Customer Reviews:
innapropriate title.......2007-04-19
the title and the description are misleading.
This book is about utilizing RUP when you're dealing with contractors, outsourcing or offshoring.
However, it has so little RUP info in it, the book should be called one of these titles:
The Outsourcer's guide to project management,
Wrangling Contractors with RUP,
Utilizing RUP with Outsourcing
I got about 2 chapters in and realized the book wasn't even targeted at me, i'm an in house developer needing to learn about Rational unified process. I am not a PM trying to manage a bunch of people remotely, which is what the book SHOULD be targeting.
Real World Iterative Project Advice.......2007-01-09
Iterative Projects require additional attention to planning and re-planning that traditional projects 'do' but not in forced regular intervals - iterations.
Some day... a reference will exist with more details on what was actually planned in iterations of a real project. This book is a nice descriptor of the challenges, risks, process, ...
All the instructions needed to understand the basics and progressive steps are included, here........2006-11-07
Any computer user contemplating managing software projects with the IBM Rational Unified Process must have Project Management with The IBM Rational Unified Process: it comes from an author with plenty of background in the system and reviews the program through the entire development cycle, from initial planning to final regular maintenance. Don't think projects have to be large to use this, either: small and medium-sized projects will benefit, as well. All the instructions needed to understand the basics and progressive steps are included, here.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
a coherent process for management.......2006-10-07
Gibbs writes about how to manage a complex project, subject to various vagaries. The idea is to show how Rational Unified Process can aid the manager. In doing so, the book talks about topics common to any managerial process. Like Change Request Management. Over time, this can get progressively more complex. Sometimes so much so that it can act as a very hinderance to understanding and implementing changes.
Mostly, of course, the book educates the reader in RUP. It might simply be that RUP's main merit is in providing a systematic framework for management. After going thru the book, you may not necessarily buy into all that is RUP. But its comprehensive overall structure could give you, the manager, a coherent process to adopt.
With the proper background, there's insight here..........2006-09-03
Talk about reading a book that feels like you're reliving your current work assignment... Project Management with the IBM Rational Unified Process - Lessons from the Trenches by R. Dennis Gibbs.
Contents: Introduction to Outsourcing; Overview of the Rational Unified Process; Getting Started - Request for Proposals (RFPs), Proposals, and Contracts; Best Practices for Staffing the Outsourcing Organization's Project Management Office (PMO); Best Practices for Staffing the Contractor's Software Project Team; Establishing the Software Development Environment; Inception - Kicking Off the Project; Identifying and Managing Risks; Navigating the Requirements Management Process; Construction Iterations - Staying on Target; Testing; Transitioning a System into Service; System Operations and Maintenance Issues; Using Consultants Effectively; The Project Postmortem; Common Mistakes Utilizing RUP; Implementing a Two-Stage Procurement Process; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
I'm in the midst of a specification documentation project, and the organization I work for uses the Rational Unified Process (RUP) standard. The author rightfully states that RUP is adaptable, in that you don't have to adopt absolutely every artifact that RUP contains. You tailor it to fit the organization and the process load you want to undertake. This book is far from a comprehensive guide to everything RUP. Instead, it's more focused on solid project management techniques and processes, and it so happens that RUP is the underlying documentation flow that's used. The other twist you'll see here is that there's an emphasis that you've brought in contractors or you've outsourced your development activity, and Gibbs focuses on how a RUP approach can help overcome many of the difficulties inherent in not controlling every aspect of software development.
There's a couple of things I don't quite agree with, however... The author talks about RUP being used in an agile methodology, and states that RUP *can* be agile if you use only what you need. Technically that is probably true, but in reality RUP is a document-heavy methodology that bears little resemblance to agile techniques as they are commonly thought of. Also, chapter 6, Establishing the Software Development Environment, talks about the build/borrow/buy choice for development software. He refers to the "borrow" solution as shareware, when in reality it's open source software. They are two different things, and it makes me wonder how much the guy really knows about software as opposed to project management.
If you're in the right scenario of managing outsourced projects using a RUP methodology, this book will offer significant insight. I don't know that I'd recommend it for an introduction to RUP, as you'll probably walk away with a few more questions than answers...
Book Description
From the basics of programming in the Qshell on iSeries to complete coverage of previously undocumented topics, programmers will not only learn the Qshell more easily than they can with the Qshell manual from IBM, they will also learn practical applications of using the Qshell effectively. Written for users who are more comfortable with DDS, CL, and RPG as well as those using modern languages such as C and Java, this book allows those who are unfamiliar with Unix to easily learn this technology, which otherwise might be foreign to them. Although written specifically for iSeries programmers, the information gleaned here will be largely applicable to the shells for Linux and Unix, so programmers not familiar with those platforms will find those shells much easier to learn after learning Qshell.
Average customer rating:
- A book worthy of be studied on a worthy CEO of a worthy Corp
- Insightful!
- Light on Facts, Light on Analysis
- excellent example of leadership vs corporate complacency
- IBM financials, anyone?
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Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner
Robert Slater
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Book Company
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Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: How I Turned Around IBM
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IBM Redux: Lou Gerstner and the Business Turnaround of the Decade
ASIN: 0071342117 |
Amazon.com
From the early 1950s into the late '80s, IBM was the computer industry. Not only that, IBM was, to many, industry itself. It consistently set the standard for corporate performance and profitability, both in the U.S. and worldwide. But that all changed in a strange, swift, and brutal way. IBM--which had fiddled while Microsoft and Intel created a firestorm in the personal-computer world--lost money for three consecutive years in the early '90s. The decision to allow Microsoft to control PC software and Intel to supply the microprocessors (they're both companies IBM could've easily bought out early in the game) came back to bite IBM on its bloated blue butt. And its no-layoffs policy, though admirable, meant the company kept a workforce of more than 300,000, making decisions at a glacial pace while other companies nimbly jumped from one new market to the next.
All that changed when Lou Gerstner was named CEO of IBM in 1993. Gerstner had already led turnarounds at American Express and RJR Nabisco, and, as Saving Big Blue details, he proved to be the right man for the job. Gerstner started by changing the company's funereal dress code and eventually redirected the company to provide computer services rather than just computers. Saving Big Blue makes for interesting reading as a case study, but also provides a blueprint for any manager attempting to turn around a business. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
"There's been a lot of speculation on when I will deliver a vision. The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision. What it needs right now are tough-minded, market-driven, highly effective strategies." - Lou Gerstner, 1993. SAVING BIG BLUE is the spell-binding saga of how Lou Gerstner resurrected IBM from an all-but-certain death into a textbook example of corporate turnaround wizardry. How he, by infusing a sense of urgency into a company which had begun to equate aggressiveness with dishonor, led Big Blue from an $8 billion loss in 1993 to a $3 billion profit in 1994--an unprecedented $11 billion+ turnaround!
Written by world-renowned corporate biographer Robert Slater, SAVING BIG BLUE packs instant impact. It presents numerous leadership secrets and success maxims, then looks inside each to reveal management insights that can be applied to situations of any size or type. For example:
"Sweep Aside the Old Corporate Culture if Necessary, But Do It Quickly" - Gerstner's focus was absolute. When it came to cleaning house, even his own brother wasn't protected.
"Set High Expectations: Don't Settle for Mediocrity" - Gerstner couldn't understand, and wouldn't tolerate, lack of enthusiasm. He made it clear he wouldn't accept second best--and that rewards awaited the winners. "Listen to Customers--They Know Best What They Need"
- Relive the legendary Chantilly meeting, where Gerstner invited the Chief Information Officers of IBM's 200 largest customers to meet with--and confront--the new IBM chief.
"You're never done. And when you think you're done, you're in trouble." - Lou Gerstner, 1998. Lou Gerstner's rescue of IBM is one of the world's most inspiring--and instructive--corporate success stories.
Filled with page after page of lessons that can be used in virtually any corporate environment, SAVING BIG BLUE takes an honest, inside look at how Gerstner stressed service, propelled IBM into the Internet revolution, and continues the job of to restoring IBM as the world's most powerful corporation. It provides a step-by-step blueprint for achieving success in today's turbulent corporate world.
Download Description
In this honest, inside look at one of the world's most inspiring corporate success stories, bestselling business author Robert Slater reveals how Gerstner stressed service, catapulted IBM into the Internet revolution, and restored IBM's mantle of leadership. Starting each chapter with a success maxim -- as in his bestselling Jack Welch and the GE Way -- Slater provides nothing less than the roadmap for achieving success in today's turbulent corporate world.
Customer Reviews:
A book worthy of be studied on a worthy CEO of a worthy Corp.......2002-01-18
The content of the book is worthy of being studied by managers. How to control risks and how to bring comany away from risk, is a necessary topic in such times, especially after 911.
IBM is a great company which was founded in a great country. Now IBM belongs to the world, not only for its great profit, but for its great experience, including its great failure in past.
So, this book is worthy of be read, you will learn a lot from it.
The essence of IBM works in all respected companies.
Insightful!.......2001-04-27
Listen, my children, and you shall hear the incredible saga of how IBM nearly died and was revived by Lou Gerstner. Robert Slater tells the tale of IBM's turnaround after it nearly sank under the weight of institutionalized arrogance and failure to heed advancements in the industry it had dominated. Gerstner broke company tradition, fired employees who believed they had a sinecure, slashed a decade-old bureaucracy, and switched IBM's focus from products to solutions. This action portrait shows a man smart enough and tough enough to rebuild an empire. The book's lessons are artfully woven into the fabric of Gerstner's personal story and IBM's corporate history. We [...] recommend this book to any high level executive whose organization needs a revolution or to any businessperson who wants a juicy reminder of what it takes to win the war of independence.
Light on Facts, Light on Analysis.......2000-01-22
I was disappointed by this book. As an ex-IBM'er who was there during the bad times as well as the Gerstner led recovery, I was looking forward to insights about the times and the man. The book lacked both. It was written in a sloppy way, with the same tired facts about stock price recovery and growth in different parts of IBM's business being repeated over and over again. When it appeared there would be some fascinating insight, it faded into nothingness e.g. when Slater started to write about the demise of senior execs, the best he could do was trot out some triteness about the disposal of Lou's brother Richard who was at that time a consultant. The book was filled with quotes from Fortune and many other business magazines as if all his research was done from them. Over all, a disappointment.
excellent example of leadership vs corporate complacency.......1999-10-26
As a former employee of both IBM and AT&T, I lived through years of lack of leadership, innovation and bad management decisions. Lou Gerstner demonstrated that a few common sense principles (listen, customers, focus) go a long way in building a business. I enjoyed the book very much and recommended it to my co-workers.
IBM financials, anyone?.......1999-10-21
In the whoel sceme of the book, it appears that the author is focusing on financials of the company and not the person.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Chief Executive (U.S.), published by Chief Executive Publishing on December 1, 1999. The length of the article is 935 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Big Blue: Turnabout is Good Play.(Brief Article)(Review) (book reviews)
Publication:
Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 1999
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Page: 74
Article Type: Brief Article, Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Chief Executive (U.S.), published by Chief Executive Publishing on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1161 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Getting outsourcing right: here are lessons from the biggest deals of what to do-and what not to do.
Author: Craig Albright
Publication:
Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Page: 43(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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The Ibm Lesson
D Quinn Mills
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0812916905
Release Date: 1988-09-12 |
Customer Reviews:
Thinking About IBM.......2005-05-18
The IBM Lesson
The author is a Professor at Harvard Business School, his book seeks to describe "the profitable art of full employment" where IBM trained and transferred 10% of its employees. Burdens were placed on people who had to learn new skills. People are valuable assets. Page 5 mentions the effects when companies started to buy computers instead of leasing them; no mention of tax laws.
Psychological stress results from losing a job (p.9). Those who remain are also affected, and their productivity. Full-employment companies are among the best-performing enterprises (p.15). Mills has comments on this (pp.19-20). When manufacturing ended at Boulder Colorado it was replaced with distribution and computer programming (p.33). IBM's concept of employees as those who know their job better than their manager reflects reality (p.39) [and "Dilbert" cartoons]. Chapter 3 discusses the closing of the Greencastle Indiana facility. A warehouse worker could talk to the plant manager. [A good place to work is where the managers and employees share the lunch room and facilities.] After the closing local property taxes went up (p.64). The IBM plant was given to the town in hope of attracting jobs for unskilled and semi-skilled workers (pp.75-76). The Westlake California facility was shut down, and its people moved to Boulder (p.84). A long distance move affected working spouses (p.93). Chapter 6 has empty-minded talk of "change" (p.98). People accept changes that benefit them, and avoid or fight changes that harm them. The author's definition of "career" as a series of "unrelated jobs" is phony (p.99). Mills was amazed that "managers and professional" got better jobs [then]. They bring more experience and a new viewpoint. Should a company only hire those who have worked at some other place? [You need to think this through.] A company gains by retraining and redeploying people to meet current needs (p.125).
Chapter 7 discusses the need for top-level commitment, and the part played by key committees in running IBM (p.131). Pages 135-137 tell of the contention process which empowers staff executives. Full employment is a measure of resource balancing. Subcontracting is used as needed, as is taking accrued vacation. Hiring standards are noted (p.141). Chapter 8 explains how IBM made redeployment work; they took action to ensure line management followed corporate programs (pp.157-159). Chapter 9 discusses in general the European laws on employment security. Mills argues against the laws designed to help employees: "added costs" (p.185). He says different state laws could make full employment "difficult to realize" (p.186). Yet all laws create costs, and benefits. What is the price for high morale (p.190)? Is it economic security (p.193)? What is the price for experience (p.194)? Mills claims "once America had a work force which would give commitment without expecting anything in return" (p.200). [What a fantasy!] Mills criticizes the practices of many corporations (p.201). Wall Street criticizes IBM's practices (p.202). Do these practices prevent a hostile takeover? [Remember, Wall Street produces nothing, they are parasites that profit from other people's money.] Layoffs have costs for a company (p.206). IBM gets long-term benefits from full employment (p.207).
Chapter 11 wonders about the future. One 1974 book's predictions about "no-growth" were proven wrong over the decade (p.211). Avoiding layoffs meant IBM retained its "well-trained young people" (p.213). IBM's pursuit of excellence and service to the customer are as important as ever. But Mills wonders if the full-employment policy will continue. In 1988 IBM re-organized to put operational decisions closer to its customers. Their three basic elements of management apply to every business (p.215). IBM now lacks the dominant position it once held, and this will affect its future (p.216).
[This book does not mention the layoff of 5% of employees that occurred in 1970. Elephants can't dance because their wing loading is way too high.] I wonder what his next book will say?
Average customer rating:
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IBM Microcomputer Assembly Language in 10 Programming Lessons (Prentice Hall Programming Skills Series)
Julio Sanchez , and
Maria P. Canton
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Assembly Language Programming
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ASIN: 0137264070 |
Average customer rating:
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IBM Microcomputer C in 10 Programming Lessons (Prentice Hall Programming Skills Series)
Julio Sanchez , and
Maria P. Canton
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0137264232 |
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Mapping the future in science-intensive industries: lessons from the pharmaceutical industry.: An article from: IBM Systems Journal
J.W. Cortada , and
H.E. Fraser
Manufacturer: IBM Corp.
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ASIN: B000ALO3VG
Release Date: 2006-07-14 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from IBM Systems Journal, published by IBM Corp. on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 13363 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: Companies operating in industries that are subject to fundamental changes caused by innovations in science or technology search for ways to anticipate future business and scientific or technological developments so that they can react to them in profitable ways. Using the example of the pharmaceutical industry, which is currently moving from chemically based medications to targeted treatments based on biology, we demonstrate a process for forecasting how the future will look a decade from now. Illustrating the process with a variety of studies already done on this industry, we provide a strategy for mapping the future as well as an analysis of the strengths and limitations of our planning approach. We argue that this approach is applicable to both science-based and technology-based industries.
Citation Details
Title: Mapping the future in science-intensive industries: lessons from the pharmaceutical industry.
Author: J.W. Cortada
Publication:
IBM Systems Journal (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: IBM Corp.
Volume: 44
Issue: 1
Page: 163(21)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Non-Stationary Time Series Analysis and Cointegration (Advanced Texts in Econometrics)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
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ASIN: 0198773919 |
Book Description
Major developments in the analysis of non-stationary time series and co-integration are shown in this book. Papers include David Hendry's work on forecasting, Peter Phillip's work on Bayesian models, Svend Hylleberg's work on seasonality, and Adrian Pagan's work on real business cycle models. Other topics covered include an overview of the different estimators of cointegrating relationships, and a new test of cointegration. Applications are shown finding roots in macroeconomic series, testing the Fisher Hypothesis, testing money demand functions, to testing for inflation bubbles. The book provides good coverage of the depth of this literature and shows the importance of an understanding of non-stationarity and cointegration.
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Visual Modeling with IBM(R) Rational(R) Software Architect and UML(TM) (The developerWorks Series)
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