IBM Press – serie

The IBM Style Guide distills IBM wisdom for developing superior content: information that is consistent, clear, concise, and easy to translate. The IBM Style Guide can help any organization improve and standardize content across authors, delivery mechanisms, and geographic locations. This expert guide contains practical guidance on topic-based writing, writing content for different media types, and writing for global audiences. Throughout, the authors illustrate the guidance with many examples of correct and incorrect usage. Writers and editors will find authoritative guidance on issues ranging from structuring information to writing usable procedures to presenting web addresses to handling cultural sensitivities. The guidelines cover these topics: Using language and grammar to write clearly and consistently Applying punctuation marks and special characters correctly Formatting, organizing, and structuring information so that it is easy to find and use Using footnotes, cross-references, and links to point readers to valuable, related information Presenting numerical information clearly Documenting computer interfaces to make it easy for users to achieve their goals Writing for diverse audiences, including guidelines for improving accessibility Preparing clear and effective glossaries and indexes The IBM Style Guide can help any organization or individual create and manage content more effectively. The guidelines are especially valuable for businesses that have not previously adopted a corporate style guide, for anyone who writes or edits for IBM as an employee or outside contractor, and for anyone who uses modern approaches to information architecture.

The XPages Extension Library’s next-generation XPages controls make application development far more efficient, effective, scalable, and rewarding. With IBM® Lotus® Notes®/Domino® 8.5.3 and Upgrade Pack 1, IBM has incorporated powerful new capabilities and support. These components and technologies are now fully ready for even the toughest production challenges. XPages Extension Library is the first and only complete guide to Domino development with this library; it’s the best manifestation yet of the underlying XPages Extensibility Framework. Complementing the popular Mastering XPages, it gives XPages developers complete information for taking full advantage of the new components from IBM. Combining reference material and practical use cases, the authors offer step-by- step guidance for installing and configuring the XPages Extension Library and using its state-of-the-art applications infrastructure to quickly create rich web applications with outstanding user experiences. Next, the authors provide detailed step-by-step guidance for leveraging the library’s powerful new support for REST services, mobile and social development, and relational data. The book concludes by showing how to include Java™ code in Domino XPages applications—a great way to make them even more powerful. Coverage includes Automating deployment of XPages Extension Library throughout your IBM Lotus Notes/Domino or IBM XWork environment Integrating modern design patterns and best practices into Lotus Domino applications with drag-and-drop ease Incorporating AJAX capabilities with Switch, In Place Form, and other dynamic content controls Extending applications with Dojo widgets, popups, Tooltips, Dialogs, and Pickers Implementing state-of-the-art navigation and outlines Using Layout and Dynamic Views controls to painlessly modernize most Domino applications to XPages Quickly building mobile interfaces for existing applications Using social enablers to connect with social platforms and incorporate social features Integrating SQL datasources into XPages data-driven applications

The Definitive Solutions-Oriented Guide to IBM® DB2® for z/OS®: Now Fully Updated for Both v9 and v10! The largest database tuning performance gains can often be obtained from tuning application code, and applications that use SQL to retrieve data are the best candidates for tuning. This well-organized, easy-to-understand reference brings together more than 100 SQL-related skills and techniques that any developer can use to build and optimize DB2 applications for consistently superior performance. DB2 tuning expert Tony Andrews (“Tony the Tuner”) draws on more than 20 years of DB2-related experience, empowering you to take performance into your own hands, whether you’re writing new software or tuning existing systems. Tony shows you exactly how to clear bottlenecks, resolve problems, and improve both speed and reliability. This book fully reflects the latest SQL programming best practices for DB2 V9 and DB2 V10 on z/OS: techniques that are taught in no other book and are rarely covered in general DB2 SQL courses. Drawing on his extensive consulting experience and highly praised training with Themis Inc., Tony also presents practical checklists and an invaluable 15-step methodology for optimizing virtually any DB2 application. Coverage includes Empowering developers on knowing what to do and where to look in resolving performance problems in queries or programsProviding many programming and SQL coding examplesEstablishing standards and guidelines that lead to high-performance SQLImplementing time-efficient code walkthroughs to ensure that your standards are followedFocusing on the small number of SQL statements that consume the most resourcesIdentifying simple solutions that deliver the most sizable benefitsOptimizing performance by rewriting query predicates more efficientlyProviding a better understanding of SQL optimization and Runstat statisticsRecognizing opportunities to tweak your code more effectively than the OptimizerOptimizing SQL code with COBOL applicationsEfficiently checking for the existence of data, rows, or tablesUsing Runstats’ newest capabilities to consistently optimize paths to data

Build Tomorrow’s Best Mobile/Web Applications with IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5 and IBM Worklight This guide presents a coherent strategy for building modern mobile/web applications that are fast, responsive, interactive, reusable, maintainable, extensible, and a pleasure to use. Four IBM experts offer practical, hands-on coverage of front-end development with IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.5, IBM Worklight, and today’s most popular open source frameworks. Using well-crafted examples, the authors introduce best practices for MobileFirst development, helping you create apps that work superbly on mobile devices and add features on conventional browsers. Throughout, you’ll learn better ways to deliver Web 2.0 apps with HTML /JavaScript front ends, RESTful Web Services, and persistent data. Proven by IBM and its customers, the approach covered in this book leads to more successful mobile/web applications—and more effective development teams. Coverage Includes • Developing for MobileFirst: moving from “graceful degradation” to “progressive enhancement” • Quickly delivering lightweight JEE apps with WebSphere Application Server’s new Liberty Profile • Implementing an agile, user-centered, page-oriented approach to design • Constructing REST services with WebSphere Liberty, Eclipse, and JEE annotations • Building better front-end application architectures with frameworks and JavaScript • Designing and building complex, transactional RESTful services that interface with databases and other data sources • Building IBM Worklight hybrid apps with open source frameworks: jQuery Mobile, Backbone, Require.js, and Handlebars • Debugging cross-platform, multi-language modern web apps • Promoting scalability, security, and connectivity into the wider enterprise The IBM Press developerWorks Series pairs books with complementary resources on the developerWorks website at https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/dwbooks/

The #1 Guide to Excellence in Technical Communication—Fully Updated for Embedded Assistance, Mobile, Search, Multimedia, and More

 

Direct from IBM’s own content design experts, this guide shows you how to design product interfaces and technical information that always place users front and center. This edition has been fully revised to help you consistently deliver the right content at the right time.

 

You’ll master today’s best practices to apply nine essential characteristics of high-quality technical information: accuracy, clarity, completeness, concreteness, organization, retrievability, style, task orientation, and visual effectiveness.

 

Coverage Includes

Advocating for users throughout the entire product development process Delivering information in an ordered manner by following progressive disclosure techniques Optimizing content so that users can find it from anywhere Streamlining information for mobile delivery Helping users right where they are

Whether you’re a writer, editor, information architect, user experience professional, or reviewer, this book shows you how to create great technical information, from the product design to the user interface, topics, and other media.

Thoroughly revised and updated Extensive new coverage of self-documenting interfaces and embedded assistance Updated practical guidelines and checklists Hundreds of new examples

 

 

Master Data Analytics Hands-On by Solving Fascinating Problems You’ll Actually Enjoy! Harvard Business Review recently called data science “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.” It’s not just sexy: For millions of managers, analysts, and students who need to solve real business problems, it’s indispensable. Unfortunately, there’s been nothing easy about learning data science–until now. Getting Started with Data Science takes its inspiration from worldwide best-sellers like Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: It teaches through a powerful narrative packed with unforgettable stories. Murtaza Haider offers informative, jargon-free coverage of basic theory and technique, backed with plenty of vivid examples and hands-on practice opportunities. Everything’s software and platform agnostic, so you can learn data science whether you work with R, Stata, SPSS, or SAS. Best of all, Haider teaches a crucial skillset most data science books ignore: how to tell powerful stories using graphics and tables. Every chapter is built around real research challenges, so you’ll always know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’ll master data science by answering fascinating questions, such as: • Are religious individuals more or less likely to have extramarital affairs? • Do attractive professors get better teaching evaluations? • Does the higher price of cigarettes deter smoking? • What determines housing prices more: lot size or the number of bedrooms? • How do teenagers and older people differ in the way they use social media? • Who is more likely to use online dating services? • Why do some purchase iPhones and others Blackberry devices? • Does the presence of children influence a family’s spending on alcohol? For each problem, you’ll walk through defining your question and the answers you’ll need; exploring how others have approached similar challenges; selecting your data and methods; generating your statistics; organizing your report; and telling your story. Throughout, the focus is squarely on what matters most: transforming data into insights that are clear, accurate, and can be acted upon.

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For CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and IT leaders: The green IT business case and best practices for making it happen Timely help for companies facing rising energy costs, new government rules, and growing public concern Powerful new insights from IBM’s breakthrough $1 billion green computing initiative

 

Chances are your enterprise IT organization has a significant carbon footprint. In an era of unpredictable energy costs, reducing energy usage throughout your data centers and IT infrastructure represents a powerful cost-cutting opportunity. Now, a top green IT expert shows business and IT leaders how to drive powerful business value by improving IT’s environmental performance.

 

Drawing on leading-edge experience, John Lamb helps you realistically assess the business case for green IT, set priorities, and overcome the internal and external challenges to making it work. He offers proven solutions for issues ranging from organizational obstacles to executive motivation and discusses crucial issues ranging from utility rate incentives to metrics. Along the way, you’ll discover energy-saving opportunities–from virtualization and consolidation to cloud and grid computing–and solutions that will improve business flexibility as they reduce environmental impact.

 

Lamb presents case studies, checklists, and more–all the practical guidance you need to drive maximum bottom-line value from your green IT initiative.

Succeed with Scrum in Even the Largest, Most Complex Distributed Development Projects

 

Forewords by Ken Schwaber, Scott Ambler, Roman Pichler, and Matthew Wang

 

This is the first comprehensive, practical guide for Scrum practitioners working in large-scale distributed environments. Written by three of IBM’s leading Scrum practitioners—in close collaboration with the IBM QSE Scrum Community of more than 1000 members worldwide—this book offers specific, actionable guidance for everyone who wants to succeed with Scrum in the enterprise.

 

Readers will follow a journey through the lifecycle of a distributed Scrum project, from envisioning products and setting up teams to preparing for Sprint planning and running retrospectives. Each chapter presents a baseline drawn from “conventional” Scrum, then discusses additional issues faced by distributed teams, and presents specific best-practice solutions, alternatives, and tips the authors have identified through hard, empirical experience.

 

Using real-world examples, the book demonstrates how to apply key Scrum practices, such as look-ahead planning in geographically distributed environments. Readers will also gain valuable new insights into the agile management of complex problem and technical domains.

 

Coverage includes

Developing user stories and working with Product Owners as a distributed team Recognizing and fixing the flaws Scrum may reveal in existing processes Engaging in more efficient Release and Sprint planning Conducting intense, brief daily Scrum meetings in distributed environments Managing cultural and language differences Resolving dependencies, performing frequent integration, and maintaining transparency in geographically distributed environments Successfully running remote software reviews and demos Brainstorming what worked and what didn’t, to improve future Sprints

This book will be an indispensable resource for every team leader, member, product owner, or manager working with Scrum or other agile methods in any distributed software development organization.