How can we facilitate cross-media e-business and utilize next-generation e-services to empower virtual channels that target wireless initiatives? The challenge of engineering global solutions is to innovate end-to-end metrics that target mission-critical applications to develop the organization's killer portals.

My experience building and deploying e-business applications over the past two years has been quite frustrating. Proof of concept evolves rapidly into a pilot project, and before you know it, you are supporting a prototype application in production mode, interacting with back-end transactional systems.

In Business Week this week, I read of a gentleman who traded stock with E*Trade. On the side, he sold an older computer via Yahoo! Classifieds. The sale went quickly and he got a bank- certified check for his computer. Unfortunately, the check was a phony, written by a cybercrook that the FBI was after. The gentleman didn't know any of this and deposited the certified check into his E*Trade account.

It has long been a given that accurately estimating project effort is virtually impossible without data from other, similar projects. Unfortunately, in the world of Internet time, not many teams have accurate metrics from past projects; moreover, the likelihood that any new project is truly similar to past projects is slim.

It has occurred to me that I don't think big enough. For example, I've been thinking that a $100-million enterprise resource planning (ERP) installation is a big deal. But now I'm not so sure; it may be that there are software applications out there that could turn out to be worth billions, maybe trillions, by the time it's all said and done.

What is it about an IT vacancy that causes the kneejerk reaction, "I'm looking for someone with one to three years experience"?

When I talk about component systems, I tend to emphasize that they are flexible. A single component can have interfaces that will support other components based on different component models. By using CORBA, a company can link COM, C++, and Enterprise JavaBeans components located on different servers in widely different geographical locations.

The IT industry has always claimed its importance to the business. Computers and software are depicted in various ads as the corporate savior, the Wunderwaffe, or the "Ultimate Answer to All Management Problems." For a long time, no one paid much attention to the fact that the real role of corporate IT was that of information janitors -- sometimes useful, mostly harmless.

This is the third Advisor in a series on the importance of practicing risk management for effective business-IT alignment. Last week ( 30 August 2000), I discussed developing a qualitative appreciation of each identified risk, which involves classifying the risk, identifying the risk owner, and assessing the magnitude of the risk's impact.

The Japanese government recently announced a five-year plan to make itself into an Internet powerhouse. I read the announcement with interest. When I was heavily involved in expert systems and AI in the mid-1980s, Japan was engaged in its Fifth Generation project, an effort to propel Japan into a leadership position in AI.

"I'm just a Little Black Rain Cloud hovering over a honey tree."

Those of you with children or who remember being a child will recognize this classic Disney tune. Winnie-the-Pooh, in his never-ending quest for honey, has dunked himself in a mud puddle and is floating upward clinging to a helium balloon toward a large beehive high in a tree.