This is a parking lot for other ideas that may get a home in some of the lower-level sections, or elsewhere in this collaborative book. The current parking lot of ideas includes: Read more »

This article is a placeholder for content to be included in [Transforming knowledge and vision into action] ''The ideas below will be developed much further.'' Focus on areas of emphasis which have high value; explore alternative ways of achieving that focus. Address: *Real-time information on goals and progress *Facilities to enable seamless flow of information on a 'pull' basis. *Enable work distribution regardless of where the talent is Tools can help improve communications & information flow, automate mundane calculations, perform transformations and rule checking on data, and synthesize, track, and manage information and relationships. Tools are particularly useful when they help to avoid errors (example: syntax-directed editing of source code; digital pre-assembly of parts. Both share ability to avoid propogating certain kinds of errors 'down-stream'. Also need to reference article on [It's not the tool, it's how you use it: a new business model for delivery of information systems], or incorporate content in here. Read more »

The hardest problems to solve are those that have never been solved before. If a problem has already been solved, you have a model to follow and improve on. The risks are predictable, and to some degree, controllable. The costs and benefits which lie ahead can be estimated and managed. Experience can be leveraged. When you are dealing with unprecedented problems, you do not have such breadcrumbs. You find yourself pathfinding through unfamiliar terrain, often with a poor understanding of where you are and where you're going. How can you estimate how long something will take or will cost when it's never been done before? How can you schedule innovation? Given such 'unprecedented' challenges, there are a number of realities and challenges that have to be dealt with. While many of these are also issues for precedented projects, their impact is often compounded on unprecedented projects to create a 'perfect storm' of risks that can overwhelm the unprepared. In simple terms, the questions which must be dealt with include:

• How to gather insights about your (poorly defined) mission, and utilize that understanding to establish actionable goals and plans

A popular rule of thumb in project management is that if you don't know where you're going, any path you chose to attain it will suffice.