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.

Dear Steve,

Let me assure you that the following relates to management.

This week's Advisor is about distance learning, one of my favorite subjects and one of my favorite pursuits. Living as I do -- off the beaten track -- the ability to access information makes it possible for me to remain current on a lot of things. In my case, as with billions of other people who live off the beaten track, learning at a distance is wonderful and amazing.

The year 2003 is shaping up to be the one in which companies will decide whether to embrace open source software or fail to adopt it and allow Microsoft to extend its control of desktop deep into the enterprise.

One of the biggest challenges of systems development is getting to the "root" of business requirements and associated rules. Often, I find that when moving from an existing system to a new one, business area representatives often present existing "workarounds" as business rules. As systems specialists, we need to recognize these false requirements and clarify the true business needs.

Sitting here reading a news item that reports that Oracle and SAP plan to release new analytic capabilities for their respective enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications (Oracle Financials and SAP R/3), the first question that comes to my mind is: Where have they been?

As we all know, achieving IT and business alignment is not easy. We must tie business strategy, technology, and people into a comprehensive and synergistic package that, as Paul Strassmann says, will demonstrate a positive relationship between IT and accepted financial measures of performance. However, as my mother used to say, you need to be careful for what you wish for, because you just might get it.

I read an interesting interview with Brian Arthur, a Santa Fe Institute theorist who studies technology revolutions. He argues that we had a big bash in the late 1990s and are now in the doldrums. But he also says he expects that 2003 is the year we start a new expansion.