"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.

Retaining IT employees has become one of today's most difficult challenges for CIOs and senior systems management teams. Those who have the drive and insight to consider many possibilities will keep their people. It's too easy to hide behind the belief that the amount of money offered -- or not offered -- is the only reason for retention problems.

Paul Harmon, Editor

The application server market is in a period of huge growth as new products appear, existing products are modified and merged, and organization after organization moves all or part of its operations to the Web. But by far the most significant factor in the growth of this market comes from the discovery that decades-old products are, in fact, application servers.

The past three years have seen an enormous emphasis on application servers -- whatever they may be. The term is used in overlapping ways:

Last month, we explored the question of how many companies were developing e-business applications. We determined that 17% of the companies Cutter Consortium surveyed already had an e-business infrastructure, while 76% were currently evolving an e-business architecture. We also reported that 92% of the surveyed companies were committed to some kind of e-business development.

For many, the process of implementing software is the same today as it was a decade ago. Many new techniques have been devised, but few, if any, have been widely adopted. Organizations still mitigate their risks by engaging strong technical resources at a high price, neglecting the real issue: e-business projects require a strategic focus on implementation techniques.

First, I continue to bang away at the topic of managing risk in my article "Sizing Up Your Promises and Expectations." When we examine IT project overrun statistics, we see that the small percentage of projects that manage to make both cost and schedule do so by the only method known to mankind when the deadline looms like a freight train -- they cut function to the core. I take a look at how people get into that sordid mess in the first place.

There are literally hundreds of products that are being marketed as an easy way to add personalization capabilities to your Web site. In reality, the state of the market for personalization products is extremely confusing. Contrary to what the vendors say, there are no complete solutions available.

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