In the September and November issues of IEEE Computing magazine, Alistair Cockburn and I wrote two articles on agile software development -- "The Business of Innovation" and "The People Factor." Then, in the January 2002 issue, Barry Boehm wrote a very thoughtful article about where agile methods fit within the spectrum of approaches to software development and project management ("Get Ready for

No one who works in computing can be unaware of the meaningless and constant jargon that we are all forced to listen to. I'd be interested to see a graduate school study of the amount of time IT managers spend just trying to understand the new terms they keep encountering. It's frustrating, of course, because in most cases the new terms just turn out to be some old term, given a slight twist.

Managers often struggle with the decision of whether or not to significantly modify the customer relationship management (CRM) and other software packages they have just purchased. Often companies decide to make changes to the packaged application to meet their business requirements. This is very common and often times necessary, but should be undertaken with foresight and understanding of the consequences.

In several Advisors, I've mentioned my working assumption that a company should not outsource core business processes. As I use the term, a core business process results in a product or service that uniquely defines the company. In other words, the process is one in which the company adds unique value and is critical to the way the company positions itself in its market.