Strassmann reveals the hidden costs versus value of information technology, including how to realize the alignment of IT and business plans, how spending interacts with revenue, overhead costs, and personnel related to IT, and the idea of workload without payoff. One strategy is outsourcing and the perspective that the best companies do not outsource massive amounts of data manipulation, but rather study good reasons for outsourcing and manage it effectively without decaying their information assets.
In typical Dick Morley fashion, the Father of the PLC doesnÂ't hold back expressing his views on a world undergoing major technological change. From start to finish, this easy-to-read book reveals DickÂ's strong opinions on technological analysis, predictive success, and some theory regarding marketing in engineering and industry, as well as a little food for thought on PLCs. Any proposed plans seldom survive such an autopsy. Dick skewers conventional wisdom and provides insight into his unique reality. He strongly recommends you have two cups of coffee before digesting his latest thought-provoking prose. Good luck! Â"There are plenty of people who write about the future and technological changes. Morley not only writes about the future, heÂ's helped create it. HeÂ's not only analyzed changes, heÂ's driven them. HeÂ's one of the few, not the plenty.Â" Gary S. Vasilash, Editorial Director Automotive Design & Production, Time Compression Â"Morley brings back memories of minicomputers, drum memories and clunky computers from my own past. This is a literary explosion of brilliant observations, from the mind of a man who has always been 10 years ahead of the rest of us.Â" Rich Merritt, former Technical editor ofInTech,I&CS, andControlmagazines Â"Conversations with Dick are always edgy. Either you are on the edge of your seat eagerly anticipating the next revelation, or Dick is making you think hard about how what is being said can or will affect you.Techshockwill do that, too, by taking you out of your comfort zone Â-- making you look at technology, how you apply it, how it affects you and does it need to? This book may not be a comfortable read but it is a fun way to prepare yourself for the potential Â'next big thing.Â'Â" Ian Verhappen, Industrial Networks Consultant/Specialist Â"Typical Morley writing Â-- tugs on the brain some and leaves you with a smile at the same time. I highly recommend this book.Â" Rick Caldwell, President, SCADAware, Inc.
How the computer became universal. Over the past fifty years, the computer has been transformed from a hulking scientific supertool and data processing workhorse, remote from the experiences of ordinary people, to a diverse family of devices that billions rely on to play games, shop, stream music and movies, communicate, and count their steps. In A New History of Modern Computing, Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace these changes. A comprehensive reimagining of Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing, this new volume uses each chapter to recount one such transformation, describing how a particular community of users and producers remade the computer into something new. Haigh and Ceruzzi ground their accounts of these computing revolutions in the longer and deeper history of computing technology. They begin with the story of the 1945 ENIAC computer, which introduced the vocabulary of "programs" and "programming," and proceed through email, pocket calculators, personal computers, the World Wide Web, videogames, smart phones, and our current world of computers everywhere--in phones, cars, appliances, watches, and more. Finally, they consider the Tesla Model S as an object that simultaneously embodies many strands of computing.
A History of the Internet and the Digital Future tells the story of the development of the Internet from the 1950s to the present and examines how the balance of power has shifted between the individual and the state in the areas of censorship, copyright infringement, intellectual freedom, and terrorism and warfare. Johnny Ryan explains how the Internet has revolutionized political campaigns; how the development of the World Wide Web enfranchised a new online population of assertive, niche consumers; and how the dot-com bust taught smarter firms to capitalize on the power of digital artisans. From the government-controlled systems of the Cold War to today’s move towards cloud computing, user-driven content, and the new global commons, this book reveals the trends that are shaping the businesses, politics, and media of the digital future.
In recent years, building information modeling has become a very active research area of construction informatics with investigation of ICT use within construction industry processes and organizations. The Handbook of Research on Building Information Modeling and Construction Informatics: Concepts and Technologies addresses the problems related to information integration and interoperability throughout the lifecycle of a building, from feasibility and conceptual design through to demolition and recycling stages. Containing research from leading international experts, this Handbook of Research provides comprehensive coverage and definitions of the most important issues, concepts, trends, and technologies within the field.
Software engineering requires specialized knowledge of a broad spectrum of topics, including the construction of software and the platforms, applications, and environments in which the software operates as well as an understanding of the people who build and use the software. Offering an authoritative perspective, the two volumes of the Encyclopedia of Software Engineering cover the entire multidisciplinary scope of this important field. More than 200 expert contributors and reviewers from industry and academia across 21 countries provide easy-to-read entries that cover software requirements, design, construction, testing, maintenance, configuration management, quality control, and software engineering management tools and methods. Editor Phillip A. Laplante uses the most universally recognized definition of the areas of relevance to software engineering, the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK®), as a template for organizing the material. Also available in an electronic format, this encyclopedia supplies software engineering students, IT professionals, researchers, managers, and scholars with unrivaled coverage of the topics that encompass this ever-changing field. Also Available Online This Taylor & Francis encyclopedia is also available through online subscription, offering a variety of extra benefits for researchers, students, and librarians, including: Citation tracking and alerts Active reference linking Saved searches and marked lists HTML and PDF format options Contact Taylor and Francis for more information or to inquire about subscription options and print/online combination packages. US: (Tel) 1.888.318.2367; (E-mail) [email protected] International: (Tel) +44 (0) 20 7017 6062; (E-mail) [email protected]
Software development has been a troubling since it first started. There are seven chronic problems that have plagued it from the beginning: Incomplete and ambiguous user requirements that grow by >2% per month. Major cost and schedule overruns for large applications > 35% higher than planned. Low defect removal efficiency (DRE) Cancelled projects that are not completed: > 30% above 10,000 function points. Poor quality and low reliability after the software is delivered: > 5 bugs per FP. Breach of contract litigation against software outsource vendors. Expensive maintenance and enhancement costs after delivery. These are endemic problems for software executives, software engineers and software customers but they are not insurmountable. In Software Development Patterns and Antipatterns, software engineering and metrics pioneer Capers Jones presents technical solutions for all seven. The solutions involve moving from harmful patterns of software development to effective patterns of software development. The first section of the book examines common software development problems that have been observed in many companies and government agencies. The data on the problems comes from consulting studies, breach of contract lawsuits, and the literature on major software failures. This section considers the factors involved with cost overruns, schedule delays, canceled projects, poor quality, and expensive maintenance after deployment. The second section shows patterns that lead to software success. The data comes from actual companies. The section’s first chapter on Corporate Software Risk Reduction in a Fortune 500 company was based on a major telecom company whose CEO was troubled by repeated software failures. The other chapters in this section deal with methods of achieving excellence, as well as measures that can prove excellence to C-level executives, and with continuing excellence through the maintenance cycle as well as for software development.
Process improvement can itself be considerably improved by the use of information technology. Distributed and a synchronous group support systems, such as e-mail, computer conferencing and the World Wide Web are likely to play a major role in this improvement. Process Improvement and Organizational Learning: The Role of Collaboration Technologies analyzes the relationship between collaborative technologies, process improvement and organizational learning. It is based on the author's experiences in numerous process-focused organizational development projects where process improvement groups were aided by the support of collaborative technologies.
This volume includes papers related to issues of technology, communication, health disparities and government options in health and health care services. It fills an existing gap by providing a clear sociological overview and focus on these topics.
