Each year, members of our community present new methods of building and maintaining software. It is our task to be open-minded, learn, and think. We must always look at our people and the product we are building before we decide which process or method to use.

If you are charged with selecting or implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution for your organization, it is imperative that you understand the business drivers that propel this application area. The CRM solution space is big and growing.

Software architects at large companies who are focused on the design of enterprise application integration (EAI) systems that can link existing enterprise applications with the latest e-business systems face a horrendous task -- there are so many applications, written in so many different languages, running on such a wide variety of platforms.

Back in the Y2000 days, I got into a little trouble for going against commonly held beliefs. A number of industry pundits claimed that the Y2000 challenge wasn't a technical problem, but simply a project management challenge of considerable magnitude. Classic project management theory says that in the project-constraint triangle, one is bound by work, resources, and time.

Back in the Y2000 days, I got into a little trouble for going against commonly held beliefs. A number of industry pundits claimed that the Y2000 challenge wasn't a technical problem, but simply a project management challenge of considerable magnitude. Classic project management theory says that in the project-constraint triangle, one is bound by work, resources, and time.

"Process improvement challenges -- the process cannot be continuously improved if:

CMM [Capability Maturity Model] overcomes these hurdles one by one."

-- Dr. Bill Curtis1