Business Systems Books

This was very well written and had an abundant series of examples to support the authors' main point--with references to government documents, tables, graphs. Oliver and Shapiro can be extremely repetitive in restating their thesis, but, overall, the book was very eye-opening and perhaps a little depressing.

You'd make it a point not invest the majority of your wealth in the home and car after reading this book.

The arguement that the past thirty years have resulted in a closing of the gap between whites and blacks seems untenable after reading this book. Using wealth instead of income as a measure of success and progress, Oliver and Shapiro argue that glaring inequalities still exist and may actually be growing. Moreover, since creating wealth is far more difficult when one has none to begin, the authors argue that such inequalities are sure to continue unless significant changes are made to the social safety net. These premises certainly call into question the notion of a vibrant black middle class.

Overall, I found the book to be scholarly, yet accessible to those who don't hold a Ph.D. in research methodology. The information was nicely balanced; the interviews complemented the extensive survey data and everything was clearly presented. My only complaint is that the statistical information was not presented in the appendix with the tables. This would have been useful and meaningful to academics reading the book. That being said, the thesis is a profound one, and for all those with an interest in social equity and social policy this is a must-read.

This book is a must read for anybody building safety-critical systems. It totally convinced me that we need to move from a "detect and failover" strategy to a "replicate and isolate" strategy to achieve unprecedented levels of availability in a very affordable and cost effective way. This book is making my life easier and improving the way our company does business. What more could you ask for?

This is a must read book for anyone involved with computer system fault tolerance/reliability/business continuity issues. The material is presented in simple, clear terms and the different algebraic formulas and their variables never become threatening, obscure, or boring. This reviewer has been involved with Tandem/HP Non Stop systems for almost 20 years. This book has provided me with a wealth of new insights, facts, and, over all, food for thought, that will enable me to appreciate much better the characteristics of this type of system.

"This book explains how to use behavioral competencies to link human resource (HR) systems to an organization's purpose. This linkage will help organizations better communicate to associates about how they can effectively guide their own actions...The book is written for human resource professionals, who strive to link their organization's core competencies, capabilities, values, and priorities to its human resource applications...You can expect this book to recognize and reinforce important distinctions between an organization's strategic core competencies and its individual competencies and skills. Although these distinctions are obvious to business strategists, they are a source of confusion for many in human resources who want to use competencies to reflect vision, culture, and values" (from the Preface).

In this context, Paul C. Green divides his book into two main parts:

I. Clarifying Competencies: In this part;

* He argues that "robust competencies help you define what was done, what is being done, and what needs to be done." And hence, he sets the stage for building robust competencies by identifying the ambiguities, challenges, and rewards of using competencies.

* He explores the different meanings of competencies that are used in organizations and research. And he argues that "HR competency system must be job related and should reflect core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities."

* He discusses operationalizing performance skills to enable you to use behavioral observation, description, and inference to communicate clearly what a person needs to do to do a job well. Here he says that "a behavior is an action that you can observe, describe, and verify."

* He explores how the identity of an organization can become the target for alignment, and discusses how an organization's identity can be reflected in and reinforced by interviews, appraisal, coaching, and training.

II. Linking Competencies to Human Resource Systems: In this part, after briefly discussing perception-driven, experience-driven, attribute-driven, and behavior-driven approaches, he offers behavioral approach to link interviews, appraisals, coaching, and training to the identity of an organization. It emphasizes a systemic, job-related approach to support the effectiveness and defensibility of an HR system. He argues that "the linkage of HR applications is easier when the organization consistently uses a behavioral approach. Once behavioral language is used in one part of an HR system, it can be expanded to other applications."

Finally, he says that "the best answers to questions about core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities come from real experiences in applying them. Today, each answer is just an opinion at one point in time. However, the big question for the future will be: How can I link HR systems to my organization's identity? At present the most useful answers are those that emphasize a behavioral approach, job relatedness, nimbleness, and open mindedness."

Highly recommended.

Dr. Green demonstrates that the job analysis which is the basis of behavioral interviews, is also the cornerstone upon which competencies, PD's, interviews, coaching, performance measurement, and training are all built. Once the use of behavioral thinking is understood by the manager, the development of the tools and methods for selecting, developing, and managing successful people will flow from the analysis of the behaviors needed for success in any specific job.

Dr. Green goes beyond the individual in applying behavioral understandings and tools, taking them to the organizational level as well. He clearly demonstrates the linkage between high performing individuals, and high performing organizations.

A must read for any manager using Behavioral Interviewing, any trainer teaching Behavioral Interviewing, or any manager tired of spending a disproportionate share of their time and energy dealing with poor performance, low productivity, and poor morale.

While you can easily read it in a few days, you will want your own copy to highlight, make notes in, and refer to from time to time as you grow as a manager.

Howard's book is an excellent overview of a number of service provider issues and technology. For myself, it helped me to wade through the morass of VPN technologies on the market when we were researching the replacement of our frame relay network. If you have an interest in the issues faced by service providers, or if you would like to learn more about wide area network technologies, then this book is a must-read. Howard's sense of humor and insightful anecdotes make this an especially easy read, despite the high technical content.

Howard Berkowitz is known in the networking community for his writing which has helped many, many people earn advanced certifications. But Howard doesn't write to that goal; he writes, instead, to the goal of helping people understand what it takes to make a network actually perform and deliver the business function it was purchased for. This is another in that series of lucid and focused books.

BSPN looks at the problem from the point of view of the engineer or technical manager who needs to deliver a service provider network--an ISP, ASP, etc. Over the course of the book, he uses a few fictitious businesses to demonstrate how a service provider could feasibly meet their needs. The content starts with the problem to be solved--as it always should--and progresses to how the promises are worded (Service Level Agreements, etc.), and on into the technical considerations that go into putting such a service in place.

As usual, he peppers the book with enough real stories to lend perspective to the thinking you have to do in planning networking (though most of don't plan for an adult male tiger "marking" the equipment). His diagrams are generally conceptual rather than using icons for different networking devices. After all, if you understand the logic, you can apply the best business equipment choice for the job you need to do.

And that is what this book is there for--to help you profitably provide a customer with the service they need. In these business times, that's a value.

The Book: Business Early Warning Systems The Author: Dr. Patrick J. Caragata The Publisher: Butterworth Group ISBN 0408715766

Lets face it, the management of risk should not be a retrospective issue, but rather one of forecasting the probability of possible future problems and preventing them before they can happen. This should be done by addressing these possibilities through the use of contingency plans and is something that occurs far too infrequently. This subject for some reason has, to a major degree, gone without being addressed even though it is pertinent to marketing, just as it is to all other areas in business and government. Dr. Caragata, A CANADIAN SOFTWARE DESIGNER LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND, is well qualified for the task and has put together what this writer considers one of the most important books dedicated to this subject available today. This book is unique in that it addresses the subject of risk and how it can and should be addressed. Many examples of past incidents are cited. In an era in which greater culpability is being placed on administrators be it industry, commerce or government, this book is mandatory reading. It addresses the different types of risk and cites examples of how that risk can be addressed and the costs involved both in terms of monetary loss and survival. This can be appreciated when one considers the rash of air disasters such as the Swiss Air crash, oil spills such as that of the EXXON-Valdez and environmental CATASTROPHES such as that in Bhopal India by Union Carbide, to name only a few. Dr. Caragata provides examples of how these disasters as well as others could have been avoided had the early warning signs been acknowledged and dealt with. HE demonstrates that the science of examining the warning signs for survival are consistent ACROSS MAJOR BUSINESS DISASTERS. He states that many signs can be tracked electronically through the use of electronic risk profiling. He suggests that the use of such tools can provide senior management with the tools to train management and boards to be more open to information challenging their dominant values. He CONCLUDES THAT THERE ARE EIGHT MAJOR FOOTSTEPS TO BUSINESS DISASTERS:POOR QUALITY INFORMATION, INADEQUATE BACK-UP SYSTEMS, INADEQUATE FUNDING FOR WARNING SYSTEMS, WEAK RISK STANDARDS, IGNORING RISK THRESHOLDS, IGNORING EARLY WARNING SIGNS, INADEQUATE ADVANCE SCREENING AND LACK OF CLEAR SIGNALS. I would add that these deficiencies are applicable to all functions within industry, commerce or government. Again I emphasize that this book is mandatory reading for any person in a position of authority

The Book: Business Early Warning Systems The Author: Dr. Patrick J. Caragata The Publisher: Butterworth Group ISBN 0408715766

Lets face it, the management of risk should not be a retrospective issue, but rather one of forecasting the probability of possible future problems and preventing them before they can happen. This should be done by addressing these possibilities through the use of contingency plans and is something that occurs far too infrequently. This subject for some reason has, to a major degree, gone without being addressed even though it is pertinent to marketing, just as it is to all other areas in business and government. Dr. Caragata, A CANADIAN SOFTWARE DESIGNER LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND, is well qualified for the task and has put together what this writer considers one of the most important books dedicated to this subject available today. This book is unique in that it addresses the subject of risk and how it can and should be addressed. Many examples of past incidents are cited. In an era in which greater culpability is being placed on administrators be it industry, commerce or government, this book is mandatory reading. It addresses the different types of risk and cites examples of how that risk can be addressed and the costs involved both in terms of monetary loss and survival. This can be appreciated when one considers the rash of air disasters such as the Swiss Air crash, oil spills such as that of the EXXON-Valdez and environmental CATASTROPHES such as that in Bhopal India by Union Carbide, to name only a few. Dr. Caragata provides examples of how these disasters as well as others could have been avoided had the early warning signs been acknowledged and dealt with. HE demonstrates that the science of examining the warning signs for survival are consistent ACROSS MAJOR BUSINESS DISASTERS. He states that many signs can be tracked electronically through the use of electronic risk profiling. He suggests that the use of such tools can provide senior management with the tools to train management and boards to be more open to information challenging their dominant values. He CONCLUDES THAT THERE ARE EIGHT MAJOR FOOTSTEPS TO BUSINESS DISASTERS:POOR QUALITY INFORMATION, INADEQUATE BACK-UP SYSTEMS, INADEQUATE FUNDING FOR WARNING SYSTEMS, WEAK RISK STANDARDS, IGNORING RISK THRESHOLDS, IGNORING EARLY WARNING SIGNS, INADEQUATE ADVANCE SCREENING AND LACK OF CLEAR SIGNALS. I would add that these deficiencies are applicable to all functions within industry, commerce or government. Again I emphasize that this book is mandatory reading for any person in a position of authority

A very interesting book - discusses Information Technology in a commercial context - doesn't bore - full of interesting anecdotes - easy to read - useful !

James Hunt, Analyst/Programmer

Rather a nice book. Is'nt pompous. Lots of little stories.

Carol Regency, Dublin, Ireland

The best business books develop a core concept or respond to a question of compelling importance. Nicholas Evans does so in this volume, responding to two separate but related questions:

1. Which emerging and disruptive technologies will not only be the next differentiators and sources of competitive advantage but also be the next sources of solid business value for enterprise operations?

2. How to identify and exploit these technologies to design more competitive and agile companies and markets?

Evans organizes his material within nine chapters. In the first, he explains the need for enterprise innovation; in the last, be examines the current stage of the evolution of information technology and suggests what the impact of developments during the next several years may have on businesses. In between, he covers "the strategy, process, and technology aspects behind some of today's most promising emerging technologies with a focus on how to achieve real-world results that benefit the top and bottom line for an organization. One of the goals of this book is to help executives maximize their value from these technologies, to reshape their business, not just their business processes."

Readers will especially appreciate Evans' provision of a Summary and an "Extending the Radar Lessons" section at the end of Chapter 1, and then at the conclusion of each of the next eight chapters (Chapters 2- 9), provision of an "Extending the Radar Lessons" section followed by an "Extending the Radar Considerations" section. These and other reader-friendly devices offer three substantial value-added benefits: they specify key points within the given chapter and context, they suggest correlations between and among them, and they facilitate, indeed accelerate frequent review of those key points later.

I was especially interested in what Nicholas has to say about business process management in Chapter 5. He begins with an especially apt observation by W. Edwards Demming: "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." Presumably Deming would agree that what cannot be measured cannot be managed. (He may have been the first to make that assertion. To date, I have been unable to locate its source.) I agree with Nicholas that businesses considering integration of applications within their enterprise, or integration of applications with those of their partners, "should consider business process management as a key emerging technology, alongside Web services, which can help to deliver new forms of enterprise agility and reduction of cost and complexity." This is a key point, one which Nicholas explores with depth and precision. Readers will then welcome the "Extending the Radar Lessons" and "Extending the Radar Considerations" sections which follow.

When concluding his book, Nicholas suggests that the "first wave" of applications (i.e. essentially a force fit on top of a powerful but vulnerable framework) is now giving way to an era of combinations, one during which "killer applications are built from combinations of killer technologies, where computers can start to serve their uses rather than command their users, where information and transaction are able to move seamlessly across logical boundaries, device boundaries, and physical and virtual boundaries." Whether creating and/or responding to others' "killer applications, organizations must have a "radar" system to guide and inform their initiatives to generate revenue, reduce costs, and improve performance. The question he poses to his reader -- "How prepared is your radar?" -- serves as a challenge to all decision-makers who must understand "new rules" if their organizations are to prevail in what is undeniably a "new game."

Nick has done a nice job of summarizing the current new, new technologies and matching them to business issues. Solid read for managers and technologists alike.

The subject is introduced and explained very systematically and with very relevant examples. I wish it came with relevant software.

The STRIM (Systematic Technique for Role & Interaction Modelling) approach provided in this book is a straightforward method for capturing and modeling business processes. The book completely and thoroughly covers how to model and analyze business processes, starting with a well-written overview of concepts, then introducing STRIM and its application in various modeling scenarios.

As a modeling approach, STRIM and its role activity diagrams, are not mainstream. However, they are an effective tool in the advanced practitioner's toolbox. I especially like the way RAD (role activity diagrams) clearly and cleanly deal with parallel tasks, and the way they can be clearly depicted as concurrent execution threads even with decision points are involved. In addition, this methodology captures interaction between and among roles. Therein lies the power.

If you are new to business processing modeling it's probably safer to stick to a more established methodology, such as IDEF0 or force fit UML as your modeling approach. A caveat about using UML is it is better suited for modeling software. However, STRIM can be used in conjunction with UML if you want a business process modeling and analysis approach and have not standardized on any other method.

Another aspect of this book I like is the scope of coverage - the author addresses process patterns, large processes, and even managing the modeling process itself.

One final point in favor of this book and its approach is the author provides no cost downloads of Process Architecture Diagrams and Role Activity Diagrams in Visio 5 format. Those artifacts will help jumpstart any project based on the STRIM methodology.

The content of the book was a great resource for me in developing advanced strategies as a Business Systems Analysis. It provides clear cut details that can be applied effectively and economically.

Time and cost are important factors in each project in order to get beyond the feasibility report, and the outlined process helps in creating this most important document.

If you use the SDLC and TQM methodology in your business practice, then this manual is a priceless asset.

"Business Systems Engineering" is an excellent resource for anyone interested in creating a world class organization. The tools of business systems engineering allows you to transform a company into a learning organization capable of strategic change and excellence. The emphasis on "adult learning theory" and its role in reengineering the work process is particularly refreshing. Because strategic change and leadership begins with learning, the emphasis on the work performed by cross-functional teams of employees is essential to creating a learning organization that can successfully respond to challenges in the marketplace. Case studies emphasize organizational learning and looking outside the box, and demonstrate the use of benchmarking to identify the best business practices and applying them to creating a competetive advantage. Watson's holistic view of business systems as open systems that are capable of improvement, easily promotes the integration of TQM principles and the use of information technology. The result of this synthesis is the business system engineering model. The model allows you to transform your organization without sacrificing your focus on quality or the customer, and is adaptable to any business. It also helps you to realize the value of employee training to support change initiatives for profit. If a change in your organization's culture is the prescription, then Business Systems Engineering is the treatment.

This is the definitive book on "knowledge capital" (his trademarked term) and how to calculate shareholder value in the New Economy. In general, one should buy this book to be persuaded of Paul's brilliance, and then hire him to implement the ideas as a strategic consultant. Not for the weak-minded CEO or CIO, as it impales most corporate oxes and concludes that in general, there has been either a negative return on investment, or no discernible contribution to corporate profit, from steadily increasing information technology budgets.

Popular belief is that increased use of computers correlates with superior business performance. But the evidence I had seen has been at best anecdotal. I couldn't find anything that looked like solid scientific evidence - statistically meaningful sample sizes, random choice, proper statistical methods. Then I bumped into this book. Strassmann shows that there is NO correlation. Then he proceeds to show what DOES correlate with superior business performance. Briefly, if you divide a firm's total budget into 'sharp end' (the folks in the workshop) and 'blunt end' (management and the folks in the back office), the bigger the blunt end the worse shape they will tend to be in. If you then again split the computer related budget into 'in support of sharp end' eg ATMs, and 'in support of blunt end' eg management information systems, the sharp end systems tend to pay off and the blunt end ones tend not to. And the two tend to cancel out.

I had always suspected this, but it still shook me to my roots.

I think his 'Return on Management' measure is flawed - it looks just like 'profit' to me - but otherwise reading this was an epiphany.

Looking for useful measures of the payoff of information systems is a real challenge, and Strassmann goes far into it.

He also explodes the theory that profit is a good measure - how do we measure how well run the business is if it is a welfare society, or a public transport system?

A wonderful book.