Agile software development is a hot topic. As a generalization, it emphasizes team-oriented software develop practices that incorporate activities and steps that lead to successful software development.

"A fundamental problem in our industry is that software projects are chronically overconstrained and underspecified," said Cutter Senior Consultant Ken Orr. This statement underscored a lively debate during the Modern Project Management panel discussion at the recent Summit 2002 conference.

So, your organization is faced with an upgrade of your enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. Your executives do not view this as a large-scale effort, but you and your staff know far better. Now what?

Most readers are familiar with the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University and first released in 1990. CMM is a major effort to describe best practices in software development.

Everybody and everything is constantly changing, including change itself. In today's business environment, no amount of planning guards against the volatility and constant change that organizations face. The ability to respond to these circumstances is not only a competitive advantage, but also a survival skill.

Security allows you to protect the confidentiality of your information. It also allows you to access this information when you need it and to trust its integrity. It is an ongoing process where reasonable amounts must be spent to reduce avoidable risks.

To be secure, you must require:

My wife and I recently went shopping with my mother to purchase a new kitchen clock. While completing the transaction, the salesperson asked my mother if she'd like to take out their extended warranty service on the clock. Somewhat taken aback, she exclaimed agitatedly, "Extended warranty on a clock!