I recently conducted an e-business visioning session with the executive management team of a company in the financial industry. The inspiration for the meeting was the CEO's concern over whether an e-business project proposed by the company's IT department was aligned with the strategic business opportunities offered by the Internet. At first blush, the IT proposal seemed incremental.

Ever since XML was introduced, people have been talking about the possibility that it could be used as a kind of Internet middleware. Skeptics have pointed out that XML is a document format. It isn't middleware -- it lacks any of the services traditionally associated with middleware, including the ability to locate distributed components, transactions, security, and so forth.

People who design or code something shouldn't test it. The classic reason is they may not see problems that others can. I've recently stumbled onto another reason, and that reason can save projects time and money.

Many years ago I remember someone explaining to me that the reason the Roman Colosseum was still (more or less) standing was due to the fact that the people who tried to tear it down and use it for a stone quarry in the Middle Ages were less skilled than the engineers who built it originally.

Many years ago I remember someone explaining to me that the reason the Roman Colosseum was still (more or less) standing was due to the fact that the people who tried to tear it down and use it for a stone quarry in the Middle Ages were less skilled than the engineers who built it originally.

Many years ago I remember someone explaining to me that the reason the Roman Colosseum was still (more or less) standing was due to the fact that the people who tried to tear it down and use it for a stone quarry in the Middle Ages were less skilled than the engineers who built it originally.

This is the fourth Advisor in my series on risk management.

This is the fourth Advisor in my series on risk management.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) continues to haunt the thinking of those who are tasked with designing large e-business applications.

Some of you have probably heard of Extreme Programming, or XP, as it is usually called. XP is a lightweight software development methodology that advocates (Kent Beck, Ron Jeffries, and others) claim is a way of developing high-quality software with low schedule and budget risk.