Agile Project Management, Assurance and Auditing - A practical guide for auditors, reviewers and project teamsProject managers are under increasing pressure to deliver more with less time and fewer resources. The pace of change is relentless, with technological opportunities far beyond what we imagined a decade ago. Adopting the Agile methodology helps organisations develop the flexibility and adaptability necessary in such fast-paced environments.Agile can be frightening, as it represents a completely different approach from other project management methodologies that an organisation may be used to, and also changes the project audit and review processes. Using Agile for non-IT projects - such as the introduction of new products, refurbishing retail outlets, and even planning and running audits - means that general auditors and other reviewers, as well as IT specialist auditors are now having to understand Agile practices. This guide provides an overview of Agile for auditors, reviewers and project teamsThis guide discusses the following: What are the Agile project management audit objectives? What risks are covered by each objective? What controls can we expect and how can these be audited? Case studies illustrating Agile project initiation and high-level requirements. Hints and tips for performing an audit review. For experienced auditors and project management teams, this guide demonstrates how they can adapt and reuse audit skills that they may have gained during traditional waterfall, CCTA Risk Analysis and Management Method (CRAMM) or PRINCE2(R) implementation/audits. For those less experienced, it will encourage them to consider some of these good practices and their application to Agile audits. An ideal introduction to Agile project management for auditors, project managers, Agile teams and students.

Many auditors are now encountering Agile management methodologies for the first time. In some cases, this can cause problems for the audit process because the methodology is very different from traditional approaches. Aside from the difficulties faced by the auditor, an ineffective audit can have a negative effect on an Agile project by giving a false impression of its progress. It might even harm the final project outcome. Written for auditors and Agile managers, Agile Governance and Audit bridges the gap between traditional auditing approaches and the requirements of Agile methodologies. It provides an overview of Agile for auditors and other risk professionals who have not encountered the approach before. The book also tells Agile teams what auditors and risk professionals need, and the sort of questions they are likely to ask. Each chapter includes hints and tips for auditors, and a selection of case studies is included to illustrate the practical issues involved in auditing Agile projects. This makes it an ideal book for any auditor encountering the Agile methodology, and any Agile teams preparing for a management audit. This book will enable you to understand how to get the most out of Agile audits, whatever your role.

This timely book offers the first critical examination of World Bank policy reforms and initiatives during the past decade. The World Bank is viewed as one of the most powerful international organizations of our time. The authors critically analyze the influence of the institution's policy and engagement during the past decade in a variety of issue areas, including human rights, domestic reform, and the environment. The World Bank and Governance delves into the bowels of the World Bank, exploring its organizational structure, professional culture and bureaucratic procedures, illustrating how these shape its engagement with an increasingly complex, diverse and challenging operational environment. The book includes chapters on two under-researched divisions of the World Bank: the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Several illuminating country studies are also included, analyzing the World Bank's activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Lebanon, Hungary and Vietnam. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, development, politics and economics.

Climate change is the most important issue now facing humanity. As global temperatures increase, floods, fires and storms are becoming both more intense and frequent. People are suffering. And yet, emissions continue to rise. This book unpacks the activities of the key actors which have organised past and present climate responses - specifically, corporations, governments, and civil society organisations. Analysing three elements of climate change - mitigation, adaptation and suffering - the authors show how exponential growth of the capitalist system has allowed the fossil fuel industry to maintain its dominance. However, this hegemonic position is now coming under threat as new and innovative social movements have emerged, including the fossil fuel divestment movement, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion and others. In exposing the inadequacies of current climate policies and pointing to the possibilities of new social and economic systems, this book highlights how the worst impacts of climate change can be avoided.

The nature of management is changing: managers are becoming more like consultants, focusing on projects, functional integration, change and 'clients'. This timely book is based on a large-scale, international study of new management practices and examines the emergence of consultant managers. It breaks new ground in our understanding of this hybrid role, uncovering working practices, identities and occupational dynamics, to shed light on both management and consultancy. It unpacks the changing relationship between external consultants and management to reveal important implications for the future of consultancy. Both private and public sectors are covered, with a focus on managers in large and multinational organisations such as former consultants and those in specialisms such as human resource management who adopt consulting roles. In addition to advancing our understanding of changes in management, this book offers a demystifying view of consultancy as a whole, from one of the largest ever studies of this occupation.

Climate change is the most important issue now facing humanity. As global temperatures increase, floods, fires and storms are becoming both more intense and frequent. People are suffering. And yet, emissions continue to rise. This book unpacks the activities of the key actors which have organised past and present climate responses - specifically, corporations, governments, and civil society organisations. Analysing three elements of climate change - mitigation, adaptation and suffering - the authors show how exponential growth of the capitalist system has allowed the fossil fuel industry to maintain its dominance. However, this hegemonic position is now coming under threat as new and innovative social movements have emerged, including the fossil fuel divestment movement, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion and others. In exposing the inadequacies of current climate policies and pointing to the possibilities of new social and economic systems, this book highlights how the worst impacts of climate change can be avoided.

Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity, a definitive manifestation of the well-worn links between progress and devastation. This book explores the complex relationship that the corporate world has with climate change and examines the central role of corporations in shaping political and social responses to the climate crisis. The principal message of the book is that despite the need for dramatic economic and political change, corporate capitalism continues to rely on the maintenance of 'business as usual'. The authors explore the different processes through which corporations engage with climate change. Key discussion points include climate change as business risk, corporate climate politics, the role of justification and compromise, and managerial identity and emotional reactions to climate change. Written for researchers and graduate students, this book moves beyond descriptive and normative approaches to provide a sociologically and critically informed theory of corporate responses to climate change.

Anthropology and Art Practice takes an innovative look at new experimental work informed by the newly-reconfigured relationship between the arts and anthropology. This practice-based and visual work can be characterised as 'art-ethnography'. In engaging with the concerns of both fields, this cutting-edge study tackles current issues such as the role of the artist in collaborative work, and the political uses of documentary. The book focuses on key works from artists and anthropologists that engage with 'art-ethnography' and investigates the processes and strategies behind their creation and exhibition.The book highlights the work of a new generation of practitioners in this hybrid field, such as Anthony Luvera, Kathryn Ramey, Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, Kate Hennessy and Jennifer Deger, who work in a diverse range of media - including film, photography, sound and performance. Anthropology and Art Practice suggests a series of radical challenges to assumptions made on both sides of the art/anthropology divide and is intended to inspire further dialogue and provide essential reading for a wide range of students and practitioners.

The nature of management is changing: managers are becoming more like consultants, focusing on projects, functional integration, change and 'clients'. This timely book is based on a large-scale, international study of new management practices and examines the emergence of consultant managers. It breaks new ground in our understanding of this hybrid role, uncovering working practices, identities and occupational dynamics, to shed light on both management and consultancy. It unpacks the changing relationship between external consultants and management to reveal important implications for the future of consultancy. Both private and public sectors are covered, with a focus on managers in large and multinational organisations such as former consultants and those in specialisms such as human resource management who adopt consulting roles. In addition to advancing our understanding of changes in management, this book offers a demystifying view of consultancy as a whole, from one of the largest ever studies of this occupation.

Between Art and Anthropology provides new and challenging arguments for considering contemporary art and anthropology in terms of fieldwork practice. Artists and anthropologists share a set of common practices that raise similar ethical issues, which the authors explore in depth for the first time. The book presents a strong argument for encouraging artists and anthropologists to learn directly from each other's practices 'in the field'. It goes beyond the so-called 'ethnographic turn' of much contemporary art and the 'crisis of representation' in anthropology, in productively exploring the implications of the new anthropology of the senses, and ethical issues, for future art-anthropology collaborations. The contributors to this exciting volume consider the work of artists such as Joseph Beuys, Suzanne Lacy, Marcus Coates, Cameron Jamie, and Mohini Chandra. With cutting-edge essays from a range of key thinkers such as acclaimed art critic Lucy R. Lippard, and distinguished anthropologists George E. Marcus and Steve Feld, Between Art and Anthropology will be essential reading for students, artists and scholars across a number of fields.

This timely book offers the first critical examination of World Bank policy reforms and initiatives during the past decade. The World Bank is viewed as one of the most powerful international organizations of our time. The authors critically analyze the influence of the institution's policy and engagement during the past decade in a variety of issue areas, including human rights, domestic reform, and the environment. The World Bank and Governance delves into the bowels of the World Bank, exploring its organizational structure, professional culture and bureaucratic procedures, illustrating how these shape its engagement with an increasingly complex, diverse and challenging operational environment. The book includes chapters on two under-researched divisions of the World Bank: the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Several illuminating country studies are also included, analyzing the World Bank's activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Lebanon, Hungary and Vietnam. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, development, politics and economics.

Contemporary Art and Anthropology takes a new and exciting approach to representational practices within contemporary art and anthropology. Traditionally, the anthropology of art has tended to focus on the interpretation of tribal artifacts but has not considered the impact such art could have on its own ways of making and presenting work. The potential for the contemporary art scene to suggest innovative representational practices has been similarly ignored. This book challenges the reluctance that exists within anthropology to pursue alternative strategies of research, creation and exhibition, and argues that contemporary artists and anthropologists have much to learn from each others' practices. The contributors to this pioneering book consider the work of artists such as Susan Hiller, Francesco Clemente and Rimer Cardillo, and in exploring topics such as the possibility of shared representational values, aesthetics and modernity, and tattooing, they suggest productive new directions for practices in both fields.

The church in the West is rediscovering the fact that God cares deeply for the poor. More and more, churches and individual Christians are looking for ways to practice economic discipleship, but it's hard to make progress when we are blind to our own entanglement in our culture's idolatrous economic beliefs and practices.

Practicing the King's Economy cuts through much confusion and invites Christians to take their place within the biblical story of the "King Jesus Economy." Through eye-opening true stories of economic discipleship in action, and with a solid exploration of six key biblical themes, the authors offer practical ways for God's people to earn, invest, spend, compensate, save, share, and give in ways that embody God's love and provision for the world.

Foreword by Christopher J. H. Wright.

Mergers and acquisitions - are you getting an IT asset or liability? "I found this book very interesting. Due diligence is one of those functions that happens way before us 'IT'ers' get involved and so this is a useful insight into the work that happens up front and the evidence we can obtain for our work even if we were not involved in the initial due diligence." Chris Evans, ITSM Specialist "Being new to this subject I found the guidance solid and presented in an excellent style. I found it an excellent and informative read." Brian Johnson, CA When you merge with or acquire another business, you also gain their IT and data. In an ideal world this integration would be seamless and easy. In reality, however, this is often not the case. Mergers can, for example, lead to the loss of sales systems or to badly configured data. The problems don't stop in the computer room, either - they affect the whole of the business and the success of the merger/acquisition. Don't make a risky mistake Businesses and investors use due diligence reviews to ensure such deals do not have nasty hidden surprises. Many overlook the IT systems and services of the businesses they are acquiring, however, and push information risk management (IRM) professionals to the sidelines in the due diligence process. In a world of increasing cyber attacks and information security threats, this can be a very risky mistake to make. Product overview Reviewing IT in Due Diligence provides an introduction to IRM in due diligence, and outlines some of the key IT issues to consider as part of the due diligence process. For those new to the process, it explains how to conduct an IT due diligence review, from scoping to reporting, and includes information on post-merger integration to realise business benefits from the deal. For more experienced practitioners, Reviewing IT in Due Diligence provides fresh insight into the process, highlighting issues that need to be addressed, and provides a business case for IRM involvement in the due diligence process. Topics covered include: Why IT is important to due diligence The importance of IT security System reviews and data reviews Reviewing projects and changes in progress IT service provision value for money IT due diligence reporting Post-merger integration Comprehensive case studies are included throughout the book. About the authors Bryan Altimas has over 32 years' experience of technology risk management, having led teams performing technology due diligence, and having advised organisations in numerous business sectors, locations and circumstances on the effectiveness of their technology strategy in delivering business objectives. He is a qualified accountant, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC). He left KPMG in 2014 after 17 years, having contributed to their IT due diligence methodology. Chris Wright is a qualified accountant and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) with over 30 years' experience providing financial and IT advisory and risk management services. He worked for 16 years at KPMG, where he managed a number of IT due diligence reviews and was head of information risk training in the UK. He has also worked in a wide range of industry sectors including oil and gas, small and medium enterprises, public sector, aviation and travel. He is the author of Agile Governance and Audit, which is also available from ITGP. Understand the key IT issues that need to be considered in the due diligence process - buy this book now.

Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity, a definitive manifestation of the well-worn links between progress and devastation. This book explores the complex relationship that the corporate world has with climate change and examines the central role of corporations in shaping political and social responses to the climate crisis. The principal message of the book is that despite the need for dramatic economic and political change, corporate capitalism continues to rely on the maintenance of 'business as usual'. The authors explore the different processes through which corporations engage with climate change. Key discussion points include climate change as business risk, corporate climate politics, the role of justification and compromise, and managerial identity and emotional reactions to climate change. Written for researchers and graduate students, this book moves beyond descriptive and normative approaches to provide a sociologically and critically informed theory of corporate responses to climate change.

Beyond text? Critical practices and sensory anthropology is about the relationship between anthropological understandings of the world, sensory perception and aesthetic practices. It suggests that if different sensory experiences embody and facilitate different kinds of knowledge, then we need to develop new methods and more creative forms of representation that are not based solely around text or on correspondence theories of truth. The volume brings together leading figures in anthropology, visual and sound studies to explore how knowledge, sensation and embodied experiences can be researched and represented by combining different visual, aural and textual forms which it demonstrates through an accompanying DVD. The book and DVD make an argument for a necessary, critical development in anthropological ways of knowing that take place not merely at the level of theory and representation but also through innovative fieldwork methods and media practices. -- .

This book sets a new standard as a work of reference. It covers British and Irish art in public collections from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, and it encompasses nearly 9,000 painters and 90,000 paintings in more than 1,700 separate collections. The book includes as well pictures that are now lost, some as a consequence of the Second World War and others because of de-accessioning, mostly from 1950 to about 1975 when Victorian art was out of fashion. By listing many tens of thousands of previously unpublished works, including around 13,000 which do not yet have any form of attribution, this book becomes a unique and indispensable work of reference, one that will transform the study of British and Irish painting. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

We have been cruising and exploring polar waters since the nineteenth century, but very little has been written about them. Drawing on expert research, Of Penguins and Polar Bears seeks to rectify this, and looks at activity in both the Antarctic and Arctic waters - the homes of the penguins and the polar bears - to provide insight into how the passenger trades developed in these regions. With over a hundred stunning pictures, this is a must-have gazetteer for anyone thinking about cruising the Earth's 'last frontier'. From William Bradford's cruise to Greenland in a seal-hunting boat in 1869 to the newest builds of the twenty-first century, let Arctic expert Christopher Wright take you on a journey through lands less travelled.

Some people are their own worst enemies. For others, it might be a horde of robot pirates. Or carnivorous candy. Or even the devil himself. But victor has dealt with all that and was left unimpressed. Now he's content to spend his days in hell with his dead girlfriend, Emma. Everything is perfect. Until the appearance of a mysterious stranger pulls Victor back into action. Joined once again by Captain Valiant and the intrepid crew of The Adventure Galley, will Victor uncover the secret of the Sidewalk Shadow in time? Or will he blow it like he always does? Find out when The Sidewalk Shadow Disengages Gravity