For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals

How The Adoption Of Several Important Emerging Technologies Affects Sourcing

by Chris Andrews, August 31, 2010

Many sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals who Forrester speaks with know that they need to play a proactive role in sourcing emerging technologies but have difficulty identifying which technologies matter most for their business. Interest . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

zEnterprise Should Change The Role Of The Mainframe In Application Strategy Decisions

by Phil Murphy, August 27, 2010

On July 22, 2010, IBM released a series of product announcements under the banner of zEnterprise that will force firms with both mainframe and distributed systems to rethink their application strategies. The announcement heralds a vastly improved z server . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Forecast For Hiring Applications Professionals Is Stormy — Act Now To Recruit And Retain The Best

by Phil Murphy, August 27, 2010

Managers at all levels of application development and delivery struggle to retain talented applications professionals amidst tight budgets, burgeoning workloads, and a host of other challenges. A recent Forrester survey reveals that hiring and retaining . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Justifying Your Cloud Investment: Test And Development

Improve Time-To-Market And Lighten Lab Management Burdens

by James Staten, August 26, 2010

It's one thing to say infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals need to invest in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing; it's quite another to justify the financial and resource commitments. This requires a business case that . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Define Your Mobile Development Strategy

Use Forrester's Mobile POST Method To Create A Mobile Development Plan

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, August 24, 2010

Developing mobile applications used to be an arcane activity pursued by highly specialized developers, but no more. The surge in popularity of Android devices, BlackBerries, and iPhones has application development professionals gearing up to incorporate . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Case Study: Software Estimation Isn't Too Taxing For The IRS — How Can You Improve Your Return?

by Mary Gerush, August 16, 2010

Estimating the true effort and cost of software development projects is tough. You have to understand your business, your technology, your resources, and the cost for each — generally with too little information to build a strong understanding. Unfortunately, . . .

For Customer Intelligence Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Online Testing, Q3 2010

Adobe And Autonomy Lead A Pack Of Strong Performers

by Joe Stanhope, August 13, 2010

In Forrester's inaugural evaluation of online testing vendors, we researched eight companies across 82 criteria. We found that Adobe and Autonomy lead the pack because of their consistent strength across the full range of capabilities and their support . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Seven Pragmatic Practices To Improve Software Quality

Incremental Changes Can Have A Big Impact On Quality

by Margo Visitacion, Mike Gualtieri, August 11, 2010

All software has bugs. Application development teams do the best they can to avoid and fix them. But developing quality software is hard. Why? Virtually all application development teams are squeezed by the need to develop and change applications faster, . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Align BAs And Quality Assurance Professionals To Drive Higher Quality — And Happier Customers

by Mary Gerush, Margo Visitacion, August 11, 2010

The need to develop applications that return high value at a reasonable cost is driving applications organizations to assemble highly productive teams that can deliver high-quality outcomes. Organizations are recognizing that quality software has to meet . . .

For Business Process Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Open Source Business Intelligence (BI), Q3 2010

Actuate BIRT Leads, With Jaspersoft Enterprise, SpagoBI, Pentaho Enterprise, And Pentaho Community Close Behind

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, Boris Evelson, August 10, 2010

Comparing open source BI technologies is often an apples-to-oranges comparison: 1) not all vendors include the same functionality in the free community versions of the software versus commercial open source versions that carry license and/or support cost, . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Demand Insights: The SMB Software Market 2010

Small And Medium-Size Businesses Are Defying Gravity

by Tim Harmon, August 9, 2010

Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), like their enterprise brethren, are shifting their technology focus from IT to business technology (BT). As their focus on business solutions — as opposed to technology products — continues to grow, SMBs are now . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

A Market Taxonomy For ICT

Forrester's Definitions For Tech Product Categories, Industries, And Geographies

by Andrew Bartels, August 2, 2010

Forrester is expanding the breadth and depth of data that we provide to vendor strategists on the size and growth trends of the market for information and communications technology (ICT) solutions. Our goal is to provide data for vendors on the ICT market . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

AP Taps Cloud To Reach Next-Generation News Consumers

News Agency Puts Content Integration API On Windows Azure To Increase Customer Reach

by James Staten, August 2, 2010

The Associated Press (AP), the world's oldest and largest news cooperative, provides up-to-the-minute reporting that is seen or heard by nearly half the world's population. However, changes in how we consume news put AP's market position and revenue model . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Agile Systems Integrators: Plausible Or Paradoxical?

Mixing Agile Methods And Systems Integrators Requires An Artful Approach

by Dave West, July 30, 2010

Agile methods have become popular because, on average, they produce better outcomes. Agile's focus on learning by execution and a condensed set of engineering practices increases the cadence of delivery when businesses need to supply innovative ideas . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Hot Insurance Tech Companies To Watch In 2010: Q2 Update

by Ellen Carney, July 29, 2010

Effective vertical strategies are becoming more critical for tech vendors as they try to address the core business problems — not just the pure technical problems — of their customers. This is especially evident in the insurance industry, which emerged . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

The Mall Of Google

The Internet Ad Giant Shifts Emphasis To Include Enterprise IT

by Jeffrey S. Hammond, July 21, 2010

Open source is no longer a "don't ask, don't tell" secret in enterprise application development shops: Increased executive awareness and evolving open source business models are leading shops to adopt a mix of open source and commercial code. This shift . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Forrester's Application Scoring Workbook

by Phil Murphy, July 20, 2010

This tool bases application assessments on customizable questions and weightings in four categories of metrics: business importance, application condition, EA condition, and vendor condition.

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Hot Banking Tech Companies To Watch In 2010: Q2 Update

by Ellen Carney, July 16, 2010

Focusing on solving the core industry-specific business problems is the next big wave in the tech industry. Nowhere is it more evident of technology's unique role in solving business problems than in the highly tech-dependent banking market. The outlook . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Case Study: Logistics Company Aligns The Application Portfolio With Business Strategy

by Gene Leganza, July 14, 2010

A logistics company had grown through acquisition, and due to a narrow enterprise architecture (EA) focus, weak governance, and troublesome politics, its former EA practice was largely ineffective. Also, after the new EA head joined the company, management . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

The Evolution Of Cloud Computing Markets

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., Pascal Matzke, Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 6, 2010

Looking past the current industry hype surrounding all things cloud, Forrester believes that cloud computing is a sustainable, long-term IT paradigm, and the successor to previous mainframe, client/server, and network computing eras. Underpinned by both . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Case Study: Ci&T's Path To Lean Methods

Ci&T's Lean Journey Started With Failure But Has Led To Competitive Advantage

by Dave West, July 1, 2010

Application development professionals can learn about one path to a Lean approach from Ci&T, a Brazil-based midtier systems integrator that during the past four years has transformed its approach to solution delivery using Agile methods. Ci&T's . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Assessing Your Applications — Metrics That Matter Drive Better Rationalization Decisions

by Phil Murphy, June 29, 2010

Applications professionals have never been busier, yet business leaders lament how little they receive in return for their IT investments. Both perceptions have merit, but they only serve to divert attention from the solution. It's time for everyone to . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Requirements Tools Market Overview, Q2 2010

The Market Expands And Diversifies To Address Diverse Problems

by Tom Grant, Ph.D., June 24, 2010

The requirements tools market has expanded and diversified as the business problems that compel teams to consider adopting a requirements tool have multiplied and intensified. Gone are the days in which "requirements tool" meant a complex, arcane tool . . .

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Right Tools. Write Requirements. Right On!

A Market Overview Of Tools That Support Improved Software Requirements

by Mary Gerush, June 24, 2010

Smart application development leaders are catching on: Good software requirements are critical to delivering high-quality software. Requirements tool vendors are getting the message too. They're responding to changing customer requirements, including . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Adoption Of SOA: Still Strong, Even In Hard Times

Current Use Of SOA Advances 27% Among Enterprises, 45% Among SMBs

by Randy Heffner, June 21, 2010

Service-oriented architecture continues to find a welcome home in both enterprises and SMBs. Even during the Great Recession, all sizes of organizations moved ahead in their adoption of SOA. Global 2000 enterprises have the strongest penetration of SOA: . . .