IT security issues are now becoming a priority enterprise operational risk (i.e., risks created by a corporation's dependence on its systems, processes, and staff) to be managed. Corporate and government spending on IT security has jumped from 2% to 3% of the IT department's budget five years ago to 8% or more this year [1].

Sarbanes-Oxley wasn't a very well thought-out law. It was written in response to corporate corruption and seeks to solve a problem with a rather complicated system that it imposes on every business operating in the US. The original deadlines for the act were so unrealistic that they were extended and are only now beginning to come due.

In team sports such as software development, the key to success is adequate communication. Peter Drucker once stated that it is the recipient who communicates, and without the recipient, there cannot be any communications. If a tree falls in the forest to produce a specification that nobody reads, can a software system be built?

One of the key tasks in managing IT is managing the relationship between IT and the business. CIOs who are good at relationship management are seen as more effective overall. But what is relationship management? And what can CIOs and other IT managers do to improve relations between business and IT?

Almost everyone has various problems reducing their initial concepts of a step to a suitable size. It is, however, almost invariably possible to do so. Everyone can be taught how to do it. But many highly educated, intelligent, experienced "engineering directors" cannot quite believe this, until they experience it themselves. I believe this is a cultural problem, not a technological problem.

This Advisor is intended primarily for customer and service provider relationship managers who are responsible for managing an outsourcing relationship. Of course, this information is also important for their senior management and their relationship management teams.

To say that data quality is a huge problem is a gigantic understatement. Year after year, our surveys indicate that it continues to be the overwhelming concern among organizations developing data warehousing, BI, customer relationship management (CRM), business performance management, and a host of other information-intensive applications.

The perpetually changing world of IT today is a given. How we buy, deploy, and support business technology is constantly shifting. However, perhaps even more profound changes are taking place in senior management's perception of the value of technology; thus, leadership is on the move as well.

The potential advantages of offshore outsourcing (offshoring) are easy to recognize. But it is not so easy to identify the possible disadvantages. It is imperative that the decision to offshore includes a detailed analysis of the risks and potential problems. I address five of these pitfalls in this week's Advisor.