This is the sixth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she explores the issue of software security - and how security can be "baked in" to applications during the development process - with guests John Colley (EMEA Managing Director for (ISC)²) and Alessandro Moretti (Executive Director of IT Security Risk at UBS Investment Bank).

In today's environment, security is a precious commodity that influences at multiple levels – from organisational to national and international concerns. We are now in an age where communications, online connections and software technology have broadened the reach of our social and business interactions, and have enabled new types of software applications to emerge. With the rise of Internet usage, workforce mobility, use of mobile devices and the pervasiveness of software applications in all aspects of our modern life, software security becomes a top line consideration that impacts both the safety of software and the ability to prevent cybercrime. Ultimately, delivery of secure software code should be as much a software quality focus as is the delivery of core functionality.

This is the fifth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she explores the emerging topic of Software Product Lines with guests James Cezo of Lockheed Martin and Dale Churchett of HomeAway (a leading vacation rentals company).

The concept of Software Product Lines (SPL) is designed to help organisations identify and manage variation and commonality in software deliverry - so that it's possible to efficiently deliver multiple variations of a software product or service, each of which shares common elements.

Here, Bola talks to her guests about the concept of SPL; what each company is doing with SPL and how they're making SPL work for them; and what the main challenges that they've each experienced in implementing SPL.

This is the fourth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she discusses the thorny issue of software quality. This is something the IT industry has talked about for decades - so why is it still so patchy? Bola's guests are Madelyn Bryant McIntire, Principal Group Manager, PQO Product Quality Management, Microsoft; and Justin Spencer, Development Manager at Lend Lease (a large publicly listed international property group). Producing quality software code is undoubtedly a desired goal of any software delivery team - irrespective of whether the delivered application is for commercial sale or internal business use. Software quality is regularly placed in the top five demand requirements of the software delivery team, yet the quality of software is regularly highlighted as a major failure point and the basis for much end user dissatisfaction. Here, Bola talks to her guests about the main points of failure in software delivery processes; the actions that Microsoft and Lend Lease take to improve the quality of delivered software in a business-driven environment; where the next challenges will come from; and what tools suppliers could do better.

This is the third in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with using cloud-based software development services. Bola's guest is Debbie Ashton, Product Director for CODA - a provider of both on-premise and SaaS-hosted financial management applications.

Although there is a lot of hype surrounding the concept of "cloud computing", there also appears to be real value to be gained in some usage scenarios. The obvious financial benefit of renting software service (being able to remove up-front capital expenditure and instead account for software as an operating expense) is coupled with the scalability that's possible (you can pay as you go, and pay as you grow) and together it looks like cloud-based offerings will be especially attractive in the tougher economic climate that nearly all of us look likely to be experiencing for quite a while. Many organisations today are tempted to think only of the quick advantages of Cloud – partly as a result of the hype coming from the vendor community. However, whilst the potential and advantages are well documented and clear for people to see, the disadvantages or the challenges of use are not. In this podcast we look specifically at the challenges of developing applications for delivery from cloud-based software platforms. What practices if any should organisations take on board in developing applications and solutions using cloud-based development services? What processes and methods should organisations be putting into practice to get the most out of cloud development services?

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

Following the first Software Delivery InFocus podcast which we published in September, October sees Bola Rotibi's second podcast episode, in which she discusses a series of questions focused on the topic of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Her guests are John Leegte (ICT Architect at the Dutch Tax and Customs department, Belastingdienst) and Steve Jones (Head of SOA and SaaS for Capgemini’s global outsourcing business).

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a topical subject that has garnered significant column inches in recent months, as many of the leading players in the market have launched new versions of their ALM solutions, and make strategic announcements concerning future directions and customer services and support. Over the last few months we have either heard about or seen previews of products from the likes of Borland, Compuware, HP, IBM, Microsoft, MKS, Polarion and Serena, to name but a few. Software is seen by many organisations as a key enabler of business value - whether that be through improving operational efficiency, competitive differentiation or business/ product innovation. With this in mind, an ad hoc approach to software application lifecycle management cannot provide the predictability, visibility and traceability that organisations require of a process that has such a significant impact on the balance sheet. So - how relevant and applicable is ALM now and in the future, particularly in light of the above challenges?

The episode is slightly longer than normal (clocking in at 41'55"). There was so much good material in the conversation, we didn't want to cut anything!

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

After an extended hiatus, we're relaunching our podcasting efforts with a planned series of discussions focusing on the challenges and issues associated with software delivery processes and competence in enterprises. We've called this podcast series "Software Delivery InFocus", and it's hosted by Bola Rotibi, MWD's Principal Analyst for Software Delivery. Each podcast in the series will feature Bola and one or two guest commentators.

In this 33'06" podcast episode Bola discusses a series of questions focused on the issue of making the right technology choices. Her guests are Alan Zeichick (Editorial Director at SD Times) and Clive Howard (Founding Partner of Howard/Baines, a web development consultancy).

In an environment where software is everywhere and increasingly business critical, but where new technologies and approaches appear on the horizon at an alarming rate - when organisations look to carry out projects, are the right technology choices being made, and if not, why not? And who's to blame? What can organisations do to help them make better technology choices?

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

We're nearing the end (for now - we have more planned, but not for a little while) of a series of SOA vendor interviews with this one, which we conducted recently with Rob Myer of TIBCO. Rob works in Product Management at TIBCO with responsibility for SOA.

We ask the usual four questions, and along the way swing by some interesting conversation points:

• What you need from infrastructure in order to move towards enterprise-wide SOA, and what TIBCO learned from telecoms companies' service platform requirements
• The challenges associated with the WS-Policy, WS-Management and WSDM standards
• The application of CEP (complex event processing) technology to managed service delivery in the context of SLAs.

This podcast episode is 34'28" long.

Here's another in our series of interviews with vendors offering SOA "solutions". This time we spoke to Miko Matsumura, head of product marketing for SOA at webMethods.
In this 25'34" conversation we ask the usual four questions - and also chat about the importance of webMethods' SOA Link program, the role of the Infravio Governance Rules Engine, and SOA as an enabler of federated/cross enterprise business processes.

Here's the fourth in our series of interviews with vendors offering SOA related products and services. This time it's the turn of Kris Horrocks, who's a Technical Product Manager in the Connected Systems Division of Microsoft. (The Connected Systems Division was formed in 2005 as part of the Server and Tools business, and it brings together work on .NET, BizTalk, CardSpace and other related things).

As usual we talk through our standard four questions. In the resulting conversation we explore:

• how Microsoft deals with customers' questions about scalability and interoperability
• the importance of "high fidelity handoffs" between IT practices in quality service delivery
• how the SOA offering fits with Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) and support for "design for operations", and what this means for managing service lifecycles.

The podcast episode lasts 34'41".

Here's the third in our series of interviews with SOA vendors. This week it's the turn of Roman Stanek - one of the founders of Systinet, which was bought by Mercury (which was then in turn bought by HP a few months back).

The 31'17" interview has some great stuff in it. As we ask our usual four questions about HP and Systinet SOA offerings, we swing past:

• scenarios where the standardisation and interoperability that SOA introduces are particularly important
• how SOA is about outcomes, not protocols (with reference to the SOAP vs REST debate)
• how SOA wil disappear from the IT industry's lexicon in the coming years, because it will become a standard feature of the IT landscape
• the effect that SOA has on the software development lifecycle, and how the loose coupling that it introduces into development organisations and processes brings requirements for strong management of service lifecycles and service quality.

Our second SOA vendor interview was with BEA's Martin Percival yesterday. Again we followed our standard format - and in the resulting 34'30" podcast we get into discussing:

• BEA's experience of delivering "information as a service" projects within SOA initiatives
• How SOA is about more than just WS-* technology
• BEA's transition from a pure Java implementation focus to a broader focus, re-embracing its "legacy" middleware platform Tuxedo, the Microsoft expertise of its Plumtree acquisition, and also pointing to the SCA/SDO effort that it's a member of
• Why it bought Flashline (a software development repository vendor) and didn't buy a SOA registry vendor (it partners with Systinet/Mercury/HP)
• How its SOA 360 initiative will impact on the admin & management of the BEA platform.

This is the first of what we hope will be a series of podcasts with CIOs who've instigated work to improve IT-business alignment in their organisations. The interview is with New Zealand-resident Peter Burggraaff, until recently the CIO of NZ retail chain Farmers Trading Company. Peter talks to us in this 31'34" podcast episode about his initiative at Farmers and the outcomes he achieved.

In the podcast Peter explains that Farmers was in a situation where IT cost was way too high, and although the IT organisation was doing some things well (particularly managing operational services) it wasn't seen as a real contributor of business value as Farmers looked to put some big business changes in place. He goes on to explain how he started to turn this situation around and built a solid and trusted relationship with Farmers business management.

This podcast came about following the work we did last year on our Technology Garden book (out in April), and as mentioned above we hope to be doing more of these over the coming weeks and months. Thanks Peter!

If you'd like to get involved in this programme of podcasts don't hesitate to let us know.

We interviewed David yesterday and asked him our standard questions. Considering it was the first interview, we think it went OK...

There were a couple of interesting things to come out of the interview:

1. Cape Clear markets itself as an ESB vendor, but its view of what is "in" an ESB is much broader than that of most other vendors - David in particular calls out BPEL-based service orchestration
2. the sweet spot for the company is really a "mainstream", "mid-market" company which may not have much in the way of deep in-house web services or SOA technology skills
3. the company is currently working quite a lot in software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other commercial service delivery scenarios - helping companies in the digital service delivery business create more sophisticated and valuable services
4. David also specifically calls out the need for potential SOA "customers" to make clear distinctions between management of SOA-related technology, and management of the automated processes supported by that technology. These are two separate problems with different solution needs, and they should be evaluated as such
5. it's pretty obvious from the conversation, we think, that Cape Clear is very firmly a technology company selling its capability as a standards-based middleware solution to integration problems. This makes it quite different from many of the other SOA players, which position themselves almost as business change agents.

We recorded this material at the tail end of our previous discussion on Web 2.0 and the "uncompany", but given the length of the conversation we felt it would be kinder to listeners if we split it into two pieces!

So here's the second piece of Neil M and Neil WD's discussion, focusing on some thoughts we've had on SOA Governance following conversations we've had with both vendors and enterprises on the issue. We also talk about some of the recent SOA Governance-related M&A that's been going on recently and what it means.

It's a 30'47" episode.

 It's been a while and for that we apologise. We blame too much paid consulting work, combined with holiday...

This podcast episode attempts to pick up where we left off in our last episode, and talk more about our ongoing research programme looking at the evolution of the Web and how this ties into the ways that business is changing. In this 37'30" episode Neil Macehiter and Neil Ward-Dutton talk about our idea of the "uncompany", and show how emerging web-related technologies and techniques tie into this idea.

It's interesting stuff (though of course we would say that).

Warning: this episode is quite long (47'32"). But below are some markers, if you want to dip in and out.

This time around we spend most of the podcast running through some of our recent research on Web 2.0 and its impact on business and organisations. This will be the first of two podcast sessions on this research, as there is a lot to cover! Then we chat about HP's recent acquisition of Mercury - and lastly, chat about the new management technology industry standardisation effort which is set to build on Microsoft's System Definition Model, a part of DSI: SML (or Smell, as we like to call it).

First - a segment (running to 15'20") where Neil M asks Neil WD what Web 2.0 really is, and why what's happening on the web now is so different from what went before. This segment is really aimed at people who are still a bit confused about what all this Web 2.0 stuff is about. If you're familiar with the concepts already and don't want to hear us attempting to explain it, you can skip to ...

... the segment (from 15'20" to 31'34") where we talk a bit about "mashups" and how they fit in the general scheme of integration techniques - particularly in the enterprise IT context - and the antagonism between architects and hackers.

At 31'34" Neil M and Jon then move on to talk about HP and Mercury, and the challenge of trying to create an "ERP-like platform for IT management"; the discussion of SML starts at 38'28".

In this episode: Neil Ward-Dutton chairs. Neil Macehiter gives an explanation of the concept of user-centric identity, and talks about the wave of activity that's currently going on in this area - including Projects Bandit and Higgins, and commercial efforts from Microsoft and Google.

Jon Collins then picks up the mic and gives his take on EMC's acquisition of security technology provider RSA. Is EMC the Imelda Marcos of the IT industry?

In this 6'22" postscript to our "SOA 2.0" episode, delivered separately due to a bit of a technical problem (Jon's Skype setup is a bit dodgy and he keeps dropping out of our conference calls), Neil M explains why Bill Gates' planned retirement from Microsoft is largely interesting as a symbol of the company's slow transition to a new technology strategy - rather than having a material impact on the company.

Neil WD muses on what might make a good leaving present.

In this 24'40" episode Neil W-D embarks on a grumpy monologue about SOA 2.0 - explaining why the term is so counter-productive and why it leads people to a dangerous, myopic perspective of SOA.

Neil M manages to get a word in edgeways, and explains how service-orientation and event-driven processing are actually completely different types of concept which shouldn't be mixed.

Jon Collins manfully tries to keep a rein on proceedings and largely succeeds.

Sorry it's taken us so long to get this most recent episode to you (it's three weeks or so since the last one...). We've just been crazily busy. We promise to try harder!

Neil M hosts this slightly elongated (35'41") MWD podcast episode, in which we interview prominent enterprise architect blogger James McGovern. The interview covers the role of open source in enterprise architecture and IT investment and the challenges associated with introducing OSS technology; thoughts on the architectural challenges associated with identity management; and a discussion on the differences between enterprise architecture practice in the US vs. in Europe.

Perhaps surprisingly, James thinks European businesses are likely to have more of the characteristic "markers" for good enterprise architecture practice than US businesses...

There's some great insights here. One not to miss.

Hopefully we'll have the chance to talk more to James later in the year. One caution: the recording of James' voice could be of better quality. Apologies if any of it is a little unclear. If we get to talk to him again, we'll do better next time!

 

Jon Collins went to the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) last week, and came back full of ideas about where Microsoft is going with its systems and service management strategy for enterprise customers. In this podcast episode Jon and Neil Macehiter chat about Microsoft's credibility in terms of its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), and also in server virtualisation. Neil Ward-Dutton gets a word in edgeways to draw some parallels between DSI and the new Service Component Architecture (SCA) industry initiative...

Get it while it's hot!

Running time: 24'03".

Neil M hosts this episode with Neil W-D (Jon is in San Diego at the Microsoft Management Summit). The format is a little different this week: the two of us ponder recent industry news, and Neil M's discussion with enterprise architect (and fellow blogger) James McGovern.

If you want to know what we think about Scott McNealy's resignation; context-based authentication; and how general ledger / chart-of-accounts influence IT architecture then listen in!

Feedback and questions are welcome, as always.

Length of this episode: 32'28".

Jon Collins hosts this MWD podcast episode, and guides a three-way discussion on his current research focus - IT service management.

You'll learn answers to two crucial questions: why doesn't it make sense to by an ITSM product? And what has ITIL got to do with Dr. Who?

Feedback and questions are welcome, as always.

This week's episode is with all three MWD analysts - Neil Ward-Dutton (your host), Neil Macehiter and Jon Collins. Welcome Jon!

In this episode, you'll hear why project portfolio management isn't sexy; why it's so important for IT industry analysts to keep working with real people doing real jobs; and when SOA will hurt the big packaged enterprise application vendors. Lastly, you'll hear Jon Collins invent a new term - Stick Oriented Architecture (that's at 27' 05", very near the end, but please don't skip past the rest!)

Don't miss it.

In this inaugural MWD podcast episode, company founders Neil Macehiter and Neil Ward-Dutton ask:

What does Microsoft have to do with polyester shirts, and why is this important in the context of its strategy and the idea of Web 2.0? How does the idea of user-centric identity relate to what the Liberty Alliance is doing? What *is* Infocard, exactly? Tune in for answers to all these questions and more!