How do you manage a project that spans internal and external organizations and whose participants reside in multiple locations? What if the project has evolving specifications, a tight delivery time frame, and high executive visibility? The management of complex, distributed projects is an increasingly common challenge in our global and e-business-based economy.

Saving money has always been one of the drivers for considering outsourcing, but it usually fell behind more strategic motivations, such as focusing on core competencies or freeing internal staff for other initiatives. However, in these tighter economic times, more companies are turning to outsourcing as a means to reduce and control IT costs. Is it possible to save money through outsourcing? Of course!

When I was a feckless teenager, one of my weekly amusements was reading the "Spy vs. Spy" cartoon strip in Mad magazine. It was a reflection of the Cold War era in which the magazine started, and the gadgets and tricks used by the good-guy and bad-guy adversaries reflected vintage-1960s technology.

I spent some time this week with the CEO of a medium-sized IT strategy/systems integration consulting firm. I've known him for a long time (since before he was CEO) and watched the company go through ups and downs. Two years ago, the firm was losing money.

Negative synergy is alive and (not) well. Smart individuals gather and produce a bad result. It happens often, and it wastes time, money, and people. There are, however, things IT managers can and should do about it.

Since the e-Project Advisor began, I have enjoyed reading the thought-provoking articles about speeding up the way IT delivers highly complex, mission-critical business solutions. I have read about ways to iteratively deliver value with long-term flexibility driven by a rigorous short-term practice. I have learned that collaborative, diverse teams are critical components.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) announcement last week that it plans to make nearly all of its courseware freely available on the Web generated considerable interest and media coverage, but it may be a full decade before the full ramifications of the university initiative are fully visible.

Whether you're a small business owner considering your first Web page or a CIO who's wondering just what's wrong with your site, maybe we can help. In this Advisor, we'll use a small duct tape store to illustrate five important Web design "laws."

"Now there is proof that the evolutionary approach to software development results in a speedier process and higher-quality [emphasis added] products." This is the tag line from a very interesting article in the Winter 2001 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review.

With all the bad news from the stock market and the collapsing dot-com industry, it's easy to form the opinion that last year's IT shortage has turned into a glut of unemployed workers.

All human endeavors face constraints. Some are anticipated, others are not. They arise from both internal and external influences and are accompanied by a degree of uncertainty. Problems or issues that could, by occurring, threaten or cause loss to a project are what really matters. Such risks are not merely internal but are also the result of the external environment.

Even the most mediocre high-school Spanish-language student is unsurprised that the Chevy Nova was not a success in Latin American countries. And it is little wonder that the Ford Pinto and the soft drink Fresca produced more adolescent giggles than sales in the same area. Unfortunate names for otherwise worthwhile products.

Aggressive schedules, evolving technology, rapidly changing requirements, uncertain business models, fixed-priced contracts -- pick out the term that seems incongruent with the others. "How do we write fixed-price contracts using agile methodologies?" is a question I hear frequently from clients and workshop participants. "Wrong question," is my usual reply.

Although risk management is seen as a vital, integrated part of a project manager's skills, even in today's fast-paced, results- oriented environment, formal risk management for IT outsourcing is rare.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, we IT professionals built systems that lasted for years and years -- sometimes even decades -- before they finally collapsed from old age and got swept into the binary dustbin.

I have a good friend who is in the job market. The Internet media company he worked for since 1998 closed its doors a few weeks ago. The company was based on a bold idea that could have changed the way the media operates. The changes might occur someday (probably will), but this company was too early.