- Opens the black box of methodologies and demonstrates that software development is fundamentally a value creation process - Covers new and radical approaches to software development that respond to business demands for shorter investment periods and increased agility - Provides software engineers tools for understanding enterprise-level value creation and managing financial objectives

"Just the understanding and insights you will pick up about how people encounter and cope with combinations of technical, social, political, and economic opportunities and challenges make the book a joy to read and worth much more than the price of it alone." --Barry Boehm, from the Foreword This practical handbook shows you how to build an effective business case when you need to justify--and persuade management to accept--software change or improvement. Based on real-world scenarios, the book covers the most common situations in which business case analyses are required and explains specific techniques that have proved successful in practice. Drawing on years of experience in winning the "battle of the budget," the author shows you how to use commonly accepted engineering economic arguments to make your numbers "sing" to management. The book provides examples of successful business cases; along the way, tables, tools, facts, figures, and metrics guide you through the entire analytic process. Writing in a concise and witty style, the author makes this valuable guidance accessible to every software engineer, manager, and IT professional. Highlights include: How and where business case analyses fit into the software and IT life cycle process Explanations of the most common tools for business case analysis, such as present-value, return-on-investment, break-even, and cost/benefit calculation Tying the business process to the software development life cycle Packaging the business case for management consumption Frameworks and guidelines for justifying IT productivity, quality, and delivery cycle improvement strategies Case studies for applying appropriate decision situations to software process improvement Strategic guidelines for various business case analyses With this book in hand, you will find the facts, examples, hard data, and case studies needed for preparing your own winning business cases in today's complex software environment.

This is a book about numbers and how those numbers are represented in and operated on by computers. It is crucial that developers understand this area because the numerical operations allowed by computers, and the limitations of those operations, especially in the area of floating point math, affect virtually everything people try to do with computers. This book aims to fill this gap by exploring, in sufficient but not overwhelming detail, just what it is that computers do with numbers. Divided into two parts, the first deals with standard representations of integers and floating point numbers, while the second details several other number representations. Each chapter ends with exercises to review the key points. Topics covered include interval arithmetic, fixed-point numbers, floating point numbers, big integers and rational arithmetic. This book is for anyone who develops software including software engineerings, scientists, computer science students, engineering students and anyone who programs for fun.

We use software every day to perform all kinds of magical, powerful tasks. It's the force behind stunning CGI graphics, safe online shopping, and speedy Google searches. Software drives the modern world, but its inner workings remain a mystery to many. How Software Works explains how computers perform common-yet-amazing tasks that we take for granted every day. Inside you'll learn: –How data is encrypted –How passwords are used and protected –How computer graphics are created –How video is compressed for streaming and storage –How data is searched (and found) in huge databases –How programs can work together on the same problem without conflict –How data travels over the Internet How Software Works breaks down these processes with patient explanations and intuitive diagrams so that anyone can understand—no technical background is required, and you won't be reading through any code. In plain English, you'll examine the intricate logic behind the technologies you constantly use but never understood. If you've ever wondered what really goes on behind your computer screen, How Software Works will give you fascinating look into the software all around you.

Honorable Mention, 2000, American Association of Museums (AAM) publication competition. and Winner of the 1999 AAP/PSP award in the category of Computer Science, granted by the Professional/Scholary Reference Division of the Association of American Publishers. Most art and technology projects pair artists with engineers or scientists: the artist has the conception, and the technical person provides the know-how. John Maeda is an artist and a computer scientist, and he views the computer not as a substitute for brush and paint but as an artistic medium in its own right. Design By Numbers is a reader-friendly tutorial on both the philosophy and nuts-and-bolts techniques of programming for artists. Practicing what he preaches, Maeda composed Design By Numbers using a computational process he developed specifically for the book. He introduces a programming language and development environment, available on the Web, which can be freely downloaded or run directly within any JAVA-enabled Web browser. Appropriately, the new language is called DBN (for "design by numbers"). Designed for "visual" people—artists, designers, anyone who likes to pick up a pencil and doodle—DBN has very few commands and consists of elements resembling those of many other languages, such as LISP, LOGO, C/JAVA, and BASIC. Throughout the book, Maeda emphasizes the importance—and delights—of understanding the motivation behind computer programming, as well as the many wonders that emerge from well-written programs. Sympathetic to the "mathematically challenged," he places minimal emphasis on mathematics in the first half of the book. Because computation is inherently mathematical, the books second half uses intermediate mathematical concepts that generally do not go beyond high-school algebra. The reader who masters the skills so clearly set out by Maeda will be ready to exploit the true character of digital media design.

Use 7 Key Numbers to help you earn greater profits with less time and energy Many builders and contractors struggle to get a clear picture of where their business is at the moment - and where it's headed financially. By the time you compare your accounting reports with your job costing, estimating and change orders, and pipeline, it's too late to make adjustments to guarantee profit. This book will help you see where you stand every day, with every job, by monitoring just 7 Key Numbers that drive all profits and cash flow, including - Number of leads - Sales conversion rate - Customer retention rate Stay on top of every job! Follow the steps in this book to create a process that will let you know when costs or scheduling deviate from the estimate--in time to respond before those changes cost you money. "Managing Your Business with 7 Key Numbers is exceptionally well written, organized, and presented. Specifically directed at professionals engaged in construction, Managing Your Business with 7 Key Numbers is as thoroughly "user friendly' as it is informative, making it very highly recommended." Small Press Bookwatch Oregon, WI

Learn how to communicate better with numbers Whether you are distributing a report or giving a presentation, you have a lot of numbers to present and only a few minutes to get your point across. Your audience is busy and has a short attention span. Don't let an amateur presentation bog you down, confuse your audience, and damage your credibility. Instead, learn how to present numerical information effectively—in the same way you learned how to speak or write. With Painting with Numbers, you'll discover how to present numbers clearly and effectively so your ideas and your presentation shine. Use the Arabic numeral system to your advantage master the use of layout and visual effects to communicate powerfully Understand how audiences process your information and how that affects your "personal brand image" Learn how to be perceived as a professional who truly understands the business concepts and issues underlying your numbers Use software tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, and graphs, efficiently and to drive home your point Author Randall Bolten shares his decades of experience as a senior finance executive distilling complicated information into clear presentations, to help you make your numerical information more comprehensible, meaningful, and accessible. Painting with Numbers is brimming with hands-on advice, techniques, tools, rules, and guidelines for producing clear, attractive, and effective quantation (the word the author has coined for the skill of presenting numbers).