Application availability is increasingly becoming a significant business risk management issue for major IT data centers. Why a business risk issue rather than an IT risk issue?

One of the more interesting developments at the Object Management Group's (OMG) EAI Conference in February involves the OMG's XML standard, called XMI (XML Meta Interchange).

Years ago, I started noticing people doing the wrong things at work. I first saw this while working in a computer lab. We worked with the leading edge computer hardware, software, and peripherals -- the best toys available. The problem was that people were looking for problems so they could buy the solutions. These people were wonderful problem solvers and spent their time doing that. They were comfortable solving problems rather than defining them; doing versus thinking. The trouble was, they often solved the wrong problems.

Attacking an entrenched enemy head-on, say by storming the beach at Normandy, usually results in heavy losses. The enemy just sits in his bunker and picks off targets of opportunity. Victory may finally be achieved by overrunning enemy positions, but casualties will be high. A better strategy is to avoid the enemy's strength by outflanking him and attacking in unobvious ways.

In December, when I reviewed component retailers in the Component Development Strategies newsletter, I identified two leading companies that were each trying to create a market for components: Flashline.com (http://www.flashline.com) and ComponentSource (http://www.componentsource.com).

In response to Pamela Hollington's recent e-mail advisor titled " Lessons from Roofers: Managing the Known Unknowns" (16 February 2000), Mr. Bill Donovan, publisher of Inside Healthcare Computing, wrote this:

While the computer industry has known about the Linux operating system for a few years now, it's interesting to see that it's gaining the attention of the popular media as well as the Wall Street investment crowd.

In the current climate of e-business froth, the business-IT strategy development process appears to be a cumbersome effort, a luxury that can only push the firm further behind in the race with the various dot-com activities of competitors.

Paul Evitts, the president of neoLogistiks in Toronto, has just published a very interesting book: A UML Pattern Language (Macmillan Technical Publishing, Software Engineering Series, 2000. ISBN 1-57870-118-X).

Like most consultants, I spend an uncommon amount of time on airplanes. I'll admit to sometimes enjoying the quiet time away from e-mail and telephones to work or read. On a recent flight to a client site, I was poring over the February issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

There are several difficulties involved with building the next generation of systems that integrate the functions in current Web applications (traditional front office, order entry) with the back office (order fulfillment). The first difficulty is unambiguously defining the user requirements; the second is managing the organizational changes necessary to deploy the technical solution.

BEA held its annual Users Conference this past month. Everyone was in a good mood. BEA's stock has gone from $65 to over $130 in the past two months and it's still listed as a "strong buy" by most analysts. The underlying reason, as I've mentioned on several occasions in the past, is that BEA has made all the right moves.

All software development projects require two complementary methodologies. A systems development methodology is required to specify the tasks, techniques, and deliverables of each phase of the project. A project management methodology is required to estimate, schedule, and monitor the project. Currently, object-oriented systems development methodologies are focused on the development of "green field" systems.

The Internet changes everything. Okay, now that we're through the obligatory opening for every article these days, let's focus on the key issue for business-IT alignment -- change is changing. We can no longer think of change in the traditional vein of stuff-happens- and-today-it-happens-faster.