A number of factors contribute to outsourcing success -- and failure. Today's Advisor is an overview of the most common failure factors. While any one of these alone is unlikely to cause failure, doing any or all of these contributes to most failed outsourcing relationships.

[Today's Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor excerpts the best-selling Cutter Consortium Executive Report " Applying Enterprise Architecture" (or see the bookstore if you are not a client of the Enterprise Architecture Online Resource Center). We're sure you'll find this piece on enterprise architectures as the key link between business strategy, IT management, and individual projects useful in your alignment efforts.]

A few weeks ago, I worked with some people in my organization on a system problem. They had built a functioning system, but they then made a change that broke it. The solution to the problem was a return to fundamentals -- something we seem to forget.