One sure sign that Web 2.0 is a genuinely new epoch in the tech industry: the haymaker punch it threw at a repository-centric view of application architectures, effectively knocking it out of the ring. For those who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, I'll give a little bit of history for the young 'uns out there.

Forward into the past
Let's hop in a time machine, go back 10 years, and eavesdrop on conversations in development teams building multi-tier applications. Chances are you'll hear no small number of words about the repository. For example, suppose the project was integrating two middleware applications, such as content management systems and ERP applications. In many development teams, you'd get funny looks if you didn't advocate some merger of the two repositories as the solution to the challenge. Integration at the middle tier sounded, to many ears, like trying to pull a fast one, substituting a hack for "real" integration.

Just in case you're curious, in the editing pipeline right now are the following documents from Yours Truly:

• The technology industry's opportunities in the expanding alternative energy market.
• The ROI of better requirements, including both new PM resources and new PM tools.
• A tool for measuring your agility, at a company level, in responding to market threats and opportunities.
• The long-delayed, but still alive, "future of CRM" piece.

And a whole bunch of other things, including a lot of Agile-related documents, in the works.

Forrester colleague Oliver Young makes a convincing argument about widgets and mash-ups:

In a business context this style of data and content presentation can be tremendously valuable, despite the relative simplicity of the application. Think of this same graphic with sales data versus plan, feature burn down rate, or project milestones over time. This information is available today, of course, however the presentation of that data is not nearly as elegant or accessible. Business intelligence software — which this application most closely resembles — is not yet focused on these simple, business-friendly applications, and thus far no mashup or widget vendors have focused on this type of solution for the enterprise.

Exactly. The framework, such as enterprise portals, for presenting this kind of information has been around for a while. The real obstacle to the "dashboard dream" has been the cost of building the dashboard--either for each user, or, preferably, by each user.

Regardless of the topic du jour--whether or not to adopt Agile, whether or not to revamp product requirements, where the market development opportunities lie, how to use Web 2.0 as a vehicle for marketing--the downturn inspires two distinct reactions in technology companies:

• We live in the best of all possible worlds. We may need to economize a bit, but we don't need to explore any significant changes to how we do business. All we need to do is wait, and not do anything stupid.
• We could improve what we're doing. In fact, even if the downturn hadn't happened, we'd be in the middle of a discussion about how we might [fill in the blank] better.

Of course, there's always a strong argument behind the first position. Aside from Old Man Inertia, the other culprit here is the perceived cost and risk of change. The perception is important--moreso, in some organizations, than the measurable costs, benefits, and risks of change.