Are you still searching for the workplace that deserves someone like you? Do you really have a good understanding about what is going on out there, in the business world? In this book, we will discuss the importance of agility and how it affects the solutions that are being delivered by an organization. We will also talk about how a blend of strategic innovation, visionary leadership, and organizational agility go hand in hand to ensure the success of an organization. Enterprise agility is not a far-fetched possibility. Once the problems of the organization are identified, with the right tools and effort, the agility, efficiency, and effectiveness of an organization, as well as the processes that the success of the organization are based on, can all be maximized. This book will broaden your thinking and will help you expand your horizons.

Written for those starting a career in IT or whose career is well advanced, this career guide shows how to blaze a path to success through the jungle of modern IT. With a career spanning five decades, the author shares lessons he learned the hard way so readers do not have to learn them the hard way. By emphasizing the importance of business processes and applications to IT, this book explains how to understand the value and positioning of hardware and software technology in order to make appropriate decisions. It addresses the importance of IT architecture and the roles service and systems management play. It also explains service level agreements (SLAs) and provides sample SLAs. Readers learn how to conduct IT assessments using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. It also shows how to use root-cause analysis (RCA) to detect the sources of failure and poor performance. An overview of risk management and the steps involved in developing a business continuity plan are also included. The book looks at all facets of an IT professional's career. It explains how to build an IT team and examines the roles and responsibilities within the team. It shows how to provide professional customer care to IT clients. Business executives recognize the importance of IT, and this book shows technology professionals how to thrive in the business world. It covers: Making effective presentations Report and proposal writing Negotiating and persuasion skills Running productive meetings Time and stress management The book also discusses such important career skills as listening, continual and incremental learning, and communicating at all levels. From its templates and checklists to its comprehensive and holistic view of a successful IT career, this book is an indispensable guide for every professional working in IT today and tomorrow.

Examining the flow of technical knowledge between the US, Taiwan and Mainland China over the last sixty-five years, this book shows that the technical knowledge that has moved between these states is vast and varied. It includes the invention and production of industrial goods, as well as knowledge of the patterns of corporate organization and management. Indeed, this diversity is reflected in the process itself, which is driven both by returning expatriates with knowledge acquired overseas and by successful government intervention in acquiring technology from multinational firms. Technology Transfer Between the US, China and Taiwan engages with the evolving debates on the merits, importance and feasibility of technology transfer in the process of economic development globally, and uses the example of Taiwan to show that multinational corporations can indeed play a positive role in economic development. Further, it reveals the underlying tension between international cooperation and nationalism which inevitably accompanies international exchanges, as well as the delicate balancing act required between knowledge acquisition and dangerous levels of dependency, and the beneficial role of the US in East Asia's technological development. With contributors from disciplines ranging from history, geography, urban planning, sociology, political science and electrical engineering, this multi-disciplinary book will be of great interest to students and scholars working across a broad range of subjects including Taiwan studies, Chinese studies, economics, business studies and development studies.

Even though Six Sigma programs have successfully been implemented in practice, many IT departments remain skeptical of the process or are unaware of how the tools can be used to improve system development. Removing the mystique surrounding this technique, Six Sigma Software Development, Second Edition demonstrates how Six Sigma tools and concepts can be used to enhance the system development process. Revised and updated, this second edition clearly explains Six Sigma concepts and their application, maps Six Sigma concepts and tools to all aspects of system development, and proposes the use of Six Sigma tools to evaluate and improve the overall performance of the IT department. In addition to classic Six Sigma, the book introduces Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and illustrates when and how its tools and techniques can be used to increase the robustness and reliability of a new system. It also shows how the judicious application of lean tools can reduce the complexity of IT processes, thus shortening the time needed to translate customer requirements into completed systems and increasing customer satisfaction.

The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the amount and variety of information that is generated and stored electronically by business enterprises. Storing this increased volume of information has not been a problem to date, but as these information stores grow larger and larger, multiple challenges arise for senior management: namely, questions such as "How much is our data worth?" "Are we storing our data in the most cost-effective way?" "Are we managing our data effectively and efficiently?" "Do we know which data is most important?" "Are we extracting business insight from the right data?" "Are our data adding to the value of our business?" "Are our data a liability?" "What is the potential for monetizing our data?" and "Do we have an appropriate risk management plan in place to protect our data?" To answer these value-based questions, data must be treated with the same rigor and discipline as other tangible and intangible assets. In other words, corporate data should be treated as a potential asset and should have its own asset valuation methodology that is accepted by the business community, the accounting and valuation community, and other important stakeholder groups. Valuing Data: An Open Framework is a first step in that direction. Its purpose is to: Provide the reader with some background on the nature of data Present the common categories of business data Explain the importance of data management Report the current thinking on data valuation Offer some business reasons to value data Present an "open framework"-along with some proposed methods-for valuing data The book does not aim to prescribe exactly how data should be valued monetarily, but rather it is a "starting point" for a discussion of data valuation with the objective of developing a stakeholder consensus, which, in turn, will become accepted standards and practices.

In addition to test questions in each of the five domains and two practice tests in print and online, this all-in-one study guide also contains flashcards for learning terms. This book is current with The Standard for Program Management, Fourth Edition, and its author is the second person in the world to have earned the PgMP (R) certification. The online versions of the practice test simulate taking the actual exams and provide scoring as above target, target, below target, or needs improvement. Answers come with explanations and references. Questions are written to improve reading skills and teach how to select the best answer, which are key to passing the exam.

The Unified Process methodology for object-oriented component-based development has taken the information technology community by storm. This first volume in a four-book series addresses the Inception Phase, in which developers focus on the initial requirements for a system, determining its scope and organizing the project. These articles from "Software Development" magazine have been written by industry luminaries.

With more than three decades of experience as a thought-leader and expert practitioner, PMI Fellow Dr. David Hillson shares practical insight into how upside risks can be identified, assessed, and managed as opportunities. After reviewing the benefits of identifying opportunities, the book steps through the opportunity identification and management process in detail, describing proven tools and techniques as well as specific tips to make them work in practice. The book places opportunity management in the context of traditional risk management, providing a familiar pathway that leads project managers to discover new benefits and successes. David Hillson is one of the foremost authorities on risk management. With his latest book he presents a strong case for managing opportunities. As with all of David's books, the style of writing is engaging and easy to understand. There are many nuggets of wisdom in this book, as well as a hands-on approach to leveraging opportunity management as a way of improving project performance. - Cyndi Snyder Dionisio, PMI Fellow, Coronado CA, USA. (Chair of the PMBOK (R) Guide, Sixth Edition) I enjoyed reading this book, which is precise, clear, logical, and persuasive. The clarity of thought and expression explains why David is such a sought-after speaker. This book is a must-read for project risk practitioners, as well as for project professionals who are serious about addressing all the risks on their project, including the good ones. - Dr Dale Cooper, Cammeray NSW, Australia. (Director, Broadleaf Capital International) At last, a clear and valuable book linking both sides of the coin in risk management: threats and opportunities. David Hillson truly engages the reader on how to deal with these two types of risk in projects, sharing his wisdom and extensive experience in creating value from risk management. Anyone who has to manage risk in real-world projects should read this book to enhance their opportunity management skills. - Professor Salim Al-Harthi, Muscat, Oman. (Director of Risk Management Office, Sultan Qaboos University) It is vital for value creation in business and in life that we consider uncertainties that would have upside impacts on our objectives (opportunities), as well as downside impacts (threats). Business gets confused between opportunities where there is a binary choice to take or not, and true uncertain opportunities that can be seized, or left to chance. David has persevered in helping us understand this and this important book is a must-read for all leaders who want to create value through the proactive management of risk. - Dr Ruth Murray-Webster, Wakefield, UK. (Partner, Beyond the Deal LLP and Editor, APM Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition) As project managers, we always seem to focus on threats, negative risks. David Hillson, one of the foremost thought-leaders on risk management, explains approaches to identify and manage opportunities, positive risks and how this will help achieve project success. As with his previous books, David provides a structured approach with examples, tools, and techniques. An excellent resource for all project managers in today's world. - Peter Monkhouse, Toronto ON, Canada. (Past Chair PMI Board of Directors)

The PMI-PBA (R) Exam Practice Test and Study Guide attempts to address all your questions and concerns by providing two of the most sought-after study aids: memory maps and practice questions. The systematic use of memory maps helps aid in the efficient recall of information and can boost confidence during the exam. Well-crafted practice questions are fantastic study aids that can be used to track your progress as you learn new concepts, introduce you to the complex sentence structure that is likely to appear on the exam, and concentrate your studies by domain, essentially preparing you to pass the very challenging PMI-PBA (R) Exam in the allotted four hours. In addition to study hints and exam topics, this book provides references to tools and techniques that should be incorporated into your work immediately. For each of the five domains outlined in the PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) (R) Examination Content Outline 2013 (the ECO), twenty practice questions test your knowledge. Also included is a challenging 200-question practice exam, which is representative of the actual exam. To enhance your studies, a timed, online simulated exam is also provided. At the end of the simulated exam, you can see your score per the number of questions you answered correctly. These exam questions are crafted to foster learning and reinforce content; they are not obscure or overly complicated, but rather are representative of the actual exam. Knowing what to do must be translated into doing what you know. This book helps you prepare for the PMI-PBA (R) exam by instilling knowledge and encouraging critical thinking. As a result, the skills attained can lead to improved project success and outcomes, and you'll have a much stronger understanding of the material, along with the tools and techniques of business analysis. PMI-PBA (R) is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute.

Software is one of the most important products in human history and is widely used by all industries and all countries. It is also one of the most expensive and labor-intensive products in human history. Software also has very poor quality that has caused many major disasters and wasted many millions of dollars. Software is also the target of frequent and increasingly serious cyber-attacks. Among the reasons for these software problems is a chronic lack of reliable quantified data. This reference provides quantified data from many countries and many industries based on about 26,000 projects developed using a variety of methodologies and team experience levels. The data has been gathered between 1970 and 2017, so interesting historical trends are available. Since current average software productivity and quality results are suboptimal, this book focuses on "best in class" results and shows not only quantified quality and productivity data from best-in-class organizations, but also the technology stacks used to achieve best-in-class results. The overall goal of this book is to encourage the adoption of best-in-class software metrics and best-in-class technology stacks. It does so by providing current data on average software schedules, effort, costs, and quality for several industries and countries. Because productivity and quality vary by technology and size, the book presents quantitative results for applications between 100 function points and 100,000 function points. It shows quality results using defect potential and DRE metrics because the number one cost driver for software is finding and fixing bugs. The book presents data on cost of quality for software projects and discusses technical debt, but that metric is not standardized. Finally, the book includes some data on three years of software maintenance and enhancements as well as some data on total cost of ownership.

Going where no book on software measurement and metrics has previously gone, this critique thoroughly examines a number of bad measurement practices, hazardous metrics, and huge gaps and omissions in the software literature that neglect important topics in measurement. The book covers the major gaps and omissions that need to be filled if data about software development is to be useful for comparisons or estimating future projects. Among the more serious gaps are leaks in reporting about software development efforts that, if not corrected, can distort data and make benchmarks almost useless and possibly even harmful. One of the most common leaks is that of unpaid overtime. Software is a very labor-intensive occupation, and many practitioners work very long hours. However, few companies actually record unpaid overtime. This means that software effort is underreported by around 15%, which is too large a value to ignore. Other sources of leaks include the work of part-time specialists who come and go as needed. There are dozens of these specialists, and their combined effort can top 45% of total software effort on large projects. The book helps software project managers and developers uncover errors in measurements so they can develop meaningful benchmarks to estimate software development efforts. It examines variations in a number of areas that include: Programming languages Development methodology Software reuse Functional and nonfunctional requirements Industry type Team size and experience Filled with tables and charts, this book is a starting point for making measurements that reflect current software development practices and realities to arrive at meaningful benchmarks to guide successful software projects.

There is considerable connection between growth of the personnel in the organization and the ability for the company to compete over time. Looking outside for help training may be required but looking within for opportunities for enhanced training and growth, will foster a continually improving and growing organization. This book examines the opportunities for learning, within the organization and its' activities, along with the connection to motivation. Additionally, it provides information on the characteristics of organizations that are able to quickly disseminate, along with approaches for improving this distribution of that learning throughout the organization.

While emerging technologies create massive opportunity, especially for investors and companies that seek more adaptable forms of economic growth than currently available, value is held inert by traditional approaches, patents, and other closed systems. Yet, open data, content, and information may be the key to mass innovation for future technologies, although they bring difficult challenges to private-industry models that depend on the established ideas of intellectual property. It is from this foundational observation that OpenXFORM (a blending of the words Open and the engineering abbreviation for Transformation) was developed and is explored and described in this book. The intent of the model design is to synthesize an approach to the process of innovation, inspired by natural systems and human-centric design processes. OpenXFORM describes how an open system of innovation can adapt to the unregulated world of information, data, and content; can decompose its own information to release to the open world; and can discover ways to find the points of synergy among the studied and tested methodologies that put human relationships first. This book presents an explicit innovation process that shows how to move from a breakthrough idea through a process that encourages innovative thinkers to test their assumptions, validate hypotheses, and tune and tweak their ideas, not only to drive solutions for users but also to meet the strategic goals of their companies. The anatomy of innovation through OpenXFORM contains the process for moving ideas from a flight of fancy to an explicit concept that is ready to produce.

* Provides simple, conceptual descriptions of everyday technologies * Includes clear examples and diagrams that demonstrate the principles and techniques, not just a "how-to" punch list * Covers advanced topics for readers who want to dive into the deep end of the technology pool * Avoids jargon-where terminology does appear, the text will provide clear, concise definitions

This book on performance fundamentals covers UNIX, OpenVMS, Linux, Windows, and MVS. Most of the theory and systems design principles can be applied to other operating systems, as can some of the benchmarks. The book equips professionals with the ability to assess performance characteristics in unfamiliar environments. It is suitable for practitioners, especially those whose responsibilities include performance management, tuning, and capacity planning. IT managers with a technical outlook also benefit from the book as well as consultants and students in the world of systems for the first time in a professional capacity.

The work presented in this book is based on empirical study undertaken as a case study to understand the challenges faced in massively open online course (MOOC) based learning and experimentation to understand the challenges for presenting theoretical and practical courses. The book proposes a flexible online platform. This solution provides flexibility in distance learning processes including course enrollment, learning, evaluation, and outcome of degrees. The proposed system not only gives students freedom to choose their courses in accordance with their needs but also use earned credit towards online degrees of any university of their choice.

"Vivek Kale has written a great book on performance management that focuses on decision-making; on continuous, incremental improvement; and on identifying common patterns in becoming a more intelligent organization." -James Taylor, CEO of Decision Management Solutions and author of Real-World Decision Modeling with DMN "Introducing the concepts of decision patterns and performance intelligence, Vivek Kale has written another important book on the issues faced by contemporary organizations."-Gary Cokins, author of Predictive Business Analytics and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns unravels the mystery of enterprise performance intelligence (EPI) and explains how it can transform the operating context of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what EPI means, what it can do, and application areas where it is practical to use. The need to be responsive to evolving customer needs and desires creates organizational structures where business intelligence (BI) and decision making is pushed out to operating units that are closest to the scene of the action. Closed-loop decision making resulting from a combination of on-going performance management with on-going BI can lead to an effective responsive enterprise; hence, the need for performance intelligence (PI). This pragmatic book: Introduces the technologies such as data warehousing, data mining, analytics, and business intelligence systems that are a first step toward enabling data-driven enterprises. Details decision patterns and performance decision patterns that pave the road for performance intelligence applications. Introduces the concepts, principles, and technologies related to performance measurement systems. Describes the concepts and principles related to balance scorecard systems (BCS). Introduces aspects of performance intelligence for the real-time enterprises. Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns shows how a company can design and implement instruments ranging from decision patterns to PI systems that can enable continuous correction of business unit behavior so companies can enhance levels of productivity and profitability.

This book highlights the practical aspects of using Oracle Essbase and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) as a comprehensive BI solution. It explains the key steps involved in Oracle Essbase and OBIEE implementations. Using case studies, the book covers Oracle Essbase for analytical BI and data integration, using OBIEE for operational BI including presentation services and BI Publisher for real-time reporting services, Self-service BI- in terms of VLDB, scalability, high performance, stability, long-lasting and ease of use that saves time, effort, and costs, while maximizing ROI.

The U.S. economy thrives on the development of new products, new systems, and new processes. Usually, these advances start as a flash of inspiration by highly creative individuals. It is complex and difficult to go from initial inspiration to a final product, process, or system. So it is not surprising that approximately one out of every four development programs fails. A development program or project in trouble is distinct from a program encountering typical development difficulties. Such a program or project can appear to be in free fall. This book identifies the essential fundamentals for executing a program or project turnaround effectively. These fundamentals include: Clearly identifying the next critical accomplishment needed for success Assigning responsibility for each program task to one person Capitalizing on colocation and face-to-face communication Recruiting problem solvers Wining commitment from team members Using team accomplishments to propel high team morale The guidance provided in this book is applicable to all program or project genres, including manufacturing, nonprofit work, education, medicine, investment management, and municipal management. Software has become a great part of both providing product functionality and assisting with managing product development. A special chapter devoted to software development dispels common misconceptions and provides guidance for turning around this special type of project or program. This book is a highly valuable source of insight for a wide range of readers, including management professionals, business students, and executive managers. Every member of a product or project development team will find its recommendations to be of high value.

There are a number of books on computational intelligence (CI), but they tend to cover a broad range of CI paradigms and algorithms rather than provide an in-depth exploration in learning and adaptive mechanisms. This book sets its focus on CI based architectures, modeling, case studies and applications in big data analytics, and business intelligence. The intended audiences of this book are scientists, professionals, researchers, and academicians who deal with the new challenges and advances in the specific areas mentioned above. Designers and developers of applications in these areas can learn from other experts and colleagues through this book.

Fifteen years ago, a company was considered innovative if the CEO and board mandated a steady flow of new product ideas through the company's innovation pipeline. Innovation was a carefully planned process, driven from above and tied to key strategic goals. Nowadays, innovation means entrepreneurship, self-organizing teams, fast ideas and cheap, customer experiments. Innovation is driven by hacking, and the world's most innovative companies proudly display their hacker credentials. Hacker culture grew up on the margins of the computer industry. It entered the business world in the twenty-first century through agile software development, design thinking and lean startup method, the pillars of the contemporary startup industry. Startup incubators today are filled with hacker entrepreneurs, running fast, cheap experiments to push against the limits of the unknown. As corporations, not-for-profits and government departments pick up on these practices, seeking to replicate the creative energy of the startup industry, hacker culture is changing how we think about leadership, work and innovation. This book is for business leaders, entrepreneurs and academics interested in how digital culture is reformatting our economies and societies. Shifting between a big picture view on how hacker culture is changing the digital economy and a detailed discussion of how to create and lead in-house teams of hacker entrepreneurs, it offers an essential introduction to the new rules of innovation and a practical guide to building the organizations of the future.

A comprehensive introduction to reliability and availability modeling, analysis, and design at the system, hardware, and software levels

Reliability of Computer Systems and Networks presents the fundamentals of reliability and availability analysis for various computer hardware, software, and networked systems. Reliability and availability as major objectives in system design are the focus. Various redundancy and fault-tolerant techniques, as well as error-correcting coding techniques are treated.

The author proposes a high-level design approach based on apportioning the reliability and availability goals to subsystems and provides various techniques for achieving these subsystem goals. The next step is an efficient, exact optimization approach based on upper and lower bounds to minimize the number of feasible candidates. The most readily applied methods for analysis are utilized and design techniques are derived from basic principles. Analytical simplifications and approximations are developed to validate the results of computer models used for large-scale complex problems.

Coverage includes:

• Coding and decoding schemes for error detection and correction including chip reliability
• Comparison of the reliability and availability of parallel, standby, and majority voting architectures
• Formulation, solution, and interpretation of Markov models for repairable systems
• Introduction and comparison of various RAID memory systems
• The architecture and fault-tolerant principles of TANDEM and STRATUS non-stop computer systems
• Practical and tutorial examples and numerous practice problems
• Appendices which cover the necessary background material on probability, reliability, and architecture

Reliability of Computer Systems and Networks offers in-depth and up-to-date coverage of reliability and availability for students with a focus on important applications areas, computer systems, and networks. Professionals in systems and reliability design, as well as computer architecture, will find it a highly useful reference.

Unique selling point: Advanced technology and applications in the education domain Core audience: Academics and researchers Place in the market: Academic reference book

Building a data-driven organization (DDO) is an enterprise-wide initiative that may consume and lock up resources for the long term. Understandably, any organization considering such an initiative would insist on a roadmap and business case to be prepared and evaluated prior to approval. This book presents a step-by-step methodology in order to create a roadmap and business case, and provides a narration of the constraints and experiences of managers who have attempted the setting up of DDOs. The emphasis is on the big decisions - the key decisions that influence 90% of business outcomes - starting from decision first and reengineering the data to the decisions process-chain and data governance, so as to ensure the right data are available at the right time, every time. Investing in artificial intelligence and data-driven decision making are now being considered a survival necessity for organizations to stay competitive. While every enterprise aspires to become 100% data-driven and every Chief Information Officer (CIO) has a budget, Gartner estimates over 80% of all analytics projects fail to deliver intended value. Most CIOs think a data-driven organization is a distant dream, especially while they are still struggling to explain the value from analytics. They know a few isolated successes, or a one-time leveraging of big data for decision making does not make an organization data-driven. As of now, there is no precise definition for data-driven organization or what qualifies an organization to call itself data-driven. Given the hype in the market for big data, analytics and AI, every CIO has a budget for analytics, but very little clarity on where to begin or how to choose and prioritize the analytics projects. Most end up investing in a visualization platform like Tableau or QlikView, which in essence is an improved version of their BI dashboard that the organization had invested into not too long ago. The most important stakeholders, the decision-makers, are rarely kept in the loop while choosing analytics projects. This book provides a fail-safe methodology for assured success in deriving intended value from investments into analytics. It is a practitioners' handbook for creating a step-by-step transformational roadmap prioritizing the big data for the big decisions, the 10% of decisions that influence 90% of business outcomes, and delivering material improvements in the quality of decisions, as well as measurable value from analytics investments. The acid test for a data-driven organization is when all the big decisions, especially top-level strategic decisions, are taken based on data and not on the collective gut feeling of the decision makers in the organization.

This book introduces students to business process management, an approach that aims to align the organization's business processes with the demands of the marketplace. Processes serve as a coordination mechanism, and the aim of business process management is to improve the organization's effectiveness and efficiency in adapting to change, and maintaining competitive advantage. In Business Process Management, Kumar argues for the value of looking at businesses as a collection of processes that cut across departments, and for breaking down functional silos. The book provides an overview of the basic concepts in this field before moving on to more advanced topics such as process verification, flexible processes, process security and evaluation, resource assignment, and social networks. One chapter of the book is also devoted to process analytics. The book concludes with an examination of the future directions of the discipline. Blending a strong grounding in current research with a focus on concepts and tools, Business Process Management is an accessible textbook full of practical examples and cases that will appeal to upper level students.