County Business Patterns Rhode Island 1999 (County Business Patterns Rhode Island)

Book Description

With detailed scenarios, imaginative illustrations, and step-by-step instructions, consultant Norman L. Kerth guides readers through productive, painless retrospectives of project performance.

Whether your shop calls them postmortems or postpartums or something else, project retrospectives offer organizations a formal method for preserving the valuable lessons learned from the successes and failures of every project. These lessons and the measurements they yield foster stronger teams and savings on subsequent efforts.

For a retrospective to be effective and successful, though, it needs to be safe. Kerth shows facilitators and participants how to defeat the fear of retribution and establish an air of mutual trust. One tool is Kerth's Prime Directive: Regardless of what we discover, we must understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job he or she could, given what was known at the time, his or her skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

Applying years of experience as a project retrospective facilitator for software organizations, Kerth reveals his secrets for managing the sensitive, often emotionally charged issues that arise as teams relive and learn from each project.

Don't move on to your next project without consulting and using this readable, practical handbook. Each member of your team will be better prepared for the next deadline.

Customer Reviews:

Must read for anyone involved in retrospectives.......2006-12-10

Norm Kerth's book introduces the retrospective ritual and a very good description on how and why to do them. Since published, Norm's book has become a mus-read in the field of software and I predict this will stay that way for quite a while.

Project Retrospectives are review and improvement sessions which the project team does at the end of a project. A typical project retrospective takes a couple of days. During these days, there are a bunch of retrospective exercises which can be follows (and are described in the book). These exercises create a safe environment, help the project team remember the past and help them learn from it. An retrospective is not done properly if it doesn't also result in some improvement actions.

I've used Norm's exercises in my own retrospectives and they work exceptionally well. This book is therefore a treasure of practical advise. If you feel uncomfortable when reading the first description (as some exercises might), try not to discard the exercise, but try it out. Often you will learn and find that they work surprisingly good.

In the world of Agile Development, retrospectives have become an essential part of any agile method. These retrospectives are iteration retrospectives (or heartbeat retrospectives). They are shorter, but the ideas are the same. Much of Norm's exercises can also be used in that context.

As mentioned earlier, a must read for anyone serious in product development.

A down-to-earth and highly accessible guide.......2003-11-17

Norman L. Kerth is a professional with twenty years' experience in leading project retrospectives. In Project Retrospectives: A Handbook For Team Reviews, Kerth draws upon his extensive body of experience and expertise to crate an excellent and thoroughly "reader friendly" guidebook showcasing the process of reviewing, and revealing how to learn from the successes and failures of completed business projects. Case studies, preparing for a retrospective, leading a postmortem, and the skills for best learning and sharing knowledge gained from past ventures fill the pages of this down-to-earth and highly accessible guide which is especially recommended to those charged with the responsibility of improving corporate departmental and project team performances.

Understand your project.......2003-11-03

Project Retrospectives is a must have for anyone who wants(or needs)to understand what happened on their last project. If you plan to conduct a retrospective, the book will show you how with exercises to use with your group. Even if you do not run formal retrospectives, the techniques in this book will help you get a more candid view of how things on your project work.

Good reference.......2003-09-28

This book is intended as a manual for software developers intending to hold a project retrospective at the end of a large project. A retrospective is a little like a post-mortem. Much is learned during the course of a large project, and a project retrospective is a way to preserve that knowledge for use in later projects.

A retrospective is different than a post-mortem in that a post-mortem sometimes implies that the project was a failure. Kerth makes it clear that as long as knowledge is gained from mistakes made, and that steps are taken to avoid the repetition of those mistakes, then no mistake is a total failure.

Much of what Kerth writes about involves the tools and techniques of a facilitator. A facilitator is something like a psychotherapist for project teams. The facilitator's purpose is to get the members of the team, who sometimes do not work closely together either out of circumstance or preference, to share their opinions and observations about different aspects of the project in a non-threatening way.

A facilitator must be an excellent communicator and should not offer his or her own opinion, only help others to express their own. In Kerth's opinion, much of what makes a project successful involves interpersonal communication and through a project retrospective a facilitator can help a project team improve their communication skills.

I felt that the book offered some excellent suggestions. In particular, I liked Kerth's suggestions for illustrating to management of the value of a project retrospective. He provides an excellent checklist for preparing a proposal to management.

I also liked his suggestions for demonstrating to project teammembers the value of failure. One suggestion is to have everyone watch a movie that involves project management, such as Kerth's favorite, Flight of the Phoenix. Another of Kerth's suggestions is to discuss the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Kerth suggests pointing out how the fact that four of the five books written on the explosion are oriented toward children shows how our culture shuns failure, and then discussing how analyzing the causes of the explosion helped NASA prevent similar accidents in the future.

The book is intended for those intent on performing in-depth project retrospectives or project post-mortems. Much of the book consists of specific tips and techniques for those facilitating retrospectives. If I have a criticism of the book it is that much of the book is at a very practical level and that too little time is spent discussing how to make use of information garnered from project retrospectives in future projects.

Excellent guide to improving organizational performance.......2003-02-08

"Project Retrospectives" is one of the best written, best edited, most nicely presented, and most useful software books I've ever read. Norm Kerth presents a convincing argument for the value of taking the time to study past projects and learn from them. He then presents a rich tool kit of techniques for helping a project team explore what actually happened, what went well, what caused problems, and what happened that surprised them. Kerth's sensitivity to the complex interpersonal issues surrounding project retrospectives will help any facilitator, participant, or manager get the most out of these important learning activities.

Despite the value of retrospectives, not every project team will find it possible to spend 2 or 3 full days reflecting on its experience. However, the methods described here can be scaled down so that any team can apply them. If a team doesn't take the time to learn how to improve, it shouldn't expect the next project to go any better than the last one. This unique book is a key enabler for any learning organization.

Customer Reviews:

Why isn't this book more famous?.......2007-05-18

Olson's book is difficult to classify, since on the one hand, it's not for the general reader, but on the other hand not so forbiddingly dense that it should be classified as scholarly. Lemme put it this way: it's for economically literate people. It makes use of, say, the concepts describing steady-state growth, supply factors, and expeduture-approach identities that one learns about in a college econ class.

If you don't know what I just said, I imagine much of this book will be opaque to you.

But if you can handle such stuff (and don't let me scare you too much: the gist of this book is clear enough even if you can't), man, O man! Olson's thesis is so brilliant it will give you whiplash!

In brief, great empires invariably collapse not because of cultural overstretch, internal discord, or military misfortune, but rather because the very process of building an empire gives rise to myriad vested interests that eventually claw their way so deeply into the neck of the government that they eventually choke it. In other words, empires collapse because they are invariably made sclerotic by special-interest groups.

An idea that is truly, classically brilliant: not obvious, but once developed at length, undeniable and endlessly applicable.

Taking "The Logic" Cross-National.......2007-03-11

Olson seeks to explain why some nations achieve high rates of economic growth while others suffer bouts of stagflation. He contends that the number and strength of "distributional coalitions," coupled with the length of economic and political stability will influence a nation's rate of economic growth. As such, Olson's hypothesis is two fold. First, Olson argues that states with lower levels of "distributional coalitions" often have higher rates of economic growth. Second, states which have experienced prolonged periods of disorder or armed conflict will have lower numbers of interest-group, or collusion organizations.

Olson's explanation builds upon his early work in The Logic of Collective Action, which holds that "...large groups, at least if they are composed of rational individuals, will not act in their group interest" (18). Rather, the rational actor will seek to further his or her self-interest, and will subsequently free-ride when possible. Olson expands the scope of this logic to encompass not only the rationality of the individual, but the rationality of the firm in explaining The Rise and Decline of Nations.

As the power of the firm expands, the firm seeks to maximize its own utility at the expense of a societal common good. In order to simplify a complex argument, we can think of Olson's theory in this way. An organization or firm will not expend its energy to create a benefit to society writ large, as it, and its members, will only receive a fragment of that benefit in relation to the costs incurred. On the other hand, if the same firm seeks to maximize its utility, it will seek to obtain a larger slice of the social "pie." In so doing, it may lower the benefits of society as a whole, but will significantly expand its own gain and that of its members. Meanwhile the firm will only incur a fraction of the costs such action projects on society at large. As such, Olson writes, "The great majority of special-interest organizations redistribute income rather than create it and in the ways that reduce social efficiency and output" (47).

Olson argues that a society with long-term stability - free from war, and economic and political turmoil - tend to accrue more special-interest and collusion groups. This occurs because it takes time and reasonable amount of stability for such interest-groups to organize, solidify, and begin to achieve some collective benefits for their members. Once collective benefits are seen as the result of organization, a host of other interests will begin to coalesce and seek to obtain gains for themselves. What emerges is a highly pluralistic society.

This leads us to the second part of Olson's hypothesis, those nations with high numbers of special-interest or collusion groups have lower levels of economic growth. Olson writes, "Distributional coalitions slow down a society's capacity to adopt new technologies and reallocate resources in response to changing conditions, and they reduce the rate of economic growth" (65). First, distributional coalitions stymie technological adoption when such innovation stands to benefit a rival group. A present day illustration can be found in a labor unions vehement opposition to the implementation of labor saving machinery. Second, distributional coalitions will attempt to block policy initiatives that change the status quo. When policy needs to be developed to increase economic or social advancement, the special-interest groups are likely to feel a certain displacement and will act to prevent such policy. According to Olson, these actions, coupled with others, often lead to policies which promote policies which have the potential to stifle economic growth.

On the Virtues of Flexibility.......2006-12-29

I had always wanted to read this book and am glad that I did !

On the one hand the argument is quite obvious and one is left wondering what is really novel in this work (virtues of competition, market flexibility etc.), but I found the last chapter to be an interesting perspective on the effect of imperfect competition on the impact of changes in nominal demand on employment and inflation.

Olson explains social rigidities ,with all their negative collective effects, as the outcome of rational microeconomic behaviour and integrates these into macroeconomic theory (other mainstream macroeconomic theory attribute price rigidity to error or simply make ad hoc assumptions on wage rigidity).

This is a very valuable and important contribution to macroeconomics and explains why some economies are more resiliant than others. The main message is that governments must either make their economies more flexible or have to rely on macroeconomic conditions not fluctuating too much for acceptable macroeconomic performance.

Not totally bad book, but its thesis is somewhat simplistic.......2006-12-27

This one-idea book by late professor Olson tries to explain why some countries did better than others in terms of economic growth after World War II - namely Germany and Japan, in contrast with Britain. His explanation is that World War II weakened many institutions in those two countries that, by trying to retain their usual privileges, were holding back economic progress. The weakening of those institutions, permitted the economic miracle in both Germany and Japan. In contrast, England's institutions were not as weakened, so they continue to slow England's progress. I suppose that there are grains of truth in Olson's explanation - though if it was true, then the required policy recommendation would be that is good to suffer a devastating war every once in a while. I think Olson omits another possible explanation: the fact that Germany and Japan had both a strong industrial base before the war, a base that was not completely destroyed by it. Britain was in the 1940s suffering a slow economic decline in its industrial base - which really come back from the late 19th century, when Germany overcome Britain as Europe's leading industrial and economic power. And how would Olson had explained that after he wrote the book (in 1982), Britain went through a much higher economic growth than Germany and Japan - without the intervention of a war. So, while the book is interesting to read, I think its thesis is way too simplistic.

Powerful marginal explanation.......2006-06-06

Holding productive and destructive efforts constant, small distributional coalitions have the incentives to form political lobbies and influence policies that tend to be protectionist and anti-technology; since the benefits of these policies are selective incentives concentrated amongst the few coalitions members and the costs are diffused throughout the whole population, the "Logic" dictates that there will be little public resistance to them; as time goes on, these distributional coalitions accumulate in greater and greater numbers, the nation burdened by them will fall into economic decline.

However, if we think beyond the "natural" cost-incentive structure of Olson's "collective action logic", there are then four possible directions:
1. intentionality from the knowledge of this logic results in certain institutional design that prevents the nagative effects of the distributional coalitions;
2. the dynamics of distributional coalitions may be changed by political or economic factors, e.g., globalization may affect the formations of the distributional coalitions so that the power of protectionist coalition is now balanced by a coalition of big importers;
3. If a society has positive economic growth while distributional coalitions in fact have negative impact on it, or if a society has negative economic growth while distributional coalitions in fact have positive impact on it, then we should further look at how a society's institutions favor or disfavor its productive and destructive efforts;
4. Distributional coalitions may be formed by the pure "logic", they can also be formed by institutional incentives; they could be "natural" due to the free-riding logic, but they are more likely to be "institutionally-induced".

The explanation power of distributional coalitions comes from the strength of its "internal logic", we could be easily overwhelmed if "external logic" is neglected. Still, Olson's contribution is his offering of a powerful marginal explanation for the academic world.

The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities

Average customer rating:

The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities
Mancur Olson
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORT0RI

Book Description

In late-eighteenth-century France, the "free market" was hailed as a powerful alternative to absolutism. But by the 1830s, social upheaval caused by repeated revolution and by industrialization led many to call this model into question. Associating freedom with licentiousness and individualism with selfishness, these French critics of the free market developed an alternative model, in which freedom was replaced with self-control and individualism with selflessness.

In The Virtuous Marketplace Victoria Thompson explores how this process developed, paying special attention to the changing roles of women in the markets of mid-nineteenth-century Paris. She shows how French women, whose dual economic role as producers and consumers had previously been taken as a matter of course, became the object of a growing fear of the market as a source of social unrest. At the same time, the image of the economically dependent woman became useful to those who demanded higher pay for male "breadwinners." Ultimately, the figure of the prostitute was used to characterize the dangers of the public market, providing the basis for its regulation and for the exclusion of women from it.

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Advertising Ratios & Budgets: Historical and Forecasted Advertising Budgets and Ratios Covering the Period 1994-2001 (Advertising Ratios and Budgets)

Manufacturer: Schonfeld & Assoc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Advertising | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 187833980X

Book Description

Taking ten minutes each day to assess ten important components of effective leadership will make you a more effective leader, and Palestini shows you how in this encapsulated treatment of effective school management. Supplies administrators with a useful successful leadership roadmap.

Customer Reviews:

The ten-minute guide to educational leadership.......2000-06-19

This book should be a required reading for all educational leadership programs. After reading this book you will be able to use the principles to guide you on your journey as an educational leader.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best book of managing emerging IT.......1997-03-04

This book deals with both technical and managerial issues of emerging technology and has provided an architecture framework for integrating C/S, OO, Networking, WWW together. Highly recommended for people who have to manage emerging IT in a firm

New technology paradigm solves old technology problems........1997-02-12

William Sheridan/Systems Analyst/Ottawa, Canada

Two of the hottest topics in information technology circles these days, are (1) client-server systems, and (2) object-oriented programming. Using a writing style that is both technically sophisticated AND readily understandable, Jerry Grochow outlines what each means, and how each works. THEN he explains why both client-server and object-orientation are part of the larger framework which will enable business to create satisfied customers (both internal and external) with the new information technology.

As Grochow describes it, the key to these future possibilities is the concept of SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE. As more and more people, at work and home, get desk-top computers AND access to networks (the organizational intra-net and/or the global inter-net), computer power becomes DISTRIBUTED through communications. The change from main-frame centralization connecting dumb terminals, to decentralized machines with distributed intelligence, has fundamentally altered the structural pattern of informatics and telematics.

This structural pattern is the SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE, and the alteration now in progress both empowers every user, AND requires new principles of design and operation. Grochow, a 25-year veteran of systems design and network computing, has been tracking these kind of changes through the many successive stages of micro-chip evolution and network service enhancements. What he argues is, that the very dilemma which the technology has created (namely information overload), can now be managed by broadening the application of intelligence from individual nodes to the entire network.

Object-oriented programming is the software answer to the distributed computing question. As people share data and applications over the networks, the internal design of software itself faces new challenges. Monolithic relational databases and structured programs do not serve networked computers very well. As needs for distributed data entry and program customization increase with the spread of knowledge work, the coordination of version control and extension implications can no longer be handled by the inflexibility of previous designs. Just as Grochow sees all computing as client-server based now, he forecasts that we will all become object-oriented users shortly.

And Grochow is certainly right about the speed of change in this field. In regards to system development methodologies (SDMs), an object-oriented approach has already obsolesced both the "waterfall" and the "spiral" models. Scott Ambler's Pinball System Development Life Cycle method is actually far more reflective of the dynamic reality of application development than the overly-formalized models of the past (see Ambler's THE OBJECT PRIMER). But with the flexible outlook that Grochow exudes, developers will be as easily able to accommodate such a methodological change as they will any other technological advance. INFORMATION OVERLOAD really is a map of the future of the new information systems technology. And when you are heading into new territory, its always wise to consult a map

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INFORMATION OVERLOAD Creating Value with the New Information Systems Technology
Jerrold M. Grochow
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OIR9WA

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