Car detective Jack Colby returns to solve a “dual-engine puzzle . . . Sleekly designed to appeal to both automobile buffs and cozy fans” (Booklist). A call from Jack Colby’s fiery ex-wife Eva always means trouble. This time it’s a doozy. She’s been accused of murdering her husband, a Mexican band leader shot to death on the towpath of the River Medway. But Jack’s race to the rescue comes with a slight detour: his other client, the beguiling Daisy Croft. Someone’s stolen Daisy’s beloved Morris Minor classic and she needs Jack’s car-theft sleuthing skills to get it back. To Jack’s surprise, the two cases begin to merge. It’s appears that Eva and Daisy’s disparate dilemmas have something in common: a murder committed at a local pub more than three decades ago. As a long-festering plan of vengeance endangers the lives of two innocent women, and a second murder occurs, Jack’s investigation heads down a very dangerous road.
Corporate and commercial software-development teams all want solutions for one important problem—how to get their high-pressure development schedules under control. In RAPID DEVELOPMENT, author Steve McConnell addresses that concern head-on with overall strategies, specific best practices, and valuable tips that help shrink and control development schedules and keep projects moving. Inside, you’ll find: A rapid-development strategy that can be applied to any project and the best practices to make that strategy work Candid discussions of great and not-so-great rapid-development practices—estimation, prototyping, forced overtime, motivation, teamwork, rapid-development languages, risk management, and many others A list of classic mistakes to avoid for rapid-development projects, including creeping requirements, shortchanged quality, and silver-bullet syndrome Case studies that vividly illustrate what can go wrong, what can go right, and how to tell which direction your project is going RAPID DEVELOPMENT is the real-world guide to more efficient applications development.
This book describes how to gather and define software requirements using a process based on use cases. It shows systems analysts and designers how use cases can provide solutions to the most challenging requirements issues, resulting in effective, quality systems that meet the needs of users. Use Cases, Second Edition: Requirements in Context describes a three-step method for establishing requirements—an iterative process that produces increasingly refined requirements. Drawing on their extensive, real-world experience, the authors offer a wealth of advice on use-case driven lifecycles, planning for change, and keeping on track. In addition, they include numerous detailed examples to illustrate practical applications. This second edition incorporates the many advancements in use case methodology that have occurred over the past few years. Specifically, this new edition features major changes to the methodology's iterations, and the section on management reflects the faster-paced, more "chaordic" software lifecycles prominent today. In addition, the authors have included a new chapter on use case traceability issues and have revised the appendixes to show more clearly how use cases evolve. The book opens with a brief introduction to use cases and the Unified Modeling Language (UML). It explains how use cases reduce the incidence of duplicate and inconsistent requirements, and how they facilitate the documentation process and communication among stakeholders. The book shows you how to: Describe the context of relationships and interactions between actors and applications using use case diagrams and scenarios Specify functional and nonfunctional requirements Create the candidate use case list Break out detailed use cases and add detail to use case diagrams Add triggers, preconditions, basic course of events, and exceptions to use cases Manage the iterative/incremental use case driven project lifecycle Trace back to use cases, nonfunctionals, and business rules Avoid classic mistakes and pitfalls The book also highlights numerous currently available tools, including use case name filters, the context matrix, user interface requirements, and the authors' own "hierarchy killer."
This engaging and original study, by one of Britain's leading scholars of rational choice theory, explores the course of British parliamentary politics over the last 150 years. McLean marries an appealing combination of social science and analytical narrative history to the great turning points in British politics - the Repeal of the Corn Law; the Victorian crisis of the Liberal and Conservative Parties; the Irish Question and Lloyd George's solution to it; the New Liberal origins of the welfare state; the politics of race and empire under Chamberlain and Powell; and the politics of 'there is no alternative' under Margaret Thatcher.
The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe provides a rigorous and critical examination of what is exceptional about the European politics of migration and the study of it. Crucially, this book goes beyond the study of the politics of migration in the handful of Western European countries to showcase a European approach to the study of migration politics, inclusive of tendencies in all geographical parts of Europe (including Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, Turkey) and of influences of the European Union (EU) on countries in Europe and beyond. Each expert chapter reviews the state of the art field of studies on a given topic or question in Europe as a continent while highlighting any dimensions in scholarly debates that are uniquely European. Thematically organised, it permits analytically fruitful comparisons across various geographical entities within Europe and broadens the focus on European immigration politics and policies beyond the traditional limitations of Western European, immigrant-receiving societies. The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe will be essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in, and actively concerned about, research on migration, and European and EU Politics.
In this book, interrelationships between more than 40 recent catastrophic events are explored, discussing failures of structures and machines, information technology, regulatory agencies, security designs, and more. The world is full of wonderful products and services that occasionally disappoint and even harm us. Unexpected Consequences: Why The Things We Trust Fail explores the reasons these failures occur, examining them from technological, human, and organizational perspectives. Using more than 40 recent catastrophic events to illustrate its points, the book discusses structural and machine failure, but also the often-overlooked failure of people and of systems related to such things as information technology, healthcare, and security. As the book demonstrates, faulty technology played a surprisingly small part in many of the scrutinized disasters. Author James William Martin finds cognitive factors and organizational dynamics, including ethics, are major contributors to most unexpected and catastrophic failures causing loss of life and extensive property damage. With that fresh perspective in mind, Martin is able to suggest remedies that address service failure and just may help prevent future disasters from taking place.
School and public libraries often provide programs and activities for children in preschool through the sixth grade, but there is little available to young adults. For them, libraries become a place for work—the place to research an assignment or find a book for a report—but the thought of the library as a place for enjoyment is lost. So how do librarians recapture the interest of teenagers? This just might be the answer. Here you will find theme-based units (such as Cartoon Cavalcade, Log On at the Library, Go in Style, Cruising the Mall, Space Shots, Teens on TV, and 44 others) that are designed for young adults. Each includes a display idea, suggestions for local sponsorship of prizes, a program game to encourage participation, 10 theme-related activities, curriculum tie-in activities, sample questions for use in trivia games or scavenger hunts, ideas for activity sheets, a bibliography of related works, and a list of theme-related films. The units are highly flexible, allowing any public or school library to adapt them to their particular needs.
GIS projects have previously been viewed primarily as technical exercises but it is now evident that the success of GIS projects depends as much upon organisational issues as upon technicalities. GIS projects have socio-organisational contexts which must be taken into account if such projects are to succeed. The book presents an overview of the "human" side of GIS, both individual and organisational.
This textbook is an engaging introduction to the more advanced writings on contract law, primarily designed to allow students to 'get under the skin' of the topic and begin to build their critical thinking and analysis skills. Each chapter is structured around key questions and debates that provoke deeper thought and, ultimately, a clearer understanding. This edition has been extensively rewritten to include new cases and scholarship throughout. New sections include 'no oral modification' clauses, substantive fairness, regulation of standard-form contracts, and remoteness of damage in contract. An excellent book for students of contract law who wish to know more, the aim of the book is not to present a complete overview of theoretical issues in contract law, but rather to illustrate the current debates which are currently going on among those working in shaping the area. The text features summaries of the views of notable experts on key topics and each chapter ends with a list of guided further reading. New to this Edition: - Extensively rewritten to include new cases and scholarship throughout. - New sections and debates include 'no oral modification' clauses, substantive fairness, regulation of standard-form contracts, and remoteness of damage in contract.
