XML is not to be confused with Santa Claus...You have to work, not just wait for gifts
Data Diversity
Architectural Choices
Epistemology
- Think about your business direction. Given that today long-existing costs to link processes and systems have been greatly reduced, what benefit can that bring to your business?

Think even harder about your customers' directions. XML was "born for collaboration," and an exclusively inward focus misses major opportunities.

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Create a strategy and supporting strategic intents. Almost without exception, business will need to increase the information "richness" of their customer offerings - whether products or services.

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Create a conceptual plan of your information and process flows. Do so at the "back of an envelope" level (perhaps using a big envelope). Do not get lost in detail.

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Initiate a project - learn through doing and, if it is revenue-generating, earn through learning

-  Emphasize exploitation of data through movement
, because "You are what you eat" [Augustine] as an information consumer. Also, as an information supplier, "you are what you dish out." Whether as information consumer or supplier, IT projects tend to focus more on "data at rest" - i.e., database design and report or screen design, but it is when data is moving that it is creating new value.
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