Architects Rule!

The Windows Azure platform is a flexible cloud computing platform that lets you focus on solving business problems and addressing customer needs. No need to invest upfront on expensive infrastructure. Pay only for what you use, scale up when you need...

While attending and presenting at TechEd 2010, Jawa Buddhavarapu and Murali Bala shared with Zhiming Xue “Dr. Z” their experience of building an integrated Office solution at Westat using Microsoft Word, OpenXML and SharePoint 2010. Check out this interview...

Agile software development methods have proven to be a substantial catalyst for improvements in software quality, speed of delivery, and fitness for use, and are a driver behind the IBM Smarter Planet™ initiative, which involves intelligent approaches...

People still come up to me claiming that cloud computing is nothing but network computing with a "10-dollar word" attached to it. They're wrong, though: Cloud computing represents a fundamental shift in information technology, in myriad ways. If you're...

Every year the administrators at Wisconsin’s Beloit College put together a list of information about incoming freshmen that is shared with the school’s professors. It’s not a list of student names, or the books they’ll need to...

David Chappell is Principal of Chappell & Associates based in San Francisco, California. Through his speaking, writing, and consulting, he helps people around the world understand, use, and make better decisions about new technology. In this episode...

The software industry is in a deep crisis. Projects suffer from low quality; schedule slips and cost overrun are common. But this is hardly ordained, since there are plenty of examples of projects done on schedule, on budget, on quality in a repeatable...

Summer is here and for the most of us this is the time to take that well-deserved rest and to stand back a little from the daily grind. It is also a time for some reflection, a time to think about the things that we would like to do during the next couple...

Research suggests that achievement of a successful outsourcing relationship requires a tremendous amount of detailed management. In this paper we draw on relationship theory to understand the management practices of a particular outsourcing setup. An...

Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism...

Advancing technologies and their swift adoption are upending traditional business models. Senior executives need to think strategically about how to prepare their organizations for the challenging new environment. Trend 1: Distributed cocreation moves...

Recently, I was the happy recipient of some very condescending “advice” from the architecture group of a client.  The tone, quality and delivery of the information completely overwhelmed the actual message (some of which was actually relevant, and...

Stakeholders in business and information technology (IT) enterprises are faced with challenges that result from technological changes occurring at accelerated paces, economic and environmental issues demanding immediate actions, and a need for more precise...

ObjectWatch Earns Patent for Minimizing the Complexity of Large IT Systems Chappell Hill, Texas - ObjectWatch Inc (ObjectWatch), a company specializing in IT and enterprise complexity management, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark...

Aligning Portfolio Establishment Activities to Business Drivers Is Key to Gaining Buy-in and Adoption Where to Begin with IT Portfolio Management To achieve strategic alignment and growth, as well as risk reduction and cost containment, many organizations...

Summer is here and for the most of us this is the time to take that well-deserved rest and to stand back a little from the daily grind. It is also a time for some reflection, a time to think about the things that we would like to do during the next couple...

What we set out to accomplish Talking to customers gives us great ideas about how to make Hotmail better . One of the things we hear about the most is inbox overload: folks want to find important emails quickly. Whether it’s an important back-and-forth...

What do you need to know as you plan to design and deploy SharePoint solutions to Microsoft BPOS cloud? While at TechEd 2010, Zhiming Xue “Z” chatted about the subject with Marc Dencker , Enterprise Architect at Microsoft. In this interview, Marc explains...

For years, CIOs have been fighting the stereotype that they're weak communicators, unable to speak the language of business or relate to anyone outside of IT. But by using practiced communication skills, many CIOs are proving how convincing, credible...

There certainly are other countries that are trying to give India a run for its money in the IT outsourcing market. I’ve written about Vietnam and Egypt (you can read about those two countries here ). But clearly, no country is more aggressive in pursuing...

Last night, I endured plodding, water-logged, rush-hour traffic to Tysons Corner to hear a guy talk about the Internet. But this wasn't just any guy, it was one of the people who helped invent the Internet -- Vint Cerf . Decades before starting his current...

Most of us have seen the fruits of a vendor relationship gone rotten. Perhaps it’s that surly “consultant” that has his own desk adorned with photos and has been kicking around the water cooler for longer than most employees. Or, it may be a hardware...