economics-software

I have had an opportunity to review the book's manuscript, as it was being written. The book provides a very practical and visionary approach to recover from a Y2K disaster -- what it calls "Fireworks" -- using technology (object, distributed computing), methodology (adding method/sanity to madness, what a disaster tends to be) and sociology (people aspects). Using this vision, an organisation can position itself for the future, while recovering from a circumstance that may put it back in time.

Overall, a must read for IT planners, managers and architects -- confronting what management guru Peter Drucker would have called "Managing in Turbulent Times".

JUST GREAT... Dr PLATTNER IS A VISIONARY AND SUCH FEW ONLY WILL LEAD THE WAY FOR US AS A BUSINESS COMMUNITY. THANKS Dr. PLATTNER.

This book is an invaluable tool for choosing toys for children of all ages. We have found it much easier to make smart selections for our infant as well as gifts for relatives and friends with various aged children. The book itself would make a great baby shower gift. Invest in the book and don't throw money away on toys that won't get used. This book enables you to stretch your toy dollars for purchasing toys that have a lasting appeal.

This book is about the software quality methods and initiatives that have evolved in Europe. It's a collection of presentations that were given at three years of ISCN (International Software Collaborative Network)conferences.

Dr Richard Messnarz, the editor, did an excellent job of ensuring that the material is not only uniformly written, which in itself is no small task considering that there are over 30 contributors from 11 European countries. However, the way this book is organized reflects the real editorial genius. It's divided into three parts covering (1) principles (theory), (2) experience (practical application of the principles), and (3)synthesis and conclusion (what the future holds and how the European approach is different from the U.S. approach).

Chapter 1 is clear roadmap to the book and shows how the subsequent chapters tie together to form an alignment of principles and experience. More importantly, it also shows how technical aspects of the principles link to business issues. This is evident in Part 1 where chapters 2, 5, 6 and 7 address business-enabling topics, while chapters 3 and 4 focus in the underlying processes and methods to achieve them. My favorite chapters from this part of the book were 6-Process and Product Measurement, and 7-Costs and Benefits of Software Process Improvement. In particular, chapter 6 had clearly written guidance on project controls that is a pet interest.

Part 2 is devoted to the experience part that ties to the principles. The ten chapters cover thoroughly how the principles were employed at a variety of European companies. I like the cross-section that the editor includes, which covers big and small companies. This selection of case studies shows that size of the company does not matter as much as commitment to perform, which is the bottom line in any endeavor. This is where theory meets practice, and the case studies clearly show that the two can be aligned.

Part 3 is a single chapter that outlines the differences between the U.S. and European approaches to software quality and processes. It is interesting reading because the challenges are cultural and also hampered by national pride. However, from my perspective, which includes international consulting, the biggest cultural differences are company cultures and not national ones. Still, lessons can be learned from this chapter because you will see the same symptoms when comparing two different companies in, say, Los Angeles, as you will when comparing national cultures.

Overall: every one of the chapters is well written and thought provoking. The processes and methods, drawn from a large number of European initiatives, are true best practices. The case studies are not only illuminating from the perspective of someone who wants to implement mature processes, but they are also inspirational in that they show that it can be done in companies big and small. The biggest value, though, is the masterful way the editor has organized this book. The way principle is linked to experience, experience of large companies compared to that of smaller ones, and the array of approaches and methodologies presented make this book easy to use as a reference. I strongly recommend it and give it 5 stars.

I found this book to be very practically oriented and extremely helpful for me to understand new trends in budgeting, but most of all to help me plan for the purchase and implementation of a new budgeting software in our corporation. It helped us find qualified vendors, and the attached RFP (which also was downloadable as a Word file from the publisher's Web-site) literally saved us thousands of dollars by eliminating the need to write an RFP from scratch. I also found the various report examples, contract examples and the sample project plan very useful. Overall, this was the only book I have found on modern budgeting and budgeting software, and I was pleasantly surprised how helpful it has been to us.

I have read all of Robert Wysocki's books and this is by far his best. He's written a book that every Project Manager--rookie or seasoned pro--needs to read in order to improve his projects' success rates. As a PM with over 15 years of experience, I've had my share of projects derail or blow up and in many cases, poor alignment of the project team to the project was a significant cause. This book shows how to assemble the ideal team based on thinking styles and personality types for any given project. The chapters that covered problem solving and conflict management were especially insightful.

Techies will enjoy learning from real world examples of business intelligence technologies. Business leaders will appreciate how complex technical and business topics are tackled from various perspectives - what is BI, how BI will help your organization, and the most helpful chapter, how to actually identify, start and implement a BI solution.

Only wish the authors had spent a little more time identifying pitfalls, but that is why you hire experts to help you out.

This is one of the best business books I've ever read. Using a quasi-interview format, the author explores the concept of 'vision' with a variety of highly successful CEO's. The guy is a great interviewer. He asks intelligent questions and lets people talk. Then he asks insightful questions and gets them to think. It's fascinating to hear what people in their positions think about and how they think as well. The author gives enough background information and commentary to show how their thoughts have shaped and been shaped by their business experiences. It's interesting, instructive, and a suprisingly good read. I'm sending a copy to my son who is just starting out in his career and recommending it to my book club.

This book was fun to read and was filled with good suggestions and ideas for using software I already had to do just about everything I need to do in my office. I had no idea that I could create my own business cards in Word, or all the stuff I can do with PowerPoint to make presentations. The chapters on marketing were great, and I also really enjoyed the first couple of chapters on buying computers and software - I learned a lot. I recommend this book to anyone with an office, and to both large and small businesses. There are great tips for saving time and money, and everyone needs to do that these days! I'll definitely buy any book that Laurie Ulrich writes, certainly anything on business and software topics, she really knows her stuff.

From the table of contents this book has a decided statistical bent but it does this to cover important issues of validation and reliability of models. The sections on discrete and systems dynamics modelling are both thorough and informative. I wondered if the computer programs were afterthoughts rather than necessary but it hardly matters given the book's value when it talks about the concepts and the practical considerations.