Acknowledgments

Like a software project or a Hollywood movie, a book is a collaborative venture and depends on the talents of many performers. So it is with this book.

My biggest debt is to my coauthors Dmitri Riz and Deon Schaffer, and contributor Chris Wildgoose. Their hard work and sacrifice made this project possible, and their comments made each chapter better than it was before. Our reviewers Christa Carpentiere and James Edelman gave us tremendous insights and perspectives that were lost to our jaded eyes and made the content much more accurate and accessible.

I would like to thank all the talented team at Information Strategies for their contributions to the effort, including Tim McCaffrey, Jimmy Kuo, Gerald Ellison, Steven Nossal, Robyne Kenton, Mike Chiaramonte, Lauren Adler, Erin Rothman, and Kristina Harrison. Tim has kept the ship on course regardless of my multitasking, and Mike came through in the eleventh hour with significant and thankless technical chores essential to finishing the manuscript.

We had tremendous support from Microsoft both in Redmond and in the Washington, DC, field office. Special thanks are due to Ken Brown, Kathleen Burns, Teresa Carlson, Jim Ferguson, Jason Katz, Carol Kerins, Amy Marchibroda, Margie Reynolds, Chris Roberts, Lisa Ruff, Darryl Schaffer, Candace Sokulski, Nelson Taggart, Jamie Tozzi, Christina Treacy, Jim Treacy, and Cliff Ward.

Thanks go to our clients for entrusting us with their projects and data, including David DiEugenio, Rena Lewis, Mike Easley, Tom Thompson, Tony Bingham, Venus Baines, Silvia Edgar, Bob Blake, David Melton, and Rebecca Danvers. There is only one way to learn the most important lessons of delivering software solutions, and that is to do it. These solutions invariably involve difficult projects, tight deadlines, and limited resources. This book contains many of the lessons we have learned through working closely with our clients .

Most of all, I owe thanks to my wife Marcella, for putting up with me working a second shift all these months and for giving encouragement and insight when they were needed most.