Competitive intelligence (CI) is the purposeful and coordinated monitoring of your competitor(s), wherever and whomever they may be, within a specific marketplace. Your competitors are those firms that you consider rivals and with whom you compete for market share. CI also involves determining what your rivals are planning to do before they do it.

If asked, just about any manager today could define competitive intelligence (CI). You should expect to hear responses ranging from "stealing business secrets" and "industrial espionage" coming from the truly deluded to a more accurate "collection and analysis of competitor behavior and plans" from those better informed.

If asked, just about any manager today could define competitive intelligence (CI). You should expect to hear responses ranging from "stealing business secrets" and "industrial espionage" coming from the truly deluded to a more accurate "collection and analysis of competitor behavior and plans" from those better informed.

The Internet continues to change the role that software plays in the business world, fundamentally and radically. Software no longer simply supports back offices and home entertainment; instead, software has become the lifeblood of our businesses and has become deeply entwined into our lives.

The Internet continues to change the role that software plays in the business world, fundamentally and radically. Software no longer simply supports back offices and home entertainment; instead, software has become the lifeblood of our businesses and has become deeply entwined into our lives.

In the first five months of 2001, leading antivirus vendors detected more viruses than they had in the entire previous year. This development led media outlets such as ZDNet to refer to 2001 as the "Year of the Virus." Not only were more viruses detected, but according to MessageLabs SkyScan virus-scanning service, the ratio of infected e-mail messages to total e-mail messages increased from roughly 1:1,500 to 1:1,000 [4].

In the first five months of 2001, leading antivirus vendors detected more viruses than they had in the entire previous year. This development led media outlets such as ZDNet to refer to 2001 as the "Year of the Virus." Not only were more viruses detected, but according to MessageLabs SkyScan virus-scanning service, the ratio of infected e-mail messages to total e-mail messages increased from roughly 1:1,500 to 1:1,000 [4].

Agile project management creates an opportunity for a business to comanage a project with its IT department. This Executive Report explains how comanagement works and how to maximize the project's return on investment (ROI). After all, ROI is the only important measure of success in agile project management.

The accompanying Executive Report presents the application of empirical process control to the practice of project management. Traditional project management lays out a plan and ensures that the activities conform to the plan.

Software estimation has been a tough beast to control ever since the early days of programming. Some may say that we have succumbed to the dragon. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were many infamous stories about software projects running out of control and ultimately being abandoned, due to significant cost and time overruns [1].

In the past several years, application service providers (ASPs) and external service providers (XSPs) have become increasingly common for hosted applications, storage, security, performance monitoring, and other activities.

Although application service providers (ASPs) and Web service providers may compete on certain fronts, they will more often cooperate in providing customer solutions. The accompanying Executive Report defines ASPs and Web services, categorizes the different types of each, outlines their inherent benefits, and suggests how each will best be used and deployed in hybrid solutions.