by Martin J. Fenelon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2024
A densely-packed and refreshingly clear game plan for improved tech-project management.
Fenelon offers a primer for more effective software development.
As the author makes clear at the beginning of his book, project managers in the software field face plenty of obstacles (like managing teams and meeting deadlines), and the failure to clear these obstacles has never been more publicly visible—Fenelon uses the obvious example of a software glitch that grounded thousands of airline flights in the summer of 2024. Fixing such problems involves a good deal more than improved tech—project managers need better approaches, which the author outlines in these pages, providing practical steps (not “theories or ivory tower wishes”) that IT project managers can use to improve the experiences of both stakeholders and customers. Central to Fenelon’s project is the understanding of software quality metrics, such as the percentage of test-cases passed within acceptable parameters, the number of defects and “Defect Density,” and “Mean Time Between Failure[s].” (“Issues in this area can be particularly hard to correct without significant impact to the software.”) The author breaks down basic concepts like crafting detailed test plans that can serve as “a roadmap for the testing team and provide a clear understanding of what needs to be done to ensure the quality of the software.” Fenelon’s book has many strengths, including clarity and abundant illustrations, but its chief virtue is its muscular compression. The author is aware of the fact that there’s an infinite number of potential problems any software project can encounter—it’s typical of his book’s premium on utility that readers are presented with a “dirty dozen” things IT troubleshooters are most likely to encounter. Project leaders can be lumbered with a bewildering number of variables to track, and Fenelon tackles that confusion squarely and encouragingly; overwhelmed managers will be grateful.
A densely-packed and refreshingly clear game plan for improved tech-project management.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781942565468
Page Count: 174
Publisher: MSD Games
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
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New York Times Bestseller
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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by Walter Isaacson with adapted by Sarah Durand
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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