economics-software

They finally assert what is already know in the trenches, they have finally recognized that the manufacturing metaphor is wrong for software development, so CMM and ISO-9000 were built over the wrong foundation about software. The development process of goods made of atoms can not be applied to goods made of bits; the same principles cannot be sustained, except for entropy.

But they insist talking about analysis, design and programming as sequential activities, they are lost about the nature of software development, that is, a design activity all the way through.

Like most academic people, always behind the times.

I found this book to provide some very practical advice on a very difficult problem--dealing with the myriad versions of COTS products and the problems integrating them while dealing with dead-line driven schedules. Unlike other software engineering books Building Systems from Commercial Components takes a practicioners view and details out specific techniques that can be used in evaluating and integrating COTS products. I highly recommend this book.

I found most of my projects are more or less concerned about system integration since last year, and found some difficulties. Depending on the components from other vendors became a great challenge, for my experience was mostly based on designing/implementing components from scratch. This book provides a new point of view to look at the development process. The authors suggest how designs should be adapted to face the fact that the components we are to assemble are in control of others' hands, and describe several techniques for component-based development. A case study (which is a really big one) are provided for the readers to see how these techniques can be applied. The authors are true software engineers, and their in-depth knowledge and experience are presented now in their precise writing style. Software development is changing its face now. Components are everywhere, and computing is moving on the way to ubiquity. I am sure this book is a good guide for the managers and developers in this trend.

After reading so many of these book reviews and wondering if they were accurate, it's time to contribute, help others and affirm that reviews regarding this book are indeed accurate.
While I resented buying anything that says ..."for dummies" on it and have absolutely avoided doing so in the past, I must say that when I got my hands on this particular dummies book I was pleasantly surprised. While the others are mindlessly verbose for filler, this one is not. The writer sticks to what you really need to get started using this powerful application.
It's was a classic situation: I needed a fast start and had to produce something useful in an unreasonably short timeframe. It worked. I've used this book as the starter and also purchased "a very heavy" book for the advanced work I yet need to do. It's a useful two-pronged approach that works. Thanks to Doug Wolf for some very nice, concise work!

If you want a great Tutorial on how to use Crystal Reports 8.0 or 8.5 this is the book for you. Once you get a good feel for the product and you need to delve into more complex reporting needs and scenarios the product manual would be your next step... or other reference books such as CRYSTAL REPORTS 8.5 - The Complete Reference, published by McGraw Hill/Osborne.

Well this book is just what it professes to be, a book for the people who said "I've got this big program, now what?" It'll get you going on creating your first reports and getting productive on Crystal reports rather nicely and quickly. Especially if you already have reporting tool experience (just as simple as knowing how to use MS Access reporting tool or something else) you'll find it so easy to follow along!

However if you're a power user, such as an Enterprise administrator or developer looking to add Crystal Reports data to your apps this book won't completely satisfy your needs, be prepared to step up to one of the more complete references after you're done with this book. Still though you'll want to start here.

(Just as a side note: the price for Crystal Reports 8.5 the Complete Reference is cheaper here at Amazon.com than anywhere else including shipping).

Follow the principles outlined in this book and you won't go far wrong with your projects. It's a bit lacking in some places with theory butif it's practice you're after, it's great.

The author provides a Ten Step process that certainly sounds workable. I have no doubt that it DOES work. It would have been nice to see more rationale and discussion of why this particular method is "necessary and sufficient" to run a project. He never really talks about why this method is sufficient. Proof by repeated claim doesn't count. It was still pretty good despite that flaw.

This is a great book from a great man. If you manage projects you *have to* read this and keep it on your desk for frequent reference. It is a very enjoyable and thought provoking read.

I very much enjoyed this book, but could only give it four stars because it is a bit out of date regarding some of the instruments of the capital markets. For instance, credit derivatives and total return swaps are used to round out and diversiry bond portfolios especially in structured finance. Tavakoli has written an excellent book on these products: "Credit Derivatives" (Second Edition). These are off balance-sheet products that are a form of financing. Tavakoli also talks about other types of financing which reduce portfolio concentration risk.

For a textbook, this is written in a reader-friendly style. You can almost see the author at the blackboard explaining the concepts AND math in plain English. And yet, very little handwaving at all. On the other hand, this may also present special readability challenges: you may find yourself constantly flipping between text and tables to follow the discussion.

From a pedagogical point-of-view, some of the developments might have been more intuitively presented. For example, the chapter on option-pricing theory should mention the expected-value interpretation. Over all, however, this text does very well on this score.

I particularly liked the survey of empirical studies at the end of each major concept, that discusses the imperfections that other researchers have looked into, and their findings.

This is one of the core reference texts I keep on my desk.

This was one of the texts I had to read for one of my MBA classes. It provides an excellent theoretical background in finance and the theories that link finance to macro and micro economics. It is not very practical however. Not much in the book can be applied. It is a must, however, for any serious student of finance. The coverage of option models is a little light, however. I highly recommend that people have a background in calculus, differential equations, probability theory, and linear algebra before reading this book.

The Software Industry suffers greatly from inexperienced, underdeveloped leadership. Murray Cantor's work is an excellent step in the right direction.

It still suffers from an over reliance on rehashing project management techniques.

This is the perfect read for anyone who is involved in developing software in their career or for anyone looking to improve how their company views the NEW software development paradigm. This is just the beginning to an education journey....

Successful software projects need to be organized and managed opposite to successful companies, because of the need for creativity. This book points out the differences in crystal clarity, with very specific suggestions on what to do at each stage of moving software projects forward. Of particular interest are shortcomings of the other approaches such as waterfall, hands-off, and rapid prototyping. Details on how to use RUP (Rational Unified Process) with UML examples are provided as well.

This is a very good, practical book. I found it very readable, with just an appropriate level of textual detail in most cases. It's the first book I read which tries to tackle the problem of modelling and understanding Enterprise-level system interactions. If anything, Paul sells it a bit short by tying it to "e-Business", since a lot of the ideas and disciplines can apply to less forward-looking Enterprises who are trying to solve traditional integration problems but who may not identify with the e-Business tag.

The early part of the book discusses the principles of component-based development (CBD), and how this can be combined with process modelling to both help improve the business, and to provide a clear model for the systems needed to support it. Importantly, Paul sees the development of both business processes and systems as something which must happen progressively, so neither has to be the subject of "big bang" changes.

The next section of the book discusses the different types of components, and their role in a typical architecture comprised of both new and legacy systems. Paul then introduces his "CBD Process Framework", a way of defining components and then "provisioning" then by the most appropriate combination of new development, purchasing and re-using existing assets.

The core of the book takes a typical business process (car rental) and develops a worked example of the various business, logical and physical models which are required to define the component architecture. The models are each taken through several stages, corresponding to an evolving e-Business process and a system which is growing incrementally. This is much more realistic than presenting the final model "as is", and allows much better understanding of how the model develops. In many ways this is the part of the book which delivers the greatest real value.

The final part of the book discusses different provisioning and funding strategies for CBD, and how an e-Business team should be structured. There's a lot of good stuff here, which may be very useful to someone new to object- and component-based development. However if I'm honest I found this less useful, since there are better specialist books on this subject and it doesn't hold the interest as well as some of the earlier sections.

As an Appendix, Paul presents descriptions of all the major component technologies, and all the major UML-based modelling techniques. This could be a valuable reference for anyone.

I have one slight reservation on the book's core - Paul follows a convention in which an "interface" is a collection of types, and says that "by convention" the interface includes access to all the types. This is a bit different to the Microsoft model, for example, and may make it more difficult to establish good navigation around the object model, or to support "stateless" models. However, this is something to be aware of rather than something which should detract from what is otherwise a very useful tutorial.

I like this book. The worked examples of developing the e-Business model are excellent, so much so that I now recommend this book to anyone trying to model such things using UML.

...

When I got this book I was was amazed by how thin it was - a mere 230 pages. What made me frown even more, was that on first inspection I determined that only 175 pages was main text and the rest was appendices.

After reading the book I realize that it is above properties that help make it the excellent book it is. The appendices contain information about technologies (which could date quickly) and modeling techniques (which possibly don't become obsolete so quickly but could be supplemented as new techniques become available). This makes it a very easy read for people who are already familiar with the modeling techniques or technologies. It effectively removes the need to discuss too much about the diagrams in the text itself.

The main text moves fast, stays relevant and focused thus yielding a very thin (in typical IT terms!) book. It starts immediately by discussing e-commerce, its business relevance and discussing the issues of aligning business and technology.

The book particularly impress me by maintaining its business focus throughout. The development of components is tightly coupled to the business process that is being automated (or newly developed). In this respect it propagates an approach whereby a component-based architecture is incrementally developed. The focus continually stays with providing real value to the client.

Management issues (project management, ROI etc) are also addressed in the later chapters in the book and adds significant value to the text especially if read by potential project managers.

In my opinion the book is a must read for any prospective designer/developer/project manager of e-Business systems.

This book is a well written guide that crams a coherent approach to developing e-business systems into 233 pages.

The theme of this book is component-based development (CBD), which I personally found to be an effective way to design complex systems that can be implemented in a carefully managed manner. The concept of an architecture that is based on "plug-in" components is powerful in the abstract. Like many abstractions CBD could have remained as a theoretical approach had the author not skillfully laid out a map to transforming these abstractions into reality.

The book jumps right into aligning business to IT, making a business case for CBD, and how to plan e-business projects using a CBD approach. It then delves into details that clearly show this isn't another book on theory or unproven ideas.

What sets this book apart from many books on architecture is the fact that support and service delivery are interwoven into the approach, which takes architecture out of the realm of "ivory tower". The author's approach is pragmatic and remains focused on business requirements and delivering systems that have real value to end users. As such, this book provides invaluable advice on how to plan for operations, administration and maintenance of systems after they have been released into production.

While business and production issues receive thorough treatment, this book sticks with its theme by providing a realistic framework in which to design an architecture. It then shows how to use the design as the basis of e-business system development and deployment. This is reinforced by the way the book is laid out to support project stages and phases.

I discovered a lot of great ideas between the covers of this slim book making it, page for page, one of the most valuable books in my library.

Who needs this book? Architects and cheif technical officers, of course, but I think anyone who is assigned to manage development, testing and release of e-business systems should also read it. Project managers who are tasked with managing e-business implementation projects might find the information on managing e-business projects to be the difference between success and failure.

I can still remember when I first opened a Newton MessagePad 130 with backlighting for my 13th birthday. I had heard before I received the 130 that the Newton was notorious for its bad handwriting recognition and its frequent crashes but I decided to give it a shot. After I got aquainted with my MessagePad 130, I began to wonder what all the fuss was about. It worked almost flawlessly. I decided to purchase this book to learn about the development of the product that I adored and loved. I was very impressed with the pictures and was equally impressed with the writing to go along with them. If you want to learn about what it takes to become a computer programmer/engineer, this book is for you. It lets you know about the struggles and the rewards of being part of a team and developing a finished product with a corperate deadline. However, the reason I only gave it four stars is that somebody who had no idea about the Newton wouldn't really know how everything turns out. The book leaves you hanging by letting you know that the Newton DID begin to ship, but thats all. Thats not the authors fault though. As many Newton fans know, Steve Jobs discontinued the Newton because of its lack of sales and basically said it was a drain on the company resources, but thats another story. This book was put together almost flawlessly and deserves more recognition than it has.

Follow the Newton from conception to birth. It's a facinating look at how creativity and business clash and merge to form a unique product for profit. Our post-Newton perspective only serves to make the story more poignant.

On my shelf in its protective case is an original Newton (actually a MessagePad 100, the "retooled" version of the original). It is big, clumsy, slow, chews through its batteries in 20 minutes of use, and crash-prone. It is also a miracle of organization and intelligent function, especially when compared with my trusty Palm (which nevertheless runs circles around Newton in usefulness and functionality).

DEFYING GRAVITY deepened my appreciation of Newton (even down to the little red wire that seems to be escaping from the case ... a manufacturing boo-boo that makes sense in context). Taking the late-1980s visionary doodles of John Sculley, Apple's Pepsi-bred CEO, and "productizing" them under the pressure of internal competition and external expectations, required a deep-thought-driven development effort that ground down the members of Newton's team. One young engineer committed suicide not long before the launch -- though a Newton connection can't be proven, the 18 hour days and constant frustrations could not have helped him.

In this volume, with an unconventional page numbering scheme based on counting down the days until product launch, the reader experiences with the team the pressures that came from failure; from trying to pull together too many new technologies in a first-ever device; from communicating a totally new paradigm and avoiding the inevitable attempts to have that paradigm "pigeon-holed" into more familiar existing concepts.

The photographs are sometimes grainy and stark, just like the late nights spent with troublesome components and misbehaving code.

They drew me in: I celebrated with the team when Newton had its first successful public demo, after misbehaving right up to the demo time. The authors bring the reader right up the threshold of the new era: product launch.

Fortunately, they don't have to deal with the later market failure of Newton: 30,000 original Newtons bulldozed into a California landfill, incremental improvements but no marketed attempt at a smaller form factor, and the abrupt demise of the platform under the "new Apple"'s Steve Jobs just as a fast-enough MessagePad, an incredibly cute and functional eMate, and a critical mass of software development had been achieved.

Just as well -- this book is unconventional, and much more effective than a dry case study in showing just how much work goes into a new product category. I think it works in that regard, and also doubles as an unusual and attractive "coffee-table" book. Mine is staying with my Newton, to keep some history with this curious device when my grandchildren stumble across it in 40 years.

This book provides an excellent overview into project management of multimedia projects. It covers such topics as general project management strategy, scoping a project, contractual issues, selecting the team, team management, agreeing the content, copyright, and marketing, in each case relating the discussion directly to the special issues that arise in multimedia management. The book also provides an introduction to technical topics such as interface design, audio assets, video assets, graphical assets, and testing. The accompanying CD-ROM is well-done, containing useful supplemental material such as interactive forms for various stages of project management that can be used as is or edited.

One of the book's authors obviously has a strong connection to audio production, and the chapter on audio assets gives a very in-depth introduction into what kinds of things an audio engineer is capable of doing and is supposed to do. I have been looking for a general introduction to sound editing, and this is the best that I have been able to find so far, but I didn't expect to find it in a book about general multimedia management. The accompanying CD also contains audio samples for listening and editing practice, as noted in the book. I found these samples also quite useful.

I teach Multimedia Project Management in a Multimedia Design Masters Program at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

For the two years which I gave the course, I have used Managing Multimedia as the main reference.

I was pleased to discover the book. Students also find the book very relevant.

I am a student studying Bachelor of Multimedia and I found this book to be extremely helpful in my course - especially when it came to managing and conducting my student projects at university (with real life clients, external to the uni).

This book teaches you how to effectively elicit the product requirements from your client; it gives information on contractual issues for proposals and development agreements; it advises how to assemble the most effective team for a project and team management principles; it discusses Intellectual Property and Copyright, important issues for this industry; it covers management of the other phases of a multimedia project - design, production, integration and testing... and gives advice so you don't fall in the traps that so many other projects have like requirements creep, blowing the budget, missing the deadline...

You really need to plan your multimedia projects if you want to create quality products (whether is be a web site or CD-ROM) - and this book will help you plan and control your projects.

Project management is -big- money. If you want a book about how to be a professional multimedia project manager, then this book is for you.

This is a book that is more about IDEF0 modeling than Business Process Reengineering (BPR). It is well organized with numerous diagrams and illustrations. IDEF0 conventions, benefits, and history are all well presented, but anyone seeking a "how-to" on BPR will not find much here.

The book provides chapters on the utility of IDEF0, its use by the Department of Defense (DoD) in process improvement, as well as IDEF0 syntax and semantics, their application (called pragmatics), and tips.

The appendices may well be the most useful part of the book. Appendix A describes the types of models and decomposition strategies. The next section provides many interesting sample models. A rather academic and dry treatment of SADT and IDEF0 is in Appendix C. In Appendix D, where SADT data modeling, IDEF0 and IDEF1X are positioned, the author asserts that "some amount of process modeling should be done before data modeling." The final section provides an insightful case study.

The primary concern about the book is its light treatment of BPR concepts. Also, the points made in the "Do's and Don'ts" section might have been better presented in the related sections of the text; the separate chapter seems redundant or confusing at times, making a single topic difficult to review. A detailed treatment of how to use activity based costing in process analysis and redesign would have been most welcome. Finally, the book seems incomplete without a listing of tools that support IDEF0 modeling.

All things considered, this book is recommended with reservations. It is the best-written summary of IDEF0 presently in print.

This book is more than the title said. I bought it to refresh my IDEF0 but I found many great stories behind IDEF development as well as the "growing" example while you learn. Compared to its size, you can finish this book in a day -but pack with lots of information. I found it's quite useful for brush-up my IDEF. For the new user of IDEF, it might be a little bit (just a little) to grasp the whole idea of BPR. Additional book of workflow management, BPR and system analysis are required.

The old saying about not being able to understand something until you can quantify it is generally true, but can be superseded by a more accurate statement. "If you can diagram it, then you can understand it, more particularly you can make someone else understand it as well." While most humans can think numerically, a large percentage have some difficulty with quantitative data. However, nearly all can follow directed diagrams, so they are generally a superior way to describe complex structures. IDEF0 is a set of rules for diagrams that are simple, yet allow for enough complexity so that the most complex of processes can be represented.
This book is an explanation of the IDEF0 syntax and structure and how to apply it to business operations. No previous experience is necessary, the diagrams are largely self-explanatory and what little extra explanation that is needed is provided. As a long-time user and instructor of the Unified Modeling Language, I am familiar with complex diagrams. Yet, I was surprised with how simple and effective the IDEF0 "language" is to use and understand. Using little more than boxes, arrows and labels, very complex structures can be described in a compressed format. The last two chapters describe how to use it and how to avoid making some common mistakes.
Business Process Reengineering is where previous business processes are modified to conform to changes in the environment. In order to be able to do that, you must be able to define what your previous business process was. The IDEF0 will allow you to do that, and I recommend that you read this book if you are currently in the process of altering your business practices.

The text is simplistic. It names the names but doesn't go into depth about the pros and cons of various system features. If you're new to the world of WMS and looking to purchase one from a third-party vendor, this pamphlet provides a convenient checklist of features to ask potential vendors about. If you're already familiar with the terrain, don't waste your money. I purchased the book hoping to find a couple of ideas that would help me improve the WMS in my company. It took me an hour to read, during which time I got one new idea I might use, someday. For that reason only, I'm not going to ask for a refund.

This book assisted us to understand the WMS space in a fast clip. We did -not- understand the WMS software vertical prior to this and by using this book, it helped us to get an experienced consultant's mindset.

Now we can tell the "boys from the men" and the "pretenders from the contenders" based on what functionality the WMS package has or has not! Obal goes into 45 functional areas and labels these as "common differentiators" (differences) and "common deficiences" (missing items). Bravo for a brave person to point out what items to look for, during the search process!!

This publication provided an insightful description of common deficiencies and differentiators within WMS software. The book, coupled with the other components of IDII's standard bundle of tools, proved to be quite the time saver and a great asset to our search for a robust WMS. A sample Request For Information (RFI) is included with "What to look for in a Warehouse Management System Software", however the 300 question automated RFI and Software Directory, which I received directly from IDII, proved to be the combination of tools that has expediated our process to finding a WMS to fit our unique needs.