economics-software

Having worked on hundreds of software contracts - from both a vendor and customer standpoint, I can honestly say this book would have made my life 100x easier throughout the years. I can not stress enough how valuable the content is in this book for anyone signing, or composing, a software contract. I guarantee this book will become "the industry standard" on the subject.

Howard Baetjer, Jr., takes the reader through a highly informative and thought-provoking lesson in the economics of software engineering. Building on the solid theoretical work of the economists of the Austrian school, he identifies (through solid and thorough industry research) a number of problem areas in the existing marketplace for software, and offers viable solutions to each.

One need be neither an economist nor a software designer to gain usable knowledge from this book; its principles are applicable to any field. Baetjer does a superb job of fully explaining the underlying theories upon which he builds his thesis, using examples from other industries which make the more abstruse subject matter much easier to understand.

Regardless of your field, you will benefit from reading this well-written book.

The SF language section is very detailed and sometimes tedious, but this information is important because it contains all the tools needed to model and specify every aspect of business software projects. SF is useful for supplying a common group engineering langauage that can be understood without interpretation problems. Also, it proves very useful for group projects in areas such as system integration.

This is not a book about project management per se, but a book about how to integrate project management processes into a large software development organization using analysis based on system dynamics.

If you are not familiar with system dynamics, it's a methodology for studying and managing complex feedback systems using time graphs and causal loops, and more formal analytical methods such as simulation and exploring alternatives in a structured manner.

This book uses those techniques to align project management processes to software development. The best way to determine if this book is right for you is to answer the following questions:

- Is your core business software development?
- Is your organization at approximately the same level as that described by SEI's CMM for level 3 or above?
- Is there a commitment to implement an integrated process that is driven by the executive or board level and does this commitment have a strong sponsor?

If the answer to at least two of the above questions is yes, then this book will be valuable. Also note that some knowledge of system dynamics is assumed. If you need to become familiar with this discipline I recommend "Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World" by John D. Sterman. This book addresses system dynamics from public policy and strategy points of view, but will provide a thorough understanding of the subject.

Those who will benefit most from this book are organizations that have found existing PM methodologies to not fully meet objectives. For example, the U.S. standard based on the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is too generic for software development, and the U.K. standard called PRINCE2 is not as well suited for product-line and software vendor approaches to development. While the PMBOK and PRINCE2 contain processes and procedures that can be used, the system dynamics approach defined in this book gives a method for selecting, evaluating and integrating the processes and procedures borrowed from these two standards. Moreover, since the CMM and related models identify key process areas for project management, they do not prescribe how they are to be implemented. This book will provide the tools and techniques for tailoring the techniques to PM process areas.

If your objective is to find a book that describes a complete project management maturity model you will be better served by "Strategic Planning for Project Management Using a Project Management Maturity Model" by Harold Kerzner; if you are looking for an off-the-shelf methodology to use with iterative processes such as the Rational Unified Process I recommend " Software Project Management: A Unified Framework" by Walker Royce. However, if you are seeking to develop and implement a best-in-class, tailored project management methodology that is seamlessly integrated into your software development processes this book will show you how to achieve that goal.

I told you in yesterday's staff meeting to quit writing these books and get back to work. I knew I should have kept Ray around to keep everyone in line. You know that I love you baby. Keep up the good work and let's beat those SAP guys.

I read this book as a part of my Accounting class in my Masters program. The book has a very systematic approach to teach the basic accounting principles. It has very nice real world examples at the beginning of each chapter. The chapters are in a very orderly manner. I did not have an accounting background at all. But the book taught things in a way that everything made sense chapter after chapter. Each chapter conveyed ideas that were basis for the subsequent chapters. The organization of the book is one of the best among the text books I have read. Every chapter has a demonstration problem that covers main concepts in that chapter. In addition to that there are quick check questions within the chapter which helps you to stop and recollect whatever you learnt till different points in a chapter. Reading this book is never tiresome because of this. Also there are problems in each chapter that if worked out properly will provide a very thorough knowledge of key concepts. As a whole, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to start start learning Accounting. There are very minor errors in the answers given to some problems. But the way concepts are presented is very crisp and clear.

This study guide is one of the best on the market that has the questions that you will need to know. This study guide has flash cards to help you remember those real estate words and their meanings.

This is a collection of 20 papers that were developed under the auspices of the U.K.'s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Each paper is a report that is associated with a specific project, and each project shares two attributes: (1) legacy system focus, and (2) business process evolution, change or adaptation within the legacy environment.

If you are dealing (struggling) with adapting legacy systems to realities of changing business processes in your organization one or more of the papers are bound to be applicable. The topics of the twenty papers are:

(1) Business Processes, Legacy Systems and a Flexible Future, (2) Modelling the Co-Evolution of Business Processes and IT Systems, Complexity: Partial Support for BPR?, (3) FLEXX: Designing Software for Change through Evolvable Architectures, (4) RIPPLE: Retaining Integrity in Process Products over their Long-Term Evolution, (5) Understanding Change: Using the Patterns Paradigm in the Context of Business Domain Knowledge, (6) Combining Organizational and Technical Change in Finding Solutions to Legacy Systems, (7) Connecting Business Modelling to Requirements Engineering, (8) Interpretivist Modelling for Information System Definition, (9) Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Impacts and Future Directions, (10) The Implications of Information Technology Infrastructure Capabilities for Business Process Change Success, (11) IT Support for the Very High Value Added Bid Pricing Process, Social Viewpoints on Legacy Systems, (12) Co-Evolution and an Enabling Infrastructure: A Solution to Legacy?, (13) Modelling Legacy Telecommunications: Switching Systems for Interaction Analysis, (14) Reverse Requirements Engineering: The AMBOLS Approach, Reconstruction of Legacy Systems for Evolutionary Change, (15) Handling Legacy IT in Banking by using Object Design Patterns to Separate Business and IT Issues, (16) Legacy System Anti-Patterns and a Pattern-Oriented Migration Response, (17) Assisting Requirements Recovery from Legacy Documents, (18) The Systematic Construction of Information Systems, (19) Its Not Just About Old Software: A Wider View of Legacy Systems, (20) Delivering Business Performance: Opportunities and Challenges for IT.

There is a wealth of knowledge, lessons learned and strategies buried between the covers of this book. Some of the papers are dryly written, but all contain thought-provoking ideas and, in some cases, solutions. This book is suited more for academics, upper technical management and consultants, and to that audience will prove to be a valuable resource.

This book is technology-focused with an emphasis on software-to-business alignment from the perspectives of quality and fit. It's a collection of papers that cover the range of related topics, including systems dynamics, object-oriented business process modeling, exploiting knowledge in adaptive workflow systems and modeling and metrics techniques.

Process improvement strategies are related to software quality and are highlighted in two chapters: (1) ISO 15504, SPICE (Software Process Improvement Capability dEtermination) and FEAST/1 (Feedback, Evolution And Software Technology), which was sponsored by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The material on FEAST/1 has been superseded by FEAST/2, but is still valid. Both SPICE and FEAST/1 chapters provide evaluation frameworks for determining software processes, which in turn is an indicator of how well systems modeling aligns to aspects of business processes.

The chapters which I felt were especially useful dealt with requirements and modeling, including:
- "Information Systems Specifications within the Framework of Client-Led Design"
- "Developing a Business-IT Co-Evolutionary Change Plan"
- "Relating Organizational Symbiotics, Process Modeling, and Stakeholder Viewpoints to Elucidate and Record Requirements"
- "Modeling Organizational Communication: Top Down Analysis & Bottom Up Diagnosis"

These reflect my current professional interests; however, I also gained insights from the chapter on FEAST/1 and "Modeling Information System Requirements for Complex Systems", both of which were thought provoking and addressed subtle issues that I hadn't previously thought of.

This book is not a primary text on business process modeling. It is most useful to experienced process improvement and requirements analysts and modeling professionals. Also not that much of the material needs to be force-fit to approaches such as UML, but does supplement UML and Unified Process methodologies if you keep an open mind and extract the key ideas presented.

This isn't really a book, it's a complete financial planning program that will help you organize and control your finances and take control of your financial life. In this program, Mr. Lemon guides you step-by-step to developing your own financial plan.