Newsletter Index

Issue #57 (August 2008) - The Six Faces of IT Complexity. I have been studying IT complexity for several years now. I have concluded that the vast majority of IT complexity falls into six categories. If you can control these six categories, you can dramatically reduce the complexity that is choking your IT projects and preventing them from delivering business value. Read this article and get a head start at bringing complexity under control.

Issue #56 (January 2008) - The Top Seven Mistakes CIOs Will Make in 2008. CIO Magazine recently interviewed 250 CIOs from a variety of organizations and asked what their top ten goals are for 2008. As I read this article, I realized that of the top ten goals, seven have virtually no hope of being attained. Why is this? Check out this issue to find out why so many CIOs are heading down a path of failure in the coming year.

Issue #55 (November 2007) - The Hunt for Complexity in New Zealand. IT complexity is a killer. It is the direct cause of projects coming in late, over-budget, and failing to meet the business requirements. Complexity is costing IT organizations hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

Over the upcoming months, I will be issuing a series of ObjectWatch Newsletters, all addressing different areas of IT complexity. This first one is a somewhat lighter introduction to the area. I am covering my recent trip to New Zealand and some of the interesting discussions about complexity in which I participated.

Issue #54 (January 2007) - IT Architectures and Weddings. IT architectures and weddings have one thing in common. They can be very complicated affairs. And Roger Sessions should know this better than anybody. Not only has he seen a lot of very complicated IT systems, but now he faces an even more daunting challenge: his daughter is getting married! But fortunately, she has picked up some of her father's tricks for coping with complexity. If you are building a highly complex IT system or, even more frightening, if your daughter is getting married, don't miss this issue of The ObjectWatch Newsletter, now in its eleventh year.

Note: PDF only.

Note: PDF only.

Issue #52 (July 2006) - Software as a Service: Another Perspective. Why is it such a compelling alternative for many long-tail organizations? And just what is a long-tail organization, anyway? And what does all of this have to do with why I now need to drive ten miles to get my morning doppio machiato? Read this article and learn everything you need to know about the business case for both Software as a Service AND your friendly neighborhood espresso bar.
 

Issue #51 (November 2005) - Sudoku Rules for Enterprise Architectures. What is Sudoku? And what does it have to do with Enterprise Architectures? Sudoku is a logic puzzle that involves filling in a grid of cells with numbers. And it turns out that the thinking required to solve a sudoku puzzle is very similar to the three dimensional thinking that goes into designing a mission-critical Enterprise Architecture. Read this article and learn how to do solve both sudoku puzzles AND enterprise architectures, all at the same time! Note: PDF only.

Issue #50 (June, 2005) - Tech-Ed 2005; The Elephant That Wasn’t There. This issue reports on Microsoft’s major Tech-Ed 2005 conference in Orlando earlier this month. This was the conference at which Microsoft laid out its strategy for redefining Corporate IT by directly challenging You-Know-Who. Or maybe you don’t, because Microsoft never mentioned the company that is now its primary target for oblivion. Don’t miss this unique perspective on this important conference. Note: PDF only.

Issue #49 (February, 2005) - The Rings of the Enterprise. This issue describes an enterprise architecture as being composed of a series of rings, each with it's own rules and technologies. This issue is available as either PDF or HTML version. We recommend the PDF for printing.

Issue #48 (November, 2004) - Web Services: The SCRAM Generation. This issue answers these burning questions: What are the coming changes in Web services? Why does Roger Sessions call the next generation, “The SCRAM Generation”? What is the fatal flaw that Microsoft and IBM have made in the new Web service specifications? And, perhaps most important: Why did Roger Sessions walk into the Starbucks at 183 and Lakeline in Austin at 6:30 in the morning and call Jessica, his favorite barista, a doppio?