This is the third Advisor in a series on the importance of practicing risk management for effective business-IT alignment. Last week ( 30 August 2000), I discussed developing a qualitative appreciation of each identified risk, which involves classifying the risk, identifying the risk owner, and assessing the magnitude of the risk's impact.

This is the third Advisor in a series on the importance of practicing risk management for effective business-IT alignment. Last week ( 30 August 2000), I discussed developing a qualitative appreciation of each identified risk, which involves classifying the risk, identifying the risk owner, and assessing the magnitude of the risk's impact.

The Japanese government recently announced a five-year plan to make itself into an Internet powerhouse. I read the announcement with interest. When I was heavily involved in expert systems and AI in the mid-1980s, Japan was engaged in its Fifth Generation project, an effort to propel Japan into a leadership position in AI.

"I'm just a Little Black Rain Cloud hovering over a honey tree."

Those of you with children or who remember being a child will recognize this classic Disney tune. Winnie-the-Pooh, in his never-ending quest for honey, has dunked himself in a mud puddle and is floating upward clinging to a helium balloon toward a large beehive high in a tree.

"I'm just a Little Black Rain Cloud hovering over a honey tree."

"I'm just a Little Black Rain Cloud hovering over a honey tree."

In previous issues of ITMS, I tackled the subject of managing Internet-speed deadlines (see ITMS, May and June 2000). Specifically, what do you do when IT projects are given a deadline first, before you know the full scope of the requirements? Also, how do IT applications development and maintenance projects fundamentally behave -- what are the "laws of nature"? How can that knowledge help us estimate projects better?

A good measurement program is one of the cornerstones of any successful process-improvement program. In fact, measurement is essential if you want to be able to quantitatively identify improvements. But knowing this doesn't help when you find yourself responsible for the implementation of a measurement program in your organization. There are just a few questions you want answered. Where do you start? What are the right things to measure? Why me?

Over the years, I have developed a checklist for selecting automated tools to perform macro software project estimates. Mine is similar, though not identical, to Robert Park's Checklists and Criteria for Evaluating the Cost and Schedule Estimating Capabilities of Software Organizations (SEI-95-SR-005, January 1995).

What causes an extremely successful and highly innovative company to lose 63% of its market value in one day? How is it that a consortium of some of the most recognized travel industry companies is unable to build an automated reservation system when it possesses tremendous depth of experience in its creation and operation?

What causes an extremely successful and highly innovative company to lose 63% of its market value in one day? How is it that a consortium of some of the most recognized travel industry companies is unable to build an automated reservation system when it possesses tremendous depth of experience in its creation and operation?

Over the past decade and a half, there has been a marked shift in the nature and level of risk that organizations must deal with. Today, it's an organization's ability to understand and manage its full spectrum of risk that defines the boundary between success and failure.

Over the past decade and a half, there has been a marked shift in the nature and level of risk that organizations must deal with. Today, it's an organization's ability to understand and manage its full spectrum of risk that defines the boundary between success and failure.

We all know that tradition can be hard to overcome. This is just as true for the IT-business relationship as it is anywhere else. IT's nascent steps 40 years ago focused on applying mainframes to the business -- the focus was on the mainframe, on the technology.