Robert Fabian

There really is an Uncertainty Principle for IT systems. Uncertainty arises from the fact that users will not know what they really need until they begin to work with a new system. The traditional waterfall approach to building systems (finish one phase before falling into the next) ignores this principle, and ignores the inevitable business changes that occur between freezing the specifications and delivering a system. But the waterfall methodology continues to be widely used.

The new employee

Impact can be viewed as a measure of the value of the software. The cost of failure, seen in loss of dollars or even lives, would be one measure of impact. The software professional

The Canadian Association of Management Consultants (www.camc.com) now recognizes that there are situations in which the consultant

As the new century unfolds, it is becoming increasingly clear that IT will be expected to deliver reliable, dependable and cost-effective services. The cowboy/cowgirl mentality is no longer acceptable. Best practice standards are available and cover all aspects of IT. New technologies and new architectures have been developed, supporting the delivery of rock-solid IT utility services.

The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (CobiT) best practices standard is the responsibility of the IT Governance Institute, which was itself established by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). On its Web site, ISACA says CobiT has been developed as

One of the charges brought against standards, no matter what industry they touch, is that they stifle innovation. That may be true, but the absence of standards can cause other problems.

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