Practitioner Series – serie

Developments in technology have made it possible for speech output to be used in place of the more usual visual interface in both domestic and commercial devices. Speech can be used in situations where visual attention is occupied, such as when driving a car, or where a task is complex and traditional visual interfaces are not effective, such as programming a video recorder. Speech can also be employed in specialist adaptations for visually impaired people.However, the use of speech has not been universally successful, possibly because the speech interaction is poorly designed. Speech is fundamentally different from text, and a lot of the problems may arise due to simplified text-to-speech conversion. Design of Speech-based Devices considers the problems associated with speech interaction, and offers practical solutions.

Outsourcing permeates the IT world and has had a profound impact on the work of IS professionals. Nearly all will, at some stage in their careers, work with outsourced services as customer or supplier. Elizabeth Sparrow's insights into the benefits and pitfalls of this complex area will help IS professionals tackle the challenges of outsourcing. Combining relevant background information with practical guidance this book covers the whole outsourcing process, from the initial decision to outsource through to managing the outsourced services on a day-to-day basis. Successful IT Outsourcing considers: - The objectives behind outsourcing - The selection of a service provider - The management and measurement of the performance of outsourced services - The role of the outsourcing contract - Why outsourcing sometimes fails and how to turn failure into success Features and Benefits: - Describes the origins of IT outsourcing, and recent developments - Examines the way in which an organization might determine whether to outsource and how it can choose a service provider - Discusses how to develop effective outsourcing relationships- Provides context and advice to assist IS professionals, whose work is being outsourced, as they consider their future careers and the possibility of transferring to a new employer

More and more, the shape of the IT organization is critical to business systems delivery, yet all too often this definition is approached in a haphazard fashion - often based on old theory and out-dated experiences rather than being moulded to the realities of the world in which we work. Shaping the IT Organization considers how one should go about the moulding of an IT function in order to ensure effective output from the resources within that organization. It focuses on understanding precisely the elements and challenges within such a definition. Key topics covered: What is an organization?: Issues and key considerations for IT from an organizational perspective, including the idea of the 'organization lifecycle' and the very real impact this can have within the IT environment. Why change?: The impact of generic business approaches demanded by current business models and pressures. Solutions vs Products: The IT organizational impact of moving from a product-based to a solutions-based business model. Outsourcing: The increasing trend to place critical elements of IT's delivery capability outside the core business means that IT functions are often poorly aligned to both manage these relationships and rise to the challenges that outsourcing offers. Resource Management: Fundamental questions about people and the need to adapt resource management approaches to take a radical approach to how we both manage and empower the people within those models in order to deliver what is required.

This text provides an insight into some important ideas in human-computer interaction. The authors describe ERMIA (Entity-Relationship Modelling of Information Artefacts) and explain how it can be used to develop effective interfaces. The book shows a method of evaluating user interfaces and how to communicate these needs to software developers.

Today, we understand that change in software systems is inevitable. There are many systems in operation, however, which are prohibitively expensive to change. This is a serious problem since a significant number of them are business-critical. This book describes a method, Renaissance, which aims to recover control over these legacy systems. The method focuses on reengineering as a means to transform legacy systems to systems which are responsive to change. The authors describe how to manage evolution projects, from conception through to system deployment, with consideration to technical, business, and organisational factors. The Renaissance of Legacy Systems address two fundamental issues: What is the best form of evolution for your legacy system? Once identified, how should you implement the evolution strategy? In answering these questions, this text helps you to understand the problems of reengineering and provides practical advice for managing evolution projects.

Java for Practitioners doesn just provide an introduction to Java, it also tells you all about object orientation. One of the biggest problems with many of the Java books currently on the market is that they only teach the language and ignore the object orientation aspects (or at best just devote one chapter to it). Not only does John Hunt cover both Java and object orientation thoroughly but he also realises that practitioners learn best by oing'and he writes this book to reflect that. Chapters are dippable-into and ideas and concepts are introduced by exercises and practical examples. The book does of course cover the new release - Java 2/JDK 1. 2 - and it also includes the Java Self-Tester which lets readers determine whether they are ready to take Sun's Java Certification exam. There is also an essential reference section which provides detailed solutions to real world Java problems, and new Java features. No one intending to move over to Java should be without this book.

This book provides a detailed account of real-time systems, including program structures for real-time, phases development analysis, and formal specification and verification methods of reactive systems.Real-Time and Multi-Agent Systems brings together the 3 key fields of current and future data-processing:- Distributed systems and applications;- Parallel scientific computing;- Real-time and manufacturing systems.It covers the basic concepts and theories, methods, techniques and tools currently used in the specification and implementation of applications and contains lots of examples as well as complete case studies.

Software Design - Cognitive Aspects covers a variety of areas including software analysis, design, coding and maintenance. It details the history of the research that has been conducted since the 1970s in this fast-developing field before defining a computer program from a computing and cognitive psychology viewpoint. Detailed treatment is given to the two essential sides of programming; software production and software understanding and throughout the book parallels are drawn between studies on processing texts written in natural language and processing computer programs.This book will be of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and graduate students in Computer Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Cognitive Ergonomics.

Electronic Service Management is an emerging concept. It covers the organisational, economic technical and user issues involved when integrating the development of electronic services. This is particularly important (and more complicated) within public sector organisations.Managing Electronic Services provides an easy to read and practical guide to portal-electronic services development in the public sector. The book takes an organisational perspective asking 'How do you make things work in your organisation and in relation to your customers or users?' By integrating the managerial, technical and economic issues, the authors can put them into context with the need to understand user requirements and expectations.Lots of examples are provided, giving tips on how to avoid many of the pitfalls you might meet along the way, and showing you how to diagnose potential problems and find ways of dealing with them effectively.

There has been a phenomenal growth in autonomous business services, fuelled largely by the internet and e-business. New business architectures are emerging, in which an enterprise is configured as a dynamic network of components providing business services to one another. This is component-based business - "plug-and-play" applied not to hardware and software, but to business relationships. Component-Based Business constitutes a radical challenge to traditional notions of strategy, planning, requirements, quality and change, and tries to help you improve how you think through the practical difficulties and opportunities of the component-based business. As this is a rapidly developing field, more up-to-date and detailed examples can be found on the website associated with this book: http://www.component-based-business.com, which also contains open forums in which your questions can be discussed. "In this work so far, Richard challenges conventional thinking with a sometimes breathtaking series of lateral thoughts that are essential reading for the component architect, designer and their customer. Strongly recommended."David Sprott, Principal Analyst, CBDi Forum

What should be every software organization's primary goal? Managing Software Quality. Producing and sustaining the high quality of products and processes in evolutionary systems are at the core of software engineering, and it is only through a comprehensive measurement program that a successful outcome can be assured. Cost and budget limitations, schedule due dates, all represent systems engineering constraints which impinge on the degree to which software development and maintenance professional can achieve maximum quality. Richard Nance and James Arthur's guide to managing software quality goes beyond the usual answers to the "why" and "what" questions generally provided in the standards documents. They not only look at the "how to" in their focus of the measurement of software quality, but also come up with specific suggestions to the pressing needs of practising software engineers, quality assurance engineers and software and project managers."This is one of the few books in this area that addresses the 'quality' aspect based upon the important aspect of documentation.In addition, the book provides a basis for not only the software manager concerned with measurement implementation, but also the researcher in identifying the current state of the art and practice. This will be a key reference guide for anyone that is concerned with developing quality software."(William H Farr, PhD, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division)About the Authors: Research motivated by problems arising in large, complex software systems is what stimulates Richard Nance. His collaboration with the U.S. Navy on major software-intensive programs spans over 30 years. James Arthur is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech.

What does training mean for the IT professional? What are the management issues surrounding training and skill development in IT departments? Why is it so important to support the learning process? Developing IT Staff provides an easy reference and down-to-earth practical advice for those who need to tackle the important issues of training and skill development in the context of technical software development jobs.In this book, Mary Clarkson uses real examples from her experiences as a technical specialist and as an IT training manager, giving practical guidance on how to get people started on their skill development, as well as how to support them through their learning process.Topics covered include: - Identifying the real training need and finding solutions - Choosing an appropriate training method - Supporting the learning process - Continuous professional development, with particular relevance to an IT department - Evaluation (what needs to be evaluated, why and when) - Technical Skill Assessment.

Developments in technology have made it possible for speech output to be used in place of the more usual visual interface in both domestic and commercial devices. Speech can be used in situations where visual attention is occupied, such as when driving a car, or where a task is complex and traditional visual interfaces are not effective, such as programming a video recorder. Speech can also be employed in specialist adaptations for visually impaired people.However, the use of speech has not been universally successful, possibly because the speech interaction is poorly designed. Speech is fundamentally different from text, and a lot of the problems may arise due to simplified text-to-speech conversion. Design of Speech-based Devices considers the problems associated with speech interaction, and offers practical solutions.

Reviews of the 'Politics of Usability' by the same editors:"Designing quality web sites or easy-to-use software is simple: just employ established usability engineering methods. The only hard part is getting people to actually do so instead of basing the design on their own intuition. Luckily, the authors in this book know all the devious tricks that are necessary to get development organizations to do the right thing. Follow their advice and the usability of your products will double."Dr Jakob Nielsen, Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, Author of 'Usability Engineering'"This well written book shows how to overcome many of the problems of putting research into the theories, methods and techniques of human computer interaction to work in commercial systems projects."Dave Clarke, Consultant, Visualize Software - Computer Bulletin, September 1998A follow-up to the successful 'Politics of Usability' this book shows how to apply HCI expertise in the pressured environment of a modern organisation.Quite apart from the need to provide a good usability service cheaply and efficiently, most HCI practitioners also have to deal with day-to-day concerns such as funding, budgets, project and people management, teamwork, communication and promoting an HCI ethos within the company. How to achieve this and still find new ways to make modern technology more usable is the central message of this book.The Usability Business offers a unique insight into usability issues. The book deals with real work situations focussing on practical, workable approaches to professional responsibilities.

Right context, software reuse promises high value to businesses that develop software, opening the door to radical improvements in their software capability (productivity, cost, time to market). Attempts to adopt reuse without a sound understanding of the range of issues involved, however, can lead to expensive failure. This book is for those who are wondering whether they should adopt reuse and how, and also to those who have already started to adopt it but are wondering where they may be going wrong and how they could do better. It consistently emphasizes the practical issues that influence success or failure in reuse; and it offers a concise and balanced coverage of the essentials of the subject, rather than going into undue depth or detail on some topics at the expense of others. It occupies the central ground between being on the one hand an academic textbook and on the other hand a cookbook with ready-made recipes for exactly "how to do it". The authors have drawn on their extensive experience of reuse and of software process improvement to provide a readable and balanced coverage of the subject.This book is suitable for business executives, software managers and software developers, regardless of whatever kind of software or applications are developed by their organisations, and whatever the size of those organisations. A special feature of the book is the frequent use of experience notes, drawn from the real-life experience of organisations that have embarked on the reuse adventure.

This is a book in which successful, experienced IT solutions providers talk about their actual practical experiences in IT risk management. Tony Moynihan has asked successful IS/IT project managers to compare and contrast their recent projects in terms of the various important and different factors they had to deal with in each project. Coping with IS/IT Risk Management discusses how to:- handle unrealistic client expectations; - decide on the 'ownership' of a project; - set targets that work in practice! The result is a very well-written, interesting book, which will be enormously helpful to any professional needing to cope with the many and varied problems which can be encountered in IS/IT risk management. About the Author: Tony Moynihan is a Professor at the School of Computer Applications at Dublin City University, researching in the field of software engineering and software project risk-analysis. "This is probably one of the most real, useful, and entertaining books I have ever read on project management."(Robert L Glass, Editor, The Software Practitioner)"In my opinion, this book contains great practical advice to IS/IT project managers, based on the experience of other IT project managers. Tony succeeds in getting project managers to talk about their projects and the associated risks. He then distils these candid interviews into practical advice for other IS/IT project managers." (Nancy Mead, SEI, Carnegie-Mellon University, USA) "A useful book for any project manager to use and to reflect on, as they undertake their day-to-day activities." (Robert Cochran, Director, Centre for Software Engineering, Dublin)

In today's rush towards e-Business many organizations have failed to recognize that the responsibilities of IT Managers have significantly changed. No longer do the tried and trusted methods of the 3- or 4-GL lifecycle retain the value they once possessed; and the more we try to fit new e-Business developments into old and ill-fitting processes and practices, the greater the danger of compromising the business altogether. Ian Gouge offers an insight into the very real - and new - challenges faced by IT managers and professionals, such as: - What is e-Business? - What are the implications of e-Business for the IT Professional? - What are the 'systems' expectations of both internal and external customers? What does the IT Manager need to consider to make an effective contribution to the new business model e-Management is a valuable guide for those responsible for the management of IT in the burgeoning world of e-Business. It also provides insight for those business managers who are more dependent on information technology for their business than perhaps they realise.

Outsourcing permeates the IT world and has had a profound impact on the work of IS professionals. Nearly all will, at some stage in their careers, work with outsourced services as customer or supplier. Elizabeth Sparrow's insights into the benefits and pitfalls of this complex area will help IS professionals tackle the challenges of outsourcing. Combining relevant background information with practical guidance this book covers the whole outsourcing process, from the initial decision to outsource through to managing the outsourced services on a day-to-day basis.Successful IT Outsourcing considers: - The objectives behind outsourcing - The selection of a service provider - The management and measurement of the performance of outsourced services - The role of the outsourcing contract - Why outsourcing sometimes fails and how to turn failure into success Features and Benefits: - Describes the origins of IT outsourcing, and recent developments - Examines the way in which an organization might determine whether to outsource and how it can choose a service provider - Discusses how to develop effective outsourcing relationships- Provides context and advice to assist IS professionals, whose work is being outsourced, as they consider their future careers and the possibility of transferring to a new employer

More and more, the shape of the IT organization is critical to business systems delivery, yet all too often this definition is approached in a haphazard fashion - often based on old theory and out-dated experiences rather than being moulded to the realities of the world in which we work. Shaping the IT Organization considers how one should go about the moulding of an IT function in order to ensure effective output from the resources within that organization. It focuses on understanding precisely the elements and challenges within such a definition. Key topics covered: What is an organization?: Issues and key considerations for IT from an organizational perspective, including the idea of the 'organization lifecycle' and the very real impact this can have within the IT environment. Why change?: The impact of generic business approaches demanded by current business models and pressures. Solutions vs Products: The IT organizational impact of moving from a product-based to a solutions-based business model. Outsourcing: The increasing trend to place critical elements of IT's delivery capability outside the core business means that IT functions are often poorly aligned to both manage these relationships and rise to the challenges that outsourcing offers. Resource Management: Fundamental questions about people and the need to adapt resource management approaches to take a radical approach to how we both manage and empower the people within those models in order to deliver what is required.

Computers are now seen as communication tools as much as data processing machines. The available technology already offers considerable competitive advantage to managers who master the techniques of human and electronic networking. This book encourages executives to acquaint themselves with just what is, and what will be, possible with developing products in the computer communications industry.

Computer-based diagnostic systems are among the most successful applications of knowledge-based systems (KBS) technology. Chris Price shows the best way to build effective diagnostic systems for different types of diagnostic problems by: - giving examples of different solutions to the problem of building effective diagnostic systems - helping you to decide on an appropriate strategy for building a diagnostic system to aid troubleshooting of that diagnostic problem - showing how to use diagnostic fault trees as a common representation for discussing different ways of approaching diagnosis. Computer-Based Diagnostic Systems is written in such a way as to make the material easy to understand even when you do not have easy access to the commercial tools.

Client/server and distributed technologies have made great strides since their emergence in the late 1980s to become very popular in the IT industry. This work illustrates techniques not only for designing GUI client/server applications, but also for managing complex application environments containing both legacy and new applications. Topics covered in this book include: the what, when and how of the three-tier client/server model; coupling and dependency - key design factors in distributed systems; distributed application design alternatives for the enterprise; the federated application structure for integrating the applications of the enterprise; and a real life case study of a major financial institution.

This work attempts to explain the particular financial and accounting issues that are raised by the special nature of IT, in a manner that is understandable to the non-financial IT person as well as accountants.

This book is about Project Management and how projects should be managed and controlled, including people and tools. Its format consists of two major components. The first concentrates on principles and the human aspects of project management, while the second component of the book specifies a structured, practical, formal process to the principles and approaches in this book lend themselves to project managing the paradigm of technical, management and organisational changes. To use the methodology effectively, it is necessary first to understand and appreciate the people aspect behind a project e. g. their multi-cultural diversities, and the roles and responsibilities of each project player. Combining human aspects and methodology principles is the basic purpose throughout this book; and the authors objective is to disseminate a better understanding of a Project Management Methodology and illustrate its universality.