Practice Management Books

An impressive work of meticulous scholarship, Employment Relations In The United States: Law, Policy, And Practice provides students with an historical background and context leading to an understanding of how the American system of the organized labor movement developed and just how it differs from system in other industrialized nations. Author Raymond Hogler presents an informed discussion on individual employment rights (including protection from discrimination), and covers current labor policy issues ranging from the minimum wage and the growth of a contingent workforce, to privatizing retirement. Of special interest is Hogler's unique historical and evolutionary oriented explanation of the developmental history and nature of employment relations. Highly recommended reading -- especially for students of American employment relations and labor history.

As a Critical Incident Stress Management team member, this book reveals many details that can assist in the overall management of stress in the emergency services (medical, fire, police) workplace. Ray sheds light on both the big and little details tht help us survive and flourish in this type of work. We use this book often in the debriefing and stress management work that I'm directly involved in. A great book to have and refer to often. Do yourself and your department a favor, get this book.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, the Encyclopedia Of Real Estate Terms is an invaluable single-volume reference for students and professionals on real estate terminology. This 1,472-page compendium defines more than 8,000 terms based on American and English real estate practice, as well as terms from civil law, Scots and French law. With more than 11,000 references (including more than 3900 cases, 2100 statutory or code references, and 4750 bibliographical references) Encyclopedia Of Real Estate Terms is enhanced with an exhaustive cross-referencing system extending to over 30,000 entries and a Bibliography of over 900 books, as well as information on more than 55 real estate associations. Encyclopedia Of Real Estate Terms is an indispensable, core title addition to academic and professional real estate library reference collections.

This book is superb. It is thoughtful, thorough, and comprehensive in explaining all aspects of infectious endocarditis, from the perspective of cardiologists and infectious disease specialists, but intended and addressed for all physicians. It is academic, while maintaining practical advice and evidence-based recommendations.

I highly recommend this book.

Designed as a text for education courses, The Enlightened Eye should be on everyone's reading list. The power of the author, Elliot Eisner, to convey ideas that are normally limited to esoteric "research" courses, and the "elite" graduate students who inhabit that world, is remarkable and refreshing. Through artistic and poetic imagery, the author transports the reader to a world of knowing that lies at the heart of connoisseur-ship and critical inquiry. Through a lens that distinguishes between seeing and looking we embark on a journey of discovery -- a journey that begins and ends in the qualities of our everyday experience. In sum, Elliot Eisner, provides a vehicle that guides us through the processes of decoding and encoding the meanings attached to "experience," including the objects that reside in that experience. It is a book that is a pleasure to read because the author writes well, seduces the reader, and provides opportunities for serious reflection. In sum, Elliot Eisner takes us on a qualitative journey discovery, through which we uncover the qualities of our life and our society. Buy it. Read it. Savor it.

This book is an extensive rework of the authors' "The Adaptive Enterprise", and in my opinion supersedes that earlier book.

Like the first book this one borrows heavily from the software engineering community to employ proven techniques, such as layered design, patterns and a component-based approach to infrastructure. Where this book extends and builds upon the earlier work is the emphasis on extending the corporate infrastructure into a meta infrastructure that is characterized by B2B and supply chains. As such it lives up to the title because the goal of the extended infrastructure is to enrich the value chain - or at least support the underlying business goals.

What I like about this book is what the authors propose is not only attainable, but makes good business sense. It starts with a 22-page introduction that clearly defines what is and is not infrastructure, and the concept of an adaptivity. These are important to understanding the approach that follows. Chapter 2, Laying the Foundation, quickly gives the basics for a layered infrastructure, develops a model for associated services that are needed to make the infrastructure adaptable, and drills down into service-related issues. I am not in complete agreement with the impact that this approach has on IT organizational structures; however, I am not willing to write it off as unfeasible until I have a chance to carefully think it through. The ideas do have merit (on paper) and are better developed in the first book.

Much of the rest of the book is a rehash of "The Adaptive Enterprise", but the material is slanted towards the extended infrastructure. What is important is the emphasis on patterns and components as frameworks and building blocks. Where the first book brought infrastructure management to a new level, this book extends it in a manner that reflects the realities of connected enterprises defined by supply chain management and business partners. Please see my review of "The Adaptive Enterprise" for specifics that apply to this book, and if you're deciding between the two books, this is the one to get.

I am very pleased to have discovered this book.
I am a project management consultant with the PMI PMP certification and Microsoft's MCITP certification in enterprise project management using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. This book bridges the two universes of Project Server 2007 (the tool) and the best practices and processes of PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PBMOK). The book is well written and straight forward. I was able to follow and complete all of the example scenarios with ease. The book shows how to actually implement each of the PMBOK processes, create the project plan documents, and construct the project document libraries. From project initiation through planning, execution, monitoring and control and project closeout --- it's all there. The neat part is that you are actually doing it in the project server environment. I knew very little about creating SharePoint lists, views, libraries, links, etc., but I was able to do it all with ease.
This book is a "keeper". I've added it to my personal project management toolkit.

J. Anderson, MSPM, PMP, MCITP
Atlanta, GA

The audience for this book are architecture and integration group members, making this book an ideal addition to group libraries. The focus is on ERP architecture, although the range of topics overlap into non-ERP domains, and is best used as a desk reference because it's a collection of short papers written by 70+ authors instead of a book that focuses on a specific approach or methodology. The papers comprising this desk reference are organized in logical groupings that are akin to layers in an enterprise architecture.

Each section is devoted to carefully chosen papers, some of which reflect individual authors' experience. The strength of this approach is that you benefit from a rich diversity of viewpoints and deep subject matter knowledge. The weakness is that some of the material is inconsistent with what precedes or follows in the book.

Since this is a technology-focused book the highlights are that the information is current and reflects issues, methods and technologies that are valid as of the date this review was written. The editors ensured that information that is not commonly used in ERP integration, such as web services, are not addressed. This doesn't imply that web services will not play a future key role (such as in PeopleSoft 8), but that most ERP implementations are integrated using middleware, XML and other methods. The more typical integration methods are covered in great detail, and the sections on database servers and data warehousing are especially informative.

I also like the section on Internet commerce, which covers topics ranging from web-based testing and capacity planning to XML-based B2B commerce - topics that are not commonly found in other ERP texts. The section on project and systems management also contained excellent information, such as the paper titled "Service Level Management Links IT to the Business", which touches upon a critical aspect of integration. Each of the four papers in the Component-Based Development section also included information that should be carefully considered by large enterprises, especially those that are using off-shore development of off-site contractors to develop modules. This section goes into each of the major critical issues, including economic considerations, domain engineering, server-side Java development and object library management.

Some of the information in this book is time sensitive in that it will be rendered obsolete as web services play a larger role in ERP systems (which is already happening in a sense), and XML and/or ebXML emerge as a core component of all of the major packages, such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, etc. If you have a defined architecture or integration group this book will make a good investment because of the wide array of topics covered. If, however, you are seeking a book that provides a methodology or focused technology description this book may not be for you.

An informative and easy-to-read text, filled with self-assessment exercises and planning tools. I think the authors sold this book short by marketing it specifically to nurses; other allied health professionals have found it equally useful. I recommend this book frequently to budding entrepreneurs from a variety of health-related disciplines as a great resource for jump-starting their thinking process.

An excellent manual from the UK for those wishing to set up there own business.Well defined sections on all aspects from personal safety to
making money.
If you are thinking of starting out in this field but are unsure that it is for you then a read through this book should answer most of your questions and confirm if it is a viable proposition.