Oracle E-Business Suite Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management

Book Description

Implement Oracle's Internet-based Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management products using this Oracle authorized resource. This comprehensive guide explains how to implement the planning, engineering, pricing, order fulfillment, and inventory management components of Oracle Manufacturing and Supply Chain--and develop and deliver goods and services faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than your competitors.

Customer Reviews:

For use by "the initiated".......2007-02-18

While Gerald & Co's book may look like a good introduction to Oracle's manufacturing & supply chain management modules, it will make little sense to those who have never used the system or don't have access to it. Because I had three years of hands-on experience with Oracle's E-Business Suite, the book is useful and I'm giving it a 3-star rating.

Things that Gerald & Co. could have done better: more illustrations of what they write about. There are many "bells and whistles" in the software, but the book doesn't have enough "screen shots" to show you where they're located on an Oracle "form." I'm not satisfied with the case study, which they have placed in chapter 22. There are no screen shots there either.

Gerald & Co. are assuming you can navigate and know a lot of the Oracle lingo. If you are new to this, don't expect to learn it from this book. The audiences for the book are intermediate and advanced users.

One could also regard this as a reference book. Use it to answer problems you encounter while using the product or better understand what's going on. In this context, I'd rate it 3 stars, too.

A Good Introduction.......2006-11-03

This book is for users of Oracle Manufacturing and has the end-user in mind Definately not for the the technical minded, site specific Installs and for those who are used to Technical Reference manuals

I am yet to receive this book.......2006-02-01

The tentative date of receipt is 27th Jan 2006 but to i haven't received the book as of today.

Pls send same asap

Arul

Excellent Oracle reference tool.......2005-10-17

I was part of the Oracle implementation team at our company, and I have found this book to be a useful tool for myself in the year since implementation as we continue to explore new functionalities. It is also a useful tool for the application users to learn how Oracle works. In fact, I not only purchased this book for myself, but I have purchased copies for several other people in the company. I refer to it all the time.

Good Book for the beginners.......2005-08-24

This book is very useful for the beginners as well those who want to brush up their knowledge on oracle applications release 11i.

Mostly it covers all Manufacturing & Distribution modules. Financial modules are not covered in this book. I was planning to buy a book and searching for it and finally ended up in buying a very useful book.

Main drawback is not much of screen captures displayed. So if you want to better understand you have to read it by sitting in front of applications screen and switching the forms as you read.

Overall the book is worth having it.

Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository: A Full Lifecycle Guide

Average customer rating:

An Indispensible Book
Good anecdotes, bad aproach to subject
Practical Overview of Meta Data
Good practical advice -- makes tangible the mysteries
Great book

Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository: A Full Lifecycle Guide
David Marco
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471355232

Book Description

"This is the first book to tackle the subject of meta data in data warehousing, and the results are spectacular . . . David Marco has written about the subject in a way that is approachable, practical, and immediately useful. Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository: A Full Lifecycle Guide is an excellent resource for any IT professional." -Steve Murchie Group Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Meta data repositories can provide your company with tremendous value if they are used properly and if you understand what they can, and can't, do. Written by David Marco, the industry's leading authority on meta data and well-known columnist for DM Review, this book offers all the guidance you'll need for developing, deploying, and managing a meta data repository to gain a competitive advantage. After illustrating the fundamental concepts, Marco shows you how to use meta data to increase your company's revenue and decrease expenses. You'll find a comprehensive look at the major trends affecting the meta data industry, as well as steps on how to build a repository that is flexible enough to adapt to future changes. This vendor-neutral guide alsoincludes complete coverage of meta data sources, standards, and architecture, and it explores the full gamut of practical implementation issues.Taking you step-by-step through the process of implementing a meta data repository, Marco shows you how to:
- Evaluate meta data tools Build the meta data project plan
- Design a custom meta data architecture
- Staff a repository team
- Implement data quality through meta data
- Create a physical meta data model
- Evaluate meta data delivery requirements

The CD-ROM includes:
- A sample implementation project plan
- A function and feature checklist of meta data tool requirements
- Several physical meta datamodels to support specific business functions

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Visit the companion Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/marco

Customer Reviews:

An Indispensible Book.......2005-05-27

I've spent over seven years creating metadata repositories and over this time I've definitely had to learn my craft the hard way. If I had this book from the start it would have made my life so much easier! This book is like two books in one, with the first part focusing on metadata fundamentals, ROI, architectural approaches, and how to evaluate metadata tools. The second part is like a consultant's handbook, with how to staff and scope the project, a project plan and an overview of the delivery mechanism. The metadata model in part two is very helpful; however, I do know that the author updated this model in his more recent metadata book. The "war" stories are particularly valuable as they made me feel like the author was watching the projects that I had worked on and correctly predicting all of the mistakes that I would make! If only I would have read the book sooner I could have avoided these pitfalls. Also this is the first book on metadata that is readable and addresses the subject from the business side. This is one of the most useful books that I've ever read!

Good anecdotes, bad aproach to subject.......2005-02-22

Since the title sounds quite well, it's not a book to spend time. Although Metadata it's not a bad idea at all, today it's better spending our time on the Semantic Web aproach. For example, for a good introduction on that subject try "A Semantic Web Primer".
If you persist on Metadata try reading "Metadata Solutions".
Perhaps this book it's only an old fashioned view on a broad subject: information representation. Don't waste your time.

Practical Overview of Meta Data.......2003-09-04

Books and materials on Meta Data have a tendency to hyperbole on theoretical aspects. Recently I set out to find a book, on Meta Data, to accompany a presentation I was making to the Insurance Industry Association.

Business executives are concerned on return-on-investments for IT investments. Meta Data can be far removed from most executives mind share.

In my search for Meta Data reading material - I came across David Marco's book. Finally I found an author that can write effectively on Meta Data that addresses technical issues while answering questions that business executives will have.

It is very easy to get buried in theory with Meta Data - the challenge is to define an effective company-wide strategy that will increase efficiency and identify opportunities for further analytics. It is important to engage colleagues and built trust for Meta Data implementations.

Mr. Marco does an excellent job of discussing real-world Meta Data implementations. The ideas and concepts he discusses will greatly help most managers embark on a Meta Data strategy.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Good practical advice -- makes tangible the mysteries.......2002-06-29

As a knowledge management worker for a large pharmaceutical, my company is taking a keen interest in meta data.

This book has a lot of real world advice for bringing this very mysterious topic into workable focus, to enable a company to share information assets and facilitate their effective re-use.

When one thinks about it, meta data is the key to Amazon's success. Can you imagine if Amazon's repository of information was nothing more than the content of the books themselves and their titles? We would be nowhere. I marvel that Amazon is able, through meta data, to deliver more knowledge, and to enable that knowledge to foster yet more collaboration and knowledge...in fact to model my tastes and get me to buy books I didn't even know about!!

David Marco discusses a lot of challenges that large information management projects face and the criticality of key roles in a meta data project (such as the information architect) and the need for user requirements. There are really a lot of pitfalls in approaching meta data (the first being to educate the laypersons in your company as to what it is, and its power, to get funding!).

Good book. Good advice, especially pertaining to the political aspects. Navitating through the politics and getting buyin is 90% of the meta data challenge, and am thankful he has experiences to share and advice on this.

Great book.......2002-01-26

Comprehensive guide for anyone interested in developing an enterprise Metada repository.

Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People

Average customer rating:

Admit that you are a wasteaholic
A truly recommendable read
New book -- not 2nd edition
Author has nothing to say and takes too long to say it

Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People
JoAnn T. Hackos
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471777110

Book Description

A revolutionary new resource that brings documentation product management ideas up to date

The 1994 bestselling classic Managing Your Documentation Projects set the industry standard for technical documentation. However, since then, much has changed in the world of information development. With this new title, JoAnn Hackos looks beyond the structured project of the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, she focuses on the rapidly changing projects of the 21st century and addresses how to introduce agile information development without neglecting the central focus of planning information design and development around the needs of information users.

As an information-development manager, you are expected to reduce costs and project time, do more work with fewer resources and less money, and increase the value of the information you deliver. Recognizing this, Hackos has carefully designed this book to help you do precisely that. She helps you make strategic decisions about information development and directs the discussion of project management toward smarter decision-making.

An update of the original 1994 Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) presents you with a method by which you can compare the state of your organization to others, evaluate your current status, and then consider what is necessary in order to move to the next level.

Information Development offers a completely new look at best practices for all phases of the document development lifecycle, including:

Managing a corporate information portfolio
Evaluating process maturity
Partnering with customers and developing user scenarios
Developing team effectiveness and collaboration
Planning and monitoring information projects
Managing translation and production
Evaluating project performance
Managing for quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness

The companion Web site includes electronic versions of the templates and checklists featured in the book.

Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Customer Reviews:

Admit that you are a wasteaholic.......2007-08-01

Any organization, large or small, that wants to get serious about growth should read this book, breathe it and master it. The first step is to admit you have a problem. "Hello, my name is Bob. I'm a wasteaholic."; "Hi Bob".

I used to HATE process. HATE HATE HATE. I didn't want to be constrained; I rationalized saying "well it is a waste of time to invest time in process, it is just needless bureacracy". I was a creative person, still am. Then 10 years later I realized I was wasting a lot of time because things weren't organized, there wasn't accountability, the projects were driving me, instead of me being on top of things.

Are you a wasteaholic? Answer this question: Do you feel on top of things?

If answer = yes, close browser window. If answer = no, order book.

Book is dead on.

Several years ago I interviewed for a staff position at Cornell University, in a dept. run by a guy who had spent a number of years in industry; I wanted to impress him, so I asked, "are there any books you'd recommend, out of all you've come across, about project management and content?" And he said "Managing Documentation Projects" -- which is the precursor to this book.

It rocks.

A truly recommendable read.......2007-06-15

In this book, JoAnn T. Hackos has compiled a great amount of useful information, "decorated" with many illustrating sample cases.
Well-structured, intelligible and applicable, "Information Development" is a welcome asset, although with 600 pages, it is nothing you read - least of all SHOULD read - overnight. :)

New book -- not 2nd edition.......2007-06-04

Please note that none of the reviews below are written about the 2006 new book on Information Development. The book is not a 2nd edition; it's an entirely new book with new content. The focus is on strategically managing a publications organization and effectively managing projects. The project management part of the book focuses on agile methods and managing topic-based writing activities.

Author has nothing to say and takes too long to say it.......2007-01-06

I bought this book because I liked the table of contents. I assumed this book would present concrete, actionable specifics on the subjects presented in the table of contents. I was disappointed.

Under information planning, this book only tells you that you should do it. Gee, thanks. Under estimating and scheduling - you should estimate future project resources and you should request new resources and fund innovation. Oh, boy. Yippee.

This book is an exercise in stating the blatantly obvious. I expected to see information on the nuts and bolts of producing technical documentation...I expected to see examples of budgets, examples of ways to create efficient systems for document production using single-sourcing, and to see examples of specific, important techniques for planning a document production process that allows for easy translation, revision, re-usability and transfer to different mediums. I expected to get a reference that would become well-worn on my desk. This book is as far from such a tome as it could possibly get while still being written in the English language.

I want to improve the efficiency of my documentation projects. I'd like to know about technologies (XML?, VBA?) that might help me with separating content from layout and improving reusability. Is that here? Nope. But you do get way too much talk about how you should acquire good tools that support your business goals. There is nothing about what those tools should be or what specifically would make them good.

One page tells you the difference between a "traditional" project and an "agile" project...things like: An agile project "responds to change" and has "minimal process documentation" as well as "reduced development schedules". That's nice. Who cares?

Implementing a Topic Architecture is the only section that even makes a move in the direction of specific, concrete, useful material. But even it leaves you thinking, "Well, duh...yathink?"

To sum up, this book tells you all the obvious things you ought to do...but that's it. It doesn't have anything to say about HOW you would actually do those things. I doubt the author has the foggiest idea how because I doubt she has a single hard skill to speak of. She definitely didn't write about any.

Average customer rating:

Dated, but still useful
Good, but not the best of the best
A Sw Eng Process Improvement Classic
true meat and bones
A crucial book in the field of software engineering

Managing the Software Process
Watts S. Humphrey
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201180952

Customer Reviews:

Dated, but still useful.......2007-01-01

This book is the basis for the SEI's Capability Maturity Model (CMM, not CMMI). Although the CMM is now retired, and the information in this book may be a little "tired," it is still the best overview of how to manage a "real" software development shop.

First, I think there are a lot of Agilests out there that may dismiss this book outright; they shouldn't. Obviously many of the thoughts and ideas described in this book come from the defense industry. They write software for a different purpose than say, Basecamp does. However, if you want your organization to produce high-quality, useful software (don't we all?), this book will provide you with a number of ideas to do just that.

I highly recommend managers, developers, engineers, process people, etc., this book. Even if it is dated, or if you don't agree with every point, you will probably walk away with some new appreciation for certain practices, and particularly the importance of focusing on the /right/ processes.

I'm giving it 4/5 instead of 5/5 because it could easily be more readable.

Good, but not the best of the best.......2005-08-23

Read books by McConnell, Gilb and Brooks first.
This is a classic Humphrey book, valuable information that is hard to follow. The book scores high in terms of IT advice but low in terms of understandable explanations. If you have the persistence to read through the book then you will find valuable ideas. The book would make my top 10 of IT books that I have read but would not make my top 5.

A Sw Eng Process Improvement Classic.......2005-07-28

This book should be read by any serious software manager, practitioner or anyone interested in advancing the state of practice in software engineering. Even if you don't agree with many of the ideas of the books, it's worth reading to understand many of the issues tha plagues software development.

For anyone working with SEI's CMMI is a must.

true meat and bones.......2003-07-15

This book is all meat and bones for anybody wanting an indepth study of the software development process. If you've graduated passed Steve McConnell's Microsoft press series, then it is time for you to move on to Watts Humphrey. I am tasked to design all the software development processes in my company and Rapid Development (and other McConnell) books only helped me in the initially phases of designing the process. When it comes to nitty gritty details, Humphrey nailed it.

The book is full of sample forms and checklists for the processes you need to put in place. Processes are broken down into generic but specific terms so that it is easily applied/tailored to your company. I was having problems with expressing the interleaving nature of the sets of processes in configuration management (version control, code review, QA, build management, ...). Humphrey's book somehow was able to express that (in other terminologies of course).

Definite must buy for anyone who is part of an SEPG or Project Manager for software development.

A crucial book in the field of software engineering.......2001-01-27

This book is crucial to a thorough understanding of software engineering principles. Watts Humphrey is one of the most important forces in the field, and this book is vital to anyone wishing to understand the intricacies of managing a large software development project. Be aware that this book is not easy reading. I would only recommend it for academics, or for the serious practitioner.

Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (Pro-Developer)

Average customer rating:

Good on VSTS, lousy on process and requirements
Well organized and useful
Finally, a Practical Solution for teams to create quality software...

Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (Pro-Developer)
Joel Semeniuk , and Martin Danner
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0735622167

Book Description

A practical, hands-on guide to managing development teams and processes with the Visual Studio Team System development environment. Includes in-depth product information and insights from experienced trainers and early users. This is an ideal guide for using Visual Studio Team System to maximize project management effectiveness.

Customer Reviews:

Good on VSTS, lousy on process and requirements.......2007-09-30

This book provides a good overview of VSTS. It goes into enough detail that the reader understands the broad range capabilities without being overwhelmed. If you just want a reference on VSTS, then I recommend this book.

However, the book is just plain lousy when it comes to the process of managing an actual project. Firstly, PMBOK stands for "Body of Knowledge" not "Book of Knowledge". Secondly, the importance of gathering, analyzing, validating, and verify requirements is woefully under-represented. Quality is mentioned, but in such a cursory way as to be practically useless. Ditto on CMM - not enough detail is given on key processes and work products. The process here seems focused on building software without first determining what to build or checking the correctness of what was actually build.

The approach here might work on small greenfield projects, but would be a train-wreck on any large project with involving any degree of human safety, legacy systems, accountability, etc. In other words, the project management approach in this book is probably not suitable for 90% of projects in an enterprise IT environment.

Well organized and useful.......2007-09-26

This book helped me with ideas that put in practice, provided new ideas of as it manages projects with VSTS. For me it was useful.

Finally, a Practical Solution for teams to create quality software..........2007-08-28

In Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, Joel really gets to the heart of addressing the reasons and benefits of having a common set of application lifecycle management tools (Visual Studio Team 2005 System) for all participants in the software development process to effectively track and report on individual and team progress.

It's not just the tracking and reporting, but its the metrics provided that allow answers to questions such as:" What percent complete are we at for this development project?; What's the overall software quality measurement?; How much more time is required before we are done?"

Not only does Joel discuss the problem of inter and extra-team communications for reporting on software development projects, he provides practical advice, examples and guidelines on how to implement and use Visual Studio 2005 Team System to orchestrate the communications and reporting processes for all roles (project manager, architect, developer, tester, sponsor, etc.) in the software development process.

A must read for anyone that manages Visual Studio.NET software development projects and wants to increase the effectiveness of their development efforts!

The First Snap-fit Handbook: Creating And Managing Attachments for Plastic Parts

Average customer rating:

Very goo technical book but

The First Snap-fit Handbook: Creating And Managing Attachments for Plastic Parts
Paul R. Bonenberger
Manufacturer: Hanser Gardner Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1569903883

Product Description

The First Snap-Fit Handbook, now updated and available in an all new second edition, provides an extremely valuable resource for product development teams. It represents a major advance in the design of integral plastic attachment methods and contains the best blend of analysis and real-world experience. This second edition includes new chapters for introducing snap-fit technology and provides strategies for ensuring long-term snap-fit capability and learning. Written by Americas leading authority and creator of the attachment level approach, this book provides the tools needed to masterfully implement snap-fit design. It presents a step-by-step description of the snap-fit development process and includes many illustrations to show what kinds of snap-fit features are available to the designer.

Customer Reviews:

Very goo technical book but.......2006-12-16

I found it to be a great book for technical stuff. I'm new to constructing and engineering and have never finished it in University and just had to take over someone's place at a job. But I have to say that I was dissapointed only at one thing: It does have a vast variety of different Snap-fits but I was hoping that I could find a table with all possible snap fits in it. Like for example I found a few snap fits that are not listen in the book but I still have to say that is is quite an excellent book. It would be great to have a very large table of all possible snap fits at the back and some data.

Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

THE Book on Requirements
Well organized and written, based on their vast experience

Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach, Second Edition
Dean Leffingwell , and Don Widrig
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 032112247X

Customer Reviews:

THE Book on Requirements.......2006-04-03

Being in the software industry for about 10 years, I had known that our teams often did a poor job of managing, gathering, and understanding requirements. Our projects suffered because of this, and despite my gut instincts we were going the wrong direction, I often felt that I didn't have statistics and the insight to counter some of the more experienced staff or management. This book greatly has changed that as now I can come in armed with info and present better ways to improve our requirements management. I now feel that we'll deliver the right product or system instead of breaking the hearts of our customer and our own team members (because we won't be failing!). The authors also write in a very clear manner and provide excellent examples. I can't believe I am writing this about a requirements book, but I found myself actually _looking forward_ to reading each chapter. I am now confident I have the tools we need to sucessfully manage requirements. Thanks for a great book!

Well organized and written, based on their vast experience.......2004-02-02

I'm quite surprised to be the first reviewer of the second edition of this book since it ia a reference in requirements management.

After, but even during, reading this book you perceive that it's a sum up of their vast, deep and long experience. The authors are the implementors of RequisitePro the tool, now part of the Rational Suite, for requirements management, but this book is not a promo. Instead the whole process of gathering, organizing, and connecting (to following steps in the process) requirements is presented. It's clear to them that basically you have to collect the clouded needs of the stakeholders and formalize them in a set of documents that you have to give to the development team. And the entire process should effectively work, managing change.

After introductory chapters, you are presented with six skills a requisite team shoud have to effectively manage requrements and each skill is expressed, through different chapters, with what needs to be done and what needs to be produced.

I especially reccommend team skill 6 'Building the Right System' because in those chapters you find how to connect use cases to design (chapter 25), how to generate test cases from use cases (chapter 26), traceability techniques and tool from user needs to code (chapter 27). Besides this, team skill 4 'Managing scope'.

Don't forget to read chapter 30 that illustrates and compares extreme, agile, and roubust requirements gathering methodologies, and chapter 31 that sums up all the steps illustrated in the book, suggesting a methodology for requirements gathering based on the kind of project.

In the appendix you find chapters with the whole results of the case study (HOLIS), the detailed template of basic and fundamental documents for software requirements management, and, above all, two chapters one that is a brief presentation of RUP and another that is an indication on how to link the process so far developed to SEI-CMM and ISO 9000:2000.

Another useful feature is the fact that every concept is illustrated with a simple,visual example (in visual modeling philosophy) that allows you to impress the concept in mind. At the end you come out with all the concepts you found (even from different sources, but unrelated) with the big picture.
This is my first book on software requirements but it has many pros and only one con. It's a recent book that is aware of the state-of-the-art in managing software requirements (see bibliography), and I'm sure that other books in this field can't be overwhelmingly better. The only con, that is easily resolvable, is that the documents illustrated could have been included in a CD with the book.

Managing Risk: Methods for Software Systems Development

Average customer rating:

Managing Risk
This is "the book"!
Necessary for CMM 4 & 5, excellent general approach
A great resource on project risk management
Impressive

Managing Risk: Methods for Software Systems Development
Elaine M. Hall Ph.D.
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201255928

Book Description

Risk is inherent in the development of any large software system. A common approach to risk in software development is to ignore it and hope that no serious problems occur. Leading software companies use quantitative risk management methods as a more useful approach to achieve success. Written for busy professionals charged with delivering high-quality products on time and within budget, Managing Risk is a comprehensive guide that describes a success formula for managing software risk. The book is divided into five parts that describe a risk management road map designed to take you from crisis to control of your software project.

Highlights include:

Six disciplines for managing product development. Steps to predictable risk-management process results. How to establish the infrastructure for a risk-aware culture. Methods for the implementation of a risk management plan. Case studies of people in crisis-and in control.

Customer Reviews:

Managing Risk.......2005-06-26

This book introduces three methods to promote understanding of software risk management: the 6-D Model, the P2I2 Success Formula, and the Risk Management Map. The 6-D Model extends the Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle by adding the ability to reveal risk and opportunity. The P2I2 is a cause-effect diagram that relates the factors influencing risk management capability, by distributing the task of managing risk according to four major factors: people, process, infrastructure and implementation. Using this divide-and-conquer approach, parallel efforts can speed the adoption of risk management within an organization. The Risk Management Map synchronizes these efforts by proving direction through five evolutionary stages: problem, mitigation, prevention, anticipation, and opportunity.

This book assumes that you already have risk management experience. It shouldn't be your first reading on risk management.

This is "the book"!.......2005-04-02

Dr. Hall has done a superb work by fitting all the pieces that are needed for a successful software risk management. The way this book is explained is fairly comprehensive, going from a high level view, and later "drilling down" into important particular concepts.
You can not go wrong following the "Managing Risk" methodology when developing your next project, especially under the current international regulations and standards for corporate governance...

Necessary for CMM 4 & 5, excellent general approach.......2001-06-30

Shows how to establish and manage a comprehensive risk management program. The basis of Ms. Hall's approach is called "P2I2", which stands for Process, People, Infrastructure and Implementation. Within these processes are subprocesses and tasks that, as a whole, will result in a risk management posture that is seamlessly integrated into a development project. Although this book is about managing software development project risks, the approach can be applied to any type of project, and can also be tailored to work in an operational or production environment. For example, implementation plans and change control in the operational environment require a risk management strategy, and the methods provided in this book will fill the void with no modification of the basic P2I2 approach.

The process portion of P2I2 consists of 5-steps for managing risks: identify, analyze, plan, track and resolve. For those who manage projects in accordance with the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) processes, the P2I2 on the surface appears different from the 6 steps set forth in the PMBOK. The key difference between the two is the PMBOK's risk management approach groups 5 processes into project planning and 1 into project control, while the P2I2 approach takes a more holistic view and incorporates risk management across the entire project life cycle. If you are striving for or working within the Capability Maturity Model at level 3 or above, then this book is essential and perfectly aligns. The book devotes a chapter to each of the processes, which clearly identifies the what's and how's of each. Note that the book does not cover advanced risk management techniques, such as probability curves - you will need to obtain this information elsewhere. It does give qualitative techniques, and gives quantitative methods to assess ROI for the risk management initiative itself, as well as other metrics to prove its effectiveness or lack thereof.

Implementing the risk management infrastructure is covered in great detail and is a roadmap for making risk management an integral part of your project. It starts with developing a policy, defining standard processes to be employed, training your team and compliance verification and continuous improvement methods. This material spans five chapters, which sets the foundation for the next five chapters that address implementation of the program itself. These chapters cover establishing the initiative, developing the plan, tailoring the process to your environment, and assessing and controlling risks. The last two are excellent primers on their topics.

The remaining five chapters are devoted to the people part of P2I2, and are broken down into stages, each discussed in its own chapter. The stages are: problem, mitigation, prevention, anticipation and opportunity. Each is thoroughly discussed and taken together these last chapters clearly show roles, issues and factors, and how human resources are integrated into a coherent and holistic risk management initiative.

This book is clearly written and well illustrated. The approach is not only practical, it's essential to ensuring the success of any specific project or extended to encompass a development organization. Moreover, it is also essential for any organization that wants to attain CMM level 4 or 5.

A great resource on project risk management.......1999-05-16

An excellent resource. It presents very practical methods for project manager who wants to mange project risk proactively.

Impressive.......1998-11-05

This book is impressive and contains a lot of useful detail and original thought. Anyone interested in risk will enjoy and learn from the book as I did. It does tackle "quantified objectives" much better than other texts.

Average customer rating:

An excellent guide to product development
Best book on product development and agility around
World-class information for product development managers
Real thinking and action tools you can use
every design engineer should read this book.

Managing the Design Factory
Donald G. Reinertsen
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684839911

Book Description

The man who launched a revolution in product development with his bestselling Developing Products in Half the Time is back with a new book that's also certain to be a classic. In Managing the Design Factory Donald G. Reinertsen presents concepts and practical tools that will be invaluable for anyone trying to get products out of the pipeline and into the market.

The first book to put the principles of World Class Manufacturing to work in the development process, Managing the Design Factory combines the powerful analytical tools of queuing, information, and system theories with the proven ideas of organization design and risk management. The result: a methodical approach to consistently hit the "sweet spot" of quality, cost, and time in developing any product. Reinertsen illustrates these concepts with concrete examples drawn from his work with many leading companies across different industries.

Fresh and thought-provoking, the book challenges many of the conventional approaches to product development. "There are no best practices," Reinertsen writes, "the idea of best practices is a seductive but dangerous trap." Unlike other books that promote rules and rituals based on benchmarking "best practices," this book focuses on practical tools that account for varied situations. He breaks new ground with a disciplined, quantitative approach for making decisions on critical issues: When should we use a sequential or concurrent process? Centralized or decentralized control? Functional or team organizations?

Full of practical techniques, concrete examples, and solid general principles, this is a real toolkit for product developers. Moreover, it is written with the clarity, precision, and humor that are Reinertsen's trademarks. He promises to challenge the thinking of anyone involved in product development.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent guide to product development.......2007-08-27

"Managing the design factory" provides an excellent set of practices which can improve your product development and optimize your product development on the dimension you want it to. It provided me with key insights and fresh ideas on how to think about product development.

The book consists of four parts. The first part is a general introduction to product development and clarifies some assumptions made in the rest of the book. The second part is a set of thinking tools for product development. The third part provides concrete practices, called action tools. The last part summerizes the rest of the book and suggests actions to take.

The thinking tools in the second part are key-insights in product development. The first thinking tool is to try to think of product development economically. This also provides four ways to optimize your product development: lowest expense, lowest unit cost, highest performance and shortest time. In the rest of the book Reinertsen uses these four optimizations to show how each action tool will need to be used differently. The second thinking tool is queueing theory. It provides a view of product development as a series of queues. Managing the product development queues becomes essential. The third thinking tool is information theory. What is the value of information and how to optimize for the value. The last thinking tool is systems theory. Think of whole product development as systems, look for feedback loops and look for assumptions behind your current thinking. The thinking tools were the most interesting part of the book (in my opinion) and I thoroughly enjoyed any of these chapters.

The actions tools in part three provide concrete things to do in your product development. This part will use the thinking tools provided in part two to explain the action and also explain how they are different in the different optimizations. The tools were clear and useful. The only criticism could be that there is some duplication between "Developing products in half the time", but that was expected. Also, the tools are just introduced in one chapter and most of them could have filled a book on its own.

Conclusion. "Managing the design factory" is an excellent book on product development and provides key-insights and tools for looking at product development. I would recommend it for anyone who is involved in product development.

Best book on product development and agility around.......2004-07-02

I don't think they use the word agility once, but this book clearly enunciates all of the reasons that agile processes often show success, without prescribing a specific set of items to do. This book will enable managers of development teams to look at the product they're building, its impact on the business's bottom line, and make both long-term and daily decisions about how to run their team. Individual developers will also gain an understanding of how to better streamline processes -- for instance, people often think that introducing large processes to "prevent an error from happening again" is a good idea. However, this book will help you to learn why that can be bad; that it can introduce queues and actually result in a process slowdown, especially if it happens early in the development process and on the critical path.

I just can't say enough about this book; some other specific books on Agile software development are helpful to give you ideas of specific things to do, but this book is absolutely crucial to learn and use in your daily decision-making process.

World-class information for product development managers.......2003-05-06

I have never seen so much good advice about product development in one place. Applying concepts from manufacturing, finance, queuing theory and communications theory, Reinertsen proposes many ways in which we can design better processes for development.

For example, if we were to view the investment in design work as a depreciating asset, like work-in-process inventory in the factory, we would be able to make better decisions about time, manpower, and project delay tradeoffs.

Key concepts include: valuing design work based on its financial impact on the organization; learning as much as possible as early as possible in the development cycle; managing queues in the development process; creating specifications which are flexible for as long as possible, so that evolving customer requirements can be accommodated.

He clearly shows that we can optimize development work on only one of the following parameters: Product cost, product performance, speed of development, development expense. The approach for each one is different, and it is important to be clear which one is primary.

There is a wealth of useful and practical advice in this book. For example, here are some comments on testing:

"Too often testing is viewed as a necessary evil in the development process. It only exists because we make mistakes. If we made fewer mistakes, we would not need to do all this testing. We should spend our money on `designing in quality' instead of finding defects by testing. The result of such an attitude may be a test department that is under-resourced and under-managed. Unfortunately, by viewing testing as a problem, rather than an asset, we miss the opportunity to capitalize on the extraordinary improvements that can take place in product testing.
"Let us start by putting testing in perspective. The elapsed schedule time for product testing is typically 30 to 60 percent of overall development cycle length. This is not another minor activity, it is a major design activity. ... text results have inherently high information content. In fact, testing is usually the stage of design process that generates the greatest amount of information.... ...Most companies misunderstand the role of testing ... because they fail to distinguish between design testing and manufacturing testing. ... Manufacturing testing is done to identify defects in the manufacturing process. ... Design testing is done to generate information about the design. A good outcome is high information generation early in the design process. ... We want a failure rate close to 50 percent...." [pp 230-232]

I highly recommend this book to senior managers in product development, and their Marketing and Finance counterparts.

Reviewed by John Levy,
...

Real thinking and action tools you can use.......2002-02-25

If you're looking for a book to arm you with the latest buzzwords and easy answers, this is not for you. If you're looking for a useful framework for thinking about product design and tools for applying principles, this is an excellent buy. This book is clearly written, well-organized, and full of useful information.

Unlike many management books, it's not 20 pages of information stretched out to 200 pages in order to make a book. Also, unlike most product development books, this book is of great value not just to product managers and designers, but would be a great read for financial managers and marketing managers. A manufacturing manager reading this book will smile with satisfaction at seeing common modern manufacturing principles well applied to the design realm.

The only weak points I can think of are: 1) That it may be useful for the author to break out case studies rather than keeping them in the same typeface intermingled with the rest of the text. 2) No real advice is given on how to overcome real-world resistance to these ideas. Some sage advice on how to introduce these concepts and tools into organizations with existing biases and cultures could be a real benefit to practitioners. These are minor objections though.

Whether you're in a software start-up or part of a Fortune 500 company design team doing existing product improvement, this book contains useful information that will enhance your understanding of what you're doing right and what you could do better - and WHY!

every design engineer should read this book........2001-05-06

Managing the Design Factory; A Product Developer's Toolbox, by Donald G. Reinertsen, is an important book on how successful companies should develop new products. Many popular management books share some common themes such as; JIT, kanban, lean manufacturing, reducing WIP, quick turn times, low inventory. Unfortunately, the development process in most companies has been slow to apply these insights to their engineering and design practice. Reinertsen does a superb job of showing how this is done. The Design Factory exists for one purpose - the same as the manufacturing factory - to make a profit. The focus of the book is on tools, not rules and rituals. These are practical tools that account for varied situations. The information is presented in a form that an engineer can understand and appreciate, but without unnecessary difficulty. There are excellent sections on queue and information theory, and capacity utilization and batch size, and on eliminating useless controls. I agree completely with the `do it, try it, fix it' approach to development, and not being burdened with trying to make it right the first time. Every practicing design engineer should read this book.

Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control (3rd Edition) (Purchased on 10/12/2006)
A bit dissappointing

Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control (2nd Edition)
Frederick E. Gould
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0130604062

Customer Reviews:

Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control (3rd Edition) (Purchased on 10/12/2006) .......2007-01-10

Required reading for a construction management course.

A bit dissappointing.......2006-02-25

The book was shrink wrapped but it was damaged. Not sure if it was the fault of the publisher or the seller but in either case I expected a better product.

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