The Cutter Technology Council's Assertion #13 reads: "E-business and e-commerce will continue to fuel explosive growth in, and unending confusion about, the middleware portion of IT architectures." The purpose of this Executive Update is to consider whether there is evidence of this trend in industry today.

Aggressive schedules, evolving technology, rapidly changing requirements, uncertain business models, fixed-priced contracts -- pick out the term that seems incongruent with the others. "How do we write fixed-price contracts using agile methodologies?" is a question I hear frequently from clients and workshop participants. "Wrong question," is my usual reply.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, we IT professionals built systems that lasted for years and years -- sometimes even decades -- before they finally collapsed from old age and got swept into the binary dustbin.

I have a good friend who is in the job market. The Internet media company he worked for since 1998 closed its doors a few weeks ago. The company was based on a bold idea that could have changed the way the media operates. The changes might occur someday (probably will), but this company was too early.

I have a good friend who is in the job market. The Internet media company he worked for since 1998 closed its doors a few weeks ago. The company was based on a bold idea that could have changed the way the media operates. The changes might occur someday (probably will), but this company was too early.

I've received several requests recently for revised market forecasts, and I notice that one of the well-known analyst firms is in the process of preparing one on the e-commerce market. I've been in this business long enough to understand how important such forecasts are to venture capitalists, marketing people making projections, and to a lot of others trying to figure out the market.

In Canada, we have a federal tax called the GST (goods and services tax). From the looks of it, it was created without clear specifications or business rationale. It's like a bunch of folks hid out for a weekend and, over a few dozen drinks too many, penned the rules that make up the tax. What else could explain the fact that salted peanuts are GST-able and unsalted ones are not?

In Canada, we have a federal tax called the GST (goods and services tax). From the looks of it, it was created without clear specifications or business rationale. It's like a bunch of folks hid out for a weekend and, over a few dozen drinks too many, penned the rules that make up the tax. What else could explain the fact that salted peanuts are GST-able and unsalted ones are not?