Business Systems Books

"The Party of the First Part" is an erudite, hilarious tour through 21st Century American legalese. Alan Freedman leads us through the ankle-grabbing underbrush of redundancy, dead phrases, faux Latin, and mindless obfuscation into which every reader - and writer - of legal documents eventually must stagger.

Freedman is a sure-footed guide who knows the territory. Time and again, he yanks up a hoary word or phrase and shows us its tangled roots.

Sometimes we find, clutching a root with a deathgrip, an advocate of the so-called "Precision School" of legal drafting. These lawyers and profs fear that awful chaos would result if lawyers quit using ancient Anglo/French/Latin phrases, in favor of words used by 21st Century Americans in everyday life. Chaos? Well gosh, people might have to *sue* if they can't agree what a word or phrase written in 21st Century English means. Uh-huh, thinks I: as if they aren't already suing by the thousands over the meaning of Roman-numeraled legal documents bristling with boilerplate clunkers such as "witnesseth," "hereinabove," "aforementioned," "covenant and agree," and "hereunto."

This book should be required reading for every law student, law professor, judge and lawyer in the United States. It encourages those among us who want to write clearly when drafting legal documents. I hope it will at least give pause for thought to our colleagues who never met a hundred-word clause in the passive voice, that they didn't like.

Mr. Freedman's "The Party of the First Part" is a much more humorous review of Law School. Freedman covers Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Wills, Trusts, Estates and a multitude of other subjects that can even confuse some of the most academically gifted among us. I for one spent Law School in a haze because I felt like I was not getting the big picture. However, when I realized that the `law' does not have a big picture, I felt much more relaxed. Our Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Norman, Old English influenced law, as Mr. Freedman demonstrates, is a series of compromises and half-measures and it has always been that way. `Legalese' can be used as both a sword and a shield. For instance, Wills can be written in a way that makes sense to people, without any mention of the words "rest" "residue" or "remainder." But since these sounds good and lawyerly, it keeps showing up in Wills and Testaments. (Testament also being a redundancy too as Mr. Freedman demonstrates.) Thus, the odds of challenging a plain English Will and winning is much greater then one that packs more and more legalese in. Since legalese protects not only the lawyer and the client, legalese can also be used as a sword. For instance, why hire a lawyer if you could understand the documents that you are reading and signing? I encourage anyone to read this book to get a humorous side to a very dry topic.

A book about legalese? I was skeptical, but this book grabbed me from the start. As a lawyer and an English major, I've always wanted to know where legal language took a wrong turn. As Freedman explains, legalese got to where it is today by taking lots and lots of wrong turns. Like the legal tendency toward redundancy: "will and testament" "fit and proper" "breaking and entering." These phrases developed after the Norman Conquest when lawyers and clients switched back and forth between Anglo-Saxon and French (in each case, one word is Anglo-Saxon and the other is French). Not only is the book informative, but it's also laugh-out-loud funny, especially when Freedman describes the bizarre resistance of lawyers to using "plain English" in place of their cherished legalese.

Poking more than a bit of fun at the "worrying gap" - the distance between the language of the public and that of the legal profession, 'Legal Lingo' columnist Adam Freedman takes a humorous swing at the "Precision School", which holds that the complexity of legal language flows from the need of lawyers to be super precise. A position that challenges the "Plain English" camp, which advocates that ordinary citizens ought to be able to understand the laws they live under and the contracts they sign.

Demonstrating a wit and humor that may be lost on some legal scholars, Freedman traces the origin for the distinction between "libel" and "slander" while providing an ample supply of one-liners for use during your next meeting with legal counsel. If that is not enough, you may be interested in knowing that the Texas Cattlemen's suit of Oprah Winfrey was done under a "Food Disparagement Law" - statutes meant to protect agricultural products; veggies are a group with especially tender feelings, you know. His discussion of "boilerplate" language notwithstanding, I found the book to be riveting reading. From now on, I will "know all men by these presents," boilerplate is contractual and may require one to accept that there is a 'Sanity Clause'.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

The five stars rating is not enough. No need to say more words after all the previous reviews.

An excelent help for managing a business. Very practical, proven in real businesses and related with high level strategy

I rarely get excited about textbooks, but this particular treatment of strategy, balancing leading and lagging indicators with a view of past, present and future, was enlightening. This book should be a "must read" for any mid- or senior- level manager. It shows how to make your decisions more fact-based and less 'art'. With the coming of age of "management of knowledge" this is a great tool to use to improve business processes. Definitely worth every single penny spent - but especially if you are interested in learning tangible methods!

WITHOUT QUESTION this book is the best practical business text I have ever read. Thank you Robert for unequivocally adding value - in a meaningful and tangible way that can be taken to the market and capitalised on. It's books like this that inspire me to invest (what would otherwise be leisure) time in learning & continuing my education.

The book is clear, concise, comprehensive & practical, and helped wrap together many general strategy concepts into an effective action based set of implementation tools. VERY, VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

a high level volume of sophisticated articles on corporate officer level strategic issues.

Strategic planning was once the sole responsibility of senior management. In today's business climate of shortened product cycles, ruthless price competition and global access to markets, the burden has spread to include middle managers. This new Portable MBA volume is the eighth in the series. It offers insights from 16 leading business school professors at Harvard, Boston University, Maryland, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Michigan, Stanford, Wharton and the Cranfield School of Management in England and five prominent consultants. Each contributor is not only an expert, but experienced putting into practice the principles and methodologies discussed in the chapter.

Whether tackling business, corporate or global strategy issues or analyzing industrial, technological, organizational and political factors, The Portable MBA in Strategy defines the planner's current vocabulary. It also offers practical solutions to implement plans in any business environment.

The book reduces a successful strategy to its four component parts -- the marketplace for the strategy; the inputs required for a successful plan, the opportunities for corporate transformation and the steps required to transfigure the plan into reality. Each chapter starts with an engaging case study to illustrate its theme. The result is a practical, readable, and comprehensive look at business strategy; appropriate whether the reader is the owner of small business or the manager of a vast global enterprise.

The title is misleading. The careful reader will develop a more thorough grounding in business strategy than any MBA course can provide. Especially useful for non-MBAs who want to understand the concepts that get tossed around during strategic planning.

Strategy and tactics are essential to all entrepreneurs wanting to not only be successful, but to win! Playing to win is a mindset as pointed out in the April 2004 Harvard Business Review - "Hardball: Five Killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competition." In "The Portable MBA Guide to Strategy" you will learn to formulate and execute effective marketplace strategies that enable you to transform your ideas into marketplace reality.

Divided into four parts, numerous experts expound upon what is strategy and how to use it to win in business:

Part One - Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace
Part Two - Strategy Inputs: Analyzing the External and Internal Environments
Part Three - Strategy Making: Identifying and Evaluating Strategic Alternatives
Part Four - Managing Strategic Change: Linking Strategy and Action

If you went to business school, this will be a great refresher. If not, this book will cover all the bases and create a solid strategic foundation applicable to the real world.

It's hard for me to say where to start; The Portable MBA is a cornucopia of indispensable knowledge. Chapter 5, Strategy for the Small Business seems like a logical place to start. And, if you're looking for funding, pay close attention to Box 5.4 on p. 124 for key questions to ask yourself. Chapter 6 on Digital Strategy is also compelling in its own right. While much of the book applies to larger entities, it is wise to study the material for two reasons; 1) It will help you learn how to build your company and 2) Studying larger competitors is tantamount to military generals learning the ways of their adversaries.

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Michael Davis - Editor, Byvation

I am an executive in a business planning and strategy function. I have read many books on the subject of Innovation. This book was unique to me with the focus on strategy innovation and the well defined methodology described to work through the process. Believe me, it caused several nights of insomnia as I couldn't help thinking about ways I could use this information on different problems I was trying to solve. In addition, I found the authors highly responsive as I followed up with them to explore potential opportunities to collaborate. These guys know their stuff! I have recommended this book to others in my company who were looking to develop new product strategies. I think this is a must read for people who are serious about customer and market focused strategy execution.

One of the challenges I have faced with much of the innovation literature is that it is written exclusively from the historical "case study" perspective. Hindsight is easy, foresight is difficult, and finding effective generalizations applicable beyond the narrow retrospective of an author's case studies is nearly impossible.

Johnston and Bate have succeeded in achieving this nearly impossible task. These authors take a different perspective (from other innovation authors) and offer a framework for Strategy Innovation - which not to be confused with Strategic Planning. Strategic Planning focuses on building value in current markets through an analytical analysis of the current business conditions and models. Strategy Innovation, by contrast, is defined as creating new value through a creative - insights-driven - iterative approach, where companies leap ahead to define where they want to be and then "work backwards" in order to achieve the future goal.

The strengths of this book are three-fold.
1. The book is more than a retrospective case study - it is about developing the process of how to go about incorporating innovation.
2. The Strategy Innovation process described by the authors can be implemented without first requiring radical disruption of the organization or its processes - thus reducing the initial cost and organizational resistance to implementation. For example, Strategic Planning remains - but it should be guided by the Strategic Innovation process.
3. The book is well-written and well-edited.

For those of us who are familiar with the more traditional approach to strategic planning, beginning with vision, mission, goals & objectives, strategies and tactics, this book presents a novel approach to strategy. What I particularly liked is how Johnston and Bate use creativity and innovation as a key element in their process to increase the chance of getting breakthrough results rather than incremental improvements.

While more "out of the box" techniques are used, it by no means lacks structure in the process. At the end of each planning phase, process tips provide a summary of the key points. The book also includes a number of case studies that grounds the process to real industry examples.

If you are interested in understanding how making the future clear will make the present even clearer, read this book.

The last time I checked, Amazon and Borders offer 53,515 books which discuss strategy; 12,520 on innovation and 1,036 on strategy innovation. Is there anything new to add? Perhaps the more appropriate question is: Given the needs and interests of my organization, which approach to strategy innovation makes the most sense? In their Introduction, Johnston and Bate observe, "What we describe in this book is a phase-by-phase approach to the process of strategy innovation, not step-by-step. We provide the blueprint and encourage you [their reader] to customize it for the specific needs of your company and your industry." That is a promise on which they deliver. In fact, they provide invaluable advice on how to "customize" the phase-by-phase approach they describe.

They carefully organize their material within three Parts. In Chapters 1-4, they outline what strategy innovation is, what it is not, and suggest how to integrate it effectively. In Chapters 5-10, they offer specific guidance for implementing a strategy innovation initiative which they call the "Discovery Process." It has five phases: Staging, Aligning, Exploring, Creating, and Mapping. I hasten to add that, with appropriate modifications, this process can be use by any organization, regardless of size or nature. Then in Chapters 11 and 12, they offer a rigorous and probing analysis of the Discovery Process within a real-world setting. Of special interest to me is their use of FAQ in Chapter 11 and their outline of "key considerations" in the final chapter. In the Epilogue, Johnston and Bate share their thoughts about the future of strategy innovation. I also appreciate their clever use of a series of "Process Tips" (accompanied by brief comments) which should be highlighted (or otherwise noted) to facilitate a periodic review of the book's key points. Here are three examples:

"Strategy Innovation is best achieved by leaping ahead and working backward." (page 34)

"A strategic frontier is that unexplored area of potential growth that lies between today's business and tomorrow's opportunities." (page 113)

"It is easier to build feasibility into an innovative idea than to build innovation into a feasible idea." (page 203)

The material is sound, well-organized, and skillfully presented. I think those who read this book will my high regard for it while realizing, as Johnston and Bate correctly point out, "Strategy innovation is not a typical, quantitative goal, so it should not be communicated to employees in a rational, quantitative way. Strategy innovation is a bold leap into a new future. It is a rallying cry for growth, a clarion call to lead others into the future, to achieve new levels of performance and success." Quite true.

But if strategy innovation initiatives lack passion, if they fail to excite the heart and stimulate the mind, and if they are incremental and cautious, they are certain to fail.

This is an excellent book on powerbuilder programming targeted mainly at intermediate and advanced level programmers and provides step by step code not found in other powerbuilder books. This book does not waste too much of time on theories ,but wherever possible provides useful hints.Till date, there is no powerbuilder book in the market that provides plenty of code,and this book does fill that void.Only minus point is lack of PFC coverage.I really wonder why waite group is yet to release their next version(ie PB 6 how to) and I am eagerly awaiting its release.

This is a fantastic book which Provides a lot of code not found in other PB books that too in an excellent step by step HOW TO format.It mainly targets the intermediate to the advanced level Programmer although beginners can also benefit from it and advance quickly.Lack of PFC coverage is the only minus aspect about this book.It wastes very little time on theories as is the case with most other PB books.Topics covered include OLE, API calls etc. I am eagerly waiting for their next release.(ie PB6 how to)

This is a book which provides a lot of code in an excellent HOW TO format.It does not waste much time on theories as is the case with most other Powerbuilder books.Instead it teaches through practical examples and Provides step by step code. from beginner to advanced level.Lack of PFC coverage is the only minus aspect.I am eagerly waiting for their next release.(ie PB6.0 how to)

This is one Powerbuilder booK Which Teaches you how to write code from beginner to advanced level in an Excellent step by step HOW TO format.It does'nt waste time on theories as is the case with most PB books.The only Minus point about this book is that it doesn't cover PFC.I am eagerly waiting for PB 6 HOW TO to be released. I hope PFC 6.0 would be covered in that Edition. I hope the authors take notice of this.I strongly recommend this book For people who are not too comfortable with coding in Power builder but yet familiar with the concepts.

Profit for Life shatters the old paradigm that success in business means sucking the life from people and natural resources by viewing both as dispensable commodities. By showing us how success in business--including big business--goes hand-in-hand with respect for human and natural communities, Bragdon frees us from the wrenching misconception that profit and citizenship represent a kind of zero-sum game.

Bragdon unites head and heart in one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. Profit for Life offers hope with a firm footing. I recommend Profit for Life to anyone with an interest in business management, strategic investment, or corporate citizenship.

Daniel D. Dutcher, J.D., Ph.D.
Project Director
The Clean Energy Group
Montpelier, Vermont

Book Review for Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels
by Ann McGee-Cooper

How do you measure the value of servant leadership in business? How can we know it works? These have been two of the most frequently asked questions in our consulting practice over the past 30 years.

In Profit for Life, Jay Bragdon provides us with some compelling answers. He does this by setting aside much of the linear cause-and-effect thinking that drives business these days, and adopts a more rounded, holistic approach that gives us deeper insight into the firm.

The book is based on the experiences of 60 companies - Bragdon's "learning lab" - that broadly represent the industry/sector diversity of the world economy. Throughout the text he describes 16 of these pioneering companies, called the Focus Group. The distinguishing feature of all these firms is their effort to mimic living systems - in the ways they organize, manage and add value. This mental model is radically different from the traditional one that views the firm as a money making machine.

Although it may seem counter intuitive, the living system approach yields vastly superior results than the traditional one. For example, the average equity return of learning lab companies was nearly double the S&P 500 over the past decade; and their excess performance continues as this review is written. Bragdon expects such premium returns will diminish over time as the more effective methods of the living system model become copied and enter the mainstream. Nevertheless, these results are a strong affirmation of the milieu in which servant leadership normally operates.

Servant leadership, to Bragdon, is all about relationships. He says "relational equity" is the foundation on which companies build financial equity. When companies care about people and the things people care about, Employees become inspired and their inspiration cascades into everything they do, including their relationships with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders.

The raison d'etre of these servant-led firms is value creation - value that permeates all relationships. Companies that excel at such value creation pursue a strategy Bragdon calls "living asset stewardship" (LAS). The fundamental premise of LAS is: Profit arises from life, and must therefore serve life if it is to be sustainable.

To understand the strategic value of living asset stewardship, Bragdon makes a critical distinction between living assets (people and Nature) and non-living capital assets (buildings, equipment and financial reserves). We see this in three contexts. First, people are closely bonded to Nature - genetically, physically and spiritually - in ways that capital assets are not. Second, living assets are the source of non-living capital assets. And third, because living assets are inherently creative and emergent, their value grows over time rather than depreciating as capital assets do.

The operating leverage in the learning lab and the 16 Focus Group companies resides in the human heart rather than in mechanistic financial gearing. This is supported by the fact that they generate consistently higher returns on equity while carrying substantially lower debt ratios.

Although traditionally managed companies have been adopting some stewardship practices in the past decade, Bragdon finds their approach differs fundamentally from those in his study. In the mechanistic view of these firms, stewardship is an add-on that is subservient to their drive for profit. By contrast, in companies that have adopted the living system model, LAS is deeply woven into the value creation process - reflecting the fact that they see themselves as "living" and therefore integral to, rather than separate from, Nature and society.

Profit for Life builds on the brilliant work of Arie deGeus, former coordinator of Group Planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, and Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. DeGeus' classic, The Living Company, noted that long-lived companies had a collective consciousness, were sensitive to their environments, tried to work in harmony with the world around them, and strove to leave a legacy to future generations. Wilson tells us this collective consciousness is an expression of humanity's deep affinity for life, which he calls "biophilia," and that our biophilic instincts have evolved over thousands of generations of natural selection.

In my work as a teacher of servant leadership, I would highlight the paradigm shift Bragdon describes. The mission of leaders in LAS organizations is to serve and grow their people because that is the source of the firm's liveliness and capacity for growth. As Robert K. Greenleaf said: "The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger and more autonomous." That seminal quote is used twice in the book to describe the power and generative capacity of LAS.

I highly recommend this book and will be using it regularly in our practice.

Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D., Business Consultant & Executive coach
in the field of Servant Leadership & growing Learning Organization.
Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc.

I intend to recommend Profit for Life to all my current MBA students. Next fall I am team teaching an MBA core course that combines Operations Management and Managerial Accounting. I intend to make the case that your book should be required reading and part of the course.

I became familiar with the work of W. Edwards Deming in 1990 and attended one of his four day seminars a year later. I also began to follow Peter Senge's work and later read Margaret Wheatley's book, Leadership and the New Science. Tom Johnson's book, Profit Beyond Measure, has been required reading in my Advanced Managerial Accounting elective at the MBA level.

Bragdon's book has brought the ideas, theories, and concepts discussed by these individuals together for me in a way that I could not have imagined. More importantly, he has not only taken their ideas to the next level, but done it in a way that provides a tangible blue print for how to change our current style of command and control management with its focus on profit maximization to a LAS Theory of Management.

The use of the sixteen focus companies from the LAMP INDEX and the author's ability ability to clearly show the distinctions in their style of management from the traditional management models that continue to be taught in almost all business schools, and the success these companies have achieved not just financially, gives those of us hoping to change management education and core business curriculums a new hope.

Thank you for such an outstanding book.

Joseph F. Castellano
Professor, Department of Accounting
University of Dayton Business School

This is not one of those lightweight business books that repeats its Chapter 1 message over and over. It's chock full of research-based information that anyone involved in the sustainability movement should have. The publisher is Peter Senge's non-profit, so if you're familiar with his excellent work over the years, this would make a great addition to your library. The author's passion for his subject is obvious from page one.

Very celar and concise. This was of great value in my efforts to articulate the value of Business Intelligence within our organization.

It's about time we saw a book devoted to how business intelligence will drive organizational profit. It's clear that the authors have been in the trenches and have faced having to support the sometimes very expensive BI initiatives with real business value. Most BI projects now require cost justification and this book should provide the readers with the basics (and more) to develop a cost benefit analysis.

Steve and Nancy Williams have provided a clear and concise understanding of Business Intelligence (BI) and its ongoing business value. Their book reflects deep experience, first hand observations and a practitioners approach to achieving business results and large returns to BI technology investments.

The book follows a practical approach and is organized in building blocks to enable an increased maturing view of this key competitive advantage.

Part 1 "Identifying and Leveraging BI-Driven Profit Opportunities" consists of chapters 1-3, provides introductory terms, the business case for BI, and key barriers, risks designed for a broad audience.

Part 2 "Creating the BI Asset" consists of chapters 4-6, introduces their BI Pathway Method that aligns strategy, drivers, and objectives with detailed information requirements and IT architecture. It outlines a BI maturity model addressing culture change considerations, and bridges the gap between IT and business vocabulary, often two different worlds. Finally, a prototypical technical infrastructure provides context, definition and positioning to IT assets, tools, applications and information for the business decision maker.

Part 3 "Leveraging BI for Profit Improvement" consists of chapter 7-9, describes more deeply how companies have used BI in different ways to drive profits; discusses common mistakes or pitfalls to avoid, and looks at the future of BI.

As a functionally oriented executive and business adviser, I appreciated each chapter provides key points to remember, questions to ask about your BI needs, and quizzes to test learning and comprehension.

This book is a welcome addition to the executive's library who understands the value of leveraging information for competitive advantage and value creation.

Steve and Nancy Williams have made a significant contribution to the Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence literature with this comprehensive and well organized argument for looking at Business Intelligence as an investment in building sustainable organizational value in either a for-profit or non-profit environment. The book provides a clear understanding of the need for Business Intelligence along with the challenges that have plagued many efforts in the past. In it they put forth a number of ideas to address these challenges while outlining a "value management" oriented methodology for overcoming them. In the process they point out that many of the TDWI Best Practices are completely consistent with the value oriented approach.

The husband-wife team skillfully make the case that a successful Business Intelligence program needs to focus on building measurable and sustainable business value through coordinated change in workflow (business process), information flow (dashboards, scorecards, "reports", etc.), and decision structure. And that a Business Intelligence Program needs to be considered and managed as a "portfolio" consisting of multiple individual Business Intelligence projects, each characterized by both benefit and risk.

They argue that for a BI (Business Intelligence) project to add value it needs to enhance the organization's ability to deliver greater value to its customers. Each BI project delivers some benefit, and always at some risk. Both the benefit and the risk need to be measured and managed. The existence of multiple projects gives rise to the need to manage a "portfolio" of BI projects with varying degrees of risk and reward.

They point out that BI delivers information and that information is only beneficial if the information is useful to decision-makers. That is, it reduces the uncertainty surrounding a decision. Since the only thing information can do is alter a decision, one's need for information becomes a function of the decision and the business process to which it belongs. Thus new information often presents an opportunity to make a decision more efficiently bringing about a change in the way a decision is made (the decision structure). Furthermore, data used as input to one business process often originates in another. Hence, the need to consider possible changes in more than one business process in order to achieve the expected benefit from improved decision-making capability. Many of the challenges that have led to undesirable results in the past can be traced to the inability of the organization to deal effectively with this inter-related and often required simultaneous change in decision structure and work process. This inability is most likely attributable to focusing on specific technical objectives rather than the more encompassing value-building objectives of the investment. A value-focused approach helps anticipate this impact and resolve possible conflict.

This is one book that should be within easy reach of every BI professional, team-lead, business analyst, supervisor, manager, and CIO interested in building a value oriented organization.

"Project Management for Modern Information Systems" is the text book I would recommend to new students of Project Management. It incorporates the latest techniques, terminology, and interfaces to related technologies. Well written and easy to read. Subject matter is well organized.

The author presents IT project management in an easy to understand, applied manner. A must for IT managers from large or small enterprises. Get this book. It's a must read.

"Project Management for Modern Information Systems" offers a thorough examination of Project Management for project mangement professionals emphasizing information systems, but definitely not limited to or constrained by IS. Development of each topic includes technical, business, and strategic perspectives, building clear imperatives for "best practice". Each chapter is well developed and easy to read with excellent examples throughout.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Brandon and hearing him speak multiple times on the subject of project management, and I feel confident in saying that you ll have a hard time finding anyone with the depth and breadth of experience Dan possesses. Furthermore, through his academic and industry experience, he has learned to write about project management principles in a manner that is both rigorous yet easy to understand.

This book was very helpful in my introduction to Access, as well as in my review of other Microsoft programs. The tutorials are easy to follow, unlike those in other books I had tried. I recommend this book to anyone trying to learn or brush up on Microsoft programs.

This book is a great reference for the entire MS Office 2000 applications. I needed to learn Access in a hurry and found the section to be precise and informative and to be just what I needed. The tutorial was very good and after completing the exercise, one comes away with a confidence of knowing that they do, indeed, "know" how to set up and run a database.

The book covers Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Outlook. I also needed some clarification in Excel and Word and also found those sections to be just as helpful and informative.

This is a great "quick" book and it does not cover everything. If someone is seeking more detailed information, then they really need to consult another book, which would provide more detailed information. But for the true basics, this book is great!

I am very happy that I invested my money in this book because my students have been using Microsoft Office 2000 and have learned so much because it helps you through the whole learning process step...by...step. It is ideal for classroom instructor led training and for at home self-pace study. Plus the new low price is great.

For those who need to learn Microsoft Office 2000 now, this is the best book to get. The lessons are very easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions in plain English and charts to illustrate examples. You won't be dissapointed at all with this study book!

Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes did it again! After writing their first and great guide to learning and deploying Business Scorecard Manager, these two brilliant consultants wrote the great guides to PerformancePoint Server (one for Planning and one for Monitoring and Analytics).

These books are easy to read and make the technology very approachable. Additionally, the authors collaborated very closely with the development team so you know that the content you get is true to its original intent!

Couple this with the authors first hand's experience with the product and long time expertise in this space and you get two books, which are MUST reads for anyone who wants to get started with PerformancePoint Server and with Microsoft Business Intelligence.

I have been involved in architecting and designing Microsoft based business intelligence solutions for the past 8 years. I was very excited when PerformancePoint was launched because it filled a very real need in the Microsoft BI platform. It is always a challenge to find training material when a new product is launched so Adrian and Nick's books have been released at just the right time.
I enjoyed both books(The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides),The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)) for the following reasons:
They are clear and simple to understand
They highlight the most important techinical and functional considerations without being too high level
They are practical and not theoretical even though the first few chapters set the scene
You don't need to be a subject matter expert to understand them
They are short so you can read them very quickly

They are great books that will allow you to get up to speed very quickly on PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics as well as Planning.

Excellent. Every bit as good as the co-authors' companion book, "The Rational Guide to... M&A w/ PPS. This learning guide's effectiveness is especially noteworthy in light of the completely new Performance Management (PM) sophistication that the PPS Planning Module unleashes on Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) developers of all experience levels and, of course, the essential clarity with which this guide introduces it. Although future books will, we hope, delve deeper into specific topics (especially Integration and Business Rules), this one sets a high standard with succinct, authoritative explanations and thoughtful skill-building exercises in every major functional area. As a side-note, this book showcases to experienced performance management technologists just how much sophistication and value Microsoft has introduced into the performance management product marketplace.

PART I - INTRODUCTION: The authors begin by introducing the roles that planning and budgeting processes have been intended to play in the business environment, describing how traditional business processes and technologies have inherently limited their real-world effectiveness in terms of the tasks effecting employee workflow, data accuracy, security, and ease of use, and then explaining how each of those tasks is optimized as planning and budgeting roles integrate into a business intelligence information framework. Armed with this high level perspective, readers are mostly prepared to learn how to actually accomplish this, albeit in ways unexpected by most traditional MS BI developers. Specifically, we will now be building automatically recurring write-back mechanisms so that planning, forecasting and budgetting workflows will write-back data to data marts and, by extension, cubes. We will also be incorporating more types of data sources, not as an unfortunate alternative to good ETL, but on a planned, best-case basis as performance management work-flows require. Lastly, we will be highly leveraging Analysis Services' unary operators and account dimensions.

Before jumping into the "how to do it" section, I caution readers, and especially experienced MS Analysis Services 2005 OLAP developers, that, in light of the new PM requirements just described, PPS Planning will have you building both relational and OLAP objects in ways that are ...let's just say "unique". You might not have done it exactly this way for a traditional UDM MOLAP cube. Although your careful exploration of these unique SQL Server objects is encouraged, I suggest that you delay at least some of it until after you well-understand what PPS Planning is accomplishing. Fortunately, PPS Planning automates the vast majority of those nuances, such that readers, whether developers or power-user analysts, can quickly get productive.

PART II - INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION: In addition installation, this section introduces readers to the Planning Administration Console (PAC), wherein PPS Planning applications, model sites, role-based security and data sources are initially configured, and introduces Planning Business Modeler (PBM), wherein most of the subsequent work is completed. Notably, applications created in PPS Planning are instantiated as SQL Server 2005 relational databases, and Planning Model Sites become Analysis Services 2005 OLAP databases with completely-built cubes. As a side-bar, readers are advised, beginning at this point in the text, to take care to document usernames, roles and passwords as entered in this section and to pay extra close attention throughout the book to always login to Planning Business Modeler or the Excel Add-In with the username specified in each specific exercise.

PART III - SOLUTION DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION: Here, we dive deeper. Explanations, followed by respective exercises, covering the creation of dimensions, member sets, business models, model subsites, model security are aptly covered. Although Chapter 9, "Integrating Business Data" -- which will be the least accessible for non-SQL-heads -- provides a balanced coverage of the complex topic so that readers can progress by (carefully) following the cookbook, SQL/ETL pro's will want to decide when (not if) to dive deeper into learn this (by starting with product help files) and learn exactly how it relates to traditional ETL, which it does not replace. Analysts -- prepare for initial bewilderment. Chapter 10, "Defining Business Rules", takes the complimentary approach, without losing stride with excessive business-side detail (and thus losing the interest of ETL-oriented readers), it move readers through the simple use of business model properties, rules and rule sets. Specifically, the configuration of these business rules are close to a culmination of everything learned so far in that, in text examples, they orchestrate the relationship of data "actuals" to "budgets" and "forecasts" within models and thereby govern how budget forecasts and "what-if" analyses are smoothly integrated into a performance dashboard and/or written back into the data mart and OLAP cube without jeopardizing the sacrosanct "actuals" data. Without a doubt, it feels like a very slick way to avoid ever having to say to your DBA, "Well, we've completed our what-if analyses and thanks for the added permissions, but ehhr... we can't seem to find the actual data anymore. But you backed it up, right?" Relax, `cause it won't happen here. Of note, this chapter very briefly introduces "PerformancePoint Expression Language" (PEL), which is an MDX (multi-dimensional expression) short-hand just for PPS Planning. Although additional PEL detail would have been interesting, it would also have slowed the overall pace of learning. Again, see product help files.

The book's last written topic, in Chapter 11, is "Using the PerformancePoint Add-in for Excel". It introduces readers to PPS Planning Forms (and by extension, read-only Reports ) that performance-management users will ultimately use to assign, contribute, review, edit and approve workflow tasks associated with budgeting, forecasting and "what-if" analyses. As before, the book provides an effective, self-contained introduction which showcases some of Excel 2007's new-found sophistication, but which readers will subsequently want to build upon. As elsewhere, it's essential reading and mercifully succinct (unlike this review, I'll admit).

FOUR BONUS CHAPTERS: Although not reviewed here, they are each substantial, virtually essential, and are respectively entitled "Implementing Process Management", "Consolidating Data with Associations", "Operational and Management Reporting", and "Closing the Performance Management Loop". Conveniently, and along with all required databases and code samples, they are available online at no charge.

PREPARATION: As with the authors' "Rational ...PPS M&A" book, the best way to deploy the entire platform to readers' PC's, for learning or light-development is to download the following from Microsoft: (A) Virtual PC 2007; and (B) BI-VPC V 5.1+, which includes tons of software, including PPS 2007, MOSS 2007, SQL Server 2005 Dev Edition. Lastly, I recommend 4 GB of RAM on the machine, and strongly discourage readers' from trying to use the BI-VPC with under 2GB RAM.

For all of the above reasons, this book is highly recommended!

I have a bad tendency of purchasing technical books and never reading them until I have a problem where I need a technical reference. However, I found myself reading this book cover to cover. I have been using PerformancePoint Server (PPS) 2007 Planning since prior to the software release, going back to May 2007. I have also attended a four day long PPS Boot Camp. Even then, I learned a great deal from this book. I found it easy to read and it covers all the technical topics necessary to implement a PPS solution. Before buying a different book, I would recommend checking to see if it covers all the major aspects of Planning, including topics like Business Rules, PEL (PerformancePoint Expression Language), and Data Integration. Data integration is often forgotten or purposely left out due to its complexity, but authors Adrian Downes and Nick Barclay include an entire chapter dedicated to this subject (43 pages). In addition, once you register the book with the publisher online, there's a great deal of bonus materials available for download. These materials include many SQL examples for data integration. You can cut down your development time by modifying the SQL they provided. Also included in the bonus materials are four additional chapters to the book.

This book is great if you're new to PerformancePoint Server Planning or if you've been using it for awhile. I'm using it to study for the PPS exam to gain certification. My employer has tasked me with coming up with a PPS curriculum for other consultants to learn PPS. I'm incorporating this book and "The Rational Guide to Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007" into self study for my peers wanting to learn the software. Both books incorporate a step by step approach that aid in learning.

In summary, this book is jammed pack full of good tips for both new and experienced PPS developers and has a good price point. I highly recommend it.