Advisors provide a continuous flow of information on the topics covered by each practice, including consultant insights and reports from the front lines, analyses of trends, and breaking new ideas. Advisors are delivered directly to your email inbox, and are also available in the resource library.
Choose the Right Tools to Gain an AI Advantage
Steven Kursh, Arthur Schnure
The hype and reality of artificial intelligence (AI) bombards today’s enterprises on an almost daily basis, but what does it take to actually implement it? Simply put, organizations need to address issues across several critical steps in making AI work to their best advantage, including acquiring AI and machine learning (ML) tools. This Advisor explores six main components of AI and ML tools.
What the Quantum Bit Makes Possible
Joseph Byrum
This Advisor explores the main function of the quantum bit (qubit), how qubits enable exponential scaling, and how quantum computing is being utilized in the real world, from hybrid approaches to experimenting with development kits.
When Good Data Goes Bad, Part V
Barry Devlin
There are particular business behaviors that actively poison data or degrade data quality. Although not their intention, it’s the direct consequence of how these activities are performed. This Advisor takes a close look at the concept of self-service and how it contributes to the problem of data poisoning.
DEI Leadership in Action
Damon Carter
The Technology in Business Schools Roundtable (TBSr) is a global organization composed of technology leaders who are responsible for managing IT in business schools across the US and Canada. This Advisor outlines several clear examples of how the TBSr board of directors effectively applied four DEI leadership actions to initiate their own journey.
The Difference Between Successful and Failed Technology Initiatives
Anjali Kaushik
Resistance to change is the primary reason why so many good ideas fail. Thus, it is critical to have user involvement throughout the scope definition and process redesign. Discover how an effective communication strategy between top management and users makes all the difference during project initiatives.
Making Better Business Decisions with Dynamic Deep Learning
Bhuvan Unhelkar
Dynamic Deep Learning (DDL) provides business value by enabling instant decision making. When analytics on streaming data is incorporated into everyday decision making along with traditional analytics of static data, businesses can discover greater opportunities and identify risks in advance. Discover the business value of DDL in this Advisor.
To Keep or Not to Keep Data?
Frank Contrepois
Keeping data is often presented as a no-brainer, even if you don’t know what to do with the data. But data is complicated and can be unreliable and wrong. This Advisor explores the drivers to save data, the drivers to not do anything with the data after saving it, and the complexities of making data-driven decisions.
Where Are Retailers Applying IPA?
Curt Hall
According to a Cutter Consortium survey examining IPA adoption in the enterprise, organizations rank retail as the sixth leading industry in which IPA will have its most significant impact. Retailers are applying robotic process automation (RPA) and other process automation tools bolstered with machine learning (ML), predictive analytics, and computer vision to a number of applications and domains. This Advisor explores how these tools help make their supply chains more flexible, revitalize the retail shopping experience, and boost customer satisfaction in both online and in-store scenarios.
Failing to Ask the Right Question
Michael Papadopoulos, Philippe Monnot
As we give in to our “very powerful tendency to anthropomorphize ML and AI, imbuing it with human characteristics,” we set our ML projects up for failure. This Advisor explores the importance of deciding on the question you are trying to answer before you embark on an ML analytics project.
Embracing the Values and Practices of Steve Jobs
San Murugesan
Steve Jobs — tireless tech visionary, innovator extraordinaire, and cofounder of Apple — died on 5 October 2011, when he was just 56. Though 10 years have passed since his untimely death, we’re still very much living in his world. To create our own lasting legacy that is meaningful and benefits the community, what sort of values and practices would we have to embrace? This Advisor shares nine key lessons from Jobs.
Survey: IPA Will Have Most Significant Impact on Banking & Financial Services
Curt Hall
Cutter Consortium recently conducted a survey to see how organizations are adopting, or planning to adopt, intelligent process automation (IPA). According to survey respondents, IPA will have the most significant impact on banking and financial services (see Figure 1). In this Advisor, we take a closer look at two areas of IPA application in that industry: customer experience (CX) and compliance and financial crimes prevention.
3 Myths About Building Diverse Workforces
Robert Scott
Why is the diversity needle not moving? What needs to happen to truly make a systemic change this time, versus the many previous attempts? In this Advisor, we debunk three pervasive myths around the challenges of building more diverse workforces.
In the Pandemic’s Wake, AI/ML Technologies Have Gone Mainstream
Steve Andriole
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are driving change on both ends of the business-technology continuum. This Advisor explores why companies should accelerate their piloting of AI/ML, deploying internal teams to assess its potential while giving special attention to the range of methods, tools, and platforms /application domains.
Look Beyond ROI in Early-Stage AI Projects
Steven Kursh, Arthur Schnure
Nearly all software projects are premised on understanding user needs and requirements. In our experience with clients, we typically address this phase by working with prospective users to develop use cases. What are some common use cases? Well, it depends on the company, but we’ve seen use cases primarily fall into four categories for early-stage, toe-in-the-water AI compared to full-scale ML efforts:
Market and consumer intelligence
Sales and marketing
Pricing and optimization
Customer care
5 Tips for Fostering Self-Directed Teams
Bob Galen
Self-direction doesn’t just happen because you adopt Scrum, Kanban, or another Agile variant. Or because you say “Agile” 20 times to your teams. It needs a fertile space to grow. It needs to be watered and fertilized. It needs an honest and open environment. In far too many cases, this is simply not happening. So, what are the elements of self-directed space? This Advisor explores five that come to mind.
Diversity in Tech: Are We Moving the Needle or Just Idling? — An Introduction
Viola Maxwell Thompson
It is through this issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal (CBTJ) that we hope to remind CEOs of the challenges that remain unaddressed and out of balance. The authors speak from personal experiences, extensive research, and a deep desire to contribute toward changing the DEI narrative. They share proven best practices and procedural changes that must be followed so that this time, the outcomes of CEOs’ commitments will look different, and those impacted will finally be able to have more equitable work and life experiences.
Architects Must Look "Beyond the Hill"
Pierfranco Ferronato
The professional life of architects is tough, often dealing with tasks typically not performed in everyday non-IT life. They always must support a “future state,” a situation not yet in existence that users or stakeholders can’t predict if not stressed with the proper questions. This Advisor explores how architects look “beyond the hill” and impose superstructures and patterns that may appear unnecessary today but are useful when things ultimately change.
Where Are Government Agencies Applying IPA?
Curt Hall
Government agencies were investing in automation long before COVID-19. But as the pandemic has dragged on, they are increasingly turning to RPA and IPA platforms whose capabilities are bolstered by artificial intelligence technologies in order to better meet the expectations and demands placed on them by citizens. This Advisor identifies some of the more popular IPA applications in government.
The Chief Product Officer: A Growing Necessity
Bhaskar Ahuja
The CPO role is emerging as the business’s product portfolio equivalent of the CTO on the technical side of an organization. The CPO leads the product development team and oversees the product portfolio. This Advisor looks at the CPO role and discusses how and when companies—even smaller ones—can benefit from establishing the CPO position.
Beyond Agile: Management Methods for Solving Large-Scale Problems
John Heintz
When companies grow beyond a handful of individuals or teams, many changes will affect the organization of work and people. At small scale, and for a limited period of time, a team can organically "remember" its own history. This Advisor explores mechanisms beyond that small scale that encourage learning and sharing across the organization.
Architecting Across Organizational Boundaries
Whynde Kuehn
Working in partnership with many other teams across the strategy execution lifecycle, business architects play an important role to translate business direction into an actionable future state vision that everyone can work toward. In this Advisor, we explore a few scenarios where business architecture is being used or emerging in practice to architect across organizational boundaries.
Using Business Architecture to Build a Sustainable Future
Giovanni Traverso, William Ulrich
In a recent webinar, Cutter Fellow William Ulrich and Giovanni Traverso explored the circular economy, the strategic challenges it presents, and business architecture’s role in transitioning an organization into becoming a player in the sustainable economy. This Advisor shares the Q&A session that followed the presentation. We hope the advice will spark some new ideas for how your organization can participate in the circular economy.
4 Key Attributes of Successful Analytics Projects
Benjamin Porter
Ensuring that analytics projects create value for the business is easier said than done, and expensive, complex data projects are prime targets for (the wrong kind of) management attention. In this Advisor, we identify the four fundamental requirements for successful analytics projects (sponsor, tools, team, and project/problem). These key attributes can assist project managers in setting priorities.
Challenging the Social Context of Risk Management
Robert Charette
For many decision makers in government and industry today, practicing robust risk management is still seen within their organizations’ social context as providing little if any positive upside, but instead possessing potentially large downside consequences for them personally and professionally. Many decision makers skeptically view rigorous risk analysis as akin to future blame analysis for something that might go wrong rather than a way to increase career or organization success.
Five Communication Actions for Project Success
Shasheela Devi Karuppiah, Ezuria Nadzri, Govindan Marthandan
This Advisor explores five communication actions that will help propel a team toward project success: refine the content, select the methods, manage the velocity, review the process, and define the frequency. These insights may be useful while considering the structure of a project communication management plan.