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

Deputize End-User Developers To Deliver Business Agility And Reduce Costs

Accentuate The Positives, Eliminate The Negatives Of End-User Development

by Mike Gualtieri, April 15, 2009

The ranks of businesspeople who are capable of developing applications are swelling due to a combination of the technology-savvy Millennial generation entering the workforce, the proliferation of easy-to-use development tools, and burgeoning demand for . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Platform-As-A-Service Is Here: How To Sift Through The Options

The Rewards And Risks Of PaaS For Application Development Shops

by John R. Rymer, April 1, 2009

The term platform-as-a-service describes many different approaches to developing applications that run in Internet data centers, and each of these approaches is suited to a limited number of application scenarios. These scenarios are evident in the developer . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Application Development Pros: Must-Read Research In Any Economic Downturn

by Mike Gilpin, October 28, 2008

Whether the economy slips into recession or not, many firms are starting to tighten their budgets. Although this means even more limited resources than usual, the business will continue to expect application development teams to deliver high-quality, . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Building A Strong SOA Policy Life Cycle

Integrate Policy Into Your SOA Governance And Service Life-Cycle Processes

by Randy Heffner, September 9, 2008

Policy management builds added flexibility and business value to your strategy for service-oriented architecture (SOA). Achieving these benefits requires you to enhance your SOA processes and add new features to your SOA infrastructure. From service portfolio . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Complex Event Processing In A Quant World

A Case Study Illustrating The Practicalities Of Introducing CEP

by Charles Brett, August 25, 2008

Robert Almgren is a co-founder of Quantitative Brokers, a company that is extending the reach of complex event processing (CEP) from its conventional uses in the equity sector into non-equity trading. Before founding this startup, Dr. Almgren was head . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Industry Essential: Global Retail Industry

eCommerce Revitalization And "Legacy Lifelines" Dominate Retailers' IT Plans Around The Globe

by George Lawrie, August 13, 2008

IT spending and interest in new initiatives follows the sun, with optimism waning from Asia Pacific to Europe and then to North America. But retailers across the globe share many priorities — notably, common interest in prolonging the life of legacy apps . . .

For CIOs

Develop Metrics Thoughtfully To Streamline Application Portfolios Successfully

by Phil Murphy, July 23, 2008

CIOs will be stuck with burdensome, expensive application portfolios until they take the steps necessary to rationalize and streamline the portfolios. But streamlining the portfolio with poor transparency and no usable metrics virtually guarantees that . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Now Is The Time To Determine SharePoint's Place In Your Application Development Strategy

SharePoint Use Is Exploding; How To Get The Most From Its Underlying Platform

by John R. Rymer, Rob Koplowitz, July 16, 2008

As application development managers, you may see Microsoft SharePoint as a collaboration application. But as many shops are discovering, SharePoint is also a development platform that people both inside and outside of IT use to create intranets, outward-facing . . .

For CIOs

The Application Management Continuum Offers CIOs A Contemporary Approach To Modernization

by Phil Murphy, July 14, 2008

The technology needs of an industry evolve and mature unevenly — in the early years, companies replace technology frequently to scale in step with organic growth. As the industry matures, it reaches a leveling-off point where the need to gain and retain . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Leveraging Your Investment In SOA Service Life-Cycle Management

Tools Can Bring Value To Other IT Processes

by Larry Fulton, July 11, 2008

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) service life-cycle management solutions, sometimes called SOA repositories, are significant investments, with enterprise licenses ranging from $300,000 to well over $1 million. With this price tag, leveraging the investment . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

A Taxonomy Of Events For Your Application Development Strategy

Events Are A Hot Topic; Guide Your Team By Defining Them

by Charles Brett, John R. Rymer, May 16, 2008

Event processing, business event processing, complex event processing, and various other similar terms are coming into common use by IT professionals and even by business users. Confusion about what each term represents is rife, in part because an increasing . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Defining Your SOA Platform Strategy

Sorting Through The Confusion Of Overlapping SOA Functions And Features

by Randy Heffner, May 14, 2008

Defining an SOA platform is not as simple as some in the industry make it out to be. Serious pursuit of service-oriented architecture (SOA) requires new and different characteristics in your application infrastructure. New product categories such as SOA . . .

For CIOs

CIOs Must MAP A Strategic Application Plan

Align IT Execution To Business Needs With Vision, Context, And Orchestration

by Phil Murphy, February 4, 2008

The duties performed by CIOs are analogous to those of big-city mayors — neither executive has the chance to build a community from scratch, and most inherit a series of problems from predecessors: dated infrastructures, more demand than they can meet, . . .

For CIOs

APM Trends: Board-Mandated Cuts To The IT Budget Spur A Global Bank To Adopt APM

by Phil Murphy, January 7, 2008

The impetus for streamlining application portfolios can originate from many different directions and catalysts. In this case it was simple: The bank's board of directors mandated that IT management cut IT costs by 10% and stipulated a five-year period . . .

For CIOs

APM Trends: Bank Assessed The Ability Of Core Applications To Suit Future Business Plans

by Phil Murphy, January 7, 2008

The business leaders in one bank regularly plan business strategy several years into the future. During these sessions, leaders pose forward-looking questions: "How much will our business change seven to 10 years out, and will our systems support these . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Five Trends That Will Shape The EA Profession In 2008

by Larry Fulton, Randy Heffner, Jost Hoppermann, Henry Peyret, Jeff Scott, December 14, 2007

In 2008, enterprise architects will find themselves at the center of a struggle to change their organizations into significantly more agile enterprises. As solution delivery morphs from traditional in-house custom development to the integration of an . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Forrester's Long-Term Packaged Apps Strategy Best Practices Self-Assessment  (134 KB XLS)

by R "Ray" Wang, December 11, 2007

Forrester¿s long-term applications strategy framework distills findings from our discussions with hundreds of business process and applications professionals to define the critical capabilities necessary for building a cohesive and effective application . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Forrester's Long-Term Packaged Applications Strategy Framework

Use Our Long-Term Packaged Apps Strategy Best Practices Self-Assessment To Track Progress

by R "Ray" Wang, December 11, 2007

Amid a consolidating vendor landscape, business process and applications professionals face an onslaught of packaged apps initiatives focused on strategic planning for service-oriented architecture (SOA), next-generation apps, upgrades, instance consolidation, . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Why You Need A Long-Term Apps Strategy

by R "Ray" Wang, November 27, 2007

Business process and applications professionals face a barrage of requests to deploy new functionality, reduce IT costs, and meet vendor-imposed upgrade deadlines. Typical projects include instance consolidation, software upgrades, business process outsourcing . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Canonical Information Modeling Is Key To Many Information-As-A-Service And SOA Strategies

by Mike Gilpin, November 15, 2007

Forrester recently surveyed 1,017 decision-makers at North American and European enterprises on the adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and related technologies including information-as-a-service (IaaS). Compared to other SOA technologies . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Increase Business Agility With BPM Suites

How BPM Suites Support Forrester's Digital Business Architecture

by Ken Vollmer, Colin Teubner, September 25, 2006

It's obvious that a solid technological foundation is necessary to conduct business operations effectively, but how to achieve it is not so obvious. Forrester believes that the reality of the digital age is that your business is embodied in your technology, . . .

Scenarios Provide Forward-Looking EA Capabilities

Scenario-Based Planning Extends The Limits Of Agility

by Jost Hoppermann, Alex Cullen, August 8, 2006

Forward-looking architecture planning struggles with the fact that there is not just one future — neither on the business nor on the IT side. Scenarios provide ways to capture multiple futures and to assess their impact on architecture and application . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Key SOA Success Factors: A Starter Kit For SOA

by Randy Heffner, July 25, 2006

The three keys for starting down the road to service-oriented architecture (SOA) are: 1) adopt an evolutionary approach; 2) focus on business pain points; and 3) use street-level strategy to get there. Within this broad framework, there are different . . .