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The article discusses the results of an online survey which investigated the views of senior information technology executives in Great Britain regarding the principles of agile software development, as opposed to more traditional models. Agile software design is said to be characterized by an emphasis on collaboration and interaction. It is contrasted with older plan-based approaches, which are said to favor tools and documentation. The results of the survey indicated that some of the agile software principles, such as frequent updates, were becoming widespread. Others, such as dynamic prioritization, were not.

Many in the software engineering world are already aware of the Common Criteria (CC) and the important role it plays providing confidence in the reliability of Information Technology (IT) product security claims through an independent evaluation and certification process. In the United Kingdom (UK), the CC philosophy has been adapted into a variety of pragmatic assurance techniques not just for single vendor solutions but for complete systems, sub-systems, network technologies, security architectures, and even managed service provision. How the general framework of CC can be adapted to provide assurance of security functions in software should be of interest to any person designing an assurance process for software security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the methodology and characteristics of agile technology in Great Britain. According to Martin McAnallen of MTT Systems and Gerry Coleman of the Dundalk Institute of Technology, eXtreme Programming is the most discussed agile method and with the most widespread industry base. The agile software development is a conceptual framework for undertaking software engineering projects. The methodologies include espoused by the Agile Alliance, a nonprofit organization.

The article reports on the study conducted by Forrester Consulting for Borland Software Corp. in Great Britain which reveals that application developers rely on subjective estimates than hard metrics in evaluating the success of information technology (IT) projects. According to Marc Brown, vice-president of product marketing at Borland, IT needs to enhance its performance, understand delivery capacity and respond to changing business demands. Moreover, the firm has planed to launch products and services that aim to offer business intelligence for software developers.

The article offers career advice for information technology (IT) professionals in Great Britain. In this article, one IT professional asked for an advice on how can he move away from his area as a software engineer considering that he wants to look for other opportunities in the IT administration. This IT professional is working for a company building software and helping to administrate IBM Rational Clearcase, a software configuration tool. He also writes Perl scripts to assist with Clearcase activities. He states that he enjoys his two areas of work, but not the former.

The article reports that Martyn Thomas, a leading campaigner for an independent review of the British National Health Service's £12.4bn National Programme for IT, has been made a Commander of the Order of British Empire in the New Year Honours List. Thomas, professor of software engineering, has long pushed for the adoption of formal methods for writing software to improve its dependability.

This article presents information on several events related to high technology industries in Great Britain in the month of January. Some of the events are convention on "High-availability systems and networks" at Hawthorns Hotel, Clifton, convention on "Offshoring" at Nabarro Nathanson, Lacon House, Theobalds Road, London, Forums on "Database security" at London on 18 January, "Public key cryptography" at De Montfort University, Leicester on 18 January, forum on "A framework for e-government," at Beaconside, Stafford, "Indian outsourcing" Palmer Building, Reading University, Berkshire, "Grid computing in the enterprise" at Renold Building, Manchester on 19 January and "Forensic software engineering" at BT Delta Point, Wellesley Road, Croydon.

Fewer than one in five of all Information Technology (IT) projects in Great Britain can be considered truly successful, and failed projects lead to billions of pounds being wasted on IT systems, according to research from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society (BCS). The report, released last week, said Great Britain is failing to produce software engineers and managers with the project management skills to execute complex projects. Despite many examples of good practice, there is still a lack of professionalism in software engineering that could be dangerous in safety-critical systems, the report warned. The report recommended that all senior IT practitioners designing and delivering high-consequence systems should be either chartered IT professionals, a new qualification launched by BCS, or chartered engineers. It is time for the IT industry to recognize the engineering content of their work and to embrace the discipline and professionalism associated with traditional branches of engineering," said John McDermid, professor of software engineering at the University of York and a member of the working group.