Translating business needs into software outcomes has long been an Achilles heel for the IT industry. Whether the approach has been to write bespoke applications or find a best-fit package, the result is normally an imperfect reflection of what was required. More seriously, the resulting systems are a static reflection of the needs of a particular moment in time. The weakness of this approach comes when a business needs to radically alter the way it operates, whether in response to changing market conditions or simply a desire to reinvent itself. When the systems that supposedly support the business can't be changed in a timely or cost-effective enough way to make that change happen, the business finds itself set in electronic concrete.
This is the third in our series on next-generation enterprise IT, produced in association with IBM.
See also: Accompanying in-depth article on BPM and SOA for business agility
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Podcast: BPM and SOA for business agility (Next-generation enterprise IT)
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This was first produced in January 2009
