feel" for the amount of carbon emissions occurring through our activities than we have for our power or water usage. For example, the average home PC user may be surprised to discover that his or her computer emits anywhere between 0.4 metric tons to 1.6 metric tons of carbon in a year (depending on how it is being used) [2].

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091223.html

Call for Papers: Cultivating Leadership Throughout the IT Organization

18 Dec 2009 16:49:31 GMT

Furniss, Bob | 18 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

The March 2010 issue of Cutter IT Journal invites useful and thoughtful analysis and debate on the challenges of leadership within the IT organization and how it can be most effectively achieved at all levels to maximize performance and achieve business goals.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers03.html

Knowing Stops from Knowing: A Hurdle in Problem Solving

16 Dec 2009 16:43:20 GMT

Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 16 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

In project management, as long as things move the way they are envisaged, there is no problem. If there is a hurdle, however, the project manager is expected to respond in the least time possible. This hurdle may be either technical or human, and in either case, arriving at the best alternative or finding the exact error requires absolute openness and being in the present moment.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091216.html

Do You Know Where Your Data Is? Securing Distributed Enterprise Architectures

9 Dec 2009 16:35:52 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors | 09 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Enterprise data integrity, security, and confidentiality have long relied on combined network- and application-based security. As enterprise architectures become more complex -- both increasingly distributed and centralized -- the old models for securing data are no longer applicable when the data can be anywhere, accessible from any place and at any time. Security and data assurance are never easy to implement under the best of circumstances, but no enterprise can afford to ignore incorporating security into their systems at the very earliest stages of the design process.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091209.html

Enterprise Architecture: The State of the Practice 2010

1 Nov 2009 18:04:46 GMT

Rosen, Mike | Journals | 01 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Enterprise architecture (EA) has become a mainstream activity in large and/or information-intensive organizations. Several years ago, we covered the emerging best practices in EA, and since then, readers have asked us to check back and see how things are evolving. Have organizations that implemented EA programs realized the benefits they expected?

In this issue of Cutter IT Journal, we'll look at what's new in EA and how EA can deliver value to the organization. You'll discover how a focus on technology and frameworks can undermine an EA effort -- and how one organization is successfully developing and maturing its EA practice by embracing principles and action plans, coupled with collaboration, engagement, and leadership. You'll hear how key deficiencies in today's EA "state of the practice" can be addressed by embracing a new set of transformational EA principles known as semantic enterprise architecture (SEA). And you'll learn how cloud computing affects EA in organizations and how enterprises can restructure their existing processes to get the full benefit of this new paradigm. Join us to find out more about the latest and greatest in EA practice.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2009/11/index.html

A Recipe to Improve Enterprise Success-Fail Project Rates

2 Dec 2009 17:54:03 GMT

Maeda, Masa K. | E-Mail Advisors | 02 December 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Larry Gelwix has been the head coach of the Highland High School rugby team in Salt Lake City, Nevada, USA, for 36 years. During that time, his team has accumulated a 413-9 win/loss record; the most impressive record achieved by any sports coach -- professional or amateur -- ever. Wouldn't it be fantastic if our projects had a similar success/fail rate? Some aspects of Gelwix's coaching style are well in tune with some agile-lean values and principles:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091202.html

Agile Sponsors Seek Safety at Any Speed

25 Nov 2009 17:43:20 GMT

Thomsett, Rob | E-Mail Advisors | 25 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

The rate of change is only part of the challenge facing project sponsors. It is the agility of the response to the change that is also a key factor. As more organizations begin to explore fundamental changes to their management and operational models in response to the global economic crisis, the evolution of agile methods, such as agile development and agile project management, has provided an alternative for project development in both business and IT projects. However, to effectively deploy agile techniques, the role and behaviors of project sponsors will need to change to support the dynamics of these agile methods.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091125.html

Is E-Mail Becoming Passe: The Rise of Niche Media

18 Nov 2009 20:58:59 GMT

DeMarco, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 18 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

It's no secret that today's college students have trouble writing clear text. I've been working this past year with a group of University of Maine undergrads, helping them build the writing skills that most of us assumed were honed in their middle school or high school years. On one two-draft assignment, I raced to get marked-up papers back to the students before they needed to start on their second drafts.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091118.html

New Generation -- New Business Flow

11 Nov 2009 20:45:27 GMT

Cohen, Pini | E-Mail Advisors | 11 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

A lot has been said about the new generation, which is often referred to as "digital natives." The digital natives act, think, and feel differently from older generations in many respects. For example, they embrace new technologies faster and do not become very angry when the new technologies are not mature. They expect immediate results, they expect personalization, and they also work, feel, and think in a "threaded" manner. The new generation is already altering some aspects of business, although I believe that much more change will come, especially from the threaded character of this generation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091111.html

The Rise of the Semantic Enterprise

1 Oct 2009 23:19:02 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | Journals | 01 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In this issue we explore the Semantic Web and what it signifies for the enterprise. Learn how SWTs can help solve another perennial business problem -- data integration -- by providing dynamic data and a flexible architecture. Hear how these technologies can enable more flexible delivery of mathematical models to users, thereby enhancing business decision making. And find out how enterprises can exploit SWTs to create a people-machine continuum that improves business agility. Tune in to discover what a "meaningful Web" could mean for your organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2009/09/index.html

To Do or Too Due? Getting the Most out of Personal Productivity Tools

4 Nov 2009 22:57:41 GMT

Feller, Joseph | E-Mail Advisors | 04 November 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In my article in the July 2009 Cutter Benchmark Review (see "Looking at Personal Productivity Tools and Systems,"Vol. 9, No. 7), I wanted to identify some of the tools, techniques, attitudes, and environmental factors that could use a tune-up so that people could continue to get the job done but in a way that lets them go home at the end of the day without work lurking behind them. Specifically, I wanted to examine the extent to which practices and attitudes, revealed in the CBR survey on which that article was based, support or inhibit externalizing memory, making information actionable, and executing actions in a situated and agile fashion. Based on my analysis of the survey data, I offer a few pieces of advice.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091104.html

Control Issues: Import of Open Source Governance Advances

28 Oct 2009 22:40:05 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 28 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Open source software (OSS) has entered the enterprise through a variety of different avenues over the past several years. It has become extremely important within the infrastructure area revolving around the Linux operating system platform, where it has gained support from such leading software vendors as IBM and Novell. Support from major vendors has added to the credibility of open source, and its use is broadening in the enterprise. Where once open source was mainly focused on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) components, applications of numerous types are beginning to appear. For example, there has been movement toward creating open source platforms for business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as Compiere, training platforms such as Moodle, and so on.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091028.html

More on the Search for Low-Hanging Fruit: Improving Security and Privacy with Penetration Testing

21 Oct 2009 22:46:13 GMT

Miller, Bryan | E-Mail Advisors | 21 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Since my article appeared in the August issue of Cutter IT Journal (see "In Search of Low-Hanging Fruit: Improving Security and Privacy with Penetration Testing," Vol. 22, No. 8), I have talked with several clients and read other articles that have cited additional reasons for not properly auditing the security of networks and applications. In an August 2009 article [1], security researcher and blogger Jeremiah Grossman lists several reasons companies give for not performing adequate application testing. Some of these include the following:

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091021.html

The Flex Factor: Changing the Process Mindset

14 Oct 2009 22:33:37 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 14 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

A couple of recent client engagements with very large companies reminded me about the fixation on process in many companies. Having used agile, iterative methods for so many years, I lost track of how pervasive process orientation can be in some organizations. Explaining my high-level process (envision, speculate, explore, adapt, close) to one group, I finally realized that its members were looking for more -- much more -- detail. They were looking for subprocesses that were broken down into sub-subprocesses that were further broken down into steps and then tasks, with specifically defined inputs and outputs for each process, subprocess, step, and task.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091014.html

Understanding What Makes a Project "Fuzzy"

8 Oct 2009 00:51:24 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 October 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

A "fuzzy" project is one where something feels out of sorts. Maybe the goal statement is a bit aggressive and the project manager (PM) wonders whether or not it can be achieved. Maybe the proposed solution just doesn't seem to do the job. Or maybe the assumption of a cause-and-effect relationship between goal and solution is a bit of a stretch. Some managers would argue that all of their projects are fuzzy projects. For these people, it seems like all of the simple projects -- where both the goal and the solution are clearly defined and documented -- are already done. Those are the projects where managers feel that requirements are complete, and they have the comfort of a complete work breakdown structure (WBS). With those types of projects complete, all that's left are projects that have a goal statement that managers feel cannot be attained as currently framed or a solution that is far from complete -- or both. Effectively managing such projects is the biggest challenge that PMs face. The percentage of such projects among all projects is increasing, and that trend will not reverse itself.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj091007.html

The Purpose of Vision, Purpose, and Goals: A Critical Dimension in Project Management

30 Sep 2009 19:22:06 GMT

Sampath, J.M.; Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 30 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

While walking, a young man reached a crossroad. Unsure of which road to take, he looked around and saw an elderly gentleman passing by. He approached him and asked, "Sir, where does this road lead to?"

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090930.html

Java vs. .NET, Revisited

24 Sep 2009 01:40:56 GMT

Cohen, Pini | E-Mail Advisors | 23 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Five to seven years ago, Java versus .Net was a hot topic. At that time, many organizations were at this important crossroad. Now, they have all made up their minds. But some are reconsidering their previous decision.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090923.html

The Rise of the Semantic Enterprise

2 Sep 2009 01:27:35 GMT

The Trend Toward BPM and SOA Convergence: What Does It Mean to IT Culture?

17 Sep 2009 01:25:55 GMT

Allen, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 16 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

We read much these days about business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) converging. Is that just hype, or does it really make sense? And if it does make sense, just what might that mean for our organization -- not just in terms of technology, but also in terms of that subtler, softer kind of thing we call "culture" -- the unwritten rules of the game?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090916.html

Jump on in: News from the Agile2009 Conference

9 Sep 2009 19:45:31 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors | 09 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

Judging from the wildly enthusiastic international crowd of 1,400 attending the Agile2009 conference in Chicago, Illinois, USA, last week, XP, Scrum, and agile software development methodologies are becoming more mainstream. After years of pilot projects, agile is finally gaining acceptance as a legitimate approach to software development in the business community. While the conference sessions were still heavily weighted toward practical topics such as how to build agile test beds, embedded software development, and the fine points of pair programming, many popular sessions expanded the scope to include business and operational concerns, such as workflow, infrastructure, metrics, and building agile organizations and culture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090909.html

The Web as the Sea Around Us: Will it Engulf or Buoy Us?

2 Sep 2009 19:36:08 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 02 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

It cannot be said any clearer: we have significantly underestimated the impact that the Web is having -- and will continue to have -- on our personal and professional lives. Within five years, the Web will become the dominant personal and professional platform for communication, collaboration, entertainment, learning, and all forms of business transaction processing. Within 10 years, the personal/professional merger will be complete with virtually no distinctions between what we do to live and what we do to work. I predict that significant aspects of our personal and professional lives will move to the Web, be managed by Web-based providers, and support an agility and mobility that we're unable to define or appreciate today. This means that everyone will become immersed within, and dependent upon, the Web. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Well, just about all of us are committed to and dependent on cable TV, our cell phone carriers, and the people who service our cars. In a recent Cutter Business Intelligence Executive Report (see "Living on the Web: Digital Life and Death in the Early 21st Century," Vol. 9, No. 5), I suggest that shifting to the Web has benefits that extend well beyond agility and mobility and is likely to change the way we all think about the range of activities that define who we are, how we live, and how we work. It's all inevitable.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090902.html

Call for Papers: Leveraging IT Governance When the Chips Are Down

10 Aug 2009 15:49:45 GMT

Benson, Robert J.; Bugnitz, Tom | 10 September 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

The December Cutter IT Journal invites useful, innovative, and thoughtful debate on IT governance and its relationship to IT effectiveness in dealing with the current turbulent times. Please respond to Bob Benson at bbenson[at]cutter[dot]com with a copy to itjournal[at]cutter[dot]com, no later than 10 September and include an extended abstract and a short article outline showing major discussion points.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers03.html

Cutter IT Journal Call for Papers: Enterprise Architecture: The State of the Practice 2010

28 Aug 2009 15:46:40 GMT

Rosen, Mike | 28 August 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Enterprise Architecture (EA) has become a mainstream activity in large or information intensive organizations. Several years ago, Cutter IT Journal covered the emerging best practices in EA and since then customer surveys have requested that we check back to explore how things are evolving. Have organizations that implemented EA programs realized the benefits they expected?

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

What Happens After the Fall?

26 Aug 2009 15:21:29 GMT

Mazzucchelli, Lou | E-Mail Advisors | 26 August 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

While post-recovery conditions are not likely to immediately return to pre-crash states, some cyclical trends will remain in place and help us forecast the medium term. Other forces outside IT may have the greatest impact on IT's future.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090826.html

Startups Continue to Seed IT Innovation

19 Aug 2009 15:10:57 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors | 19 August 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Unless you have been buried under a rock for the past eight years, you have probably noticed that practically all of the revolutionary IT products and hot services that get the big buzz are being developed directly for the consumer sector. Think about all of the great new products -- wireless LAN, instant messaging, Web 2.0, social networking, MP3 players, PDA technology, flash drives, and cloud computing (yes even cloud computing, which is mostly a means for Google and Amazon to recoup some of their excess capacity investments). All are examples of technologies that originated as products designed for the consumer market that have since been adopted by the enterprise. The truth is that there has been little IT innovation created directly for the business market since the dot-com meltdown in 2001 (virtualization does not count, as I view it as a reinvention of some very old ideas).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090819.html

Assessing the Culture of Your Organization

12 Aug 2009 14:54:00 GMT

Furniss, Bob | E-Mail Advisors | 12 August 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Culture is a feeling in your organization that is hard to categorize but easy to see. Culture is what your employees say about service and the customer when no one else is around -- around the lunch table or over drinks. Culture is an attitude toward quality. Culture is the norms, attitudes, beliefs, and values that employees place on their job, their organization, and their relationship with the customer.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090812.html

To Assess Risk, Be Wary of Personal Viewpoints

5 Aug 2009 14:39:05 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 05 August 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

I recommend beginning a project with a risk assessment to identify potential problems. But such assessments are plagued with potential problems themselves. One is that expertise can act as a lens to magnify only a small part of the project. Fortunately, there are ways to work around these lenses.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090805.html

Strategic Risk: Balancing 5 Steps in the New Equation

29 Jul 2009 16:39:19 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 29 July 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Strategic risk should be measured differently from tactical risk. Strategic risk should be forward-thinking, active, and opportunity-driven. In fact, the cost of not doing something should be measured creatively and -- as counterintuitive as it may seem -- quantitatively.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090729.html

A COBIT Primer

22 Jul 2009 16:25:34 GMT

Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors | 22 July 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

There are so many different frameworks with which architects work -- TOGAF, Zachmann, FEAF, ITIL -- to name just a few. All have different goals, strengths, weaknesses, audiences, and so on. The one that I find to be the least well known among architects is COBIT. Yet I find that many CIOs and executives are familiar with this framework and that it is important in communicating up to the C-level. COBIT, originally released in 1996, is currently at version 4.1 (you can download the guide from www.isaca.org).

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090722.html

Cloud Computing: IT's Day in the Sun?

1 Jul 2009 15:01:04 GMT

Murugesan, San | Journals | 01 June 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

We hope to thoroughly demystify the phenomenon by exploring this new style of computing at length in a June/July double issue of Cutter IT Journal. In our special double issue, you'll learn what to look for in a cloud service-level agreement -- and what might be missing. You'll hear why, contrary to popular belief, cloud computing's security benefits outweigh its security risks. And you'll discover how advances in cloud computing architectures could ultimately enable enterprises "to outsource their entire IT infrastructure transparently, turning it into a controllable line item expense instead of a major capital investment." If that sounds good to you, join us and get your head into the cloud.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2009/06/index.html

Out of this World: The Semantic Web 3.0 Mashup Universe

15 Jul 2009 14:17:41 GMT

Ummel, Mitchell | E-Mail Advisors | 15 July 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

The Internet is undergoing a rapid transformation from a web of hyperlinked documents to a web of semantically linked data. Recent observations lead me to believe we're seeing the emergence of what may qualify as Web 3.0 (or Semantic Web) applications [1]. These applications are consumers and providers of semantically linked data. The opportunities and impact to our way of thinking about enterprise systems development in a Semantic Web-based world is yet to be explored and is well beyond the scope of this article [2].

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090715.html

Risk Management Takes an Organizational Approach

8 Jul 2009 14:08:47 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 08 July 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

In the run-up to the Iraq War, there was a systems dynamic model published on the High Performance Systems (HPS) Web site (now known as isee Systems).1 The model showed clearly a number of feedback loops that were likely to produce bad rather than good outcomes from the invasion. As it turned out, the model was amazingly prescient, since it predicted: (1) the backlash of the Muslim world, (2) the deterioration of US/European relationships, and (3) increased rather than decreased polarization in the Middle East. The model did not predict the pushback of the Iraqis to the foreign radicals or the surge, but you can't get everything right.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090708.html

Emotional Consciousness and Its Impact on Agility

17 Jun 2009 19:57:07 GMT

Sampath, Kalpana | E-Mail Advisors | 17 June 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

When all resources are well in place, what is it that stalls a project, drawing extra time and energy? Why so managers have to remind teammates so often to keep their emotions in check? Most leadership workshops seek to understand emotional intelligence and to teach a whole set of emotional management skills. Is there truly clarity on what emotions are and how to live with them?

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090617.html

Key to Encouraging Planning Lies in Communication

3 Jun 2009 16:13:53 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 03 June 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Plans are important to me; they are not important to everyone. The same is true of many intellectual products in our workplaces. One challenge for managers is to arrange situations where the right people become interested enough to think and communicate their thoughts.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090603.html

Part of the Process: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

27 May 2009 16:02:22 GMT

Andriole, Stephen J. | E-Mail Advisors | 27 May 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

It's not the technology, stupid; it's the processes. Processes are good, bad, ugly, or indifferent depending on how well -- or poorly -- you provide incentives to promote their efficacy. Let me repeat: it's not the technology. In fact, among the triumvirate of people, process, and technology, technology is the least likely case of failure. Then comes people. But at the top of the list are the processes we anoint as our problem-solving saviors.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2009/itj090527.html

Outsourcing Strategies to Weather a Recession

1 May 2009 15:55:28 GMT

Cullen, Sara | Journals | 01 May 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

Even under normal circumstances, outsourcing presents many challenges for buyers and sellers. In the current economic climate, when the value-for-money proposition of outsourcing becomes skewed toward the money side of the equation, existing outsourcing deals and prospective ones face new and different challenges. Buyers will want to reduce the costs of current contracts and obtain substantial savings in new ones. Sellers can't afford to reduce existing prices given projections of decreased revenue plus the bigger discounts required to win new work. Can both parties achieve their financial goals while maintaining a good long-term relationship?

http://www.cutter.com/itjournal/fulltext/2009/05/index.html

Real Virtuality: Preparing for a Long-Term Paradigm Shift

20 May 2009 15:39:53 GMT

Sivan, Yesha Y. | E-Mail Advisors | 20 May 2009 | Cutter IT Journal

IT managers need to have a split personality: they must be both conservative and innovative. On the one hand, they have to maintain older systems and keep current processes working smoothly. On the other hand, they have to continually examine new IT technologies that can alter the business. Around 1990, a "game-changing" technology, the Internet, emerged. New businesses that embraced the Internet in innovative ways -- such as eBay, Amazon, and Google -- thrived. However, companies that failed to embrace the Internet early -- such as Tower Records, Barnes & Noble, and Rand McNally -- were less fortunate. Tower closed, Barnes & Noble missed the online business that now belongs to Amazon, and Rand McNally failed to capture the online mapping business.

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