James Irwin

I was shocked. We were in the brainstorming phase of developing a new collaboration portal and the possibilities were flying. It was exciting to see people from many disciplines enthusiastic about working together more effectively through improved communication, document management, and tools for capturing business processes. Inevitably, the conversation moved to "actions" - what needed to be done to achieve all these great benefits. Always the pragmatist, I was the one who added the topic of "governance" to the list. After an audible pause, the objections came faster than bullets. "We want this portal to be open, we want this to be like Wikipedia - everyone gets to contribute equally." We don't need to be managed from the top. I pointed out that Wikipedia isn't exactly... (more)

Perspectives on the Value of Open Source

Recently, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of clients on their strategy to leverage the advantages that open source can achieve across their IT organizations. I found the major motivator and attention getter for open source adoption is the promise to cut costs; but increasingly, interests now include ways open source can provide control and enable agility. Many folks in th... (more)

SOA World Feature: SOA as a Business Strategy

If you had to pick a single business benefit that service-oriented architecture (SOA) can provide, it is the ability to respond to change. Change occurs continually in a multitude of places that affect the enterprise: the market, the supply chain, strategic processes, regulations, and so forth. SOA can enable the creation of an agile environment that creates stability in the face of chan... (more)