This is a very conservative customer, because they're dealing in very expensive projects. But they want change. They just need to be sure it works.

[Even conservative lawmakers who are the staunchest opponents of earmarks -- and who now want to rescind some of those projects to pay for Katrina relief -- don't hesitate to go after the money in normal times.] Uncle Sam takes so much money away from my constituents that I'm happy to try to get some of it back, ... When someone comes to me and asks what I want in the highway bill, I don't mind telling you what projects are important to the 5th District of Texas.

Even though we are affected too, we're much more stable because we don't use polypropylene. Our fibers are made from a renewable resource.

Only about 10 percent of the market that can use our product uses fiber. We're really trying to increase that penetration.

We've been fairly conservative when it comes to height. I don't see that being something that's going to change anytime soon.

Jenny and I have been talking for years about what makes projects fail, and how to change the way we build software so that our projects succeed. When we were working together, we'd spend hours trying to figure out the root causes of our problems. And then, after we moved on to different organizations, we saw the same exact problems over and over again! We talked to a lot of people, and read a lot about project management techniques and practices. We expected to just fix our own problems, but discovered that everyone seems to suffer from the same ones. Something had to be done about this, and that was the inspiration for the book.