New column for Ziff Davis: “Surviving Complexity”

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m writing a book called Surviving Complexity. Many of my posts here at this website have adapted from materials I’m writing for that book.

Well, now I’ve been hired by Ziff Davis Enterprises to write a weekly column on IT Management for the online version of Baseline. That column is titled “Surviving Complexity” and, again, draws upon work I’m doing for the book. My first column is up: “Lies, Damned Lies, and Metrics (Part I)”; here’s the opening paragraph:

When Capers Jones published Assessment and Control of Software Risks (Yourdon Press, 1994), he identified the most serious software risk in IT projects as “Inaccurate Metrics,” and the second most serious software risk as “Inadequate Measurement”. I remember being startled when I first read that back in 1995—they certainly weren’t what I would have chosen—and other authorities in the field criticized his choices. Yet, in the intervening years, I have moved closer and closer to Jones’ point of view.

I’ll still be writing here, both with materials relevant to Surviving Complexity and with my on-going revisions to The Art of ‘Ware. But please feel free to check out the new column. Thanks. ..bruce..

About the Author: bfwebster

Webster is Principal and Founder at at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor for the BYU Computer Science Department. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at 303.502.4141 or at bwebster@bfwa.com.