According to Microsoft's Encarta Dictionary (not my reference of choice, but that's what came up on Google) the word "survey" has two alternate meanings. One is to make a detailed map of an area of land, including its boundaries, area, and elevation, using geometry and trigonometry to measure angles and distances, and the second is to question people in a poll: to do a statistical study of a sample population by asking questions about age, income, opinions, buying preferences, and other aspects of people's lives. InformationWeek Analytics is conducting the latter so we can get an idea of the former -- that is, a lay of the land about how well your applications are meeting requirements.The results of this survey will appear in an upcoming issue of InformationWeek. We're doing this because we know making application development better, faster, and more closely aligned with the business is key, yet getting technical and business decision-makers on the same page about how to address business priorities is difficult in the current era of Web 2.0, mashups, and agile development, which advocates live dialogue over documentation and encourages developers to do the simplest thing possible.

We make it simple for you, too. The survey takes about five minutes to complete. We don't care about age, income, buying preferences, and other aspects of your life, just your opinions about requirements definition and management. Your responses will remain confidential and will only be reported in aggregate.

Upon completion, you'll be eligible to enter a drawing to receive one Apple 16-GB iPod Touch valued at $299 from TechWeb. Don't put it off: You have to enter by end of day this Thursday, Feb. 19.

Here is the Survey Gizmo link.