Two articles from earlier this year paint entirely different pictures of the impact of the current recession on the offshore IT industry. An article in the 6 February 2002 Financial Times ("Indian Software Sector Weathers Global Storm," by Khozem Merchant) says, "Global spending on technology services may be down, but India's competitive software companies, which benefited from the spending binge, are scarcely struggling."

Or Chicago? Or Boston? Or Moscow? This is called distributed software development (DSD), where parts of the development team are located at distant sites. The focus is on distance, and the problem is one of communication between the team members; this is what characterizes a DSD project.

A distributed software development (DSD) strategy is only suitable for very large projects: true or false? In DSD projects, you cannot mix software development with hardware development: true or false? Companies cannot apply DSD to all of their projects -- it is just too difficult to manage: true or false?

Yes -- it appears to be true. Companies are satisfied with their strategic choice of distributed software development (DSD). The tough challenges of DSD bear sweet fruit at the end of the road -- at least that is what many development organizations have indicated in a Cutter Consortium survey on DSD. In this, the third and final in a series of articles on DSD, we will report on problems that organizations encounter, how they resolve them, and how satisfied they are with their DSD strategy.

One benefit of running executive education courses is that I get to talk with a large number of IT executives in a forum that encourages us to think about issues. A few months ago, I helped run one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that included more than 50 IT executives. During meals and coffee breaks, we spent a good deal of time talking about outsourcing and Web services. An interesting concept emerged. Outsourcing did more than cut costs. It also provided training and discipline that many companies had been sorely missing.

Although the US IT workforce has grown by 1% ... since the beginning of the year, the short-term hiring outlook continues to remain bleak ... [jobless] IT professionals [with] in-demand skills ... point the finger at H-1B visa holders and offshore programming outfits, where a growing number of companies are shifting their development and maintenance work to reduce costs.

-- Thomas Hoffman, ComputerWorld, 23 September 2002

Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons.

-- Popular Mechanics, 1949

Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons.

-- Popular Mechanics, 1949

Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons.

-- Popular Mechanics, 1949

Despite the billions of dollars spent on technology, not much money is spent on how major technology decisions get made. Choosing technologies is not unlike choosing stocks; there are many to choose from, and you can't make the right call all of the time. In an up market, almost all stock choices look like good ones; in a down market, it's hard to find any good ones.

Despite the billions of dollars spent on technology, not much money is spent on how major technology decisions get made. Choosing technologies is not unlike choosing stocks; there are many to choose from, and you can't make the right call all of the time. In an up market, almost all stock choices look like good ones; in a down market, it's hard to find any good ones.

Despite the billions of dollars spent on technology, not much money is spent on how major technology decisions get made. Choosing technologies is not unlike choosing stocks; there are many to choose from, and you can't make the right call all of the time. In an up market, almost all stock choices look like good ones; in a down market, it's hard to find any good ones.

Here is a sample of the files used to establish links across lexical elements.

Caught in the frenetic rise of the dot-com phenomenon and following hot on the heels of Y2K, IT departments find themselves drowning in a sea of spaghetti logic and a Gordian knot of networked applications and legacy systems. As if that were not enough, the stock market deflation and the loss of business due to the tragic events of 9/11 have further shrunk much-needed IT budgets.

Caught in the frenetic rise of the dot-com phenomenon and following hot on the heels of Y2K, IT departments find themselves drowning in a sea of spaghetti logic and a Gordian knot of networked applications and legacy systems. The design of these IT applications has been tactical and not strategic. Few, if any, applications were designed in anticipation of the business processes they serve.

Caught in the frenetic rise of the dot-com phenomenon and following hot on the heels of Y2K, IT departments find themselves drowning in a sea of spaghetti logic and a Gordian knot of networked applications and legacy systems. The design of these IT applications has been tactical and not strategic. Few, if any, applications were designed in anticipation of the business processes they serve.

Enterprise architecture means very different things to different people. Some think of it as one thing, while others view it as a set of different architectures or perspectives. In recent years, the Zachman framework has become an increasingly popular way of defining the breadth and scope of an enterprise architecture.

Is there a single action that could virtually guarantee improvement of software estimation? Well, you might say, if you knew of one, you would have implemented it already. But what if the answer were making software projects smaller and simpler? Undoubtedly, estimating a small project is easier than estimating a large one.

Personalization is often considered a tool for customizing Web sites. But, as you will see, the techniques of personalization go far beyond Web sites. It is not too far-fetched to suggest that within a relatively brief period of time -- perhaps as little as a decade -- all human/computer interactions will be intensely personalized.

Personalization is often considered a tool for customizing Web sites. But, as you will see, the techniques of personalization go far beyond Web sites. It is not too far-fetched to suggest that within a relatively brief period of time -- perhaps as little as a decade -- all human/computer interactions will be intensely personalized.