Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Software development is a risky business. You might think, therefore, that the people who do such work -- as well as those who pay for it and depend upon its eventual successful completion -- would be vigilantly concerned with risks; they would pay obsessive attention to each and every one of the factors that might cause failure. But such is not always the case in IT today. A running joke in our industry is that present-day projects fail for many of the same reasons that similar projects failed years ago.

In a recent survey by Cutter Consortium of more than 100 software development organizations of varied sizes, the most common method of software estimation was -- drum roll please -- "gut feel." People would pick a number for cost and schedule estimates based on rough judgment of experienced developers nearly 50% of the time.

How effective is your IT department at servicing its clients? Many CIOs spend a lot of time and money trying to answer this question. They sort through reams of data from call tracking, help desk, and project management systems to help them quantify service levels.

Let me assure you that the following relates to management.

Dear Steve,