"The entrepreneur," said the early 19th century French economist J. B. Say, "shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield."

For any company, moving from a successful product line that may be getting old in the teeth to a newer one is always fraught with difficulty. How difficult do you think it is to fundamentally change the nature of your business?

In Part 1 (see "Agile Project Leadership Circa 1899, Part 1," 30 March) we saw how Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated three of the six principles of the modern-day Declaration of Interdependence for agile project leadership (www.pmdoi.org) by tackling the largest uncertainty first (the control system), by approaching the problem in annual iterations culminating each year with fulfillment tests at Kitty Hawk, and by selecting

Our December 2005 survey on outsourcing business intelligence (BI) showed that the pricing model is the third most important factor when selecting a provider (following experience and cost). All pricing models are essentially based on the number of units of service provided multiplied by a rate per unit. Outsourcing contracts layer service level and performance criteria over this units-times-rate basis.

Our December 2005 survey on outsourcing business intelligence (BI) showed that the pricing model is the third most important factor when selecting a provider (following experience and cost). All pricing models are essentially based on the number of units of service provided multiplied by a rate per unit. Outsourcing contracts layer service level and performance criteria over this units-times-rate basis.

Our December 2005 survey on outsourcing business intelligence (BI) showed that the pricing model is the third most important factor when selecting a provider (following experience and cost). All pricing models are essentially based on the number of units of service provided multiplied by a rate per unit. Outsourcing contracts layer service level and performance criteria over this units-times-rate basis.

I've been talking to a lot of clients that want to implement a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Many have been playing around with different implementations and they proudly show me the couple of services they have implemented and say, "What do you think of our SOA?" I usually answer with something along the lines of, "That's a good start," or "This looks like a useful service," or segue into some line of questioning about what they did and what they learned.

Some of the most instructive examples of the future of IT taking shape have, in recent years, been in the pharmaceuticals industry. Companies in this industry have long understood the importance of revenue-side IT investments. Many firms have invested billions in what is sometimes called "industrialized drug research."

Boards of directors have a lot of committees: compensation committees, audit committees, M&A committees, among others. But what about IT? Are there committees that focus squarely on the acquisition, deployment, and support of IT? Most companies do not segment IT as a unique activity. Perhaps this means that they see technology as more tactical than strategic. Perhaps they don't have enough expertise to actually staff a technology committee.

Business Objects has thrown its hat into the software-as-a-service space with the announcement of crystalreports.com. Crystalreports.com is an on-demand report sharing platform for organizations using Crystal Reports. Basically, it provides a common location for users to upload reports and then specify who can access them.

Business Objects has thrown its hat into the software-as-a-service space with the announcement of crystalreports.com. Crystalreports.com is an on-demand report sharing platform for organizations using Crystal Reports. Basically, it provides a common location for users to upload reports and then specify who can access them.

I teach a graduate course on business technology optimization at Villanova University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA). As I handed out a take-home exam to my students, it occurred to me that the exam might be an interesting instrument with which to check the state of the business technology relationship -- and some special projects -- at your company as well. Let's look at the exam questions and then discuss what they're really asking.

It's almost become a cliché to say that employees have been harping for years about how easy it is to use a search engine to search the extreme reaches of the Web to find information. Yet searching for information within one's own organization is difficult -- if not downright intimidating.

Suppose that you wanted to build a new kind of software development organization: one that could produce top-quality, feature-rich products year after year without burning out the engineers or their managers. What are the most important considerations in building an organization capable of sustainable development? In the first Executive Update of this series on the topic (Vol. 7, No.

A common sight at sporting events and shopping malls is the spectacle of a person or family, hands shielding eyes, searching frantically for the vehicle that they know they parked in a given location. In all likelihood, the vehicle has not disappeared or been stolen or repossessed -- but that doesn't make it any easier to find once it has been lost. A little preparation, of course, could have prevented the vehicle's location from being forgotten.

A common sight at sporting events and shopping malls is the spectacle of a person or family, hands shielding eyes, searching frantically for the vehicle that they know they parked in a given location. In all likelihood, the vehicle has not disappeared or been stolen or repossessed -- but that doesn't make it any easier to find once it has been lost. A little preparation, of course, could have prevented the vehicle's location from being forgotten.

A common sight at sporting events and shopping malls is the spectacle of a person or family, hands shielding eyes, searching frantically for the vehicle that they know they parked in a given location. In all likelihood, the vehicle has not disappeared or been stolen or repossessed -- but that doesn't make it any easier to find once it has been lost. A little preparation, of course, could have prevented the vehicle's location from being forgotten.

How do you know whether or not you have an excellent strategic alliance? What are the critical success factors that contribute to a productive, enduring, and profitable alliance? Does the very nature of the relationship mean that you always must work with the same partner? How does the concept of "coopetition" 1 apply to strategic alliances?

Corporations do not form alliances -- people do. [1]

How do you know whether or not you have an excellent strategic alliance? What are the critical success factors that contribute to a productive, enduring, and profitable alliance? Does the very nature of the relationship mean that you always must work with the same partner? How does the concept of "coopetition" 1 apply to strategic alliances?

Corporations do not form alliances -- people do. [1]

Collaboration is as essential to business operations as competition, if not more so. When groups of people bring their ideas and skills together to contribute to a single project, powerful synergies can emerge to create better ideas, better plans, and better projects. Today, as organizations increasingly focus on their core competencies, collaboration is becoming ever more important. Why? Because organizations must work with both their outsourced services suppliers and their supply chain in order to remain in business.

Collaboration is as essential to business operations as competition, if not more so. When groups of people bring their ideas and skills together to contribute to a single project, powerful synergies can emerge to create better ideas, better plans, and better projects. Today, as organizations increasingly focus on their core competencies, collaboration is becoming ever more important. Why? Because organizations must work with both their outsourced services suppliers and their supply chain in order to remain in business.

Most IT organizations are cost -- not profit -- centers. Senior executives (except for the CIO and CTO, of course) are always trying to reduce technology expenses. A friend of mine -- a CIO at a major insurance company -- gets a memorandum every quarter from the CEO asking him to reduce technology expenses by 10%. He keeps telling him that if he were able to reduce technology spending by 10% -- quarter after quarter -- eventually technology would be free. This silly dance has been going on for years.

Most IT organizations are cost -- not profit -- centers. Senior executives (except for the CIO and CTO, of course) are always trying to reduce technology expenses. A friend of mine -- a CIO at a major insurance company -- gets a memorandum every quarter from the CEO asking him to reduce technology expenses by 10%. He keeps telling him that if he were able to reduce technology spending by 10% -- quarter after quarter -- eventually technology would be free. This silly dance has been going on for years.

There are individuals afraid to begin the risk conversation in any organization. Why? I hear it from our client personnel time and again. "We're risk averse around here. Management doesn't want to admit there are risks. They tell me to come with solutions, not problems, and then they tell me that I should have warned them about the risks." These are not uncommon complaints and concerns. What's tragic about them is that they stifle the risk conversation in an organization.

This is the third in a series of E-Mail Advisors on agile integration and the second to deal with organizing (see "Agile Integration -- Making Agile Work in Organizations," 2 March 2006, and "Agile Integration -- Organization and Empowered Teams," 6 April 2006). The six organizing guidelines presented previously are:

A successful business intelligence (BI) outsourcing strategy requires a clear understanding of the value proposition. A benefits analysis to assess the gains of outsourcing should include the value of coming "online" more quickly with a new BI application; the cost saved by not having to build and maintain inhouse BI expertise; and the value inherent in the vendors' experience and ability to avoid perils and pitfalls.