Flickr Photo: Forty PhotographsYou know the drill. You need a new website gizmo or database doodad. You do your best to define the requirements, the stages you will go through during development, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. But somewhere during actual implementation, everything goes sideways, and nothing goes as planned.

We all know this happens, but no one can ever explain why. Well, now we have a nice graph to support gut feeling. The folks at Flightpath bring us this great post about planning for software projects and raising toddlers.

Having done both, let me just say this: True that, Flightpath. True that.

The announcement of Google to offer Google Premier Apps, a suite of on-demand Google services such as its calendar, email, IM, VOIP, docs and spreadsheets bundled for $50/year. A free version targeted at educational institutions — Google Apps Education Edition — offers the same features as the premier edition except for the storage size. There is also the free Google Apps Standard Edition with less features.

This is not only starting to seriously compete with Microsoft but has the potential to tip the way we all operate. Salesforce.com's success and growing adoption by the nonprofit market is already showing that the on-demand nonprofit working in a hosted environment for critical business functions is here to stay. This true especially for office productivity, communications, and other core functions, such as CRM.

Personal Democracy Forum launched a software review service for premium subscribers (cost is $25). So far, it's only covers on-demand services, with a focus on the political and consulting audience PDF serves. I have just signed up and am snooping around. Usership is small so far -- 200 reviewers are not exactly critical mass yet. But it's a good start and will hopefully grow. We have frank in-depth discussions on our mailing lists about services and vendors, and are inaugurating this quarter the first annual vendor satisfaction surveys for key software categories. I like that customers - nonprofit consumers - are growing more sophisticated and more demanding; and we will do everything in our power to support this trend. What do you think? What do you want to make better software descisions? Leave us a comment or trackback!

I probably need another 23 hours to process the acquisition news today. But I'm never one to reach reasoned conclusions. I prefer the kind to which one jumps. I justify this by calling it "going with my gut." So I may eat my words later, but here goes.

I'm cautiously optimistic about both the Blackbaud/Target and Convio/GetActive mergers.

This just in: Blackbaud announced yesteday that it will acquire Target Software, a Boston-based software company for high-end nonprofit fundraising. A more detailed article on the acquisition is here.

Meanwhile, Get Active announced today that it is bought by Convio. In a letter to its clients and partners, NTEN boad member and Get Active CEO Sheeraz Haji writes:

"GetActive is to be acquired by Convio, Inc. This is a significant milestone for the nonprofit sector, our company, and our product. But most important of all, this is great news for our partners and clients.