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Educating Abraham Lincoln
As we all know, Abraham Lincoln was largely self-taught in the midst of meager means and living on the frontiers in the US states of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois -- far from centers of learning and culture east of the Appalachian Mountains. For Lincoln, the book represented the path, and he sought them with great effort.
Reassessing Your Software Process
A Tool Is Just a Tool, Or Is It?
Cloud Computing Standards
[From the Editor: This week's Cutter IT Advisor is from Cutter Senior Consultant Mitchell Ummel's introduction to the August 2012 issue of Cutter IT Journal, "Cloud Computing Standards" (Vol. 25, No. 8).
Predictive Analytics in the Cloud: Moving Toward Domain and Industry Apps
Back in January, when discussing trends for predictive analytics in 2012, I predicted that some of the issues holding organizations back from realizing their predictive analytics dreams would be offset by new options for implementation (see "The Year Ahead: Will 2012 Be a Breakout Year for Predictive Analyt
When Do We Fill the Lifeboats?
There's a critical moment in enterprise governance that ties to when we start taking decisive executive action. I like to think of it as the "lifeboat" moment. It's when we determine that the challenges we face are too great to overcome and that we need to start salvaging what we can before the entire organizational "ship" goes under.
Does Agile Arrogance Hinder Adoption?
Olympic Class Stakeholder Management
The Power of Thank You
Back in late November 2009, I was conducting a group coaching session and the topic was how to keep staff motivated when, because the economy was so bad, the participants were unable to provide an elaborate party, gifts, or bonuses by end of year. After much brainstorming and discussion, one of the things that everyone agreed to do was to hand-write a thank you note to each of their direct reports.
What Does Mobility Mean for BI?
Mobility is becoming increasingly important to business as the BYOD movement brings powerful tablets and smartphones to the enterprise. Mobile business intelligence has proven popular in recent years, principally by offering a means for busy executives and salespeople on-the-go to carry with them instant access to important indicators. Mobile BI capable of reaching back to analytics on the corporate server or in the cloud could be served up from dedicated apps on mobile platforms or accessed through mobile-friendly webpages.
What Does Mobility Mean for BI?
Mobility is becoming increasingly important to business as the BYOD movement brings powerful tablets and smartphones to the enterprise. Mobile business intelligence has proven popular in recent years, principally by offering a means for busy executives and salespeople on-the-go to carry with them instant access to important indicators.
What If You Could Change Without Changing?
The Future of Enterprise Business Applications
Consumerization is the trend for new technologies to first emerge in the consumer space and subsequently make their way into the enterprise world. As enterprise users start comparing the quality of the user experience with consumer applications versus their enterprise counterparts, the demand for better enterprise applications will continue to soar. When designing and architecting new business applications, enterprises need to keep the following considerations in mind:
Gamification in the Enterprise
Everything in life is a game. Someone is always keeping score. We're all being measured, whether we like it or not. Gamification is a technique that business leaders need to become familiar with in order to take advantage of this fact, since it takes measurement, behavior analysis, and engagement into the business setting in ways that can enable organizations to meet their objectives.
Are You Steeped in Obsolete Thinking Skills?
Why Change Management? An Open Letter to Agilists
Cloud Computing: Agreement on Pros and Cons
BI Versus Enterprise Data Warehousing
This Is Not a Controlled Experiment
We back our qualitative work as Cutter consultants with plenty of quantitative data. We measure and report on productivity through the Productivity Index.
Risk Information Irresponsibility
The late management theorist Peter Drucker once said that everyone in an organization has to ask him or herself, "What information do I need to do my job? How am I going to get it, and from whom? And how do I know that it is true?" Furthermore, each person must also ask, "What information am I responsible for?
This is Not a Controlled Experiment
We back our qualitative work as Cutter consultants with plenty of quantitative data. We measure and report on productivity through the Productivity Index.
Achieving Real Value-Add from Your Business-Driven Enterprise Architecture: Realizing the Void
Enterprise architecture is grossly misunderstood. It's not an IT issue; it's an enterprise issue for the following reasons: