Late last year, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced guidelines that would have allowed software patent owners to charge "reasonable and non-discriminatory" (RAND) royalties on patented software that W3C might choose to embed in its Web services standards. This predictably raised a hailstorm of protest from the Internet and "open source" communities that form much of the W3C's constituency.

I attended an interesting session a few days ago where two vice presidents from Sun and Microsoft "duked" it out over their Web services approaches. It was actually a pretty collegial discussion, and it provided great information on the approaches these two major players are taking. It started me thinking about who will be the likely winner in this Web services "war."

I attended an interesting session a few days ago where two vice presidents from Sun and Microsoft "duked" it out over their Web services approaches. It was actually a pretty collegial discussion, and it provided great information on the approaches these two major players are taking. It started me thinking about who will be the likely winner in this Web services "war."

Since the horrific events of September 11, the federal government has been catalyzed into moving forward expeditiously in formation of business continuity plans (BCP) and associated risk management. What exactly is BCP and its associated risk management and what benefit does it have for the company, business partners, and employees?

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the mid-1990s. The book The Capability Maturing Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process , was published in 1995. (It had four editors and nine other contributors.

I am working with the people at a manufacturing company to help them select an ERP system. At this point, my client has decided to pursue a package solution with little or no customizations -- a noble goal if there ever was one. But my, oh my, what a messy job this has turned out to be. I call this "The Messy World of Package Selection," but maybe it is more aptly titled, "The Messy World of Vendor Rejection"!

Risks are a part of life, and therefore business. For organizations that practice sound risk management, and use risk techniques and tools, risks can be identified, avoided, minimized, and accepted to give companies a competitive advantage.