This is because every client has different needs, and good architects use their skills to create buildings uniquely suited to each client. Most buildings have four walls and a roof, yet they are clearly not the same. By analogy, most systems are built with standard components like databases, Web pages, packaged software and programming languages. But how they are combined to do what they do is unique and proprietary to each individual client. The proprietary designs of one client are not what another one needs. Architects and system builders reuse their skills and techniques; they do not need to reuse proprietary information.

Anyone can buy any collection of hardware and software, so the real value lies in the how skillfully it is used. The more skilled you are with the core techniques, the more agile you become and the more valuable your services are to people who need to get things done. This is why IT folks working on reinventing themselves might consider joining the "Agility Corps," which is what I'm calling the IT-business operations experts who successfully apply combinations of the six core techniques to deliver quick, 80 percent solutions to business problems. I'll talk more about this next month.

Michael H. Hugos is a CIO at large, author and speaker. His books include Essentials of Supply Chain Management and Building the Real-Time Enterprise: An Executive Briefing (both published by John Wiley & Sons). He can be reached at mhugos@yahoo.com.