By now almost every software professional has been exposed to the Agile Manifesto, or at least to its first page containing the value system. But few people have noticed that the Agile Manifesto also contains a second page, with the "Twelve Principles of Agile Development." So if you want to know "how Agile" you are, you should take a look at these principles.

Data generated by sensor-enabled devices is making it possible for organizations to measure activities and behavior that was not really practical before the advent of smartphones, wearables (e.g., watches, bracelets, anklets, and smart clothing), and other connected devices. In short, connected devices are leading to new applications and larger and richer data sets.

As great as a private enterprise application can be for your requirements, be careful when getting it ready. The problem with some applications is that they can cost you quite a bit to develop. Before you have an application designed for your business, be aware of the following five key points associated with rolling out an enterprise application, along with their related costs.

If we use measures properly, we do so to improve our business, organization, or our lives. In this respect, there are many times when having some data is not better than having none. Given that all data could possibly be erroneous to some extent, what to do?

Companies offering Internet-based products and services or online mobile services to their customers should use effective authentication mechanisms for high-risk transactions involving access to customer information or movement of funds to other parties. For the company, it is also important to protect stored cardholder data and encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks as per popular standards such as PCI DSS. Areas of concern for online commerce can be minimized once the industry gives adequate focus to security issues.

The different ways that supermarkets organize service at the deli counter offer an example of salient transparency. Inefficient supermarkets rely on the mob to self-organize. Customers are expected to form a queue, and the servers have the task of deciding who's next. When approaching the mob, a customer cannot tell whether or how the mob has organized, how long it will take, or who to queue behind. He or she must expend mental energy to establish and maintain position in line and may experience anxiety over whether cutting in line will occur.

Case management isn't necessarily important for every business, but we have seen that it is a vital concept for some, such as insurance, health, or legal. Even in companies where cases are not currently common, the idea might be relevant -- for example, in handling a customer complaint that spans a longer period of time, or that covers multiple services. The notion of case will probably become more relevant as enterprise architectures become more dependent on their integration with Internet and social technologies.

[From the Editor: This week's Cutter IT Advisor is from Cutter Senior Consultant Balaji Prasad's introduction to the February 2015 issue of Cutter IT Journal, "Enterprise Architecture: Toward a More Perfect Union Between Business and IT" (Vol. 28, No. 2). Learn more about Cutter IT Journal.]

An examination of the different types of social media analysis practices helps provide a better understanding of their technical capabilities and where they fit in regard to enterprise social analytics needs, as well as how the application of the technology is evolving. There are essentially three main categories of social media analysis practices: social media monitoring, social media listening, and social business analytics. Each provides for increasingly sophisticated analysis of social media data, and each requires the application of increasingly sophisticated technology.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters at the most recent World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, that he saw the Internet disappearing over the next few years. What Schmidt was talking about, I believe, is not so much that the Internet's physical underlying structure would disappear but that the Internet would become so ubiquitous that it would be invisible.

Characterizing projects by innovation is useful because it sheds light on the nature of work to be done no matter what the size of the effort.

There are many bookish definitions of architecture out there that speak of systems and components swirling around in complex interactions, and of the need to describe the organization, structures, patterns, and principles that underlie the dynamics of all this. The task of understanding and describing falls squarely on the architect's shoulders. But architects do more than description; architects also create new patterns of organization, intended to enable a move toward a better state for the business.

US President Ronald Reagan's old adage "Trust, but verify" certainly works with data, measures, information, and metrics. The trust part means that you don't ignore them. They may be totally accurate! That's why you go through the trouble of having a metrics program! So trust that the data is as accurate as possible and that no one is feeding you misinformation. But verify. Don't run off and make changes or decisions -- instead, verify. I don't mean verify the data (prove it is accurate), but instead verify what the data is telling you.

In the era of big data, where assumptions are being challenged in all areas related to analytic processing, it is no surprise that new concepts should emerge to challenge the central role of the data warehouse in BI. The most recent is the data lake, which is viewed as a centralized repository of unstructured data held for processing by Hadoop and meeting the diverse needs of big data analysis. The data lake, like so many concepts in our industry, is currently undergoing subtle change as new technologies evolve to extend, fortify, and capitalize on the need that it is designed to fill.

Computing inspired by the design of brains is rapidly progressing. Very rapidly.

Empowerment doesn't mean "do what you want" but rather "do what is needed to reach your goals."

The ability to attain strategic and organizational agility directly relates to the organization's ability to prepare stakeholders for change. In other words, a sustained state of change readiness coincides with the ability to attain organizational agility. Among other practices, it is vital to manage change in an organized way that is pervasive and well understood across the organization.

Social media is evolving into one of the most, if not the most, important consumer medium -- one that is on pace to soon form the foundation for consumer profiling, customer interaction, and analytics. It isn't there quite yet because of remaining issues to settle -- technical as well as societal -- but it is certainly on the horizon.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is going to have a tremendous impact on environmental protection. This will come about from end-user companies, researchers, the media, environmental watchdog groups, and even ordinary citizens using wireless sensors, video cameras, and drones for real-time environmental monitoring, pollution control, and facilities management and maintenance.

I live in the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan area, and, as a result, have the joy of experiencing some of the worst traffic in the US. Couple that with the winter weather, and it can turn into a real nightmare. I grew up in Ohio. I have lived in Maine. I've seen snow. And I've seen snow managed well. Yet, every year, the Washington area experiences its fair share of snowfall. And every year, the local authorities act like they're surprised. "It SNOWED! WOW! Who knew?" There are never enough plows, salt, and stamina to stand up even against a dusting. The area is hobbled.

A software project can, of course, be characterized by various parameters. We recommend starting with the (elusively) simple question of the intrinsic nature of the project.

Manufacturing and process industries are making extensive use of sensors, mobile, and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to connect, monitor, and measure equipment, vehicles, material, and processes. This trend is starting to accelerate and is expected to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

For the uninitiated, a Kanban board is a rectangular area with vertical columns. Cards representing work items go in each column and can be easily moved from column to column. Cards generally progress from column to column one at a time, in one direction -- typically, left to right (in English-speaking teams). When we're doing Kanban, we add some more rules of use for the Kanban board: the board helps visualize work and process flow. We use work-in-progress limits on "doing" columns to reduce thrashing caused by too much multitasking.

Essentially, business activity monitoring (BAM) data, which is collected and produced by a business process management (BPM)-type application, is just another subset of BI within the organization. BAM data may be pushed to a big data repository, but a BAM repository should never be used for big data analysis. BAM environments are characterized by online, real-time users, where throughput and performance are paramount. BAM queries and reports should be targeted to simple operational status views against optimized, normalized tables.

If we use measures properly, we do so to improve our business, organization, or our lives. In this respect, there are many times when having some data is not better than having none.