CIO weekly wrap-up: IT's value, agile methodology, outsourcing and SOA

Happy belated Halloween! I hope everybody who celebrated had a great time — any creative IT-related Halloween costumes you’d like to tell us about?

Last week on SearchCIO.com, we talked about demonstrating the business value of IT, agile development methodologies, a botched IT outsourcing contract and six ways to fail with your SOA implementation. (Come to think of it, the latter two probably provided you with some pre-Halloween shudders, right?) Check out the full stories linked below.

The Real Business of IT: Free chapter download — This book focuses on how CIOs can demonstrate the value of IT as a strategic partner. And who doesn’t like free?

Agile development methodology not easy but worth the effort, users say — The agile methodology is giving development organizations the “speed they need” to respond to changes in the market and bring more value to the business faster. Here’s how you can do the same!

Botched IT outsourcing contract shows need for governance, SLAs — Virginia’s $2 billion IT outsourcing contract has gone awry, with service interruptions and missed deadlines. Find out what lessons were learned on IT governance and clear SLAs. To share your views, read our post on IT outsourcing contracts without penalties.

Six ways to fail with your SOA implementation — A service-oriented architecture is one way to make application development more agile, a growing business requirement. Here are the top risks for SOA failure — avoid them if you want to do it right!