In every facet of life, the question of who you can trust surfaces -- though the answer often eludes us. In the information security game, we try to create mechanisms to help us answer this question, and our reputation as well as professional pride are tied up with getting it right. But is that possible?

If you're like most IT managers, you have a couple of open requisitions. You'd like to make the most of your requisitions, and you don't want to take a long time to hire. To hire the most suitable candidate who aligns with your strategy and needs, find candidates with relevant experience and then ask them the important questions.

Companies are turning to Web services to help them extend their data warehouses to key suppliers and other supply chain partners via BI extranets. This is just one finding from a recent Cutter Consortium survey that asked companies about their data warehousing and BI practices.

I'll assume that we're all cured: that we're no longer susceptible to fads or hype; that we've matured after the dot-com crash; that we know how to spot a serious technology trend. That said, let's talk about Web services.

Everyone is aware that the past two years haven't been the best of times for companies or IT vendors. The economy has been in recession, and is only slowly starting to recover. Most companies have cut back spending, laid people off, and hunkered down to wait for better times.

An interview with Alistair Cockburn, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

Q. Tell me about the last interesting consulting engagement you were involved in.

One of the many questions Cutter Consortium seeks to answer with our frequent surveys we conduct is the extent to which organizations are applying various technologies to support their data warehousing and BI initiatives. A question that has peaked my interest lately is the percentage of companies that are currently using broadcast servers for automated alerting and event broadcasting.

The question is not if, but when. Don't question if you will need a computer security strategy; determine when the situation will arise showing you need one. Hackers, criminals, naive users, accidents, tired employees, acts of nature -- all of these can cause serious damage to IT systems and data. Failing to address security can lead to unnecessary risk and expense.

In the mid- to late 1990s, time pressure on software projects accelerated dramatically under the "Internet speed" mantra. It seemed that our industry was hell-bent on bending reality with regard to time, and chants to "build it faster" were the norm.

The answer is pretty clear. To minimize burnout, upper management, the project manager, and project leaders should focus on the following actions (none of which require extra money, promotion, or other traditional rewards):

There have been times in my career as an IT manager when I felt my primary role was to motivate people. I wanted to bring out the best in them because people are the fundamental resource in IT. Their imagination and energy make everything work. Sometimes my attempts at motivating people seemed to work well, and sometimes it was a disaster.

Results from our latest survey analyzing corporate data warehousing and BI trends show that fewer companies plan to increase spending on their data warehousing and BI efforts in 2003 than those that indicated they planned to do so just nine months ago.