Books

Human Computer Interaction Developments and Management
Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Critical Issues in User Interface Systems Engineering
User Modeling: 8th International Conference, UM2001, Sonthofen, Germany, July 13-17, 2001 - Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Haptic Human-computer Interaction: First International Workshop, Glasgow, UK, August 31-September 1, 2000, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Active Media Technology: 6th International Computer Science Conference, AMT 2001, Hong Kong, China, December 18-20, 2001 Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Gesture and Sign Languages in Human-Computer Interaction: International Gesture Workshop, GW 2001, London, UK, April 18-20, 2001 - Revised Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Mobile Human-Computer Interaction: 4th International Symposium, Mobile Hci 2002, Pisa, Italy, September 18-20, 2002: Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Discourse, Tools and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition (NATO ASI Series: Series F - Computer & Systems Sciences)
Services and Visualization, Towards User-Friendly Design: ACOS '98, Visual '98, AIN '97 Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science S.)
Audio System for Technical Readings: v. 1410 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science S.)
Visual Information and Information Systems: International Conference, VISUAL '99, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 2-4, 1999 - Proceedings: 3rd (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
Gesture-based Communication in Human-computer Interaction: International Gesture Workshop, Gw'99, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France, March 17-19, 1999 Proceedings: International Gesture Workshop, GW '99, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, March 17-19, 1999, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science S.)
Long Term Human-Computer Interaction: An Exploratory Perspective
People and Computers: Proceedings of HCI '98 13th
Virtual Environments in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience: Methods and Techniques in Advanced Patient-therapist Interaction (Studies in Health Technology & Informatics S.)
The Unfinished Revolution: Making Computers Human-centric
Lego Mindstorms Interfacing (TAB Electronics Technical Library)
Human Computer Factors: A Study of Users and Information (Information Systems Series)
Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM)
Proceedings of the Joint Conference of Apchi 2000(4th Asia Pacific Conference on Human Computer Interaction), ASEAN Ergonomics 2000 (6th S.E. Asian Ergonomics Society Conference)
Finding and Fixing Your Year 2000 Problem: A Hands-on Guide for Small Organizations and Workgroups
Global Interface Design
Computer Graphics and Virtual Environments: From Realism to Real-time
Personal Encryption Clearly Explained (Clearly Explained S.)

Integrating Agile Development in the Real World (Programming Series) (Programming Series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent practical guide to doing agile in real world
Excellent material for a transition from a traditional approach
This pulls it together!
not for your average programmer
Real-World Results

Integrating Agile Development in the Real World (Programming Series) (Programming Series)
Peter Schuh
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide
Agile Estimating and Planning (Robert C. Martin Series)
User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development (The Addison-Wesley Signature Series)
Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional)
Agile Software Development with SCRUM

ASIN: 1584503645

Book Description

Have your software projects been suffering from the age-old development problems of slipped schedules and ballooning budgets? Has your development organization experienced a variety of failed and canceled projects? If so, you may benefit from infusing some agility into your development process. Agile development breaks with a 40-year tradition of applying ever more structure and formalization to the design and development of software by advocating a return to the basic principles of satisfied customers, working software, and the willingness to accept and respond to change. As the popularity of agile development has grown, IT professionals have begun to struggle with ways to integrate agile practices and processes into traditional project environments. Integrating Agile Development in the Real World provides programmers and managers with specific and implementable ways to use agile processes in everyday software development projects. Whether read cover-to-cover, or used as a field guide during an agile transition, this book provides valuable insight into how agile practices and processes may be applied in almost any environment. Everything from how to deliver a working system sooner, acknowledge and respond to change, better meet the needs of the project?s customer, to increasing software quality, and fostering a more communicative and collaborative team culture are thoroughly covered.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent practical guide to doing agile in real world.......2007-01-08

If you want to learn about how to take your theoretical understanding of agile development and implement it in the real word, this is a good book for you. Very well written. Very well organized to give concrete ideas in a logical manner for successful implementation.

This book does not spend too much time on teaching basic tenets of different agile methodologies other than providing a brief overview of different agile methodologies at the beginning. That's good enough considering the objective of the book which is to give real-life "how to" implement agile development practices in the real world.

The author does a good job of grouping agile practices as they apply to different sub-disciplines such as development, testing, documentation, project management, people management, communication management etc. This provides a nice way to pick and choose practices to attack some low hanging fruits first and then go for difficult ones later after getting a few successes under your belt.

People management which is treated with very little detail in many books finds a good measure of treatment in this book. That is certainly refreshing. One thing I would not forget from this book is something goes like this - "Skills can be learnt by anyone with varying degrees of speed and effectiveness. Nevertheless, they can be learnt by anyone given sufficient time and training. Experience naturally comes with time. But, character is one thing that is ingrained in a person. So, while hiring people do not focus only on skills and experience but pay close attention to the character." Of course, teaching how to hire right people is not one of the objectives of the book. But, the fact that the author recognizes the very important but hard to quantify character as one of the most important attributes while selecting team shows his maturity and hard earned battle proven expertise in the real world.

Best practices get very limited treatment in the areas of requirements engineering, documentation, integrating other important cross functional disciplines such as user training, outbound product management, tech support. However, while delivering a large software product, these functions play very important role and practicing agile may have serious impact on their work as well. Offshore development and large distributed development also gets very minimal treatment.

All in all a great book on the basics of how to do agile in real world.

Excellent material for a transition from a traditional approach.......2006-03-14

This book provides excellent material for a transition from a traditional approach to an agile method. The book gives only a brief description of the agile methods (XP, Scrum, FDD, etc.), but you will find a detailed presentation of the best practices common to agile approaches. For each of them, the author exposes the purposes, the prerequisites, the implementation, the opportunities and obstacles.

The books provides an agile treatment of many of the daily problems of software development projects like database management, data conversion, test data management, project communication, documentation, end-user contacts or developers management. The most interesting point for me in this book is that the author recognises that you cannot always start with a white page and require an "all-agile" process. It provides information on how to integrate gradually agile practices in a traditional software development context.

This pulls it together!.......2005-07-29

Peter's book is a great tool for helping you solidify your Agile practices. As a consultant, I've found it extremely beneficial for tweaking our Agile methodology. My clients that use it have appreciated the very practical and straightforward advice as well. Appropriate for BOTH managers and developers... ;)

not for your average programmer.......2005-03-31

Integrating Agile Development in the Real World is basically a manual on implementing Agile development in a real-world environment. The book is well written and clear. However, this book is not for the casual reader or developer.

The "Who should read this book" section in the front says it best; it indicates that this book was written for someone who already has a strong understanding of Agile development (you can check the section out for specifics) and is wanting to attempt to implement it in their own development.

Since Agile development is fairly flexible and can be applied to variety of disciplines, it also assumes you are familiar with one (for example, XP) and will be reading it with this in mind. If you aren't very familiar with these, this book is definitely not for you. If you are, then you could learn a lot from it.

If you have some familiarity with one or more disciplines, however, this book could be used as a guide to adding Agile development to a development department's "toolbox". It is written from a wide-scale, departmental point of view and not intended for the solitary developer.

I found some of the text to be a little too high-level and abstract to visualize. I normally feel very comfortable with the theoretical, but this book seemed almost a little too general. Again, this might be exactly what some others would want. A counter-argument could be made that should the book become too granular, it might become more of a "how to" book rather than a "why to" book. While it won't provide you the answer to your questions, it will provide the reader with the tools necessary to figure out for sure what questions your organization should ask.

I also really liked how the book was divided. It provides very distinct sections, acknowledging that not all development tasks are the same. For example, there is a separate section for testing software (a subject near and....dear to my heart as a QA Engineer). This focus on testing is very much in tune with XP and test-driven development.

So, overall, this is a good book. It's just not for the average programmer.

Real-World Results.......2005-02-25

This book gives a project manager the "knowledge" needed to effectively manage a software product. The methods/processes defined by the author really work. I have first-hand experience that the project management techniques work and can bring a project to success, and on time.

Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide

Average customer rating:

More integrated usability design
Good book if you need to educate your company
How to make doing usability right an institutional feature

Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide
Eric Schaffer
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Cost-Justifying Usability, Second Edition: An Update for the Internet Age, Second Edition (Interactive Technologies)
Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Interactive Technologies)
Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements Methods, Tools, and Techniques (Interactive Technologies)
Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

ASIN: 032117934X

Customer Reviews:

More integrated usability design.......2004-04-30

A nice management level explanation of the importance of usability design and how to incorporate it organically into the entire iterative design process. Schaffer emphasises finding the right people, starting at senior management, as much as the tasks that the people then do. The 'institutionalisation' in the title refers to this emphasis. He contrasts this with standard usability texts that focus on the methodology instead of the people who have to perform it.

Speaking of methodology, he devotes an entire chapter to it. He shows a figure of the old way, where the design of a technical solution was done first, followed by a design of the interface that would overlay it. He suggests reversing this order. Not bad, and probably valid in most cases. But there is one important case where the old way is still viable. Research. Where it is not certain that a solution exists. By necessity, investigation and implementation of a solution should come first. Because if it cannot be done, interface design is moot. Granted, most of his book refers to a commercial product, so the rejoinder could be that a research situation is outside the book's scope. But just keep this in mind when reading it.

He also includes a very topical section on the challenges of offshore staffings. (Indians, anyone?) It is certainly possible, though not trivial, to integrate such staff into the entire design cycle, in his experience. Of course, some American readers will find this unsettling. But it should not be a surprise. As offshore staff gain in experience, inevitably they will be able to do this.

Good book if you need to educate your company.......2004-04-15

I read and highlighted this book with the promise of my manager to read it after me (or at least the highlighting!). I am hoping the book will move up the management structure and make a difference. I believe the book is somewhat remedial if you have been in the usability world for very long, but if you are trying to influence an organization and educate them as to the value, methodology and how-to of usability, this book will help.

How to make doing usability right an institutional feature.......2004-03-12

The usability of computer interfaces is like art, essential, but difficult to quantify. However, with the proper approach, both can be taught and the best principles of usability can be formalized into a process. Creating such a process is not easy, requiring an ongoing commitment. Schaffer identifies four phases in the process of making usability issues a fundamental component of software design. They are the startup, setup, organization and long-term operations phases.
Like all startup phases when creating a process, institutionalizing usability begins with a change in mindset. This is often a response to a disaster, but the best people are proactive and realize that good usability is good business. As is the case in nearly all areas of software development, implementation of a process requires an executive champion, someone who understands the value and continues to insist that the proper quality be maintained. There is no question that this is the most important precondition to making usability an institutional requirement.
Schaffer steps through each of the phases, breaking them down into specific components. Issues such as standards, staffing, staff training, implementation strategies, planning and tools used in testing are covered in detail. In all cases, he gives detailed explanations of what to do and repeatedly emphasizes that a proactive strategy is generally the best one. I found his charts of boring to cool versus confusing to usable to be amusing and quite accurate.
As the population using computers has shifted from those with a great deal of computer expertise to the population in general, the height of the usability bar has been dramatically raised. Even computer experts are growing more impatient when using computers, expecting things to work quickly, accurately and be visually obvious. Therefore, making things easy to use is now as much a business necessity as the underlying function of the software. This book will teach you the ways to do it right once as well as how to formalize the process so that you do it right every time.

The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution

Average customer rating:

The Case for Information Appliances
Save your money
Not his best work
A good read, although difficult to accept his major thesis
Great ideas... if lacking in firm foundations

The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution
Donald A. Norman
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
The Design of Everyday Things
Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine
The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems
Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces (Interactive Technologies)

ASIN: 0262140659

Amazon.com

Currently, computer users must navigate a sea of guidebooks, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and wizards to perform a task such as searching the Web or creating a spreadsheet. While Donald Norman acknowledges that the personal computer allows for "flexibility and power," he also makes its limitations perfectly clear. "The personal computer is perhaps the most frustrating technology ever," he writes. "It should be quiet, invisible, unobtrusive." His vision is that of the "information appliance," digital tools created to answer our specific needs, yet interconnected to allow communication between devices.

His solution? "Design the tool to fit so well that the tool becomes a part of the task." He proposes using the PC as the infrastructure for devices hidden in walls, in car dashboards, and held in the palm of the hand. A word of caution: some of Norman's zealotry leads to a certain creepiness (global positioning body implants) and goofiness (electric-power-generating plants in shoes). His message, though, is reasonably situated in the concept that the tools should bend to fit us and our goals: we sit down to write, not to word process; to balance bank accounts, not to fill in cells on a spreadsheet. In evenly measuring out the future of humanity's technological needs--and the limitations of the PC's current incarnation--Norman presents a formidable argument for a renaissance of the information appliance. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Book Description

Technologies have a life cycle, says Donald Norman, and companies and their products must change as they pass from youth to maturity. Alas, the computer industry thinks it is still in its rebellious teenage years, exulting in technical complexity. Customers want change. They are ready for products that offer convenience, ease of use, and pleasure. The technology should be invisible, hidden from sight.

In this book, Norman shows why the computer is so difficult to use and why this complexity is fundamental to its nature. The only answer, says Norman, is to start over again, to develop information appliances that fit people's needs and lives. To do this companies must change the way they develop products. They need to start with an understanding of people: user needs first, technology last--the opposite of how things are done now. Companies need a human-centered development process, even if it means reorganizing the entire company. This book shows how.

Customer Reviews:

The Case for Information Appliances.......2004-09-17

The content strives to support the design of information appliances due to the complexity of the computer coupled with creeping featurism. Human centered design must be used to overcome the increasing complexity.

Chapters 7 (Being Analog) and 8 (Why is Everything So Difficult to Use) are reminiscent of Things that Make Us Smart and The Design of Everyday Things also by Norman.

Chapters 9 and 10 focus on human centered development by defining it as a process and then describing 'immutable principles' that should apply. Six disciplines of user experience are identified.

As I progressed through the book, I had to continually return to the cover and back pages, rereading the title and description to remind myself of what the book is about. Read the two referenced books first!

Save your money.......2002-04-05

Short and sweet: Don't waste your money on even a used version of this book. If you want to buy a book see some of the recommendations made by other reviewers. Get something for your money.

Not his best work.......2002-04-02

I'm a fan of Donald Norman's work so when I finally had a
chance to pick up "The Invisible Computer" I had high hopes.
Unfortunately, this work didn't provide the same insight and
focus as his previous books such as "The Design of Everyday
Things".

Throughout the work Norman draws upon "Crossing the Chasm"
and "Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon
Valley's Cutting Edge" [both by Geoffrey Moore]. Also
heavily emphasized are the ideas put forth by "The

Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms
to Fail." All of these books are interesting--but I wanted
something from Norman himself.

Chapter 7, "Being Analog", was more in line with what I had
come to expect from Norman. He ends this chapter with this:
"Alas, most of today's machines, especially the computer,
force people to use them on their own terms, terms that are
antithetical to the way people work and think. The result is
frustration, an increase in the rate of error (usually
blamed on the user--human error--instead of on faulty
design), and a general turning away from technology. Will
the interaction between people and machines be done
correctly in the future? Might schools of computer science
start teaching the human-centered approach that is necessary
to reverse the trend? I don't see why not." That's what I'm
looking for! If only the rest of the book had followed that
passion.

Instead focusing on human factors and man-machine

interface issues, Norman wanders discussing substitutable
goods vs. nonsubstitutable goods, a rehash of why software
is hard to write (and the mythical man month), and even some
embarrassing admissions now that he'd spent some time outside
academia and worked a bit in industry: "Time, or rather the
lack of it, I was starting to learn, is one of the greatest
barriers to quality". As my young nieces would say to me,
"duh!"

Finally, although written in the late 1990's with the

paperback edition published in 1998, I found the text to
already be a bit dated. You don't realize how quickly the
computer industry moves until you find a book frozen in time
like this one.

My recommendation is to read Norman's other works and the
works he recommends here (Crossing the Chasm, Inside the
Tornado, and Innovator's Dilemma). Finally, I recommend
"Machine Beauty" by David Gelernter. It provides more
passion and keener insights than this work--and is generally
more fun to read!

A good read, although difficult to accept his major thesis.......2002-01-30

This book covers in detail the role technology has pervasively interrupted our lives by intruding into everyday living. His major point is that we should have small, independent devices that do one task and one task well, rather than a general-purpose computer to do many tasks. Personally as a technologist I disagree with his major assumptions and points and found the book and some of it's major themes troubling.

An example is the way children interact with computers compared to senior citizens. When a child grows up with something is becomes natural. Most children who have access to a computer at an early stage find it as natural as using a video/DVD player, television or CD player. If the technology is introduced at an early stage it become part of the natural language of the child. Normal disagrees with this, and I think although he is a well researched observer that this is one failing of the book.

It wasn't until I reached the last quarter of the book that I could start to agree with his ideas and see the point he was trying to make. That is that some devices work as an appliance. The examples of the TiVo (which we don't have here in Australia) seem best to fit the example. They do one thing, and do it well. Network Computers are the other example, where the complexity of the device is hidden from the user (although he still feels uncomfortable with NC's as they are still "computers".)

Norman's style of writing made me think I had skipped back a few pages every now and then as he often will repeat himself in greater detail over points he thinks are important.

If you're a technologist you should read it. But don't take it as gospel. Although Normal is correct in some of his point, you need to use your own experience and environment to understand the points he is trying to make, rather than accepting them carte blanch.

Great ideas... if lacking in firm foundations.......2001-08-20

While this book generally manages to be a good read for those developing both the management technique behind the software and the software itself, it spends a great deal of time looking at problems and fails to offer any real solutions. Norman is a great writer, and the ideas set out are important - just lacking completion.

Taming HAL: Designing Interfaces Beyond 2001

Average customer rating:

An instructive read
Taming more than just HAL

Taming HAL: Designing Interfaces Beyond 2001
Asaf Degani
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity (2nd Edition)
Human Error
The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Interactive Technologies)
The Design of Everyday Things
Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design

ASIN: 031229574X

Book Description

Machines dominate our lives, from alarm clocks that wake us up in the morning to radios that lull us to sleep. Most of our interactions with automated machines and computers are problem-free, but more often than we would like, they can be irritating and confusing. This is frequently harmless, such as a VCR recording the wrong show, but when it involves a critical system like an autopilot or medical device it can be a matter of life or death. Taming HAL seeks to explain these miscommunications between humans and machines by exploring user interfaces of everyday devices. Degani examines thirty different systems for human use, including watches, consumer electronic products, Internet applications, cars, medical equipment, navigation systems onboard cruise ships, and autopilots of commercial aircraft. Readers will discover why interfaces between people and machines all too often do not work and what needs to be done to avoid potential tragedies.

Customer Reviews:

An instructive read.......2004-04-11

Personally, I have found on many instances, a baffling logic concerning the way machine-human interfaces operate, thus it came as a pleasant surprise to read Asaf Degani's book: Taming HAL. Starting with relatively simple devices, such as portable phones and bedside alarms, Dr. Degani walks us through the logical pathways that we expect, what the designer created, and ultimately how the machine behaves when interacting with the user. The result, often, is not a pretty picture: unexpected outcomes.

Yet, as Degani points out, many of these systems had flawed logic rules built into them by designers that neglected predominate stereotypical or cultural mores that most individuals expect of how systems should operate. Moreover, the presentation of machine modes frequently beguiles the user into thinking the device is operating in one fashion, whereas in reality it is functioning in another. Using logic diagrams, Degani analyses a variety of simple and complex systems and demonstrates that the end-result can range from the annoying to the deadly.

Some of the case studies will astound the reader: for example, the grounding of the luxury cruise liner Royal Majesty on the shoals of Nantucket. However, these bizarre tales become more comprehensible when one sees that the professionals entrusted with operation of the vessels in question failed to understand the true nature of the automatic systems that were supposed to guide and assist them. Understandably, Degani focuses much attention on aircraft systems (his specialty), and I would have liked to see more examples in the medical and computer fields, but the book contains extremely useful information to both laypersons and professionals alike, and is a great read.

Taming more than just HAL.......2004-01-29

I have finished reading TAMING HAL and here's a short description of my experience: The book is well-structured--from simple examples to greater generalizations, with very smooth transitions. Secondly, it is very well written, with some passages providing more excitement and suspense than an average Tom Clancy chapter. I definitely had a great time reading it and I feel that most people will do too. It is very easy to read and understand but very informative at the same time. The last chapter has a great collection of guidelines that are applicable in many technical areas beyond human-machine interface design. To sum up my reading of this book--I learned a lot and enjoyed it greatly.

Leonid Shklar

The Simplicity Shift: Innovative Design Tactics in a Corporate World

Average customer rating:

Top notch design booklet

The Simplicity Shift: Innovative Design Tactics in a Corporate World
Scott Jenson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Thoughtful Interaction Design: A Design Perspective on Information Technology
Effective Prototyping for Software Makers (Interactive Technologies)
Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) (Interactive Technologies)
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices (VOICES)
Designing Interactions

ASIN: 052152749X

Book Description

High-tech products have historically had notoriously poor design. Fortunately, companies have recently started to embrace user-centered design practices. This transition hasn't been smooth; many companies have difficulty transferring good design into final, shippable product. There is a political/cultural disconnect between the outward corporate desire for good design and the internal corporate culture that implements it. The Simplicity Shift is about moving the company culture to value, discover and implement simplicity, and to create a well-designed product. For most companies, product design is not paramount; it is something locked into a "design department" and approached as a sub-task of the larger sequential process. For companies to truly create breakthrough, easy-to-use products, they must elevate design so that its terms and tools are shared by everyone in the team. Design is a strategic tool that thereby becomes a part of how every company employee thinks, acts--and most importantly--makes decisions. Product managers and professional designers will benefit from the tools and examples about making design work in a production company.

Customer Reviews:

Top notch design booklet.......2004-12-10

This book contains twelve small chapters on the adequate design of technical devices, the design of good and foremost well usable "user interfaces". Each of these chapters is a fast read (maybe half an hour), but contains enough substance to fill an entire book of good quality.

It is always good to remind oneself in regular intervals, of what excellent quality means. This book helps you.

I read it from the perspective of a software developer. After reading this I now think, that I really do finally understand the importance of use cases (see Ivar Jacobson). Before I was reading a book by Kent Beck on Test Driven Development. Also here the Jenson Book sheds extra illumination. A test is a use of a program.

You might find the book expensive for so few pages. These pages are more than worth it.

Human Computer Interaction Development and Management

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Human Computer Interaction Development and Management

Manufacturer: IRM Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1931777136

Book Description

This important resource contains the most recent research concerning the management and development of information systems, so that organizations can effectively manage information systems growth and development. Not only must hardware, software, data, information, and networks be managed-people must be managed. Humans must be trained to use information systems. Systems must be developed so humans can use the systems as efficiently and effectively as possible. Therefore, topics included in this book concern human computer interaction such as training, aesthetics, ergonomics, and user friendliness. Human Computer Interaction Development and Management addresses these topics with the most recent research and findings.

Download Description

Organizations cannot continue to blindly accept and introduce components into Information Systems without studying the effectiveness, feasibility and efficiency of the individual components of their information systems. Information Systems may be the only business area where it is automatically assumed that the “latest, greatest and most powerful component is the one for our organization” and must be managed and developed as any other resource in organizations today. Human Computer Interaction Development and Management contains the most recent research articles concerning the management and development of Information Systems, so that organizations can effectively manage information systems growth and development. Not only must hardware, software, data, information, and networks be managed—people must be managed. Humans must be trained to use information systems. Systems must be developed so humans can use the systems as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Design of Work and Development of Personnel in Advanced Manufacturing

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Design of Work and Development of Personnel in Advanced Manufacturing

Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471594474

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Presents a framework of worldwide problems, issues and solutions relevant to the design of work and development of personnel in advanced manufacturing systems. Focuses on people and their central roles in automated production resulting from rapid computer-based integration. Addresses social, technical, organizational, managerial and ecological design issues relating to manufacturing success and the business objectives of a firm. Provides solutions to problems of integrating the human element into the production process.

Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

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Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
Michael Lopp
Manufacturer: Apress
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Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent
Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think
RESTful Web Services

ASIN: 159059844X

Book Description

Managing Humans is a selection of the best essays from Michael Lopp's web site, Rands In Repose. Drawing on Lopp's management experiences at Apple, Netscape, Symantec, and Borland, this book is full of stories based on companies in the Silicon Valley where people have been known to yell at each other. It is a place full of dysfunctional bright people who are in an incredible hurry to find the next big thing so they can strike it rich and then do it all over again. Among these people are managers, a strange breed of people who through a mystical organizational ritual have been given power over your future and your bank account. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you. You will learn:

What to do when people start yelling at each other

How to perform a diving save when the best engineer insists on resigning

How to say "No" to the person who signs your paycheck

Among fans of Michael Lopp is the incomparable Joel Spolsky, cofounder and CEO of Fog Creek Software:

"What you're holding in your hands in by far the most brilliant book about managing software teams you're ever going to find".

This book is designed for managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bites for the messy world of managing humans. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture.

Software by Design: Shaping Technology and The Workplace

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Software by Design: Shaping Technology and The Workplace
Harold Salzman , and Stephen R. Rosenthal
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

As computers become more and more integral to business and other organizational operations around the world, software design must increasingly meet the social demands of the workplace. This book provides an informative, cogent examination of how various social factors--such as organizational structure, workplace relations, and market conditions--together shape software developers' technical design decisions. Through a survey of major software companies and in-depth case studies of the banking, hospital, and equipment field service industries, the authors identify factors that influence specific design strategies and examine the significant consequences that engineering decisions have on users' work, workplace quality of life, and opportunities for autonomy and skill development. The book concludes with a chapter devoted to exploring how a progressive design approach can improve both the performance and working conditions of an organization. By providing an important empirical study of the social construction of technology, the authors offer an insightful understanding of the challenges inherent in effective software design. The book will appeal to professionals and students in software design, information systems management, computer science, and the sociology of work and technology.

Work & Rewards in the Virtual Workplace: A "New Deal" for Organizations & Employees

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Highly recommended!
"New paradigm as skill-or competency-based pay."
An insightful tour through virtual organization realities

Work & Rewards in the Virtual Workplace: A "New Deal" for Organizations & Employees
N. Fredric Crandall , Marc J. Wallace , and Fredric Crandall
Manufacturer: American Management Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

WORK AND REWARDS IN THE VIRTUAL WORKPLACE A 'New Deal' for Organizations and Employees

What is the 'virtual workplace'? It is a world where networks of people engage in work, but are not bound by the traditional limitations of time and space -- they need not work in the same place or keep standard business hours. And it is a growing reality for many companies.

The question for managers is: How do you manage workflow and employee efforts in what seems such an amorphous situation? This forward-thinking book presents an original three-stage model for the virtual workplace and provides case studies that illustrate how this model is working today. Readers learn:

** the skills and competencies required for success ** how work gets assigned, monitored, and measured ** the critical role of rewards and compensation in this new environment ** how to manage the 'blended workplace' that is a combination of regular, contract, and temporary employees ** how to 'go virtual' gradually, at a pace that is right for each organization Readers will get a clear picture of the work skills and competencies they will need to operate successfully as old organizational structures give way to the exciting and challenging environment of the virtual workplace.

N. FREDRIC CRANDALL, Ph.D., and MARC J. WALLACE, Ph.D. (Northbrook, IL) are nationally recognized experts on organizational change, human resources strategies, compensation, and rewards. Both have written and lectured widely, and Dr. Wallace is the author of more than 10 bestselling textbooks. They are partners in the prestigious consulting firm, Center for Workforce Effectiveness.

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommended!.......2002-07-30

Work and Rewards is chock full of useful information. Crandall and Wallace write mainly for organizations that resemble their clients -- corporations that manufacture goods for profit. But I think this book is even of value for non-profits. While obviously helpful for human resource people, this book would be beneficial reading for CEOs, top organizational leaders, and even frontline supervisors.

"The job is dead," the authors declare. "Job" is part of the "old deal" marked by cradle-to-grave security. "The New Deal will require us to act as adults, not children." Employees will be increasingly responsible for acquiring the skills needed by their employers. Narrow job descriptions are already giving way to broader, more flexible skill sets. The authors claim this shift will help organizations run more effectively and will increase worker satisfaction.

Don't be mistaken; Work and Rewards is not a pie-in-the-sky futurists dream. It is based on the real life experiences the authors have had with dozens of clients, including Sony, Corning, and others. Work and Rewards is packed with practical models, steps, outlines, case studies, plans, and formulas. These tools can help organizations evaluate the cost of going virtual, determine what key drivers the organization wants to reward, and how to manage the transition.

I highly recommend Work and Rewards.

Chapters include:

1. Forging a New Compact Between People and Technology
2. Working in the Virtual Workplace
3. Exploring the Virtual Workplace
4. Work Design
5. Skills and Competencies
6. Rewards in the Virtual Workplace
7. The Blended Workforce
8. The Economics of the Virtual Workplace
9. Getting to the New Deal in the Virtual Workplace

"New paradigm as skill-or competency-based pay.".......2000-05-22

"Economic and technological forces have converged in this last decade of the twentieth century to create an entirely new form of business competition. The New Competition", N. Fredric Crandall and Marc J. Wallace, JR. write, "encompasses a global economy and is driven by information rather than product and by time rather than space, creating a revolution in the way we do business...The New Competition has emerged in three parallel developments: (1). Former competitors forming alliances to command the market, (2). New marriages of technology, markets, and opportunity, and (3). The creation of new business entities that replace traditional ones, defining the entire length of a value chain-a form of organization that has been characterized as the virtual organization...The virtual organization requires a virtual workplace. The virtual workplace is a work environment where goods and services are created and delivered joining employees beyond the traditional bounds of time and place. Technology is a foundation for the virtual workplace, creating the means for innovations in working relationship such as teams of people who work together via teleconferencing or transfer work in progress from one venue to the next across time zones to keep work going on a continuous basis."

In this context, in Chapter Six, they examine how the role of rewards and compensation changes when an organization evolves from a traditional to a virtual workplace. Firstly, they define job in a traditional organization and argue: "The job concept served traditional organizations well. Work has been organized in a command-and-conrol bureaucracy characterized by functional specifications and hierarchy. It is a paradigm shaped by early twentieth-century thinking of Max Weber and Frederick W. Taylor, implemented by Henry Ford, and cast in the legislation of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s. Unfortunatelly the paradigm no longer serves us because the job has died. Globalization of production and technological revolution have forced us into a post-industrial model for producing goods and services. The work designs of the virtual workplace have forced companies to tear down hierarchy do away with functional specialization, and organize all activities according to entire business processes that cut across traditional departments and occupations."

Hence, they compare traditional and virtual base pay models, and argue that in the new workplace people are paid not for the job they hold but for the role they are expected to play.

I. Base Pay Model in the Traditional Workplace:

1. Unit of analysis: Job

2. Basis for determining value: Job evaluation

3. What pay is for: Work performed

4. Base pay progression: (a). Modest movement within grades to mid-point. Pay is controlled to mid-point. (b). Promotion required for significant advancement.

5. Base pay structure: Many narrow grades, hierarchically arranged.

II. Base Pay Model in the Virtual / New Paradigm Workplace:

1. Unit of analysis: Personal role

2. Basis for determining value: Personal evaluation

3. What is pay for: Capacity to perform

4. Base pay progression: Significant movement from entry rate to target rate based on capacity acquisition.

5. Base pay structure: Few, broad bands

Finally, they define this new paradigm as skill-or-competency-based pay, and argue: " the base pay progression policy that best serves the virtual workplace is skill-or competency-based pay.

I highly recommend.

An insightful tour through virtual organization realities.......1998-08-14

Like the industrial revolution before it, the Information Age is giving rise to new types of organizations, new ways of working, and new approaches to human resource management. This technology-driven economy, with its virtual realities, is profoundly reshaping the nature of relationships between organizations, as well as between the organization and the individual.

On a macro level, the authors aim to show how a new social contract (New Deal) is developing between individuals and organizations, replacing the traditional employer-employee relationship. Through this virtual revolution, the conflict, as many see and experience it today, between people and technology will be overcome. And free market dynamics make it inevitable that virtual organizations will and must continue emerging.

Moving from the macro to the micro, the authors explore some of the pivotal changes taking place today; changes in the nature of the workplace, the design of work, the use of competencies, the characteristics of reward systems, learning, career opportunities, and staffing. Numerous tables and diagrams, as well as illustrations from company experiences, highlight key points and make the distinctions between traditional and virtual workplaces vivid. There is a lot to be gained from each chapter. Guidelines are presented to help practitioners address their needs for taking action. The authors are also helpful in laying bare serious problems that companies have faced in applying such concepts as skill- or competency-based pay and broad bands which I, as a consultant in organization and compensation, welcome seeing in print. Additionally, the authors present a model to demonstrate the economic value of the virtual workplace. This is an excellent book, impressive in scope and rich in substance.

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