For CIOs

The State Of Point-Of-Sale Systems

Retail CIOs Around The World Expect POS To Become More Strategic

by George Lawrie, November 18, 2009

Retail IT is challenged to support new cross-channel offerings and the ability to sell services and merchandise not provided in the store itself. It also needs to support rapid innovation in point-of-sale (POS) peripherals and the promise of more direct-to-consumer . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Ups The ALM Ante With Its Bet On Teamprise

Expect VS 2010 To Accelerate The Shakeout In The Application Life-Cycle Management Market

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, November 16, 2009

Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) has proven very popular with .NET developers but not so much with Eclipse developers. This presents a problem for Microsoft, because many of its largest customers develop for both .NET and Java and want a consolidated . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: Develop A Technology Watch List

The Top 15 Technology Trends To Watch

by Sharyn Leaver, November 13, 2009

As IT executives set out their strategies and plan for 2010 and beyond, they must determine what the top technology trends are for their business and gauge IT's ability to support the next phase of technology innovation and growth. To help, Forrester . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Learn More About Your 2009 Business Analysts  (694 KB PPT)

by Mary Gerush, November 13, 2009

These data charts highlight more data from the Forrester Research/IIBA Q2 2009 Global Business Analyst Online Survey, first reviewed in the July 23, 2009, "Your 2009 Business Analysts: Know Them To Grow Them" report.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

SAP Will Retrench With NetWeaver

SAP Will Focus On New Analytics Opportunities, Not Stack Wars

by John R. Rymer, November 12, 2009

Pop quiz: What is SAP's direction with NetWeaver? We couldn't answer that question either, so we traveled to SAP's TechEd conference in October to find out. NetWeaver is an also-ran in enterprise middleware but is vital to the many organizations that . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Enterprise Platform Trends, H1 2009: Bye-Bye Vista

by Ellen Daley, November 10, 2009

Forrester's six-month study of 75,453 enterprise users during H1 2009 reveals interesting insights into browser type, operating system, screen resolution, color depth, and Java and Flash adoption. These insights are especially useful for enterprise software . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Vendors Beware: Virtualization, PaaS, And SaaS Are Changing The Capacity Management Tools Market

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 10, 2009

Continuous improvement in the server technology performance-price ratio has caused many organizations to simply dismiss the need for accurate workload and resource planning efforts. In the current economic climate, infrastructure optimization and operational . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: Business Alignment And BT Enablement Require Business Capability Maps

At Your Level, You Can't Rely On Any Other Single IT Business Model

by Bobby Cameron, October 30, 2009

CIOs are aggressively tackling their planning and management challenges, deploying tools and building models to address a wide variety of functions like asset management, IT services management, application rationalization, business process efficiencies, . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

What Vendor Strategists Need To Know About Lean — The Hot Topic For CIOs Right Now

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., Alexander Peters, Ph.D., October 29, 2009

As smart executives delve into the core of Lean Thinking, the role of technology in Lean-based performance improvements becomes abundantly clear. Senior executives expect their chief information officers (CIOs) to drive improvements in the effectiveness . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: Middleware Software Market, H2 2008 And H1 2009

Middleware Vendors Must Fight For Awareness In A Consolidating Market While Offering Cloud Innovations

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., October 27, 2009

Forrester's market momentum data includes mergers and acquisitions (M&A), product, partnership, and strategy/go-to-market announcements. A trend analysis provides vendors with important background for the ongoing market consolidation and various strategic . . .

For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

Address The Governance Requirements Of Managed Outcome Engagements

by Bill Martorelli, October 26, 2009

The intensity of the recent economic crisis focused attention on immediate savings exemplified by renegotiation on billing rates for application development and maintenance (ADM) services, among other service types. However, with signs of stabilization . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Global Workforce Planning Through 2016: How Population Shifts Will Affect The Supply Of IT Skills

by Phil Murphy, October 26, 2009

The size and composition of the global workforce is changing, and the changes will affect IT professionals and business leaders in diverse ways. Population experts debate generational differences in work styles and work ethics and whether careers that . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Market Overview: PLM Deployment Support

New Offerings From Vendors And Service Providers Lower Implementation Hurdles

by Roy C. Wildeman, October 21, 2009

As companies pursue a more ambitious agenda for product life-cycle management (PLM), the complexity of their application deployments is on the rise, creating a host of new integration, data migration, and customization challenges for application development . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Smart Grid Technologies: Coming To A Utility Near You

Modern IT And Communications Systems Are Transforming The US Power Industry

by Roy C. Wildeman, October 19, 2009

Today's energy companies face an unprecedented quandary of regulatory requirements, market pressures, and public scrutiny that, in combination, act to disrupt traditional approaches to cutting costs and servicing consumers. With the recent federal stimulus . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Project Manager Assessment Workbook  (76 KB XLS)

by Mary Gerush, October 15, 2009

The Project Manager Assessment Workbook can be used to evaluate an individual's strengths and growth opportunities across a set of capabilities, knowledge, and skills that are important for a specific project or program manager position. It is intended . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Define, Hire, And Develop Your Next-Generation Project Managers

by Mary Gerush, October 15, 2009

Software delivery has changed. Organizations are looking for their software development projects to deliver high business value and strong customer satisfaction as well as come in on time and on budget. They also demand faster and cheaper solutions, so . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Test Data Privacy Is Critical To Meet Compliances

Data Masking Can Help Protect Test Data

by Noel Yuhanna, October 13, 2009

Using customer, employee, or other confidential data straight from production for testing or developing applications violates data privacy laws and regulations and makes that data a soft target for attacks. Data privacy is not just a concern for production . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Top 15 Technology Trends EA Should Watch

by Alex Cullen, October 6, 2009

IT organizations need to inform their annual and longer-term plans with an understanding of how changes in technology will enable business outcomes. EA groups are the logical leaders for this effort. Forrester has identified 15 technologies with the greatest . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Modernization Decisions: Migrate, Rewrite, Or Replace A 40-Year-Old Assembler Application?

by Phil Murphy, October 2, 2009

Client inquiries asking Forrester for help in making application modernization decisions have spiked in recent months, spurred on by firms' need to make the most of the applications they already own while jettisoning applications that no longer effectively . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals: Cloud Computing, Q3 2009

As Much Diversity Of Maturity Across Categories As Confusion Among Them

by James Staten, October 2, 2009

The No. 1 challenge in cloud computing today is determining what it really is. What categories of services exist within the definition and business model, and how ready are these options for enterprise consumption? Forrester defines cloud computing as . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

What Semantic Technology Means To Application Development Professionals

Semantic Technology Is Now Ready For Increased But Focused Use

by Dave West, October 2, 2009

Semantic technology has been incubating for the past 10 years, but most application development professionals view it with skepticism or outright distrust, believing that the dream of semantic technology is impractical in a time of stretched budgets and . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Lean: The New Business Technology Imperative

Lean Thinking Is Central To The Shift From IT To BT

by Connie Moore, Clay Richardson, John R. Rymer, Ted Schadler, Dave West, September 29, 2009

Everyone wants to be lean these days, whether when stepping off a scale in the morning or reviewing the cost of running a successful business. But just how do you define "Lean" — especially in the context of business and technology? Do you think of Lean . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Five Most Valuable SOA Governance Practices

Survey Ranks Broad SOA Governance Practices Above Detailed Practices

by Randy Heffner, September 22, 2009

A recent Forrester survey showed that SOA governance increases SOA satisfaction and that each of 12 different SOA governance practices has a positive correlation with higher SOA satisfaction. Which of the 12 should SOA users focus on first? Our survey . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Economic Forces Drive Lean BPM Trends And Adoption  (631 KB PPT)

by Clay Richardson, September 18, 2009

Data chart with key findings from the April 2009 Global Lean BPM Online Survey. Results include data on BPM initiative ownership, budgets, tools, and SaaS.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Jeppesen's Customized Software Development Process Delivers Compliance And Flexibility

by Dave West, September 16, 2009

In the past 10 years, building highly complex navigation systems has become more difficult. New markets, technological advances, and new partnerships have increased product complexity, while intricate sourcing models and increasingly global development . . .