The commercialization of cognitive systems is impacting both the consumer and enterprise worlds; in effect changing the way people interact with computers along with the methods for data analysis. In short, with the ability to ingest, analyze, and summarize massive data sets and facilitate self-service analytics, intelligent decision support, and smart advisory systems via the application of various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies — including natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and other intelligent reasoning capabilities — cognitive computing is starting to transform information-intensive industries.

As has been our tradition for the last several years, we've compiled the five most intriguing articles published by the Business Technology & Digital Transformation Strategies practice this year for today's Advisor.

Here are the Agile Product Management & Software Engineering Excellence articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2017. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter's most intriguing articles of the year!

Here are the Business & Enterprise Architecture articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients in 2017. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas, and rediscover Cutter's most intriguing articles of the year!

As has been our tradition for the last several years, we've compiled the five most intriguing articles published by the Cutter Business Technology Journal this year for today's Advisor. How did we come up with this list? We chose the articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients and those that created controversy among Cutter Senior Consultants and Fellows.

As has been our tradition for the last several years, we've compiled the five most intriguing articles published by the Data Analytics & Digital Technologies practice this year for today's Advisor. How did we come up with this list? We chose the articles that garnered the most feedback from Cutter Members and clients and those that created controversy among Cutter Senior Consultants and Fellows.

The change to an Agile mode of operation demands a manager who is able to act as a leader with an emphasis on inspiration, motivation, learning, and giving responsibility and trust.

Cloud has paved the way for the rapid growth of the IoT, but with such growth, businesses need faster and more efficient solutions than ever, since information that is as new as one day old can lose value. Compa­nies are turning to fog computing for higher efficiency, better security, faster decision-making processes, and lowered operating costs.

How can analytics and their accompanying technologies help make sense out of the immensity of big data? What are the challenges and risks associated with such initiatives? This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal explores various angles to big data with a focus on the trends in predictive analytics, machine learning, the Internet of Things, and the cloud.

A Service Dominant Architecture operationalizes concepts from service science in an architectural blueprint for the implementation of a service platform. Within two-speed IT, a service platform can be implemented on top of a legacy infrastructure, adding important complementary capabilities to legacy IT.

Mobile, wearable devices support noninvasive, biometric monitoring. They are generating a wealth of data detailing important indicators of the user’s health, ranging from heart rate, respiration, and temperature to perspiration, gait, blood sugar levels, balance, grip, and more. Incorporation of data from sensor-enabled devices with other health and medical information adds a real-time capability to healthcare that has been lacking in all but the more complex medical device monitoring applications to date.

In this Advisor, we will look at some of the proactive and reactive recommendations for dealing with vendor-created technical debt.

Having a market structure that supports and encourages diversification of risks is key to avoiding systemic risks not only to national economies, but to the global economy as well.

Data science is essential in extracting value from big data but it is not sufficient. It makes use of technical, management, and business analysis skills. Data science also deals with the enterprise architecture (EA) of the organization. Astute leadership is essential and an imperative for value extraction from big data.

Business is poised for an unprecedented wave of innovation. Digital transformation is upon us with myriad technological advances such as augmented reality, virtual reality, cognitive assistants, 3D/4D printing, personalization, conversational interfaces, drones, deep learning, predictive analytics, the Internet of Things, blockchain, new payment systems, and affective computing — all playing major roles in enabling the next wave of innovation. 

It is now possible to search on the Web for “IoT use cases in [industrial sector __ ]” and find links to hundreds of case studies and white papers. Of course, these should sometimes be taken with a grain of salt. In general, however, published case studies (especially when an end-user company is named) present some good evidence of an area in which the IIoT shows solid potential.

Businesses hoping for increased customer engagement must fully consider customer experience management (CEM), or be left lagging behind their competition.

This Advisor provides a hands-on list of five Agile planning activities for executives who are actively involved in large-scale software deliveries in their companies.

The adoption of business architecture has continued to increase globally — and at a faster pace than ever — demonstrating that the discipline is here to stay. This Advisor provides a brief reflection on the state of business architecture to date and a glimpse into the future.

Telemedicine services save healthcare providers costs, too, and the ability to leverage telehealth technology and enable virtual visits improves access to critical health services and is believed to help lead to better patient outcomes. Consequently, it’s not surprising that telemedicine is increasing in popularity, and the practice is expanding through healthcare providers and even pharmacies.

Governments worldwide are seeking to apply blockchain to a range of applications and domains to streamline and secure information systems and to better serve their citizens.

Agile is all about learning. But do Agile leaders know how and what to teach?

To meet the challenge of insurtechs, incumbent companies need to develop a clear strategy to guide the following aspects of engagement with them: a holistic approach, an insurtech evaluation framework, and an engagement model between the insurtech and the incumbent. This Advisor describes these three aspects in greater detail.

In the heat of practicing architecture within organizations, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that “architecture” is not a real thing. It is a paradigm: a metaphor transplanted from other fields in which the idea of architecture was firmly and usefully established.

Modeling the models is difficult work. The challenge is to bring the wisdom of experience together with the possibilities of theory, molding them into precious archetypes in the fiery forge of a specific enterprise. The resulting model would be the standard model of architecture for that organization. This kind of meta-architecture work is what we can refer to as “quarkitecture”; it is similar to the quest in particle physics for the fundamental particles.