How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Hubbard explains how to "find the value of intangibles in business." An excellent book and one which should be on every manager's book shelf.
Hubbard has made what can be a deadly dull subject interesting and accessible. I found several examples for measuring exactly what I needed and always felt I could not measure. This book is a must read for leaders including the Master Six Sigma Blackbelt on your staff. Finding the value of intangibles in business has always been a challenge. How to Measure Anything is full of practical ideas for getting to a measurement.
Measurement: reducing the uncertainty. As long as we are not willing to accept a best guess, or educated estimate, or range of possibilities for a difficult to measure item we will not move forward. Our decisions will be flawed. Hubbard put forth these four assumptions which I found to be most useful when thinking about measuring:
1.Your problem is not as unique as you think
2.You have more data than you think
3.You need less data than you think
4.There is a useful measurement that is much simpler than you think.

Numbers can be used to confuse people; especially the gullible ones lacking basic skills with numbers. Therefore we, as leaders, must be committed to making sure the whole organization is data driven and understands the way we can reduce uncertainty through the straight forward techniques Hubbard explains. As he states, "The fact is that the preference for ignorance over even marginal reductions in ignorance is never the moral high ground."
Hubbard gives us a very useful check list for a Universal Approach to Measurement:
1.What are you trying to measure? What is the real meaning of the alleged "intangible?"
2.Why do you care -- what's the decision and where is the "threshold?"
3.How much do you know now -- what ranges or probabilities represent your uncertainty about this?
4.What is the value of the information? What are the consequences of being wrong and the chance of being wrong, and what, if any, measurement effort would be justified?
5.Within a cost justified by the information value, which observations would confirm or eliminate different possibilities? For each possible scenario, what is the simplest thing we should see if that scenario were true?
6.How do you conduct the measurement that accounts for various types of avoidable errors (again, where the cost is less than the value of the information)?
I especially enjoy the approach Hubbard takes to quantify the cost of making measurement based on the value of the information obtained. Too often, I have seen projects founder on either inaction to get data which would be of great value and little cost or, perhaps, the exact opposite -- spending great amounts of time and money to obtain relatively useless information.
To emphasize: After reading Hubbard's excellent book on `How to Measure Anything,' I was able to immediately solve several measurement challenges for my CEO and Business Owner colleagues. This book makes accessible measurement techniques that have eluded many of my colleagues. It should be on every manager's desk. - Dave Kinnear, CEO dbkAssociates, Inc. and Vistage Chair.

Click Here to see more reviews about: How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business

Praise for How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business"I love this book. Douglas Hubbard helps us create a path to know the answer to almost any question in business, in science, or in life . . . Hubbard helps us by showing us that when we seek metrics to solve problems, we are really trying to know something better than we know it now. How to Measure Anything provides just the tools most of us need to measure anything better, to gain that insight, to make progress, and to succeed."-Peter Tippett, PhD, M.D.Chief Technology Officer at CyberTrustand inventor of the first antivirus software"Doug Hubbard has provided an easy-to-read, demystifying explanation of how managers can inform themselves to make less risky, more profitable business decisions. We encourage our clients to try his powerful, practical techniques."-Peter SchayEVP and COO ofThe Advisory Council"As a reader you soon realize that actually everything can be measured while learning how to measure only what matters. This book cuts through conventional clich?s and business rhetoric and offers practical steps to using measurements as a tool for better decision making. Hubbard bridges the gaps to make college statistics relevant and valuable for business decisions."-Ray GilbertEVP Lucent"This book is remarkable in its range of measurement applications and its clarity of style. A must-read for every professional who has ever exclaimed, 'Sure, that concept is important, but can we measure it?'"-Dr. Jack StennerCofounder and CEO of MetraMetrics, Inc.

Click here for more information about How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business

Read More...

Distributed Programming with Ruby Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book provides an excellent survey of distributed programming techniques using the Ruby platform. As a software engineer who is largely unfamiliar with Ruby, but very familiar with distributed programming, I was able to leverage the book both to understand "how you do things" in Ruby, as well as to introduce myself to the (libraries, framework tools, etc.) which make distributed programming a reality. My experience in reading this book was that it had a great flow, and a very clean presentation on the subject matter. I walked away with a deeper understanding of the Ruby language itself, as well as a mapping from "strategy/design concept" to "implementation toolkit" should I have a need to write a distributed service in Ruby. In summary, the book provides an excellent survey of both distributed concepts, as well as several options available on the Ruby platform for each, covering: DRb, Rinda, RingyDingy, Starfish, Distribunaut, Politics, Starling, working with Rabbit MQ, BackgrounDRb, and Delayed Job.
Much like the Ruby language itself, the text is very concise in explaining even fairly complicated concepts. It achieves this focus of delivery by building on fundamental concepts, providing a very simple starting point, and layering on additional "would like to" one at a time, without confusing the underlying intention. This pattern is present both at the micro level, as each chapter introduces a new distributed challenge and leaves you with a working knowledge of what the Ruby space has to offer for solutions implementations; as well as at the macro level, as the topics of each chapter progress from very simple things like remote procedure calls and data marshalling, to advanced topics such as an remote work processor, distributed work queue based on a map-reduce framework or a message queue service. While the phrase "map-reduce" is mentioned in several topic headings, there is no actual example of a problem solved with a map and reduce against a distributed dataset. The final topic, although not directly a distributed programming concept, is useful information for any production system that does any work of interest: a work scheduler using BackgrounDRb.
In a similar way, each chapter presents a very tiny example app, with complete code, and a walk through, distinguishing between the concept at hand, and the library specific implementation semantics. Also, similar examples are used where appropriate, making it easier to understand the specific nuances of a particular library. Mirroring the measured build up of the text, the code samples evolve in a simple and natural way over the course of a given topic. Although one might complain that there is little imagination in the examples, this focus ensures that the reader walks away with a clear understanding of the "Hello World" level implementation - details are left up to further research.
My only complaint in terms of coverage is that the book is overly "Ruby-only" focused. As an engineer working in a largely heterogeneous environment, I would be interested in a comparison of the internal "Ruby" only packages (e.g. DRb or Rinda) vs. tools that are a bit more cross platform: e.g. in this case, a comparison against a more generalized, stack agnostic marshalling framework (e.g. Google's Protocol Buffers, Facebook's Thrift, Cisco's Etch, or Microsoft's M). In particular, this would signify where the Ruby platform offers a particular advantage for a particular kind of distributed problem. However, as the title goes, this text is focused on the Ruby specific implementations of various technologies, instead of how Ruby as a language plays (with others) in these various areas.
Overall, I would say this is an excellent resource to use as a pointer for further research. If you are developing distributed systems using Ruby, then you are likely already aware of a certain number of these libraries; the survey of alternative options might be informative. For someone like myself who is familiar with distributed systems development but relatively ignorant of Ruby, it proved to be an excellent introduction both to the language, as well as to the Ruby specific semantics for implementing a basic distributed design (e.g. marshalling, task / job execution, etc.)
(Reposted from Bay APLN [...])

Click Here to see more reviews about: Distributed Programming with Ruby

"A must have title for the well-rounded Ruby programmer building advanced Rails applications and large systems!" OBIE FERNANDEZ, Series EditorComplete, Hands-On Guide to Building Advanced Distributed Applications with RubyDistributed programming techniques make applications easier to scale, develop, and deploy—especially in emerging cloud computing environments. Now, one of the Ruby community's leading experts has written the first definitive guide to distributed programming with Ruby. Mark Bates begins with a simple distributed application, and then walks through an increasingly complex series of examples, demonstrating solutions to the most common distributed programming problems.Bates presents the industry's most useful coverage of Ruby's standard distributed programming libraries, DRb and Rinda. Next, he introduces powerful third-party tools, frameworks, and libraries designed to simplify Ruby distributed programming, including his own Distribunaut. If you're an experienced Ruby programmer or architect, this hands-on tutorial and practical reference will help you meet any distributed programming challenge, no matter how complex.Coverage includes• Writing robust, secure, and interactive applications using DRb—and managing its drawbacks• Using Rinda to build applications with improved flexibility, fault tolerance, and service discovery• Simplifying DRb service management with RingyDingy• Utilizing Starfish to facilitate communication between distributed programs and to write MapReduce functions for processing large data sets• Using Politics to customize the processes running on individual server instances in a cloud computing environment • Providing reliable distributed queuing with the low-overhead Starling messaging server • Implementing comprehensive enterprise messaging with RabbitMQ and Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)• Offloading heavyweight tasks with BackgrounDRb and DelayedJob

Click here for more information about Distributed Programming with Ruby

Read More...

HTML and JavaScript BASICS (Basics (Course Technology)) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Web pages are written in HTML, and Barksdale teaches this for an absolute novice. Hopefully, you should find it easy to follow. HTML's rapid success was due in no small part to this ease of use. It is also not a procedural language, though sometimes it is mistakenly called that. What Barksdale shows about HTML is that it is a declarative language. That is, you say that certain text should be written in a given colour or font style or size, and at a certain relative location on the page. You tell the browser what you want shown, and it has to implement that.
But Barksdale goes beyond HTML. As a display language, it is very limited. Whereas he shows how you can use JavaScript as a client side [ie. running on the browser] language, to perform actual programming tasks. JavaScript is a good functional complement to HTML, as you might appreciate.

Click Here to see more reviews about: HTML and JavaScript BASICS (Basics (Course Technology))

This BASICS series text, updated to include the latest information on JavaScript and HTML, provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step introduction to all aspects of HTML and JavaScript programming. Topics covered in the book include HTML organization techniques, HTML power techniques, using images with JavaScript, and using forms with JavaScript.

Click here for more information about HTML and JavaScript BASICS (Basics (Course Technology))

Read More...

The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a book that shows how far website designing has come, since the early days of the mid 90s. Back then, texts on the subject often focused on the technical mechanics. Heavy on HTML, explaining what all those tags did. Plus much details on how to run the web servers. Those were texts for programmers.
Duyne and his co-authors give a higher level discourse. One better attuned to a true design approach. And germane to people of different skill sets than programmers. While there is still some discussion at the HTML level, nowadays you can safely assume that much of that degree of detail can be safely handed off, after the design (or a first cut of it) is done.
The text spans many aspects of a website. Like having a consistent visual style across all the pages. Or perhaps distinct styles, but each within a clear subset of pages. And the developer should always try to keep in mind what a visitor might expect. For this, a logical and easy to understand layout of the pages relative to each other is key. Along with an accompanying site map. Granted, if you are just starting out with a small site, the map may be unnecessary. But if you have ambitions for more, then designing a logical subdivision of the pages is advised.
You probably want search engines to list your site. And list it prominently. Where this applies whether you have a corporate site or a non-profit site. So a chapter offers several hints for search engine optimisation. For one thing, try having meaningful titles for each page. But perhaps the best thing you can do, if you want other websites to link to yours, is simply to write the text as fluently and interestingly as you can. Make visitors WANT to read your pages. All the technical SEO steps are important, but ultimately secondary compared to this.
The book also warns of phishing attacks against your site. Perhaps inevitable if you will be doing ecommerce, and if your site becomes popular. One key piece of advice is NOT to outsource your email subscriptions to a third party site. Not only can it make some subscribers suspicious, but it increases their vulnerability to phishing messages.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition)

Praise for the second edition of The Design of Sites


"In my worldwide IBM marketing role, I have the benefit of working with some of the finest international interactive agencies and internal Web teams. As I read The Design of Sites, [I see] the insight from years of professional advice has been put to paper. Nowhere have I seen such a practical, effective, and easy-to-use book to solve and avoid Internet design issues. I keep a copy of the book handy to remind me of the things I forgot and to gain fresh perspectives. It never fails to deliver."-John Cilio, marketing manager, IBM System x & z Storage Synergy

"The Design of Sites artfully brings forward the original intent of Christopher Alexander's pattern language into the user experience design arena. It is a valuable and comprehensive reference."
-George Hackman, Jr., senior director of User Experience for User Interface Guidelines, Patterns and Standards, Oracle Corporation

"The Design of Sites is one of the best tools I have in my usability toolbox. [These] Web UI design patterns make it easy for me to show my clients how to get the most usability bang for their buck."
-Claudia Alden Case, usability consultant and interaction designer, Alden Case Enterprises, Inc.

"If only biology class had been like this. Lucid text, bulletproof content, and a comprehensive taxonomy that's just as much a source of inspiration as it is a production tool. This is a really, really good book. If you build Web sites, read it."
-Marc Campbell, author of Web Design Garage

Praise for the first edition of The Design of Sites

"Stop reinventing the wheel every time you design a Web site! The Design of Sites helps you rethink your Web sites in terms of genres and patterns. Once you have identified the patterns and applied the best practices for those patterns as outlined in this book, you will reduce your design effort by 50 percent . . . at least!"
-Pawan R. Vora, vice president, Information Architecture, Seurat Company

"The content [in The Design of Sites] could make a novice into a seasoned professional over a weekend. Many companies pay a fortune for the information contained in the book's primary chapters."
-John Cilio, marketing manager, IBM System x & z Storage Synergy

"This book has many handy checklists for what you should and should not do in creating a conventional Web site. Just following the authors' suggestions would put your site in the top few percent for readability and usability."
-Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh computer and author of The Humane Interface

"Now that The Design of Sites has made its appearance, we won't have to put up with those poorly designed Web pages. These authors have captured patterns from successful Web designers, including their own experience in consulting and teaching, and have made this information accessible to all of us. The book is readable yet full of worthwhile information--a valuable addition to any Web designer's bookshelf."
-Linda Rising, independent consultant and author of The Patterns Handbook, The Pattern Almanac 2000, and Design Patterns in Communications Software

"[The Design of Sites] bridges the gap from theory to practice and makes it possible for people in the Web-design space to use user-centered design principles in their work—without having to undertake extensive training."
-Maya Venkatraman, human interface engineer, Sun Microsystems

"The coverage [in The Design of Sites] is excellent--issues go beyond the traditional 'design the best page' focus and do a good job of showing the context. I haven't seen any other book with the kind of breadth this has."
-Terry Winograd, professor of computer science, Stanford University, and editor of Bringing Design to Software

"With this book as a reference, you can benefit from what companies like Yahoo! have learned and apply it to your site, even if you don't have a design and research team similarly sized and staffed."
From the foreword by Irene Au, director of User Experience, Google; former vice president of User Experience and Design, Yahoo!

The Design of Sites, Second Edition, is the definitive reference for the principles, patterns, methodologies, and best practices underlying exceptional Web design. If you are involved in the creation of dynamic Web sites, this book will give you all the necessary tools and techniques to create effortless end-user Web experiences, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve a balanced approach to Web design.

After a comprehensive tutorial covering the foundations of good Web site design, you will move on to discover the thirteen major Web design pattern groups. These patterns solve recurring design problems and help design teams avoid reinventing the wheel. Patterns range from creating a solid navigation framework and the all-important home page, to instilling trust and building credibility with your customers and improving site performance through better design.

The book features

Coverage of AJAX, the Mobile Web, and online communities
Seventeen new design patterns to add to the original ninety, including the new blog site type
More than twenty significantly updated patterns
450 four-color screen shots and diagrams, including more than 150 new images
Key site elements, including site maps, style sheets, dynamic elements, and customer profiles
Clear, visual organization with color-coded sections for easy reference
A balanced approach to Web design that takes both customer and business needs into account

Click here for more information about The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition)

Read More...

Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)So as to respond to the exigencies of globalization, the world of managing, managers and management has substantially changed in the last two decades or so. While some say that management discourse is to be viewed from the post-modernist perspective; others argue that we are reverting back to basics of management. Market, competition, competencies, capacity building, culture, diversity, empowerment, teams, lean organizations are some of the buzz words in general management literature today. Managers' commitment in the new era is being tested not on the touchstone of loyalty to the owner or the organization, but on performance and sensitivity to the needs of the organization and other stakeholders. In the era of globalization, the general topics in the discipline of management are also changing. But not all general management textbooks have shifted their focus adequately from traditional functions to the contemporary ones. The book under review meets this demand of the subject quite well.
Some of the salient features of this interesting text are as follows: The coverage of topics is quite comprehensive and updated, including issues like organizational politics, cultures, knowledge and learning, innovation and change, managing strategy and managing globalization. Each chapter provides overview of theories involved in succinct and lucid manner including the contemporary developments in the subject concerned. The theories involved have been traced in terms of their historical development. Each chapter prescribes suggested additional readings, most of which are path-breaking works. A good bit of additional material is also available in the form of maps, images, charts, and boxes as tools for learning and examining the material. Above all, this text meets requirements of a well-written text. The reader finds the narration in a tremendous flow. The text is also supported by an instructor's manual and an interactive website that provides additional material for teachers and students, including more cases, quick quizzes, short movies from experts introducing students to main themes, as well as a free online reader of important journal articles that relate to the topics discussed.
Writing inspiring textbook is an art. Throughout the book the authors are aware of what is happening in various areas of management today. The authors rightly call it "a realist guide to management". They have also succeeded well at several places questioning the supposedly unquestionable; quite a postmodernist venture. Coherence is remarkable; rarely does the reader encounter patches of disinterest in the concepts being elaborated.

Debi S. Saini
MDI, Gurgaon, India

Click Here to see more reviews about: Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice

The eagerly-awaited Second Edition of this successful, highly-praised textbook continues to provide an original and engaging introduction to organizational behavior. Now completely revised and restructured, Stewart Clegg, Martin Kornberger, and Tyrone Pitsis succeed in relating theory to practice at every step to equip students with a real understanding of how to apply organizational behavior ideas in the real world. Student-friendly case studies, examples and boxed features will stimulate and challenge students, encouraging them to develop critical thinking skills.

Click here for more information about Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice

Read More...

Online Marketing Terms Exposed: Understand the Lingo of Online Search Marketing Experts Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)As a novice to Online Marketing and operator of a website that was in need of a great deal of revitalization, Gary Haffer's Book provided a fantastic understanding for the non-technical user, and was able to expand into more complicated concepts with ease. The proof is in the numbers- an exponential increase in hits to my website after implementing these simple, highly effective tips.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Online Marketing Terms Exposed: Understand the Lingo of Online Search Marketing Experts

Most online business owners are getting nowhere figuring out how to get traffic from search engines. It is a known fact that to have visitors to your websites - one needs greater visibility within the search engines. But exactly how do you do it?Since 2010 is here, you want your website to be growing with traffic rather than with few visitors. Gary E. Haffer's new book, Online Marketing Terms Exposed: Understand the Lingo of Online Search Marketing Experts will help achieve website visibility, traffic and more.Online Marketing Terms Exposed: Understand the Lingo of Online Search Marketing Expertsis a useful "how-to explanation" book designed to help those new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), managers, online marketers, as well as the more seasoned veterans. Readers will find information ranging from understanding the lingo of online marketing to enhancing a website's visibility to generate traffic. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step examples that demonstrate key search engine optimization techniques, including analyzing your competition, researching and analyzing keywords, developing meta tags, and setting up social networks that help super-size your website, and over 450 terms used in online marketing. One business owner states, "Our website was basically invisible on the Internet and after reading only two chapters of Haffer's book and creating effective keywords, we are on page one and prospects are calling me that otherwise would have never found me."If you were wondering how to:* Increase your website's visibility (rank) on Google* How to list your website on the search engines* How to see what the competition is doing and beat them* Avoid Search Engine roadblocks* Develop keywords that produce traffic* Use online press releases to increase customers* Get the most from social sites* Make people find what they want on your website - This is the book that can help!

Click here for more information about Online Marketing Terms Exposed: Understand the Lingo of Online Search Marketing Experts

Read More...