This timely white paper moves beyond Web services pilot projects and discusses trailblazer challenges met in live production environments. Success is not always achieved in a straight line and, for early adopters, opportunities abound to learn from early challenges. This paper offers solid advice for designing and implementing Web service technology.

While Web services have been heralded as a revolutionizing force for B2B integration, it has also been steeped in hype. This first of two articles separates the myth from reality by explaining this new technology, and its related technologies like XML, SOAP, WSDI, and UDDI, revealing both its business potential and its current shortcomings.

Building on Part I, Part II discusses the impact of Web services on sales and profits, and shows how you can leverage a Web services infrastructure to meet your corporate goals. The paper concludes by offering a practical plan for implementing Web services in your organization.

The process of creating business software has long been frustrated by the communications gap between business end users and the software developers who create their critical applications. This paper discusses the use of Feature-Driven Development as a way of bridging the divide, and bringing your IT projects in on time and within budget.