Mitigating the risks posed by malicious code requires the proactive implementation of industry best practices. In today's world, combatting malicious software begins at the CxO level with the recognition that there is a critical business need for an information security program and the appropriate high-level staffing for that program [1]. The components of the information security program will vary according to business needs. In this two-part Bulletin, I will examine those components that must be considered.

As managers, we all face that judgment day -- the project has failed and fingers are now pointed at us. What actually happened? The project stats looked fine on paper -- how could it have failed? Should we attempt to recover the project or just let it die?

Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, and Newton. It took these five scientists from five countries a span of more than 150 years to break the commonly held worldview that claimed the sun and all the celestial bodies revolved in circular orbits around the earth at the center. This geocentric (earth-centered) model was formulated by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy around A.D. 140.

Imagine you work in an industry that employs large numbers of expensive people to apply their expertise to a problem, and all you get is the result. Even though their expertise can be partially codified, that information remains in their (expensive) heads, and it's never written down, much less automated. Imagine how expensive that would be!

An "approximate calculation" is the dictionary definition of an estimate. Nearly everyone expresses interest in getting better at estimating, but what do they really mean, and is what they mean reasonable? I want to discuss estimation by focusing on several key words: target, estimate, approximation, expectation, and uncertainty.

During a recent class of executive MBA students in which we looked at a bunch of successful and unsuccessful technology implementation projects, someone asked why so many large-scale enterprise software projects fail. Since the class was full of student-executives from over 30 companies, we were able to explore the question with the benefit of multiple, real-world perspectives.