The question is: do we need standards for performance measures? I've long opposed the request for canned measures and championed the use of personalized metrics. Your metrics should answer your root questions and fulfill your specific needs. However, I also teach that metrics are built from measures. It's these performance measures that would greatly benefit from a common language.

Today, cloud services are the reincarnated, super-charged version of ASP. In the current decade, cloud has proliferated into many derivatives of XaaS, or "anything as a service" (e.g., SaaS -- software as a service, PaaS -- platform as a service, IaaS -- infrastructure as a service, and DRaaS -- disaster recovery as a service). The derivatives of XaaS are many and increasing daily. There are so many forecasts, it's impossible to determine the market size and growth trajectories.

In this Executive Update we look at taxonomies and common vocabulary in EA. In particular, we look at whether a common language is necessary for communicating and reconciling critical business issues across a wide variety of stakeholders.

Social media, mobile, analytics, and the cloud (SMAC) is a quartet of technologies that builds on the interconnected (and even inseparable) nature of human endeavors. These technologies operate in a much broader and dynamic ecosystem of the business than a singular system. Therefore, Agile appears to be the right glue to bind these technologies together in order to produce value to the business. This Executive Update outlines how balanced Agile ensures the successful utilization of SMAC, as well as a few caveats in its usage.

Management executives sometimes have expectations of delivery scheduling and commitments that they feel they got from waterfall -- even if they were illusory. Well, after moving the delivery team to Scrum, management often has the same expectations. In this Executive Update, let's reset those expectations and assert that Scrum gives you something more realistic -- and better.

In this Executive Update, we will explore how apps and open data combine to create new ways of working for both developers and users and some of the issues, problems, and benefits of working with these new tools and techniques.

The world of network regulation is exceedingly murky, yet it is of critical importance as much to business as to the consumer. Technological advances along with changes in the competitive field are forever challenging or amending regulations, as we'll explore in this Executive Update.

The truest driver of our reliance on deterministic methods is the fact that our operations are too far from being Lean. So what does that look like and how do we get there? This Update provides a pictorial explanation of probabilistic decision-making methods, their uses, and how to start "Leaning" the operation to improve the quality of the data that makes probabilistic decision-making methods possible.

DevOps falls fairly easily within existing models of enterprise governance, such as ITIL and CMMI. It does not require a new team or a new organization. DevOps does require, however, a new way of looking at things along with a careful review of how governance requirements can be adequately served within the new environment.

An Architecture Evolution Framework should be based on the same factors we use to create our other frameworks, and it needs to show all the options for evolving the architecture. EA is largely about the management of architecture in a way that supports enterprise adaptation, change, or transformation. This Update describes the factors used to create an Architecture Evolution Framework.

This Executive Update describes Cognizant's embrace of the small app concept, which evolved without significant investment in reengineering the legacy environment. Any organization can adopt this approach during its IT transformation journey.

Big Data, another alternative, is a very popular topic these days. While Part I described probabilistic decision making as based on "quantitative behavioral performance of the operation," one might reasonably ask how this differs from or can be accomplished with Big Data analysis. We'll address this observation in this Update.

In this Update Peter Kaminski looks at Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a tool for thinking about environmental and psychological elements that factor into the evolution of a Scrum team's development.

This Executive Update explores the intricate link that exists between Lean and Agile. Such exploration can reveal the hidden synergies between the two approaches, which can benefit projects and organizations in practice. In order to understand this synergy, however, it is also important to understand the differences between Lean and Agile. 

This Executive Update intends to show a pragmatic resolution for the well-known dilemma of top-down versus bottom-up approaches in data warehousing initiatives in light of changing technical, business, and economic scenarios.

Nonfunctional requirements (NFR) are an important aspect of an application, and they are becoming increasingly relevant for Web applications and underlying services. We include in this Executive Update the results of NFR testing at a client site, which shows how the framework is applied to study the system under component failures. Tests revealed system defects, which then could be corrected. A component’s resiliency is estimated using the exception indicator and the Wilson confidence interval.

As Agile expands into new territories, agilists face the same question of how to continue. We explore some of the options for Agile adoption in this Executive Update.

While there is no silver bullet for an ideal MDM solution, there are five crucial decision points in a customer MDM journey, and the decisions taken at those points become the defining moments of the solution. This Executive Update addresses those five decision points.

 As business professionals we're trained (or born) to value data and analysis. Despite a plentitude of data and analysis, however, many decisions do not result in the desired outcome. The problem, as I'll describe in this Executive Update, is not about the volume of data or days of analysis; it is the data and analysis mindset itself.

In this Update, we examine what leading architects use to manage effective communication regarding enterprise architecture. We start by looking at the factors needed to create a good Architecture Communication Framework.

With greater clarity on "True North," effective measurement, and transparency, this Executive Update demonstrates how we can apply Agile methods to BI applications in a way that ties directly to customer value.

In the services industry, the importance of customer satisfaction is so apparent that it can hardly be overemphasized. To achieve customer satisfaction, we not only aim at meeting customers’ needs but also advocate the concept of exceeding their expectations by going the proverbial “extra mile” from time to time. But how far should we go in order to satisfy the customer?

The simple truth is that performing the mechanics of Agile or Scrum well at the team level is just not enough to ensure that you will see all the benefits you should. Let me say that in another way: having teams perform Scrum or any Agile process exactly right, in a textbook-like fashion, does not guarantee you will achieve your organization's goals for adopting Agile.

This Executive Update describes the good, the bad, and the ugly, and sounds a warning for all implementers and adopters of this new technology.

As the workforce becomes better educated, more technology-savvy, and more flexible in handling job assignments, the pace of change will increase. Development of new management styles is now becoming imperative. These emerging management styles are already beginning to demonstrate significant benefit across a growing range of activity.