When Tom was put in charge of a group that was geographically dispersed, he really floundered around in the dark. He suffered misunderstandings, relied on inaccurate data, made some bad decisions, alienated people, and was insecure in knowing what was really going on and what should be done. Tom had been a highly successful ScrumMaster.

One of the biggest complaints leveled at Hadoop is that it is intended mainly for batch processing and doesn't do real time very well.

The corporate world is littered with the carcasses of enterprises, large and small, wounded -- some mortally -- by failures of the "Siamese twins" of leadership and risk management. Why are these two concepts referred to as "Siamese twins"? Because neither can function without the other.

For 23 episodes, I have listed the many types of problems and misconceptions I have seen at our clients, at conferences, or in user groups. The biggest trap, however, is what I have saved for the last Advisor in this series: being afraid of pitfalls.

The role of an architect is often loosely or ill defined so I'm not surprised when people ask me what I think an architect's role should be, and how one type of architect relates to another. In reality, this is to be expected given the range of needs, projects, processes, and organizational structures at different companies. Just today, two different clients asked about the role of a solutions architect, particularly in relation to an enterprise architect.

The table below summarizes the main differences that I typically see.

[From the Editor: This week's Cutter IT Advisor is from Cutter Fellow Robert N. Charette and Brian Hagen's introduction to the July 2012 issue of Cutter IT Journal, "Fixing ERM: From IT Security to Human Behavior" (Vol. 25, No. 7). Learn more about Cutter IT Journal.]

The avalanche of digital data that has resulted in Big Data storage and analytics is leading to additional issues as data volumes continue to grow in volume, variety, and velocity. A critical issue for the enterprise is how to maintain control of these immense pools of structured and unstructured data.

Often managers latch on to the methodologies and practices that happen to be in fashion -- the latest management BS! Some make desperate demands for their staff to react, perhaps by creating a service catalog, but without identifying who is going to use it and how it is to be used. Despite containing some really good guidance, ITIL can become a distraction, with organizations using it unsuccessfully as a safety blanket or shield.

Constantly changing security boundaries that are simultaneously "owned" by everyone and no one demand a new approach at both the technical and policy levels. A properly designed and managed enterprise security architecture (ESA) enables this. The less-defined security boundaries that encompass infrastructure require a new way of defining cyber security architecture for the cloud. Organizations still have the same mission; they just need to change their mindset on how they do business in the cloud.

Which do you want more: to be right or to learn?

In March, I discussed various tablet options in regard to their possible roles in the enterprise (see " Tablets for the Enterprise").

In March, I discussed various tablet options in regard to their possible roles in the enterprise (see " Tablets for the Enterprise

Project managers should be aware of the types of creeps and their causes, so they can account for them in their risk management plans. Trip wires and early warning systems will have to be put in place to alert managers of pending problems and to take appropriate action before it's too late.

As the use of mobile devices in the enterprise continues to grow, I see the realization of a dream that has, for the most part, been elusive: the greater use of speech-enabled enterprise applications.

CIOs sit between a rock and hard place.

I used to say to a client that "I am only as good as my data" when the input I received for an engagement was inadequate. I still use this phrase, when appropriate, from time to time.

When an organization effectively combines business and IT architectures together in an initiative or funded program, it stands a much better chance of success.

In recent engagements, I have had the opportunity to move away from consulting within the infrastructure world of SOA and into the realm of pure business process management (BPM). Prior to that, I had more of a conceptual appreciation as to how BPM technology could integrate within an SOA.

All effort in data warehousing is ultimately to make information discovery and delivery possible. Though I do not intend to explore the Inmon versus Kimball theories here, I do think they hold clues for dealing with industry models. There are also models that build two layers, one for storage and the other for consumption. It is important that enterprises learn to rise above these two theories and make a meaningful blend of the two.

What would you do if you had no money, and no prospect of getting any for a week or more?

In my last Advisor ("Cloud Architecture Practice: Sharing a Few Observations and Lessons Learned"), I submitted a few observations and lessons learned from a real-wor

The most common agile challenges and usage in the context of business analysis (BA) work are as follows:

I've been talking with the folks from Cirro -- a new startup that has just launched its Big Data enterprise access and exploration solution.

The advent of iOS and Android has created a seismic shift in the fortunes of manufacturers, with stalwarts such as Nokia and Motorola superseded by Apple and Samsung. Overall, a recent Cutter survey suggests strong support for Apple's iOS and Google's Android, with limited support for RIM's BlackBerry and almost none for Symbian. Microsoft's Windows Phone registers with about 1 in 5 respondents, suggesting that there is some way to go before this newest platform has yet to make an impact.

Sometimes technology trends are hard to anticipate or understand. The topic of this Advisor is neither; it's just somewhat misunderstood. While this Advisor covers data analytics, it's not really about the "Big Data" that has been much discussed in recent months -- it's about even bigger data.