Los Angeles Design Index: Residential and Commercial

Book Description

The Los Angeles Design Index is the tool fine home professionals use to locate companies of their caliber in other fields in order to make their customers' dreams come true. Now this invaluable resource is available to the public as well. Anybody looking for the best can use the same resource as the professionals do.

The Design Indexes are the premier sourcebooks designed to help professionals contact their peers in other disciplines that they work with—every day, all day, all year long! The Design Indexes were created to help professionals find they are looking for, other professionals! This beautiful spiral-bound directory contains over 15,000 listings and over 500 pages; most are full color pages. Each ad showcases the wonderful services and products these companies offer. Now your local Design Index can help you find the right professional the way professionals do! Each Design Index uniquely features professionals in all Luxury Home Design and Commercial Build areas:

• Architects
• Residential and Commercial Construction
• Interior Designers & Office Planners
• Landscaping
• Kitchen & Bath
• Custom Woodworking, Metalworking, Hardware, Glass & Metal
• Flooring Coverings
• Marble, Stone & Tile
• Residential Furnishings
• Office and Contract Furnishings
• Art & Antiques
• Home Theater & Cabinetry Integrated & Security Systems
• Media, Creative and Computer Support

Product Description

Learn the core concepts taught in the nation's most prestigious MBA schools - places like Harvard, Wharton and Stanford - using this easy-to-understand and enjoyable book by Dr. Milo Sobel. MBA in a Nutshell is chock-full of practical examples, actual formulas, concepts and skills you can put to work in the real world to help your company - and enhance your career. If pressed, most MBAs will grudgingly admit 90% of their homework and lectures were a waste of time. MBA in a Nutshell gives you the nuts-and-bolts of marketing and product management, accounting and finance, management, strategic planning and more. You'll easily learn how to: - Accelerate and increase incoming cash flow - Assess and rank investment opportunitites - Evaluate company performance using financial statements and key ratios - Draft a strategic plan - Learn how to turn soft, fuzzy forecasts into more reliable estimates - Find ways to increase revenues, reduce costs and dramatically increase profits - And much more!

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous find!.......2002-02-14

This volume is just what I needed to get a leg up on those Harvard snobs! Everything you want to know on what MBA's do and how they think but were afraid to ask is here. My compliments to Dr. Sobel- he knows what it's all about. Worth TWICE the price!

Book Description

Once again, Sarason leads the way, with a unique and provocative perspective on organizational collaboration.

In this penetrating work, Sarason and Lorenz tackle the problem of decreased in schools and health and social service agencies. They show how collaboration between organizations can work, and how this pooling of resources can add up to more than the sum of parts. The authors the role of networks for maximizing the use of resources, the special role and characteristics of a network coordinator, and the energy and sense of community that will result.

Customer Reviews:

good reference.......2006-04-11

I wanted a book to help me improve my SQA system. I bought this book with great expectations. It ended up being a great reference for the CSQE test, but added little practical value to my practical purpose. It is a general overview of several topics that include Quality, CMM, CSQE profile and so on. If you need a reference to study for the CSQE test, this is probably a good book for you.

Valuable information, difficult read.......2003-02-20

I'm working toward becoming certified as a software quality engineer (ASQ's CSQE). While researching learning materials, I found that this book is considered to be a solid overview of the CSQE body of knowledge.

Achieving CSQE requires a certain level of experience. You should be similarly experienced before you read this book. To understand it, you need to have solid experience as a software quality practitioner and exposure to effective software quality processes. This book unabashedly favors defect prevention through effective process, process measurement, and continuous process improvement - all widely considered Good Things - with a thick Capability Maturity Model accent.

The book's perspective comes from its authors' experience producing large, complex software for very large corporations, frequently on government or military contracts. They've worked on these kinds of projects for 20 years or more. Because of government requirements and the nature of these projects, they've watched the need for process turn into process implementation, expansion, and continuous improvement. As a result, they write as though the audience contains people facing similar situations, seldom creating a bridge to quality practitioners in less stringent environments. I'm a 13-year veteran of small software companies, most of which had comparatively featherweight software development processes. Even with my exposure to effective software processes and CMM, I found it difficult to relate to the authors' perspective.

Making this book even more challenging to understand is the authors' cumbersome, awkward text. I strongly encourage the authors to consider investing in a rigorous developmental edit to get rid of stilted structure and acres of passive voice, and to help them express their thoughts in a more expository manner. You'll find yourself reading sentences and even whole paragraphs twice as you try to decode the meaning. I read the whole chapter on Pareto analysis twice, but still didn't understand much of it because the text was so hard to penetrate.

Despite these difficulties, I've benefited from this book. It has helped me build my knowledge and has shown me possibilities I'd never considered. I'm sure it will be an important reference book while I take my CSQE exam. And then I'll be glad to put it on my shelf and let it sit there, because I'm never in the mood for a good text-wrestling match.

Good material for beginners.......2002-03-27

Everybody knows that people usually stumble into SQA. So, once you get started, you will want to have some reference material.

This book is easy to read & understand, and I'd recommend it to people eager to know a little more about Software Quality Assurance...

Good material for beginners.......2002-03-27

Everybody knows that people usually stumble into SQA. So, once you get started, you will want to have some reference material.

This book is easy to read & understand, and I'd recommend it to people eager to know a little more about Software Quality Assurance...

A true classic and the best SQA book for serious SQA pros.......2001-04-18

This book is one of the most comprehensive treatments of SQA on the market. It is a collection of essays that cover every imaginable aspect of SQA with an overall focus to prepare candidates for the American Society of Quality's software quality engineer certification (CSQE). Each author is an acknowledged expert in the field, and each essay is well developed and gets to the essence of the topic.

Although the primary intent of this book is to prepare readers for the CSQE exam, this book contains the building blocks to develop a world-class software engineering process group and/or to move up the capability maturity model (CMM)ladder or achieve a higher level of capability within the context of SPICE (Software Process Improvement Capability dEtermination). In particular CMM and SPICE are 'assessed' levels of capability maturity with no prescribed techniques. This book provides a collection of techniques that will fit nicely into goals for increasing the maturity level of an organization regardless of the framework (CMM or SPICE) that is selected. What I like about this book is that it also addresses in detail how SQA aligns to ISO 9000-3, and the coverage of ISO/IEC 12207 and IEEE-STD-1074 (both of which are important international standards that should be considered as a part of an organization's strategy with respect to CMM or SPICE).

Chapters that provide excellent material supporting CMM and SPICE initiatives are: 1 & 2, SQA-Coming to Terms and How Does SQA Fit In? (a complete picture of the many components and considerations of an effective SQA function); 5, Software Quality Program Organization (great advice on organizing SQA within your company and aligning it to development and project management); 9, Inspections as an Up-Front Quality Technique (how to integrate inspections into a comprehensive, proactive quality posture); 10, Software Configuration Management (essential to any quality initiative regardless of whether the end goal is CMM, SPICE, ISO 9000 or compliance with international standards); 15, SQA Metrics (the foundation of SPICE and higher CMM levels); 19 & 20, Statistical Methods and Software Reliability Management (another set of foundation areas that are essential to SPICE and higher CMM levels).

Other chapters provide material that is specific to preparing for the CSQE examination or implementing any quality program that is focused on software quality assurance. I particularly liked the chapter on personnel requirements, which covered the people and process elements of SQA, and the cost of software quality. The latter gives you ample information for justifying SQA from a business perspective. This material is further augmented by a chapter on effective methods of IS quality assurance, which bridges the applications delivery (development) and service delivery (support and operations) domains.

SQA is not easy to organize and implement. Moreover, it is a highly technical discipline that is more engineering focused than most disciplines in development and operations. As such this book is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. It is intended for CSQE candidates and organizations that have attained some level of maturity and are striving to move higher up the capabilities ladder. If you are looking for a more basic book on SQA I recommend Customer Oriented Software Quality Assurance by Frank P. Ginac. However, if you are an experienced SQA practitioner, heading a software engineering process group, devising a plan for improving capability maturity for CMM or SPICE, or are preparing for the CSQE examination the Handbook of Software Quality Assurance is the best book you can have. It is a classic and earns a solid 5 stars.

Average customer rating:

A skeleton of what a Quality Plan should cover

The ISO 9000 Quality Manual Developer
Janet L. Novack
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Total Quality Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Manufacturing | Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Quality Control | Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Spreadsheets | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0132154773

Customer Reviews:

A skeleton of what a Quality Plan should cover.......2001-06-20

If you have no plan at all, this will help in making sure all 20 elements are covered. The word documents that are included with the book are skeletonized with generic verbiage. This is a good first step but that is exactly what it is - a FIRST STEP. It helps you develop a generic manual. Gaining a full understanding of the ISO 9000 way will require considerably more reading.

Average customer rating:

HANDBOOK OF SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Manufacturer: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H1UZT8

The Handbook of Software Quality Assurance (3rd Edition)

Average customer rating:

The Handbook of Software Quality Assurance (3rd Edition)
G. Gordon; Mcmanus, James I. Schulmeyer
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHM3I6

Software quality-control guidelines for codes developed for the NWTC

Average customer rating:

Software quality-control guidelines for codes developed for the NWTC
Marshall L Buhl
Manufacturer: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006R76FE

Customer Reviews:

This book gave me a headache. .......2006-09-23

I couldn't go three pages without running into something that was sloppy, incomplete, or just plain irritating.

Full of many good examples that back up the book's main idea (using lessons of history to guide current decision-making), the book unfortunately is also full of hyperbole, flawed argument, inaccurate generalizations and over-simplifications.

It's easy to show how the lesson of a historical incident can validate a decision, if you ignore all interpretations of that historical incident except those which confirm the decision you're trying to support. Tautologies are convenient, but they prove nothing. A little more precision, a little more discipline, and the thesis of the book would have been a lot more convincing.

Even worse than that: too often, the author asserts controversial opinions as though they were accepted fact; too often over-generalizes to the point of meaninglessness; too often slips from chatty informality into factual inaccuracy.

I really, really wanted to respect this book, because I am always looking for works that synthesize the lessons of many different historical periods. The idea behind this book was intriguing, which is why the poor execution of that idea is so disappointing.

A very different view of history.......2006-04-26

History, that bane of many a high school and college education, is presented in a different and much more interesting way than in school. History is more than just names and dates; it is about the motion of people and events. This book also looks at a series of "laws" that anyone can use in their daily lives.

An important aspect of history is that it is best studied while it is moving. Real life is always in motion, whether it is your life, politics, economics or problems before the local Board of Education. But, do not mistake motion for movement. Movement means things are actually being done, while motion makes it look like things are being done (meetings are held, reports are filed, etc, but nothing more).

Through crystal clear hindsight, we can see that a certain decision or policy was a terrible idea, and assume that the people making that decision could also see it. Bad ideas are usually hard to spot, and all we can see is the result of one decision. Maybe there were no better alternatives at the time.

The best way to slow progress on a certain issue is to appoint a committee to study the issue. To sidetrack an issue for a long time, use the Law of Co-Equal Adversaries, and have two committees counteract each other. The next stage after non-movement is ossification, where everything grinds to a halt. The Law of Attendance says that being present is more important than doing anything productive. The Law of Editing comes into force when the person on top changes the rules in the middle to prevent change from happening. A good way to bring things to a halt is put all of a group's resources behind solving the wrong problem; switching from a problem that Can be solved to one that Cannot be solved. Don't ignore the "classics," like What's In It For Me?

This is a fascinating book. It also makes a good business book; if you recognize your company in here, Beware. Those who enjoyed history class in school will enjoy this book. Those who hated history class in school should also read this; it does a good job of showing that history is a lot more than names, dates and dead people.

Book Description

American society today is shaped not nearly as much by vast open spaces as it is by vast, bureaucratic organizations. Over half the working population toils away at enterprises with 500 or more employees--up from zero percent in 1800. Is this institutional immensity the logical outcome of technological forces in an all-efficient market, as some have argued? In this book, the first organizational history of nineteenth-century America, Yale sociologist Charles Perrow says no. He shows that there was nothing inevitable about the surge in corporate size and power by century's end. Critics railed against the nationalizing of the economy, against corporations' monopoly powers, political subversion, environmental destruction, and "wage slavery." How did a nation committed to individual freedom, family firms, public goods, and decentralized power become transformed in one century?

Bountiful resources, a mass market, and the industrial revolution gave entrepreneurs broad scope. In Europe, the state and the church kept private organizations small and required consideration of the public good. In America, the courts and business-steeped legislators removed regulatory constraints over the century, centralizing industry and privatizing the railroads. Despite resistance, the corporate form became the model for the next century. Bureaucratic structure spread to government and the nonprofits. Writing in the tradition of Max Weber, Perrow concludes that the driving force of our history is not technology, politics, or culture, but large, bureaucratic organizations.

Perrow, the author of award-winning books on organizations, employs his witty, trenchant, and graceful style here to maximum effect. Colorful vignettes abound: today's headlines echo past battles for unchecked organizational freedom; socially responsible alternatives that were tried are explored along with the historical contingencies that sent us down one road rather than another. No other book takes the role of organizations in America's development as seriously. The resultant insights presage a new historical genre.

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended!.......2005-09-23

You may never have given a second thought to the very existence of the Fortune 500, but author and academic Charles Perrow has. In this eye-opening sociological account, he argues that the huge organizations that dominate today's business world in the United States would have been unthinkable to the nation's Founding Fathers, who viewed centralized money and power with great suspicion. Perrow's fascinating study points out the importance of big organizations in shaping American society. Yet for all his sweeping - and well-reasoned - arguments, Perrow focuses only on a couple of diminished industries. Still, this intriguing work is an important read for responsible corporate citizens. We recommend this social history to those leaders who want American corporations to be more than profit-making machines.

Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Economic Issues

Average customer rating:

Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Economic Issues
Timothy A. Wunder
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000E4FKTS
Release Date: 2006-01-09

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Economic Issues, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1017 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: Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism.(Book Review)
Author: Timothy A. Wunder
Publication: Journal of Economic Issues (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Page: 1075(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

In today's world of rapid change, companies must unleash energy at all levels to identify new opportunities. But unleashing energy creates centrifugal forces that can pull the organization apart. Setting energy in motion isn't enough-it has to be focused. No single theory can capture how successful companies simultaneously generate and focus energy. Far better is to draw upon multiple perspectives from different management disciplines to provide a practical approach. This is exactly what Focused Energy provides. It draws upon the faculty of Europe's leading executive development school to help you:
* Energize your organization with initiatives coming from the frontline
* Build leadership capabilities to direct a bottom-up organization
* Integrate high energy into a coherent whole
* Identify new business opportunities and exploit radical business shifts
In today's ever-changing business landscape, we see the need more than ever before for focused energy, for organizations that stimulate energy on the frontline, show great flexibility, and focus quickly on new breakthrough opportunities. This book addresses the issues of what a bottom-up organization is and how high economic value can be created through focusing and harnessing frontline energy. From the Foreword by Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO, Nokia

Customer Reviews:

Very practical and easy to implment.......2001-06-02

One of the most practical book which I have read. Defintely Paul Strebel has put to gether an excellent book from well-known authors who have wealth of practical knowledge on the topics. It easily can be distinguished that what authors writing are from their solid and in-depth experinces in the field. I highly recommend this book to those who have some experinces in the field and need new practical guidelines to move their organization/team into this 21st century industrial-informational arena.

Book Description

In our increasingly litigious society, no company can afford to be without directors' and officers' liability insurance. To the author, whose involvement with this form of liability insurance dates from its earliest introduction, the rapid growth in demand comes as no surprise. The current rule seems to be: If you can't sue the person you thought responsible, keep on filing suits until you hit a target. Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance scrutinizes new legal developments and case law, new insurers and challenges in ownership, and new types of policy and marketing methods. Each chapter is constructed as a separate module for ease of use and practicality. The author provides the views and experiences of specialist practitioners together with detailed case studies. He also illustrates the links between other forms of insurance and their relationship with international company law. A well designed liability policy will go a long way in managing the potential liabilities that directors' and officers' face as they deliver their services to their clients. Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance provides a comprehensive source of information useful to brokers and other professionals worldwide. This book is a necessity for any broker who has dealings with major companies, and for underwriters of companies moving into this sector. Features

Customer Reviews:

Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance.......2000-03-20

We ordered the book to get information about directors' and officers' liability in different countries, especially European countries. The book intended to provide comprehensive information. I found that the book was not up-to-date and information was definitely not comprehensive.

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