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Mainframes are expensive, aren't they?
Well, that's a piece of accepted wisdom I've never really bought
into. I think that mainframes are a remarkably cheap platform, if
they are properly managed, partly because getting 80% plus...
So, what's not to like about Knowledge Management? It sounds very
Web 2.0, Enterprise 3.0 or something like that. It's probably
what distinguishes the sheep from the goats in the automated
business service management business in a million...
Everybody's security-focused these days. So, what's wrong with
Security? Well, possibly the word security itself and the
silo'd thinking it encourages. And also, I'm afraid, sometimes
the people in the security profession, who often appear...
I've just been talking to Compuware at its new offices in
Maidenhead. There are a couple or three things I like about
Compuware's product offerings, quite apart from the technology
(and it is one of the few vendors which can extend holistic...
I'm an old database hand—and I think that using such
technologies effectively is still an aspect of good IT
governance. I can remember times before RDBMSs (Relational
Database Management Systems) and deciding that the speed of IBM's...
What's not to like about Governance? Traditionally, rather a lot.
It is all about the management of management so it usually
involves information more of interest to the managers than the
workers. It has usually been heavy-handed, involving...
I like charismatic leaders of privately owned
companies—well, I do until they do something to the company
like Ken Olsen did to DEC. It's an interesting (but not very
proactive) aspect of governance—what most people do in...
I like charismatic leaders of privately owned companies—well, I do until they do something to the company like Ken Olsen did to DEC. It's an interesting (but not very proactive) aspect of governance—what most people do in public (and...
OK, I have a secret. It's called GC26-4531-0 and it describes the solution to increasing software complexity, the prevalence of inaccurate requirements and poor design information, the increasing difficulty in managing change and the lack of...
It is now widely accepted that OSS (Open Source Software) can be industrial strength. Even the UK government has a policy which says that software should be acquired on the basis of its fitness for purpose and that OSS shouldn't be excluded (see...
David Norfolk, Bloor Research | 22nd September '09
Some time ago I had a bit of a rant about how the overall user experience available in the web today simply doesn't match the expectations of Web 2.0.
Slow response times—or, even worse, inconsistent response times—kill the...
David Norfolk, Bloor Research | 17th September '09
Well, there's been some interesting responses to my MDM tarpit blog and I have to admit that I was stating a slightly one sided case—but lots of people are explaining how MDM is just wonderful so there's no point in my doing so too....
Frank Johnson has been taking me to task over my view of MDM in my recent blog.
He thinks that that I'm being rather impracticable as far as smaller companies are concerned It was enough that these businesses could just get these applications...
As I look over my Governance landscape I find that I struggle to see how MDM (Master Data Management) really fits into it. Master Data isn't something new, as far as I can see, it's just data. And I was brought up to analyse data as part of...
The highlight of the third day at RSC was Grady Booch's roundtable discussion session as usual. He expressed a certain disappointment in today's modelling tools—which are a long way now from the simple visualisation tools originally...
I have to admit that I think that configuration management is a universal good thing—unless you know what you have, where it is running, how it is configured and who is allowed to use it, you can hardly be said to be in control of anything....
It's nice to talk about something positive for a change—and to meet a company actually trying to be positive about UK plc's prospects. Micro Focus collected a panel of the Great and Good to launch its Technology Manifesto for the UK. These...
Sorry it has taken a while to get my second report on RSC 2009 out—it's turning a braindump into respectable reportage that takes the time, I find.
On Day 2, I was pleased that in the Innovation for a Smarter Planet keynote, in which...
So here I am in sunny Florida at another RSDC (Rational Software Development Conference, now including an added Telelogic user conference). This one is in hard times and IBM seems rather keen on emphasising the financial benefits from not just...
I've always been a bit depressed about Systems Analysis in practice, since rather enjoying it in my computer science courses alongside lectures on Systems Theory, because the only system Systems Analysts seem to look at is the one being automated....
It's hard to believe that anyone can question the need for SAM (Software Asset Management). After all, businesses run on software these days and if you don't know what software you have, how it's configured, who's running it and where and when,...
Well, I'm at the New York Stock Exchange, where Sybase is hosting the launch of its time-series version of RAP and the security is a bit OTT (although it is pretty close to where the World Trade Centre once stood). It's a very last-century...
Every so often one needs to take a reality check. In my case, it was a month in Australia with relatives and an insight into why the UK health system is a good idea and why Web 2.0... well, isn't quite all it's cracked up to be.
Whatever Web...
I was rather interested by a press release from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) today, about its 'A Decade of Living Dangerously' report (published by the CMI and Cabinet Office). It points out the usual failures in Business Continuity...
Dana Gardner Principal Analyst Interarbor Solutions
