Bad experience is as easy to pass on as good experience.

Here's a little test for you:

The Prudential Insurance Company of America is meeting the challenge of the Year 2000 project head-on with a disciplined, overarching approach to project management.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America is meeting the challenge of the Year 2000 project head-on with a disciplined, overarching approach to project management.

Copyright 1998 by Capers Jones

Copyright 1998 by Capers Jones

This year will be the most critical and difficult experienced by CIOs and their IT organizations so far.

As chair of the National Task Force on Software Engineering Productivity and Quality, and with our work still proceeding, I have received permission from my team members to share their comments on these issues with you. Here's what some of them have to say.

In 1997, I led off the year with an issue that was entitled "1997: The Year of CORBA." I thought it might be worthwhile to briefly revisit that prediction.

In December 1995 I reviewed the various generic OO repositories available at that time. In this issue I want to update my evaluation of the OO repository market in the context of the OMG's new repository standard.

It boggles the mind to just think about how, in a few short years, information technology and the Internet have changed our world -- and our lives.

In the Summer 1997 issue of ISS, I noted that Neuron Data was repositioning itself to focus more on rule-based development (instead of traditional client-server development) and had renamed its product line "Elements." I also covered the initial

Gensym has also been busy cooking up a new strategy to capitalize on the growing influence of the Internet and the lucrative opportunities for applying intelligent technologies.

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Projections from all sources show a widening gap between supply and demand for software workers. This shortage is worldwide, not just in the U.S.; it is not limited to any specific technology, such as Java, SAP, or Year 2000 workers; and it extends across all industries, not just high-tech.

Projections from all sources show a widening gap between supply and demand for software workers. This shortage is worldwide, not just in the U.S.; it is not limited to any specific technology, such as Java, SAP, or Year 2000 workers; and it extends across all industries, not just high-tech.

First the good news. Much of the dramatic rise in the American stock market during the 1990s was based on real productivity growth in the service sector.

First the good news. Much of the dramatic rise in the American stock market during the 1990s was based on real productivity growth in the service sector.

In recent years, we have seen a flood of articles in the popular press claiming a desperate labor shortage in the software industry. Yet readers would be perplexed if they also knew that Microsoft, for instance, only hires 2 percent of its applicants for software positions. One does not have to be a "techie" to see the blatant contradiction here.

In recent years, we have seen a flood of articles in the popular press claiming a desperate labor shortage in the software industry. Yet readers would be perplexed if they also knew that Microsoft, for instance, only hires 2 percent of its applicants for software positions. One does not have to be a "techie" to see the blatant contradiction here.

If you are an executive in a company competing in world markets, a CIO or IS director, or the manager or technical director of a project developing a software-intensive system, chances are you do not have to be convinced there is a severe software labor shortage in the U.S.

If you are an executive in a company competing in world markets, a CIO or IS director, or the manager or technical director of a project developing a software-intensive system, chances are you do not have to be convinced there is a severe software labor shortage in the U.S.

Recently the IT profession has been hit by media accounts of an IT worker shortage. These accounts are the result of seriously biased reports propagated by organizations with hidden agendas aimed at flooding the IT worker marketplace.