The Technology Garden on IT-Director.com

Real-world Enterprise Architecture trends

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:53:29 +0100

This comes from Leo de Sousa, an EA in Australian Higher Education who asked the Shared Insights EA Network to provide ideas about what EA trends they were seeing. My take: leading organisations get... [Read More...]

On not being subservient, part 2

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:03:39 +0100

Via Steve Jones, here's another story that perfectly encapsulates the power of realising that a partnership approach between IT and business can drive real improvements in the return that you... [Read More...]

On not being subservient

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:12:30 +0100

One of the the themes that came up time and time again in our interviews for the book was the importance of getting out of the mindset that the IT organisation is in existence to blindly serve... [Read More...]

On IT architecture and gardening

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:00:00 +0100

James Tarbell has this great post, responding to one of the people we've interviewed in our research, James McGovern. James T calls out some very insightful similarities between architects and ... [Read More...]

Two UK retailers decide to do without IT Directors

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:00:00 +0100

Just saw this story, courtesy of my colleague Martin Atherton (co-worker of book authors Jon Collins and Dale Vile). Martin asks: are these companies' IT departments moving from being ... [Read More...]

Getting the right focus for IT Governance

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:45:00 +0100

I've long been a fan of Nick Malik's blog - and indeed it was his blog that led me to ask him if he'd be happy to be interviewed for the book. In this post Nick nails quite a few ... [Read More...]

Does IT matter

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Wed, 16 May 2007 06:00:00 +0100

What's the correct way to think about IT's effects going forward: diminished competitive significance because the technology innovations are being absorbed, or sustained significance because IT... [Read More...]

Healthy signs for IT-Business alignment

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:00:00 +0100

McKinsey has just published the results of a survey of 72 senior IT executives in the US (free subscription required for the full article) which investigated IT strategy maturity. The majority of ... [Read More...]

Zachman Framework != Enterprise Architecture

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:30:00 +0100

I was talking earlier on to one of the people we interviewed for the book, outlining the main findings and getting some feedback. One of the main topics we focused on was the nature of Enterprise ... [Read More...]

What characterises a service?

Jon Collins, Freeform Dynamics — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:00:00 +0100

A couple of weeks ago I was party to another event, this time hosted by IBM. At short notice I was asked to facilitate a session on defining services, which was interesting in the extreme... [Read More...]

Two interesting insights on enterprise architecture

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:20:00 +0100

Nick Malik (who we interviewed for the book) and Michael Platt, who are both coincidentally from Microsoft, have recently posted some thoughts on enterprise architecture, which align well with our... [Read More...]

The rising importance of the enterprise architecture

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:00:00 +0100

CIO Magazine has an interesting article on the role of the enterprise architect, which highlights a number of aspects of EA which we call out in the book. [Read More...]

Great blog: Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:00:00 +0100

Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms is a consistently thought-provoking blog from currently resting CIO Mike Schaffner. In this entry he calls out a recent CIO.com piece which looks at ... [Read More...]

Start 'em young

Jon Collins, Freeform Dynamics — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:00:00 +0100

Another of the sessions at the Architects Council was a workshop held between members of ... [Read More...]

IT-business alignment at Credit Suisse

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:00:00 +0100

McKinsey has a very interesting interview (free subscription required) with ... [Read More...]

Effective IT Summit 2007 story: 3PI

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:05:00 +0100

Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways, kicked off the 2nd day of the conference, discussing IT-enabled business transformation at the airline. He was both engaging and honest (taking comments about ... [Read More...]

Effective IT Summit 2007 story: Positioning IT to deliver business innovation

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:00:00 +0100

I spent the last couple of days in Cardiff at the Effective IT Summit 2007, courtesy of Information Age, which featured ... [Read More...]

Just back from the Architects Council

Jon Collins, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:00:00 +0100

The past couple of days, I've been very lucky to have attended the Microsoft-hosted UK Architects Council, which brings together a number of quite senior architects and CTOs from a broad range ... [Read More...]

More CIO Magazine research insights

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:00:00 +0100

I just came across a thought-provoking article on Christopher Koch's CIO Magazine blog which digs into the differences exhibited by CIOs who ... [Read More...]

Manuscript finished!

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:00:00 +0100

This is a bit late in the posting - we actually passed the finished draft manuscript to Wiley three days before Christmas. It was a pretty sweet team effort in the final days, with all ... [Read More...]

The State of the CIO

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:00:00 +0100

CIO Magazine has just published the results of its annual CIO survey and it makes for interesting reading in light of our work on the book (which is now ... [Read More...]

On jargon, and creating a common language

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0100

Interesting post here from that arch (in both senses of the word) commentator on IT and business issues, [Read More...]

"You put them in the bin, Mr Collins"

Jon Collins, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:00:00 +0100

As I write and rewrite the sections on how it is important to put the fundamentals in place, it is difficult to avoid pinning all of the blame for shoddy delivery on the IT department. Of course, ... [Read More...]

Maintenance, innovation and half-baked pies

Jon Collins, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:50:00 +0100

I'm getting just a little bit bored of a certain slide that seems to appear in every single IT vendor's enterprise pitch at the moment. It's the one with the pie chart - where ... [Read More...]

The business driven portfolio approach

Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:00:00 +0100

I have just been editing Jon's chapter for the book on managing IT investments in the style of a business driven portfolio, and as is happening quite a bit on this project, it got me thinking and I ... [Read More...]

Nordic CIO story: "Business sponsor accountability is non-negotiable"

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:00:00 +0100

So said the CIO of a Nordic logistics company at the event I'm chairing yesterday. He's so right, because so many serious IT projects are actually not IT projects - there's ... [Read More...]

It's not your computer

Jon Collins, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:00:00 +0100

When things aren't right in IT, it can be quite difficult to put your finger on exactly what is wrong. A week or so ago, a helpful blogger put a clip from [Read More...]

Blogging from Nordic CIO Summit

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:05:00 +0100

I'm currently chairing a really interesting CIO event in Stockholm and I thought it would be a good idea to write down some of the things that are ... [Read More...]

Nordic CIO story: the importance of networking

Neil Ward-Dutton, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:00:00 +0100

A couple of the CIOs presenting here have called out the importance of networking as a core CIO competence for IT-business alignment. One (CIO of a very large logistics company) - who is a business ... [Read More...]

The need for a common language: avoiding technobabble

Neil Macehiter, Macehiter Ward-Dutton — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 08:00:00 +0100

One of the principles we are advocating in the book is the need to create a common language between business and IT to ensure that there is a common understanding of what the business is trying to ... [Read More...]