Flagler, Rockefeller Partner and Florida Baron (Florida Sand Dollar Book)

Book Description

Henry M. Flagler (1830-1913), the ambitious Gilded Age tycoon who designed and built much of Florida's fashionable east coast, rode to success on the rails.

As John D. Rockefeller's closest adviser in the 1870s, Flagler helped assemble the Standard Oil empire. In this thoroughly researched biography, Akin shows that Flagler understood early in his career that cheap freight rates determined industrial profits. Portraying Flagler as an aggressive entrepreneur, Akin documents his shrewd negotiations to obtain reduced rates, rebates, and drawbacks from the railroads, thus assuring Standard Oil's national domination over oil transportation costs.

Customer Reviews:

Informative but unrewarding.......1999-06-12

Akin's offering on Flagler is chock full of factual information. However, it is written in such a scholarly manner (practically every paragraph has a corresponding footnote) that it is difficult to get through. It's well researched, but not well written.

I was particularly interested in Flagler's Key West Extension to his Florida East Coast Railway. Akin gave "the eighth wonder of the world" just one chapter. Pat Parks' "The Railroad That Died at Sea" was more informative regarding the extension--and a far better read.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Mississippi Quarterly, published by Mississippi State University on December 22, 1993. The length of the article is 1004 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Flagler: Rockefeller Partner and Florida Baron. (book reviews)
Author: S. Walter Martin
Publication: The Mississippi Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 1993
Publisher: Mississippi State University
Volume: v47 Issue: n1 Page: p184(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Side stitch.......2006-12-12

Wise's progression through the Galloway marathon training program provides some amusement. What's surprising, though, is that the book is written almost in a blog style -- a slightly edited journal. At times, this plays to the book's advantage, allowing quick skims and providing fast laughs as her training intensifies. However, this also creates an odd sensation: You're reading a diary -- a ship's log of injuries, work woes, teammate relationships and other everyday issues.
For runners-in-training who are jotting down their miles and their thoughts, this log is a format they'll find familiar. However, someone looking for serious, detailed insight into the rigour of marathon training and its challenges will need to check out other books.

Book Description

Thinking Outside the Box brings together some of the best and most challenging scholarship about TV genres, exploring their genesis, their functions and development, and the interaction of disparate genres. The authors argue that genre is a process rather than a static category and that it signifies much about the people who produce and watch the shows.

In addition to considering traditional genres such as sitcoms, soap operas, and talk shows, the contributors explore new hybrids, including reality programs, teen-oriented science fiction, and quality dramas, and examine how many of these shows have taken on a global reach. Identifying historical continuities and envisioning possible trends, this is the richest and most current study of how television genres form, operate, and change.

Book Description

"Try to come up with 115 words that use "ert" (but don't turn inert trying!). Which 150 words can you spell using letters from the word `concentration'? (Stuck? A `nice' `cartoon' `actor' `cannot' `interact' with such a `notion.') Also included are unusual puzzles, grids and other quizzes."--Boys' Life.

Book Description

How to make sure your next important project isn't your last. Equip yourself with SOFTWARE PROJECT SURVIVAL GUIDE. It's for everyone with a stake in the outcome of a development project--and especially for those without formal software project management training. That includes top managers, executives, clients, investors, end-user representatives, project managers, and technical leads.Here you'll find guidance from the acclaimed author of the classics CODE COMPLETE and RAPID DEVELOPMENT. Steve McConnell draws on solid research and a career's worth of hard-won experience to map the surest path to your goal--what he calls "one specific approach to software development that works pretty well most of the time for most projects." Nineteen chapters in four sections cover the concepts and strategies you need for mastering the development process, including planning, design, management, quality assurance, testing, and archiving. For newcomers and seasoned project managers alike, SOFTWARE PROJECT SURVIVAL GUIDE draws on a vast store of techniques to create an elegantly simplified and reliable framework for project management success.So don't worry about wandering among complex sets of project management techniques that require years to sort out and master. SOFTWARE PROJECT SURVIVAL GUIDE goes straight to the heart of the matter to help your projects succeed. And that makes it a required addition to every professional's bookshelf.

Customer Reviews:

Purpose: Project management templates.......2007-06-11

The biggest part of managing a large project with deliverables is knowing the timing and details of your deliverables to make sure that all pieces are in place and planned for...time and resource wise. This book is a huge help in providing those pieces. Whether you use all the pieces or not it gives you the details you need to think through before you incorporate a deliverable and help you weigh how much detail and effort needs to be a part of it.

I liked the book, but if you don't know 90% of this stuff already, you aren't in software........2007-05-12

There's a caliber of people called "project managers" that haven't taken more than a semester's worth of computer programming and software engineering, that this book is the most valuable for. If you're becoming a project manager as a computer science graduate or basement-life coder, for the first time on a project, then this book is also for you. It's good to have this information written out somewhere to see that it's not just one guy being a weenie when he suggests having a process and a revision control system-there is a science to software engineering.

However, through some experience that most everyone gets as a 'grunt', this is 90% of what people already know as common sense in 2007. Get a version control system for everyone. Come-up with a realistic deadline. Build-and-test so your customer can see the results, correcting you as you go.

I liked the book, it read easy-enough, it just wasn't the sage advice about things I didn't know that I didn't know, that I was hoping it would be. It did deal with things like having 4 different "bosses/customers" and the need to basically contract-out who dictates what features-unfortunately that was less than 10% of the book.

McConnell's high level approach to Project Management remains valuable even today. Be sure to read his more recent texts.......2006-05-01

The Software Project Survival Guide by Steve McConnell remains applicable today as when first published in 1995. McConnell has a clear knack for combining research, experience, and theory. His writing style is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

McConnell approaches the topic of project management (design through to delivery) from a high abstract level; he outlines the best practices, provides comprehensive checklists, but leaves the fine details to other authors. McConnell States, "Whereas this book provides a big picture technical framework for a project, [Fergus] O'Connell's book focuses on the many specific activities a project manager must perform." (Part IV)

McConnell's writing style maintains a high sense of integrity and he always encourages personal research and development through his extensive use of external references.

Selected quotes:
"Software development is inherently an exercise in climbing steep learning curves - an exercise in problem solving - and the learning curves don't disappear" (Chapter 17)

"No individual is a success who hurts the team, and no individual is a failure who helps it." (Chapter 18)

This is an excellent book, a great reference; although a little too heavy to be comparable to the "first aid kit you carry in your backpack" (Chapter 20).

The "Cone of Uncertainty" (chapter 3) and the "Survival Needs" section (chapter 1) were quite interesting. In the "Survival Needs" section McConnell draws many parallels with the basic human needs and the basic needs for a successful project. Similarly intriguing is his Project Team's Bill of Rights (chapter 1).

Be sure to visit the book's website it provides the chapter checklists in digital form and many other useful resources.

There is no one-size-fits-all or simple solution - this book is not an exception. Continue reading other project management books and some of McConnell's more recent texts like Software Estimation Demystifying the Black Art.

Software leads need this book.......2006-03-14

Software Project Survival Guide is one of the best books I've ever read about leading a software project. The author is not trying to sell any specific process or methedology, instead the book is full of down-to-earth practical advice about software development. If you are a software lead, new or old timer, read this book. If you are a software manager, buy a copy of this book for every one of your leads.

Common sense approach for all projects.......2005-10-05

Most of us have been involved with software projects that we would just as soon forget--or at least run away from screaming. If you want to learn how software projects should be run, or how to run one correctly yourself, then Steve McConnell presents a straightforward, common-sense approach that can be applied to all types of projects. The companion web site provides a complete collection of templates to support all aspects of managing a software project.

CMMI(R) Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement (The SEI Series in Software Engineering)

Average customer rating:

Far more readable and effective than other process books...
Getting and recognizing benefit from process improvement
a brief overview of CMMI

CMMI(R) Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement (The SEI Series in Software Engineering)
Suzanne Garcia , and Richard Turner
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321422775

Book Description

Praise for CMMI® Survival Guide

"Traveling down the CMMI road can be difficult and time-consuming. Garcia and Turner have given us a practical roadmap that addresses the key points to learn as well as the many potholes to avoid. Their Survival Guide is a most valuable resource for the journey. It will help immeasurably in achieving the process improvement that you seek."

—Dr. Howard Eisner, Distinguished Research Professor, George Washington University

"Helps you get to the 'red meat' of the CMMI quickly and with minimum pain."

—Donald J. Reifer, President, Reifer Consultants, Inc.

"The best words I can offer potential readers is that you must have this book, not on your shelf, but with you for repeated reading to glean new ideas or reinforce old ones you gained from the past readings. If you have ever been directly involved in a process improvement initiative or if you are starting one, this book can only help you to do a better job. And while [the authors] may not have written this book explicitly for experienced consultants, I found it a great reference even for those of us who helped start this industry, because it provides clear and useful answers to those tough questions we are asked all of the time."

—Tim Kasse, CEO and Principal Consultant, Kasse Initiatives LLC

"This book contains practical (working) tips for the 'getting started' phase of process improvement, which is the hardest one in the road to improving one's processes."

—Agapi Svolou, Principal of Alexanna, LLC, and SEI CMMI Transition Partner

"The authors have done an outstanding job in providing guidance for process improvement from a practical perspective. Instead of focusing on a single technique or approach, they have provided a variety of methods for process improvement implementation and have framed their discussion with rich context from lessons learned. The concepts described in this book will be useful to both those starting CMMI implementations and to those who are well into their journey but are still looking for ways to lessen the pain and provide value-added improvements. Reading the book is like being in the audience during a live presentation by SuZ and Rich—they wrote the book as they would present the information to a live audience."

—Bill Craig, Director, Software Engineering Directorate, AMRDEC, RDECOM

"I have been involved in process improvement since the early 90's and many of the mistakes that I made could have been prevented if this book had been available then."

—Claude Y. Laporte, Professor, ETS Universite du Quebec

"Primarily, the book is practical. The guidance presented is geared toward someone who is not exactly sure why they need process improvement, but is presented with the fact that they must do it. Very often these are smaller organizations, with limited resources, and uncertain support from above. As I read the book, I thought almost immediately of a couple of organizations with which I am familiar who could use this kind of tutelage. There are real, and useful, techniques in this book that I believe can help these kinds of organizations prioritize and establish reasonable plans for improving the processes in the organization. I also like the sidebars and personal observations. Discussions of experience can really help organizations through the various pitfalls that are part of developing and deploying processes. It makes the book more of a 'real life' guide, and not a theoretical exercise. Finally, the book is an enjoyable read. The conversational style of the book (and the humor) make it much easier to read than many of the books I have read in the past."

—Alexander Stall, Principal Process Improvement Engineer, Systems and Software Consortium

The CMMI provides a framework for process improvement spanning the life cycle of a product or service, from conception through delivery and maintenance. Widely and beneficially adopted around the world, the size and apparent complexity of the framework have nonetheless been daunting to some organizations. That need not be so. With a proper guide to help navigate around unknown dangers, potential pitfalls, and false paths, you too, can realize substantial business value from a successful CMMI implementation. This book is such a guide, full of the real-life examples to ease your way, and written in a lighter style to ease your reading.

The CMMI® Survival Guide is an effective resource for multiple readerships. If you are just now considering a process improvement program, with the CMMI among your options, the authors' discussion of relevant issues will enhance your business case right from the start. If you have already decided to implement the CMMI, the authors' practical knowledge will help you make the most of your efforts. Even if you are well into a CMMI implementation, but are lost, stuck, or going around in circles, the authors' valuable advice will help you regain your direction.

If you work in a smaller or resource-strapped organization, you will particularly benefit from the authors' description of alternative paths to process improvement—approaches that are more incremental or agile, and less intensive, than you might imagine for a CMMI implementation. The authors draw on their extensive experience working with diverse organizations, and on the CMMI tools, techniques, and templates developed for those organizations.

Whatever your background or need, the CMMI® Survival Guide will help you survey the CMMI territory, consult possible road maps, learn from other CMMI explorers, weigh the benefits of hiring a living guide, and even consider whether the trip is right for you.

Customer Reviews:

Far more readable and effective than other process books..........2007-04-08

I've been exposed to a number of process improvement methodologies throughout my career, as well as read a number of books that try to explain them. To be honest, it's not a subject that's high on my "can't wait to read" list. But were more books styled like CMMI Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement by Suzanne Garcia and Richard Turner, I would probably be more inclined to give them a chance. This book covers what you need to know without all of the mind-numbing jargon and detail...

Contents:
Part 1 - Scouting the Territory: Why We Think Process Is Important; Why Process Improvement Helps; Why Process Improvement Isn't Trivial
Part 2 - Mapping the Route: CMMI As Your Guide; A Decision-based Life Cycle for Improvement
Part 3 - Surviving the Passage: A PI Case Study; Survival and PI
Part 4 - Experiencing the Journey: Developing and Sustaining Sponsorship; Setting and Measuring Against Realistic Goals; Managing an Appraisal Life Cycle; Developing Process Improvement Infrastructure; Defining Processes; Looking Ahead
Part 5 - Outfitting Your Expedition (PI Resources): Tools and Techniques
Bibliography; Index

The basic direction of the authors is to talk to the reader like they were actually there, and to simplify CMMI so that it can be grasped and understood. And when you place a traditionally process-heavy methodology like CMMI up against agile methodologies like Extreme Programming, you realize just what a task the authors have taken on. Surprisingly, they pull it off pretty well. Part 1 lays the foundation for why a business or organization needs to have some sort of process improvement plan in place. The larger the organization is, the more important it becomes. Then using CMMI as the framework, part 2 covers the main topics of just what makes up the process improvement effort. Part 3 is where the application of the process becomes concrete. They use an easily-understandable case study that takes concepts and applies them to actual situations. That's usually where the large "formal" books fail. You can stuff as much information into your head as you want, but until it gets applied, it's pretty useless. Part 4 goes into more details of how the process works on an ongoing basis, followed by the actual tools and techniques that come into play for CMMI (part 5). By the end, you've covered everything you need to know (and you haven't poked your eyeballs out in frustration).

While this might not be the "official" guide to a methodology, it's far more readable and applicable than books three times its size. And if you can read and understand the material, you have a far better chance of making it actually work...

Getting and recognizing benefit from process improvement.......2007-02-23

An easy to read book about using an abstract model: this is quite a feat. This is the book I'd write about improving processes, if I had the time, the talent, the motivation, etc. I've been doing this improvement work for many years, occasionally with the authors, and it is gratifying to see that they've captured so many good practices and useful ideas and shared them in an accessible, friendly way.
Many different fields use CMMI as a standard, to decide about improvement planning, to gauge their results, to convince customers they are reliable. This book shows the way around the pit-falls, points out the poison-ivy patches, and can help people find their way to the benefits of process improvement.
Of course CMMI for Development can be daunting: it describes professional engineering and engineering management practices in enough detail to be used in several ways by different communities. Finally, it isn't CMMI that drives people to disappointing improvement results. Mistakes in judging how easy it is to get people to change or even to describe their way of doing things often have led to "heavy" process implementations, as change agents add more and more detail hoping it will get people to use the processes. Or, mistaking how fast processes can be implemented can lead to mandated processes that work well for no one.
The authors have accurately described how to find your "main, broad road" to the benefits of improvements, and the many factors that you have to consider that will lead you there. Now I don't have to write this book. I'll give it to our customer's managers and their process engineers and be confident that they can get good direction from it: we now have a rich resource of techniques, stories, and directions that we can refer to in our projects.
Okay, some criticism: the techniques described in the last chapters are very effective, but have to be approached with discipline as well as a fun-finding mind-set, so they may not work for everyone. But that's one of the good things about the book- the authors say that few improvements work exactly the way you want, the very first time. Honest and useful advice.

a brief overview of CMMI.......2006-11-03

Garcia and Turner address a widely held concern about adopting CMMI. That it is overly heavy, with much to assimilate before a group of programmers can usefully apply it. Well ok, CMMI can be used for more than just software development. But as a practical matter, most of its users and proposed users are in that business. The book is perhaps also a reaction to the Agile process. The latter is in some ways the mirror image of CMMI, with short design and coding cycles.

The book gives a relatively quick walkthrough of CMMI. A broad picture about using CMMI to improve your development process. En route, it also discusses general topics like project management issues, which are not exclusive to CMMI. The entire text is really just a primer for CMMI. It shows that CMMI has many subtopics, and the procedures involved can be rather detailed. Adding up to a formidable total barrier for the newcomer. But the text does supply enough information to give an appreciation of what CMMI can do for you, and the concepts to be mastered.

Of all the chapters, I found Chapter 11 to be the most formidable. It seems to give the strongest indicator of the amount of material in CMMI. Just consider the O process areas within CMMI. "You'll need people who can implement the practices in Organisational Process Focus, Organisational Process Definition, Organisational Training, Organisational Innovation and Deployment and (eventually) Organisational Process Performance". Whew! And the chapter goes on to give more information about what these might entail. No wonder some might baulk at CMMI.

The Microsoft Office Project 2007 Survival Guide: The Go-To Resource for Stumped and Struggling New Users

Average customer rating:

Perfect for business and computer libraries alike.

The Microsoft Office Project 2007 Survival Guide: The Go-To Resource for Stumped and Struggling New Users
Lisa A. Bucki
Manufacturer: Course Technology PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1598632841

Book Description

Find out how to set up your project for success as you examine an overview of the project management practices followed by Microsoft Project. Put these principles into practice as you create, track, and report on example projects. You'll learn how to develop a comprehensive project plan by adding tasks, resources, and cost information; making assignments; and saving a baseline. See how to track work in a project to stay on schedule after the project moves from the planning phase to the execution phase and how to communicate results. You'll also explore time-saving techniques such as how to share information between other applications and Project and how to share resource information between files.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect for business and computer libraries alike........2007-05-17

This Thomson guide is a powerful resource new users will appreciate. THE MICROSOFT OFFICE PROJECT 2007 SURVIVAL GUIDE surveys Microsoft Project and how it may be used to manage projects more efficiently. Both standard and professional versions receive attention in a guide which considers its project management organization and how to put it into practice on an example project from the real world. From team member assignments to budgeting, start-to-finish examples draw up important links between Project and polished results. Perfect for business and computer libraries alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

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