The Delphic Sybil Michaelangelo Buonarotti

The historian Herodotus gave an account of King Croesus of Lydia (circa 546 BCE), who asked the Oracle at Delphi to consult the gods, look into the future, and determine whether he should invade Persian territory. The Oracle answered that if he crossed a river, then “Croesus will destroy a great empire.” Thinking he would be victorious, Croesus invaded Persia. Unfortunately, it was his own empire that fell and subsequently was destroyed.

Prediction has always been risky. The evolution of thinking about continuous process improvement has been rapid and contentious. In Part IV, the authors don their mystical robes and stare deeply into their scrying crystals in an attempt to predict how CMMI may change in the future.