Even as we're in the midst of the rapid growth of Wi-Fi and 2.5G and 3G wireless data networking, we're already hearing about "the next big thing" in broadband and wireless networking: WiMAX and IEEE 802.20.

A developing theme across agile project management discussions is the criticality of dealing with reality -- discovering the truth about code, customer, competition, control, or calendar, and acting on it quickly. The reasons are obvious and can be summed up as speed and relevance. This is the essence of agility.

Many businesses embrace the notion that the Internet can be a source of real competitive advantage, but it is the rare business indeed that can effectively handle the complexities the Internet has introduced. While the most forward-looking companies are able to manage these opportunities and threats in order to create flexible, scalable Web-enabled architectures, other companies are not.

Many businesses embrace the notion that the Internet can be a source of real competitive advantage, but it is the rare business indeed that can effectively handle the complexities the Internet has introduced. While the most forward-looking companies are able to manage these opportunities and threats in order to create flexible, scalable Web-enabled architectures, other companies are not.

I believe that productivity is very important. Productivity means doing more for less. Productivity means lower costs to consumers, which, in turn, frees consumers to spend the money they save on new products and services. That leads to economic growth.

I believe that productivity is very important. Productivity means doing more for less. Productivity means lower costs to consumers, which, in turn, frees consumers to spend the money they save on new products and services. That leads to economic growth.

I believe that productivity is very important. Productivity means doing more for less. Productivity means lower costs to consumers, which, in turn, frees consumers to spend the money they save on new products and services. That leads to economic growth.

Packaged analytic applications have generated considerable corporate interest for the past few years, because they offer an integrated approach to data warehousing and business intelligence (BI). Their appeal is that instead of starting a data warehousing or BI application from scratch, organizations can purchase a semi-built application and customize it.

Many people believe that metrics is a barrier that Agile has to solve before it will be widely adopted. Yet many teams using Agile processes collect metrics; XP is fanatic in its collection of and management to velocity. Individual organizations have devised numerous metrics to satisfy themselves and their management that they are under control.

[Excerpted from an article in the September 1992 Cutter IT Journal (formerly American Programmer.]

Successful organizations and software projects learn from their environment, adapt to it rapidly, and then predict accurately what is going to occur next. They are able to expand the environments in which they operate beyond those of "normal" organizations or projects. In fact, two characteristics of successful organizations and projects tend to dominate all others.