Global CIO guest columnist Howard Anderson has chimed in with a classic piece of strategic advice for CIOs on surviving these brutal times via artful negotiation of political minefields. Howard counsels CIOs on how to deal with suits seeking "shared pain," Sacred Cows, Godfathers, and Mahogany Row, and says to consider your pool of projects "one large Dungeons & Dragons game."Called "IT Project Triage (And Why Skippy Must Die)," Howard's column offers a great deal of useful insight in an irreverent style that's become a Howard Anderson trademark during his career as founder and CEO of the Yankee Group consultancy, a venture capital firm, and his current post as MIT professor of entrepreneurship. Here's a sample:

"This isn't about technology; it's about management. And you need some help to plow through this mess and get to a point where you can do the fun part -- which is showering money on really sexy things that will wow Mahogany Row and drive the business forward. But now is not the time.

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Some of these projects are "strategically important" but might not survive the bloodletting -- is there a way you can hide them? Some of these projects have so much management attention that you dare not kill them, but they should mercifully be put out of their misery, either because they're never going to work or the real cost is three times what anyone thought. Other projects made sense at the time but don't now. Want to take that Big Write-off now? Not such a good time, is it?"

We're delighted to have Howard as a contributing member of the Global CIO team, and you can reach him here.