"The authors address Agile/Virtual Enterprises as a new organizational paradigm, highly dynamic reconfigurable agile networks of independent enterprises sharing all resources, including knowledge, market, customers, etc., and using specific organizational architectures that introduce the enterprises' true virtual environments"--Provided by publisher.
New ways to manage change and to compete in a rapidly changing business world are emerging under the concept of the agile enterprise. Agile organizations can be almost any size or type, but what distinguishes them from their lumbering traditional business counterparts is the ability to read and to react quickly. They can also be virtual, meaning they can reconfigure themselves quickly and temporarily in response to a challenge, which gives them agility, but then dissolve or transmute themselves into something else. Goranson explains how they do this and how your own organization can do it too. With fascinating case studies and a unique metric, Goranson provides answers. The result is essential reading for management at almost any level within every type of organization. Now that serious management tools are beginning to appear, the agile virtual enterprise is no longer just a theoretical possibility—it's real. In fact, although they were never actually described that way, virtual organizations can be found throughout history, from the whaling companies of the 19th century through the film studios of the 20th. Goranson describes many of these businesses and gives us an understanding of how they evolved and why they worked. Of special interest is his metric. It requires no technical background to be understood and applied, yet it digs deeply into the philosophy of strategic management as well as its practicalities. Goranson also reports for the first time on the large scale research sponsored by the U.S. military to advance the state of the art in management science and to create the tools that eventually made the agile virtual enterprise what it is today.
Identifying the "new industrial revolution", the authors present a vision for "cooperating to compete" in today's rapidly-changing business world. Nagel, Goldman, and Preiss show exactly why mass production is a thing of the past, and why customized products are the key to business survival.
Provides a comprehensive review of the most recent advances in agent and Web service technologies. Provides an integrated view of the most recent contributions that support formation, integration, collaboration, and operation in virtual enterprise. Presents examples of applications of these technologies throughout various aspects of the virtual enterprise life cycle.
Virtual Enterprise Integration: Technological and Organizational Perspectives addresses the emergent research and development issues for the most-advanced enterprise organizational paradigm of today's world - the virtual enterprise paradigm. Virtual Enterprise Integration: Technological and Organizational Perspectives integrates the contributions by renowned international researchers and scientists and is virtually the first book focusing solely on the problem of virtual enterprise integration. This book is a guide that gives readers a broader perspective of VE integration requirements and raises their awareness on which technology and how technology can serve the needs of an expanding and increasingly competitive organizational model.
Master IBM’s Breakthrough DAD Process Framework for Succeeding with Agile in Large, Complex, Mission-Critical IT Projects It is widely recognized that moving from traditional to agile approaches to build software solutions is a critical source of competitive advantage. Mainstream agile approaches that are indeed suitable for small projects require significant tailoring for larger, complex enterprise projects. In Disciplined Agile Delivery, Scott W. Ambler and Mark Lines introduce IBM’s breakthrough Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process framework, which describes how to do this tailoring. DAD applies a more disciplined approach to agile development by acknowledging and dealing with the realities and complexities of a portfolio of interdependent program initiatives. Ambler and Lines show how to extend Scrum with supplementary agile and lean strategies from Agile Modeling (AM), Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Unified Process (UP), and other proven methods to provide a hybrid approach that is adaptable to your organization’s unique needs. They candidly describe what practices work best, why they work, what the trade-offs are, and when to consider alternatives, all within the context of your situation. Disciplined Agile Delivery addresses agile practices across the entire lifecycle, from requirements, architecture, and development to delivery and governance. The authors show how these best-practice techniques fit together in an end-to-end process for successfully delivering large, complex systems--from project initiation through delivery. Coverage includes Scaling agile for mission-critical enterprise endeavors Avoiding mistakes that drive poorly run agile projects to chaos Effectively initiating an agile project Transitioning as an individual to agile Incrementally building consumable solutions Deploying agile solutions into complex production environments Leveraging DevOps, architecture, and other enterprise disciplines Adapting your governance strategy for agile projects Based on facts, research, and extensive experience, this book will be an indispensable resource for every enterprise software leader and practitioner--whether they’re seeking to optimize their existing agile/Scrum process or improve the agility of an iterative process.
A clear, practical approach to making your organization more responsive to change Response Ability: The Language, Structure, and Culture of the Agile Enterprise helps companies keep up with an ever-changing business environment driven by the explosion and rapid application of new knowledge and increasing connectivity and communication. This twenty-first-century business primer identifies corporate characteristics that facilitate change and shows managers how to instill these competencies in every part of any organization. This user's manual for the new economy shows companies how to reconfigure themselves to respond quickly when a business situation demands rapid changes in organization, distribution logistics, production capability, innovation capability, resource procurement, product design, service strategy, or any other activity or competency. It provides a strategic context for lean operating practices, puts knowledge management and the learning organization in perspective, and offers a framework within which to apply today's best advice on new business practices and strategic focus. This timely guide is the ultimate resource for enterprises struggling to adjust to rapidly changing economic conditions and for managers at any level who must introduce agility into a department, division, or entire organization. It is also an excellent supporting reference and tutorial for all others who will take part in the transformation.
