They can be a bane or a benefit to outsourcing projects -- those oft-abused internal support functions of procurement, finance, legal, and human resources (HR). To some project managers, these support function groups mean valuable working hours spent for little return; yet those project managers that have experienced the benefits of these groups know that the value of the support is usually worth the investment.

It is hard to overemphasize the importance of communication to business-IT alignment. Without communication -- good communication -- all is lost. Business will follow its path, IT will follow its path, and ne'er the twain shall meet. With communication, the exchange of goals and ideas leads to mutual understanding, which provides the basis for coordinated business-IT plans. Since business-IT alignment can't even get off the ground without this step, there is no question that the importance of communication is of the highest order.

Everyone involved in software development knows the labor market is very tight. It's hard to find good people for almost any important task. In the past few months, the Cutter Consortium conducted a survey to determine what the demand was for developers of distributed, component-based systems.

As outsourcing becomes entrenched as a means to deliver IT solutions, horror stories from vendor projects are becoming commonplace. The landscape is littered with multimillion dollar failures in which years of investment leave buyers with partially functioning systems or with the necessity of having multimillion dollar annuities to keep systems operating.

Although all Capability Maturity Model (CMM)-certified organizations follow the same practices, there can be wide variance in how these organizations operate. CMM is not just about following certain key practices; it must also include a learning-oriented cultural identity. Thus, it's important to carefully question any potential outsourcing partner about its software process status -- beyond simply asking its CMM level.

Good business-IT alignment depends on several factors. At the highest level are the factors that establish the foundation for business-IT alignment: coordinated business and IT strategies, organizational structure, and budgeting and project-funding practices.

On the desk in my office sits an entirely self-contained, enclosed, living ecosystem. Five inches high, this microcosm of life contains algae, very small shrimp and snails, and multitudes of microscopic bacteria, all living by exchanging stuff with each other and by converting light to biochemical energy.

The rush to develop e-commerce applications has forced most companies to reconsider their component-based development choices. While it's certainly possible to develop modest Web sites and simple Internet applications without component-based approaches, it's almost impossible to build enterprise-oriented e-commerce applications without components.

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in using precise notations such as Unified Modeling Language (UML) to model complex business systems, in particular to model the tidal wave of Internet-driven e-business and e-commerce applications. Even mainstream developers and business analysts now toss around terms like "use case" and "activity diagram," often to the point where the terms are being misused and misapplied.

To effectively manage an outsourced software development effort, you must have a set of measures that can (1) accurately predict and monitor the cost of the software deliverable, and (2) measure the value of the service provided to the customer. The key to this is establishing an accurate cost-per-unit-of-work measure.

We can all recall situations where we've told ourselves, "I should have known better." In most cases, our mistakes probably didn't cost us much -- a few hours listening to a pitch about buying a time-share in Florida or getting a bunch of junk e-mails. When selecting a vendor for an IT outsourcing project, however, mistakes can have a great deal more impact.

In Cutter Consortium's recent Council Opinion " E-Business and E-Commerce as Drivers of Integration Solutions ," Council Fellow Jim Highsmith wrote that "the number-one e-business driver seems to be fear" -- as in fear of being "Amazoned." He went on to say that there are other drivers, including customer acquisition and alliance management.

Truth is often tautological; at least it seems that way once it is stated. Certainly that appears to be the case considering the theme of this month's Executive Update, that given any particular technology, different organizations will experience different results from using that technology. What keeps this tautology from becoming trite is that different organizations do not simply experience different results; they experience dramatically different results.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) has emerged as the latest information management trend. Unfortunately, a typical EAI scenario is likely to focus on near-term integration tactics and ignore long-term integration strategies. As trends go, EAI is one of the better ones to emanate from software vendors and trade rags in recent years, because it is driven by real, immediate business requirements.

One of my pet peeves is the limited coverage of object database management systems (ODBMS) in the industry weeklies. Think back. How many times over the past six months have you seen a news report highlighting ODBMS? People frequently ask me why nothing is happening with ODBMS, since they see no news.

Everyone has read about Charles Schwab's Java/CORBA-based Internet trading system and Dell's COM-NT-based system for ordering customized PCs via the Web. The question is: how widespread is this trend and how rapidly it is growing?

Enron Energy Systems, Inc. (EES) of Houston, Texas, USA, is a reseller of electricity and natural gas, providing energy facility outsourcing solutions to commercial and industrial customers across the nation. EES offers services such as custom billing, equipment financing and maintenance, usage monitoring, and consultation.

If you don't have the skills within your organization to develop business models for your new e-commerce application and manage it through successful implementation, take heart -- you're not alone. In fact, you're in the majority. Cutter Consortium's business-IT alignment survey shows that these key skill areas (e-commerce, business modeling, and project management) are missing in most IT organizations.

The promise of third-generation e-business is total integration of all business processes. Many well-known e-businesses -- Dell Computer Corporation and Ford Motor Company, for example -- have implemented third-generation capabilities and enhanced their business performance significantly. Most e-businesses, however, have not evolved to third-generation form.

Since the emergence of the Internet as the stage upon which a cast of new technologies continuously appear, the pace of business has become astounding, even tiring. However, as IT professionals, it is imperative that we do more than simply keep abreast of developments. We must ensure that the strategic plan of the business reflects the new opportunities and threats inherent in the technology.

As most readers know, reengineering was a popular management concern at the beginning of the 1990s. Reengineering was largely a response to data that indicated that companies had spent vast amounts of money on computers yet received little back in the way of increased productivity.

With the Y2000 crisis behind us (keep your fingers crossed), most IT departments will now turn their attention to two serious issues: integrating the legacy systems that have been mostly neglected over the past five years and building an e-business component of the enterprise. Ideally, you could do both with the use of a new breed of software called enterprise application integration (EAI).

I am sure many of you have heard people say that "no one is using object database management systems [ODBMSs] in serious applications," or that "they are slow," or that "they cannot support large databases." Well, that is all bunk. In fact, the inverse of these myths is actually the truth.

So, you've decided to outsource that new e-project because you don't have the skills to develop it internally? Sounds great. You need results quickly and you don't have time to retrain the current team nor embark on a lengthy recruiting process. Therefore, you contract with the hottest new Web development company with a pretty good idea of what you want and plans for a highly iterative approach.

This update comes straight from the e-business trenches: Cutter Consortium recently conducted an e-business survey of 134 companies from around the world. Complete results are contained in the written report, entitled e-Business: Trends, Strategies, and Technologies . Selected findings from the report are presented below.