Monthly Archives: November 2009

A Social Architecture for Agility

 Jim Highsmith | Nov 30, 2009  1 Response
Nov 302009
 
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The fundamental value of the agile development addressees building a great workplace, in fact, it encompasses the belief that building a great workplace precedes building a great product. Furthermore, this workplace has certain characteristics—its own social architecture: it is self-organized rather than hierarchical, it is egalitarian rather than dictatorial, it is self-disciplined rather than authoritarian, it is collaborative rather than solitary, it is fun rather than drudgery. The leaders and practitioners of the agile movement are passionate about building effective workplaces. Agile was designed for creators, not stewards. Harvard Business School professor and Cutter Consortium fellow Rob Austin defines the differences between these two types of individuals. Stewards are critical to business success—they manage the …

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 Agile Project Management

Big is Not Always Beautiful

 Scott Stribrny | Nov 23, 2009  6 Responses
Nov 232009
 
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Outsourcing big is not always beautiful. Indeed, sometimes outsourcing big can be a blunder. For example, on Friday, Information Age reported a tally of the UK government’s project management track record, and found that IT projects count among its worst failures. Why? “Government needs to stop thinking that when it comes to procuring IT systems, big is always beautiful,” says shadow chancellor George Osborne. “We need to move in the direction of what are known as ‘open standards’ – in effect, creating a common language for government IT,” he said, which would mean “big projects can be split into smaller elements, which can be delivered by different suppliers and then bolted together”. Even in Texas, big …

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 News, Outsourcing, Risk Management  Tagged with: , ,

BPM: Is it the Missing Link Between Business and IT?

 Anne Mullaney | Nov 18, 2009  No Responses
Nov 182009
 
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Each month’s Cutter IT Journal guest editor tries to pit the Hatfields against the McCoys by honing in on a topic that people are passionate and opinionated about and inviting them to contribute an article that take a stand on either side of the argument. This gives Cutter IT Journal readers an amazing foundation for coming to their own conclusions about the strategies and technologies that are best for them. Claude Baudoin (a regular contributor to this blog) has found such an argument in the topic of business process management: Is it the missing link between business and IT or is it just another buzzword? Some of the arguments he envisions are around questions like: …

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 Business-IT Strategies, Enterprise Architecture, General

Business Technology Governance: Why the Pendulum Finally Stops Swinging

 Stephen Andriole | Nov 17, 2009  4 Responses
Nov 172009
 
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Pendulums swing back and forth in lots of areas. This is especially true in corporate and technology governance. But it may stop swinging for good very soon. Let’s look at why things are so different now — and likely to stay that way forever. THE OLD DEFINITION Let’s begin with a definition of technology governance. Wikipedia describes it as: … a subset discipline of Corporate Governance focused on information technology (IT) systems and their performance and risk management. The rising interest in IT governance is partly due to compliance initiatives, for instance Sarbanes-Oxley in the USA and Basel II in Europe, as well as the acknowledgment that IT projects can easily get out of control …

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 Governance, Risk Management  Tagged with: ,

Relax—It’s only Uncertainty

 Jim Highsmith | Nov 16, 2009  1 Response
Nov 162009
 
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“We have seen reengineering, transformation, re-invention, new, speed, competencies, teachable points of view, destroying your business, BHAG (big hairy audacious goals)—they’re all about what is supposed to happen. But very little has been said about exactly how you do it.” This passage is from a interesting and slightly irreverent book from Phillip Hodgson and Randall White, “Relax, it’s only Uncertainty: Lead the way when the way is changing,” Prentice Hall 2001. Hodgson and White provide more than a look at the necessity of dealing with risk and uncertainty, they give sound advice about how to build the skill sets needed to deal with that uncertainty. “Leadership is what crosses the frontier between what we did …

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 Agile Project Management  Tagged with: ,

IT Strategies for Rising Markets

 Vince Kellen | Nov 3, 2009  1 Response
Nov 032009
 
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“The worst may be behind us.” So said US President Obama in August, ever the optimist. He was not alone, however. Joining him was a rather large chorus of investors who over the past few months cheered some of the economic data, driving the stock market up. Since I have a boat and am periodically in the habit of watching river and lake levels, especially in times of floods, I have been struck by the time-based relationship between rainfall, river levels, and lake levels. Rain falls first (or snow melts), and the inches of rain are counted in minutes or hours. Rivers surge days later, well after the cloudy weather has been replaced by sunshine. …

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 Business-IT Strategies

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