Application integration (also known as enterprise application integration -- EAI) product vendors

With the enormous interest in e-business, both within the IT industry and on Wall Street, every organization is looking at redefining itself into an e-business, or at least developing an e-business strategy. This report looks at the key ingredients in defining and implementing a successful e-business technology solution.

With the enormous interest in e-business, both within the IT industry and on Wall Street, every organization is looking at redefining itself into an e-business, or at least developing an e-business strategy. This report looks at the key ingredients in defining and implementing a successful e-business solution.

Broadbase Information Systems introduced its turnkey data mart platform for analytical application development about two years ago. In my review of Broadbase Server (July 1997 DMS), I said that it represented the "next generation" of data mart products.

In the June DMS, which covered business intelligence market trends, I noted that balanced scorecards have become a hot OLAP application.

SPSS, Inc. has released Clementine Solution Publisher, an add-on component for use with SPSS's Clementine data mining tool.

Why are so many software organizations interested in estimating projects better? Because they want their projects to be on time -- and perhaps in the recent past they've had at least one major failure in doing so? Why are so many software organizations interested in risk? Risk covers a multitude of causes, but ultimately risk affects the likelihood of your project schedule being delayed.

Not long ago (in the April issue) we urged you to "get the front end right." That meant getting the important risks under control, finding an architecture that fit the initial requirements, and reaching a size estimate. As we have often said, estimating size is the heart of the software estimating process.

In industry, we often think that we would do a better job of estimating if we just had time to "do it right." The student project experience described here shows us that students are under the same pressures as their industry counterparts and share some of the same prejudices for and against estimation as a tool.

There's no point in being exact about something if you don't even know what you're talking about.

-- John von Neumann

Imagine you are undertaking a tricky updating of a legacy back office application. The objective is to provide a front end accessible via the company's intranet for data entry and reporting. The technologies that suggest themselves are new to you and your colleagues, although you have the advantage of understanding the existing software and business rules.

This Executive Update is the first of a two-part series containing excerpts from a panel discussion on business-IT

This Executive Update is the first of a two-part series containing excerpts from a panel discussion on business-IT