Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...

If someone gave you a hammer to dig a hole, and you didn’t know any better, you’d probably come to the conclusion that the hammer wasn’t a great tool.   Of course, you’d be wrong becaus...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2014/02/are-you-hammer-or-nail.html

I have always been fascinated with salesforce.com but even more fascinated with the users of it. I have noticed an interesting trend amongst my professional friends who are sales people. The ones...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2014/02/does-salesforcecom-have-anything-to-do.html

Like most IT professionals, I too am an introvert. The key difference in me is that I am confident in my abilities to think on my feet and love the challenge of difficult questions asked by compe...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2014/01/2014-thoughts-on-public-speaking.html

Once again, I will point out missing aspects in industry analyst conversations around cloud computing... The conversation around cloud computing tends to classify technologies according to whe...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/12/industry-analysts-iaas-and-operating.html

Many industry analysts and whitepaper writers participate in ‘pay for play’ deals with the packaged software vendors, whereby a vendor pays a pretty substantial amount for the analyst firm to...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-it-comes-to-industry-analysts.html

There are more than a few fingers pointed towards the levels of competency of people in India (or lack of) but no one ever seems to discuss the onshore challenges which in my humble opinion are ...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-cios-understand-reality-of.html

We all know the horror stories behind unsuccessful policy administration system replacement projects. Google ‘Policy Administration implementations success rates’ and the results more than te...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/12/open-source-policy-administration.html

Many people may know that I am a teleworker and spend lots of time interacting with clients and coworkers over the phone. Over time, I have come to smile when experiencing the following scenarios...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/05/musings-of-teleworker.html

I grew up in the 80's where you could find me every Sunday at the Colonial theater watching Kung Fu flicks with all the other kids from different neighborhoods. There were gangs at the time and ...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/05/has-focus-on-climate-destroyed-teaching.html

Carriers have lots of rules that govern everything from rating and underwriting to policy processing. Most carriers attempting to replace their policy administration system forget about this imp...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/04/insurance-core-systems-modernization.html

In your career travels, you may have ran across those IT leaders who always seek middle ground. The glow about achieving a hybrid approach. While this approach is popular, this often results in b...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-do-some-it-leaders-always-advocate.html

It is common for modern computer documentation to be filled with screenshots, demonstrating how to use every field and control of every window provided by an application.  This leads to thick do...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/04/when-do-screenshots-become.html

Many carriers are realizing that they need alternatives to maintaining rates and rules in legacy COBOL. Many Tier One carriers may have jumped the bandwagon too early and purchased rating engines...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/03/three-criteria-that-industry-analysts.html

You’re probably a nice person, how easy would it have been to persuade you to play a small part in the Holocaust?  In an interview between former Nazi Officer Adolf Eichmann and the author Han...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-secret-relationship-between-annual.html

Let's face it, the call for leadership in corporate America is alarmingly loud. Yet, somehow many who rise the ladder to managementleadership ranks, tend to fake their way through it. You can pro...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-fake-leadership.html

I have been known on occasion to comment on other blogs but never look inward as to how mines could have been better. Today's blog is on why my blogging is reminiscent of assclownery... When I ...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/02/assclown-blogging.html

I have lots of friends who are industry analysts and have over time come to appreciate the variety of tactics some use to take money from large enterprises. I am of the belief that if I publicly ...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/02/five-mistakes-cios-make-in-asking.html

Sooner or later, you will be contacted by an IT staffing firm whom will wax poetic on their best practices. To that I say, let's analyze a few of them... Recruiting Process: Clients hire st...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/it-staffing-firm-worst-practices.html

In zero-based budgeting, every line item of the budget must be approved by the business. This is distinct from asking for a delta increase or decrease based on prior numbers. In reviewing a zero-...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/lean-thinking-and-zero-based-budgeting.html

Dropout rates are increasing and American kids simply aren't keeping up with kids in education. I wonder if the towns you live in and their boards of education have any level of understanding tha...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-is-purpose-of-education.html

In reflecting on my career, I am come to appreciate that I have done many things wrong but also a few things right. First and foremost, I think the thing that I got right was the acknowledgement...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/mcgoverntheory-thoughts-on-successful.html

Picture yourself as a grad student at a major university asking yourself and others what is the incentive structure for research? You write amazing things in cryptic university-like humorless mon...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-university-research-fundamentally.html

Without getting too political, I am of the belief that the government should NOT expose the information of those who lawfully hold gun permits. If this information was exposed, it could lead to i...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/should-government-expose-those-who-are.html

I have always scratched my head as to why the Government needs to have bureaucratic procurement processes that are incredibly slow and time consuming. If you understand that people want to be pai...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2013/01/government-it-procurement-processes-are.html

Many industry pundits and thought leaders use the changing of the new year as a reason to make bold predictions. Guess I am no different... So, here are my top five IT predictions for 2013:...

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2012/12/five-it-predictions-for-2013.html