Supply chain/logistics meet most of the criteria required for a domain or application area when it comes to suitability for applying blockchain technology.

Analysis is, in general, a critical part of every project. Most commonly, however, that analysis is conducted at the beginning of a project. In this article, we explore the benefits of the post-implementation analysis of bots/robotics process automation (RPA) flow.

The philosophy is simple: always seek reality. A reality-based plan and reality-based status reports are vital to optimizing performance in your organization.

Especially in the case of leadership, it is important to understand that the capabilities and behavior that separate effective from ineffective or good from bad are universal, becoming IT-centric only at the rather superficial level of situational knowledge.

Confused and confusing conversations centered on “process” occur frequently at organizations large and small, with process efficiency, process governance, and process adoption all suffering as a result. It’s vital, therefore, to take the time to understand the root cause of the confusion and help people grasp the needs and perspectives of the other stakeholder groups.

Sooner or later, all industries will be impacted by digital disruption.

Change is a fact of life and has many benefits, but it is hardly ever easy and brings huge stress. How you manage the change process can determine not only the ultimate success of the change effort, but also the health of your organization during and after the change.

What do Amazon, GE, Capital One, and Starbucks have in common? They and many others use Lean Thinking and practices to engage their employees in streamlining the work processes that create value for their customers.

Success can be achieved by groups of highly talented individuals — heroics in action — but only in certain situations for limited periods of time. This is not repeatable or sustainable. Striving for the goal of sustainable improvement requires a more structured approach supported by technology. This can enable teams of “mere mortals” to perform and feel like superstars.

Restarting a project that has been stalled, cancelled, or put on hold for whatever reason, can be very positive. But it is definitely not without great challenges. Often, the project manager asked to restart the engagement is not the same one who ended its previous iteration. It’s worth noting that restarts are just as likely, if not more likely, to fail than the original engagement.

At a recent Cutter webinar, an attendee asked how blockchain is being implemented in the digital marketing space and how the technology's inherent transparency and security capabilities can benefit digital marketing and advertising in general. Since we are seeing considerable interest in the subject, I examine it in this week's Advisor.

In this Advisor, I describe the fundamental human causes of the growth of technical debt.

This article focuses on equity-based crowdfunding, or crowd investing, which has become a promising instrument to help overcome SME liquidity issues, referred to as the early-stage equity gap. The equity gap greatly reduces the success of smaller firms, and equity-based crowdfunding is a potential solution for reducing this gap because it removes barriers to equity.

Successful organizations know that no matter how good the technology, it is the people who make it work. When people come first, customers win.

For the most part, the IT function is technically capable of designing and implementing solutions that remediate technology debt (TD). The challenge lies in obtaining non-IT executive sponsorship and funding for TD projects.

If your organization is interested in exploring the nature and uses of blockchain technology, joining with others who are similarly inclined might prove a valuable way to get up to speed quickly.

Digital transformation is a journey of creating and combining specific business capabilities so that they give organizations a competitive advantage in the digital excellence domains in a way that reflects their chosen mix of strategic options. This journey is shaped also by the availability of critical resources — data, analytical skills, technology proficiency. It is very often seriously affected by the state of business and IT architecture, the style of integration, and data quality. It seems wise to focus on domains of excellence where the resources are available or can be relatively easily developed or acquired.

A passion for eliminating waste is one of the ingredients that bonds the members of an Agile software development team.

Among my first tasks after joining the enterprise architecture (EA) team at a multinational chemical company was to redefine the architecture review board (ARB), a need that was triggered by digital transformation and a review of our enterprise architecture program.

Quantifying the results of business architecture certainly has its challenges, but there are creative ways to do so, even with limited resources. This Advisor describes the benefits and challenges of measuring business architecture success and provides some practical approaches that can be used to accomplish this very important activity.

Loyalty rewards programs are considered one of the most effective means for companies to attract and retain customers, and for increasing customer satisfaction and experience overall. Blockchain initially looks promising for shaking up the loyalty rewards program industry, and a number of companies are working on solutions to try and make this happen. 

Developments in the technologies we use to share and recall life events are likely to create an explosion of business opportunities within the next one to three years.

The IT governance task can no longer be seen solely as a compliance activity. As organizational structures become flatter, and interfirm partnerships become more commonplace, the onus is moving more toward a cooperative approach to IT governance. In this Advisor, we look at using a relationship-centered approach to a common IT governance situation in an IT outsourcing relationship.

Your company likely has a portfolio of existing systems, systems currently under construction, as well as future plans, including requirements to move in new directions to keep up with or surpass competitors. Software risk and its mitigation work differently for each project lifecycle bucket, so it’s worth examining how we might analyze risks and opportunities for each type.

Can you afford not to see significant architectural changes occurring in and around your industry? Perhaps changes in other industries may also stimulate thinking along different lines? Do you have people who think about architectural changes and dominant designs? Does your organization cultivate such people and enable them? These are important questions when the ground underneath shifts rapidly, but maybe the most important questions in this Advisor are: Do you know, or do you really know? And, do you have the ability to know the difference enough to act upon it?