The ease of obtaining, copying, and implementing digital assets means that there is potential for rapid changes in nearly all disruptive business models. This ability to change rapidly is reflected in the enterprise architecture itself, which tends to be relatively simple, modular, and responsive.

For those managing the business outcomes of deploying software systems, it is appropriate to have a balanced view of positive (software quality) and negative (software risk) outcomes in order to deploy typical business risk management analyses in an optimal manner.

Blockchain technology is gaining momentum as a way to build digital rights management (DRM) systems.

To prepare for a recent talk on work-in-process (WIP) limits, I looked into the history of Henry Ford. Ford was one of the most influential pioneers of what we today call “Lean” or “Kanban.” He was the pioneer of almost all of our current industry thinking and was an original thought leader in how modern practitioners put to use Agile software development. What struck me most about Ford was how he exemplified the thinking processes behind the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in most of his actions.

For most insurance companies, now is the time to begin experimenting with AI, learning about what it can do and what will be involved in supporting and maintaining AI-based apps. 

Business architecture provides a basis for defining the target-state IT architecture necessary to move the business toward a cognitive enterprise. 

What is the correlation between the business or operating model and the enterprise architecture? What are the pros and cons of the various enterprise patterns that are a response to these changes? The authors in this issue of CBTJ offer practical answers, ideas, and advice to help you and your EA practice respond to the immediate digital challenge. However, enterprise architecture should also consider the larger future.

Innovative applications that embrace new technologies are fraught with risks, which require innovative approaches for their handling. This Advisor explores some of the risks and challenges in applying the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud in the business space and discusses challenges that arise due to lack of interoperability and some practical standards in the IoT and cloud space.

Change does not happen overnight. The obvious differences between digital leadership qualities and ways of working and traditional process-oriented cultures can lead to a number of conflicts. Digital leaders have to deal with these conflicts to be successful in their journey, making tradeoffs that are likely to yield the most value. This Advisor highlights some of the key implicit conflicts and possible tradeoffs that digital leadership can consider.

Mutual respect is one of the core attributes an Agile organization needs to develop. It is the foundation to establishing a common vision between management and staff.

An organization with an established business architecture practice can greatly accelerate and improve the results of its digital transformation — because of the enterprise framework and the cohesive strategy execution approach that are inherent to business architecture.

The single most important process change that you can make in “climbing the ladder” from a tactical EA program to a strategic one is to connect business architecture with the PMO.

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.