Steve Andriole Fellow

Dr. Stephen J. Andriole is a Fellow with Cutter Consortium's Business Technology Strategies practice. Dr. Andriole was Director of the Cybernetics Technology Office of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he managed a $25 million R&D program that led to several vital scientific and technological advances in the broad-based information, decision, and computing sciences. He served as CTO and Senior VP of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., where he was responsible for identifying technology trends, translating that insight into the Safeguard investment strategy, and leveraging trends analyses with Safeguard partners to help them develop business and marketing strategies. Dr. Andriole was also CTO and Senior VP for Technology Strategy at CIGNA Corporation, a $20 billion global insurance and financial services company, where he was responsible for enterprise information architecture, computing standards, the technology R&D program, and data security, as well as overall alignment of enterprise information technology investments with CIGNA's multiple lines of business.

As an entrepreneur, Dr. Andriole founded International Information Systems (IIS), Inc., which designed interactive systems for a variety of corporate and government clients. He is also cofounder of The Acentio Group, a strategic consulting consortium that identifies and leverages technology trends to help clients optimize their business technology investments.

Dr. Andriole is currently the Thomas G. Labrecque Professor of Business Technology at Villanova University, where he teaches and directs applied research in business-IT alignment and pervasive computing. He is formerly a professor of information systems and electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University as well as a former professor and Chairman of the Department of Information Systems & Systems Engineering at George Mason University, where he was awarded the university's first George Mason Institute Professor of Information Technology.

Dr. Andriole has authored 30 books, including Interactive Computer-Based Systems Design and Development; Microcomputer Decision Support Systems; Applications in Artificial Intelligence; Information System Design Principles for the 90s; Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Sourcebook; Cognitive Systems Engineering (coauthored with Leonard Adelman); and Managing Systems Requirements: Methods, Tools, and Cases. His most recent books include The 2nd Digital Revolution; Best Practices in Business Technology Management; and Technology Due Diligence: Best Practices for CIOs, Vendors, and Venture Capitalists. Dr. Andriole has also written more than 500 articles and papers, including for publications such as Cutter IT Journal , Software Development, and IEEE Software.

Dr. Andriole received his bachelor's degree from LaSalle University and his master's degree and PhD from the University of Maryland, both of which were supported by a National Defense Education Act fellowship; his PhD dissertation was funded by DARPA. He can be reached at consulting@cutter.com.

So much in the IT press is breathless hype about the latest technology or technique for software design and development. So much is about tried-and-tried-but-still-not-true solutions to classic problems of IT governance, strategy and management.

Then there's Steve Andriole, who comes in like a blast of wintry air, prodding us to remember and focus on what's really important and endlessly challenging about IT work: people, politics and cultures. Is he sometimes cynical, a bit acerbic? Yes, and justifiably so. If there's anything we should have learned from bitter experience in IT's first half century, it's that technology and techniques, while obviously necessary, are far from sufficient for successful deployment.

-- Paul Clermont