Recent enterprise risk management (ERM) snafus illustrate the importance of organizational preparedness in the face of surprise. Consider the following examples.

In every organization, upper levels of leadership are deeply involved with continuous organizational change. In response to rapidly variable internal and external business needs, leaders seek ways to improve processes, quality, and customer relationships.

While it is true that, to some extent, outsourcing reduces the expectation of job security among today's IT practitioners, there is also a bright side. Outsourcing can allow a workforce to reach out from a regional to a national to a global environment and build an extended enterprise that efficiently utilizes people, processes, and technology.

Most companies recognize some flavor of the IT project lifecycle and use processes to manage each stage of the lifecycle. The common stages include project definition (including building the business case); project approval and prioritization; project development and implementation; ongoing operation, support, and maintenance; and finally, retirement.