Editor's note: Assertion #4 from the Cutter Technology Council states, "Centralized IT departments will become unsustainable." This assertion will be explored fully in an upcoming Council Opinion.

If you ask the average citizen on the street for a definition of "open source," you'll probably get a blank look. Ask a programmer, though, and you'll not only get a precise definition, but several examples and an emotional argument for why it's good or bad.

If you ask the average citizen on the street for a definition of "open source," you'll probably get a blank look. Ask a programmer, though, and you'll not only get a precise definition, but several examples and an emotional argument for why it's good or bad.

In my last Advisor ( 2 August 2000), I talked about the importance of practicing risk management for effective business-IT alignment. I described risk management as a cyclical process, comprised of five main stages: identification, qualitative assessment, quantitative assessment, development of risk responses, and monitoring of implemented responses.

In my last Advisor ( 2 August 2000), I talked about the importance of practicing risk management for effective business-IT alignment. I described risk management as a cyclical process, comprised of five main stages: identification, qualitative assessment, quantitative assessment, development of risk responses, and monitoring of implemented responses.

There are five important conferences coming up this fall. Since they are spread out over three different continents, few people will be able to attend all of them. Moreover, they are are specialized in different ways. Still, I thought I'd point them all out, since at least four are annual meetings and will recur next year, elsewhere.

We all have come to understand how important communication is to a project. Balancing the need to keep everyone informed while avoiding management by democracy is a skill that every project manager must master. I recently came across a project that emphasized an important lesson about testing the effectiveness of a communications plan.

We all have come to understand how important communication is to a project. Balancing the need to keep everyone informed while avoiding management by democracy is a skill that every project manager must master. I recently came across a project that emphasized an important lesson about testing the effectiveness of a communications plan.

When I was a young boy, I remember my father telling me to beware of discussions and debates in which "reaction words" were used to evoke an emotional response that had little or nothing to do with the substance of the conversation. I have no idea why that lesson made such an impact on me, but it's one that we all see during debates about politics and religion.

When I was a young boy, I remember my father telling me to beware of discussions and debates in which "reaction words" were used to evoke an emotional response that had little or nothing to do with the substance of the conversation. I have no idea why that lesson made such an impact on me, but it's one that we all see during debates about politics and religion.

Among the challenges managers have had to face during the IT "revolution" of recent years, dealing with an increasingly specialized workforce has provoked particular angst. I saw this firsthand when I led a small, elite team of young programmers that supported mission-critical systems in an automaker's assembly plants. These plants are where the rubber hits the road in the auto business (literally).

I'm probably widely considered an enthusiastic supporter of Java and Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) application servers. I think both hold great potential for the development of important enterprise systems.

In today's environment of doing more with less, organizations are finding themselves with staff members that are burning out fast and are unable to deal with the growing work load.