Having just completed a study of software development practices in the Internet software industry, I have gained some insights into the practices that firms use to overcome the extreme levels of uncertainty in this environment. The data was gathered through interviews with over 30 project managers over the period 1996-1998. The results show that in this industry, projects with a more flexible approach to development yielded better performing products.

According to a new study from Cutter Consortium, 25% of organizations have not developed an overall e-commerce strategy. Only 4.2% stated that their organizations do have an e-commerce strategy.

My last Cutter IT Journal E-Mail Advisor, "Spiking the Architecture" (18 August 1999), motivated the following response from Paul Trimming at TELKOM SA:

Most companies that adopt Internet technology do so without a long-term goal. It's a great adventure that starts with "we've got to have an Internet site, even though we don't exactly know what we'll do with it after it's up." Although there are thousands of ISPs and probably tens of thousands of Web designers capable of building a corporate site for you, few (if any) are capable of advising you on the strategic alignment of Internet initiatives with corporate goals and IT directions.

For years, we computing professionals have bemoaned the fact that we can't manage and create our products with the same degree of reliability that engineering disciplines expect.

Silver bullets and wooden stakes are time-tested components for dealing with vampires and werewolves. Of course, you have to remember which component is to be applied to which monster. Unfortunately, you also have to be at pretty close range to use these components. Use the wrong one, and you are unlikely to have a second chance.

Although the marketplace seems to be fascinated with the UML-RUP (Unified Modeling Language-Rational Unified Process) approach to object-oriented development, I believe that there are many reasons why UML-RUP is insufficient for component-based development. UML-RUP seems suited for "green field" projects. It provides no help in dealing with the development or with the reuse of components and designs.