A financial services client last month asked me if I had read anything about management and the relationship to "commander's intent." While I had to confess that I had not, I did some quick searching to find out what the concept was about and how it might relate to effective management practice.

In my last Advisor (see "Big or Little, Devops Needs a Complete Picture," 23 November 2011), I promised to provide examples of using systems thinking to

Welcome to the seventh-anniversary edition of my enterprise architect's New Year's resolutions. I hope it will give you food for thought and some inspiration for architectural growth in 2012.

Welcome to the seventh-anniversary edition of my enterprise architect's New Year's resolutions. I hope it will give you food for thought and some inspiration for architectural growth in 2012.

[From the Editor: This week's Advisor is from Patrick Debois's introduction to the December 2011 issue of Cutter IT Journal "Embedding Devops in the Enterprise" (Vol. 24, No. 12).

Happy New Year! As we head into 2012, I thought I'd offer some predictions as to what I see happening with predictive analytics. This analysis is based on various surveys and other research1 we've conducted over the past year or so, as well as on discussions with readers, clients, and vendors.

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most read articles in Cutter's Business Technology Strategies practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five.

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most-intriguing articles published in Cutter's Agile practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles.

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Business & Enterprise Architecture practice over this past year.

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most intriguing articles published in Cutter IT Journal over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 20 most intriguing articles of the year.

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most-intriguing articles published in Cutter's Data Insight & Social BI practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles.

In just about every due diligence engagement I carry out, the VC and I spend a lot of time on scalabity of the software architecture. The company whose software architecture we are evaluating usually has a good track record of successfully scaling up on quite a few technology and business dimensions. If we extrapolate the historical growth rate a few years into the future, the company really looks attractive. The concern, however, is that the company might run into a hard barrier for growth.

Our favorite philosopher, the mighty Aristotle, remarks in his book that people are hardwired to enjoy art; it's part of what makes them human.

In just about every due diligence engagement I carry out, the VC and I spend a lot of time on scalabity of the software architecture. The company whose software architecture we are evaluating usually has a good track record of successfully scaling up on quite a few technology and business dimensions.

Enterprise portfolio management has been evolving for the past several years toward a unified vision that incorporates the diverse areas of portfolio concepts, bringing them together through s

Good infrastructure is like having a good dinner party planner -- when everything goes well, few guests notice or appreciate the careful plans and up-front investments that went into the event. Yet if and when something does go wrong, things seem to come to an abrupt halt, often with embarrassing results.

This Advisor is a continuation of the "Scrum Ain't Enough" series (see "Agile Analytics: Community, Customers, and and Collaboration," 18 October 2011, and "

"The company is fundamentally sound. The balance sheet is strong. Our financial liquidity has never been stronger. And we again have record operating and financial results."

My Cutter colleagues will give you excellent advice on some of the key elements to making Lean-Agile work at scale. Even with their advice, however, implementing any large-scale change is very difficult.

In my last Advisor (see "Take a SCARF to Architecture Reviews," 30 November 2011), I wrote about the SCARF model (status, certainty,

Since I wrote the Cutter IT Journal article "Operational Excellence, the CIO, and Cloud Computing" (Vol. 24, No.

The latest news to set the social analytics world buzzing is retailing giant Walmart's "Shopycat" social shopping application for Facebook.

When making investment decisions that could impact the business for multiple decades, it is vital to take a measured approach. Forward-thinking leaders and stakeholders should evaluate choices and trade-offs based on a long-term view with a broad historical perspective.

In my recent Cutter Webinar "Implementing a Technical Debt Prevention, Measurement, and Reduction Program in Your Company" (8 June 2011

The business analysis profession is in the midst of change. Work is underway within organizations and associations to formalize and standardize what it means to be a business analyst (BA). The role has had a long and tortuous existence. A child of necessity, the role evolved to bridge the gap between what those responsible for operating an organization wanted to do and what those responsible for implementing technology were able to deliver.