In-Depth Features


Test brief: Conversation with Linda Hayes

In requirements management, as in most development projects, testing tends to be the forgotten stepsister.

2003: That was the year that was

ADT's editors sort through the people, events and trends that made 2003 what it was.

Requirements required

Though much-maligned, requirements management becomes more important as IT turns to incremental development; effective communication still key to success.

Q&A: Web services security

Toufic Boubez has a stellar record in Web services. At IBM, he co-authored UDDI. Later, he founded Layer 7 Technologies which recently released SecureSpan to promote Web services security and integration policy creation. Jack Vaughan met with Boubez over iced tea in Boston's Seaport District.

In search of a gentler Java

J2EE complexity stemmed the growth of early Java tools. Now, an emerging breed of simpler offerings aims to give Visual Studio .NET a run for its money just as the next-generation Microsoft offerings increase complexity.

Scouts Canada blazes trail in membership data access

Scouts Canada has installed a centralized database system with Web-based access to membership information.

A sampling of recent BI products

Some new BI products on the market.

My meeting with a legacy transformation architect

We speak with Jim Rhyne, a distinguished engineer and legacy modernization architect, based at the IBM Silicon Valley Lab.

Special Report: Right-time enterprise on the rise

Experts such as Stephen Brobst say the overriding trend in data integration today is toward an Active Data Warehouse where event-based triggering occurs. But a mix of batch- and trickle-feeds will rule for quite a long time.

BPM: Alive and well, thanks

The BPM supplier crowd is also doing deals -- technology and/or marketing -- to help their wares include more real-time features.

BAM

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) helps execs to sift seas of changing data. But a move to BAM means taking on tough integration issues.

Book excerpt: Use force field analysis to drive integration

Applying force field analysis to Web services shows that they provide the path of least resistance to integration goals.

May the portal be with you

Server pages, both Active- and Java-type, using what many in the industry still call a portal, serve up the coolest view of integrated data. We recently took a peek inside the minds of a couple of portal partisans, from different points on a vast spectrum.

It’s the mainframe’s turn to get the services treatment

They said it was dead, but the mainstay IT platform is ambling into the modern era. The mantra for many shops now is to ‘refresh and renew.’

Integration Is Key to Simplifying Application Architecture

If you want to simplify your applications portfolio to achieve your enterprise architect vision, think ahead to the next stepping-stone toward your goal.

Heard on the street: Tales of .NET

Development teams are finding their way toward the new Microsoft platform. They are encountering decent performance, sketchy security standards and a handful of best practices.

Is UML heading for fragmentation?

In the “aught-world” of standards (2000 and beyond, that is), compliance is a moving target. Vendors are beginning to push UML 2.0 products, but some people wonder if today’s “standardization” is adequate.

What’s real at Fleet?

For its real-time needs, Fleet delivers business intelligence information through a portal called the Business Advisor.

BI: Real time or right time?

It is difficult to debate the need for real-time analytics because the definition of real time itself can be so highly subjective, but everybody wants data “while it’s hot.” Development managers need to navigate a wide field of hyperbole to find the big picture.