|
|
|
|
|
Visit CRC Press Online!
|
Leading Publishers of Essential Information for the
Professional and Technical Communities Worldwide!
CRC Press.
|
|
|
For Best Results
|
Use the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click on the icon below to download it for FREE.
|
|
|
|
New Books
|
|
|
|
|
Practical Guide to Project Planning
Added 3/14/2008
Ricardo Viana Vargas
Practical Guide to Project Planning is filled with project documents and templates ready to use for planning and managing project. It explains project analysis and modeling techniques so these documents and templates can be used for effective project management. In addition, the book is also a guide to best practices that comply with the PMI’s PMBOK ® 3.0. Throughout the book, a real-world, practical project plan is used to explain all management issues related to a project, including scope, time, costs, quality, human resources, communication, risks, procurement, and integration. This example also covers every stage of implementing a project management office (PMO), from initial analysis to post-deployment review. The text is filled with insightful tips on using the most popular project management tools and software, including Mindmanager for initial planning sessions, Milestone Project Companion for report generation, and Microsoft Project, the most widely used tool for project planning. Project documents discussed in the book are on the accompanying CD ROM, so readers can use them to develop and track their own projects.
|
Strategic Project Leader, The: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership
Added 3/14/2008
Jack Ferraro
In addition to overseeing projects, today’s managers are expected to provide creative input and use their leadership to foster an environment that can respond rather than react to changing parameters and fluctuating objectives. This volume enables managers to develop the competencies and skills essential to creative leadership. It offers a practical framework that enables them to take charge of their own career development, while embracing and mastering the role of strategy leader. This book explores the attitudes and behaviors that define successful leaders so as to provide project managers with actionable advice on how to grow their own leadership skills.
|
Workforce Cross Training
Added 4/4/2008
David Nembhard
In today's ultra-competitive global business environment, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to reduce spending while simultaneously improving their efficiency and productivity. To achieve this goal, many organizations are opting to implement cross training programs in order to maximize the potential of their existing workforce, thus avoiding the need to outsource. Filling a gap in the literature, Workforce Cross Training presents a pioneering overview of the currently available research on this topic and provides invaluable insight into the design of successful cross training programs.
Featuring contributions from a team of experts, this text integrates information from a wide variety of disciplines including human factors, industrial engineering, operations management, and behavioral psychology. The authors examine the use of cross training programs in various work environments including serial production systems, call centers, and manufacturing industries. Discussion includes best practices of cross training methods and the future opportunities offered by cross training programs.
A single resource featuring an in-depth summary of the policies, methods, and results of cross training, this book delivers a much needed source of guidance for creating effective workforce cross training programs.
|
Determining Project Requirements
Added 4/4/2008
Hans Jonasson
Organizations waste millions of dollars every year on failed projects. Failure is practically guaranteed by poor or incomplete requirements that do not properly define projects in their initial stages. Business analysis is the critical process ensuring projects start on the path toward success. To accurately determine project requirements, business analysts must be experts at business, communication, facilitation, negotiation, and this book is a step-by-step manual for honing these skills. Drawing from the author’s more than 20 years in industry and ten years in teaching, Determining Project Requirements provides the essential techniques for business analysis. The book steps through each analysis phase from the initial idea stage to the final defined and validated requirements. The book covers the professional role of business analysts, the evolution of business analysis, and current and emerging standards. A practical example running throughout the book demonstrates how to nail down customer requirements for all levels of the organization and make sure project teams fully understand what customers require. It also explains how to select the appropriate techniques for analyzing different types of projects and for eliciting a broad range of requirements. The book includes exercises, best practices, tools, templates, and customizable solutions, as well as two examples of the Business Requirements Document. The book thoroughly explores the business analyst’s role in different organizations, the difficulties in capturing requirements, and the tools that assist the analysis process. With readily applicable theories, tools, and techniques, Determining Project Requirements provides a foundation for formalizing business analysis processes and ensuring project success within the readers organization.
|
Managing Global Development Risk
Added 4/7/2008
James Hussey, Steven Hall
While global sourcing has expanded dramatically in terms of activities, consistent challenges remain for organizations that choose such a business decision. These challenges include maximizing the opportunity afforded by globalization, fully realizing potential gains, and managing the risks inherent to global development. In addition, while companies continue to start or expand their use of global resources, little is being done to help project managers, business analysts, architects, and others succeed in this new environment. Built upon real-world experiences, Managing Global Development Risk provides the tools, techniques, and knowledge necessary to achieve project success with offshore resources. By reading and utilizing the templates within this book, you will acquire the following skills along with the ability to apply the principles to your unique work requirements: · Knowledge of project management principles and their application · Understanding of software development processes and their application · Insight into the diverse personalities within your global development team and the appropriate management and communications style to achieve success · Awareness of cultural issues and mannerisms that will enhance you ability to guide your team To fully realize the benefits of global development, a proper mix of local and offshore resources is essential. This book is an important tool that can help you gain the necessary competency and expand your skills in this critical area.
|
Reliability Technology, Human Error, and Quality in Health Care
Added 4/8/2008
B.S. Dhillon
The effective and interrelated functioning of system reliability technology, human factors, and quality play an important role in the appropriate, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of health care. Simply put, it can save you time, money, and more importantly, lives. Over the years a large number of journal and conference proceedings articles on these topics have been published, but there are only a small number of books written on each individual topic, and virtually none that brings the pieces together into a unified whole.
|
Handbook of Employee Benefits and Administration
Added 5/9/2008Fiscal realities and changing social priorities are requiring a dramatic shift in the way that benefits are selected and awarded to employees, especially in the public sector. This means that public administrators and policy researchers must consider new parameters and contingencies, both financial and social, when evaluating choices and making policy decisions. The Handbook of Employee Benefits and Administration provides HR managers, consultants, and students and scholars in public administration with a comprehensive overview of this critical employee component. Respected experts in government and academia delve into an exploration of all major benefits, including retirement and healthcare, with a specific emphasis on growing concerns and trends within the public sector. Satisfying the demand for authoritative research on HR Management, this essential resource provides analysis and insight on the most pressing areas of concerns. Public employee benefits — examines ethical principles and economic considerations; compares federal employee benefits to those of the private sector Health and retirement benefits — explores the changing environment of state and local government pensions and retirement planning in the US and UK; compares public and private sector wage and health benefit compensation Financial management— considers growing challenges and the trend towards outsourcing Contemporary benefits — discusses emerging opportunities, such as higher education and domestic partner benefits Featuring keen analysis and concise summaries in each chapter, with an emphasis on future trends, this exhaustive reference offers public policy administrators and researchers the current information and insight needed to shape future discussions of benefit packages for public employees.
|
Financial Services Information Systems
Added 5/12/2008The calculus of IT support for the banking, securities, and insurance industries has changed dramatically and rapidly over the past few years. Consolidation and deregulation are creating opportunities and challenges never before seen. Unheard of just a few years ago, e-commerce has given birth to new infrastructures and departments needed to support them. And the Internet/Intranet/Extranet triple-whammy is the most critical component of most financial IT shops. At the same time, new intelligent agents stand ready to take on such diverse functions as customer profiling and data mining.
Get a handle on all these new and newer ripples with Financial Services Information Systems. Here, in this exhaustive new guide and reference book, industry guru Jessica Keyes gives you the no-nonsense scoop on not just the tried and true IT tools of today, but also the up-and-coming "hot" technologies of tomorrow, and how to plan for them.
Financial Services Information Systems addresses challenges and solutions associated with:
· supporting the self-service revolution by servicing kiosks and ATMs efficiently and economically,
· straight-through processing for the securities industry,
· outsourcing business communications in the insurance industry,
· distributed integration as a cost-effective alternative to data warehousing, and
· putting inbound fax automation to work in financial organizations.
|
Six Sigma and Beyond: The Implementation Process, Volume VII
Added 6/6/2008
D.H. Stamatis
The final volume of this series presents a synopsis of the curriculum that a typical Six Sigma program should follow. It differs from the preceding six volumes in that it is an implementation volume, therefore the information is geared towards helping readers formalize their own training. The book establishes the minimum requirements for the Six Sigma methodology and provides the body of knowledge needed for a successful and rewarding implementation of the Six Sigma processes.
|
Six Sigma and Beyond: Design for Six Sigma, Volume VI
Added 6/6/2008
D.H. Stamatis
This volume addresses design improvement from the perspective of prevention by introducing readers to the tools of the Six Sigma design process. The author discusses the issues of designing for Six Sigma, covering the topics that any Shogun Six Sigma Master must be familiar with: customer satisfaction, quality function deployment, benchmarking, systems engineering, value engineering, reliability and maintainability, design for manufact`urability, mistake proofing, failure mode and effect analysis, project management, and financial concepts.
|
Trust Management in Virtual Work Environments: A Human Factors Perspective
Added 6/6/2008
Wieslaw Grudzewski, Irena Hejduk, Anna Sankowska, Monika Wantuchowicz
Already a significant human factor issue, trust is an especially hot topic in today’s business world where so much of the contact is virtual. Providing the first elaboration on this subject, the authors conduct an interdisciplinary investigation into the many facets of trust as they relate to the design and management of virtual business environments. They explore trust between organizations, between business partners, as well as trust between employer and employee. Involving theory and practice, this work provides the first scientific and systematic evaluation of global trends and practices regarding trust between people in all aspects of their professional lives.
|
Triple C Model of Project Management: Communication, Cooperation, and Coordination
Added 6/6/2008
Adedeji Badiru
Project Management: the discipline of organizing and managing resources so that a project is completed within defined scope, quality, time, and cost constraints. Oh, if only it really was that simple. Once you have the specs of the project, it is time to get down to business and manage people. And therein lies many a problem. Fuzzy, ambiguous, and subject to emotional nuances and sentimental knee-jerk reactions, people issues are often the most problematic piece of any project.
|
Project Management Framework
Added 7/17/2008
D.G. Carmichael
The book covers the framework of project management, a discipline that is "flavor of the month" in many quarters. The aims of Project Management Framework are to understand project management and to stimulate and contribute to a structured way of thinking in applying this discipline. In this work, a systems view to project management is described, based on the realization that management is a synthesis or inverse problem. One of the overriding reasons for writing this book was to counter the myriad of misconceptions and thinking errors that exist among project management writers and practitioners. In addition, the usage of correct terminology and application of the right level of thinking are discussed as factors contributing to the heart or more mature management practices.
The subject matter is developed in this edition through looking at the fundamentals of projects and management and subsequently through studying the chronological development of the project life cycle. In order to support theory, numerous case examples from diverse industries are included. Aspects that are generally not available elsewhere are highlighted, whereas project management materials that is readily available in other texts has been deliberately omitted.
This book is intended to serve student, teachers and practitioners. As only very few prerequisites are needed apart from a basic interest in projects, some exposure to the discipline and a systematic thinking ability, this book serves a broad group of interested readers who want to know about the discipline.
|
Global Engineering Project Management
Added 7/18/2008
M. Kemal Atesmen
Imagine the dynamics of an international engineering project such as this one: a U.S. group designs, prototypes, and qualifies disk drive heads; wafers for the drive heads are manufactured in the U.S. and sent to Malaysia for subassembly; a South Korean firm assembles these components; the final product, a fully automated disk drive, is completed in Japan. In addition to the global complexities of the project, there are a host of issues in leading the project team spread across continents.
|
Medical Device Reliability and Associated Areas
Added 7/18/2008
B.S. Dhillon
Although Reliability Engineering can trace its roots back to World War II, its application to medical devices is relatively recent, and its treatment in the published literature has been quite limited. With the medical device industry among the fastest growing segments of the US economy, it is vital that the engineering, biomedical, manufacturing, and design communities have up-to-date information on current developments, tools, and techniques.
Medical Device Reliability and Associated Areas fills this need with broad yet detailed coverage of the field. It addresses a variety of topics related - directly and indirectly - to reliability, including human error in health care systems and software quality assurance. With emphasis on concepts rather than mathematical rigor, a multitude of examples, exercises, tables, and references, this is one resource that everyone connected to the medical device industry must have.
|
Practical Guide to Security Engineering and Information Assurance, A
Added 7/21/2008
Debra S. Herrmann
Today the vast majority of the world's information resides in, is derived from, and is exchanged among multiple automated systems. Critical decisions are made, and critical action is taken based on information from these systems. Therefore, the information must be accurate, correct, and timely, and be manipulated, stored, retrieved, and exchanged safely, reliably, and securely. In a time when information is considered the latest commodity, information security should be top priority.
A Practical Guide to Security Engineering and Information Assurance gives you an engineering approach to information security and information assurance (IA). The book examines the impact of accidental and malicious intentional action and inaction on information security and IA. Innovative long-term vendor, technology, and application-independent strategies show you how to protect your critical systems and data from accidental and intentional action and inaction that could lead to system failure or compromise.
The author presents step-by-step, in-depth processes for defining information security and assurance goals, performing vulnerability and threat analysis, implementing and verifying the effectiveness of threat control measures, and conducting accident and incident investigations. She explores real-world strategies applicable to all systems, from small systems supporting a home-based business to those of a multinational corporation, government agency, or critical infrastructure system.
The information revolution has brought its share of risks. Exploring the synergy between security, safety, and reliability engineering, A Practical Guide to Security Engineering and Information Assurance consolidates and organizes current thinking about information security/IA techniques, approaches, and best practices. As this book will show you, there is considerably more to information security/IA than firewalls, encryption, and virus protection.
|
Mathematical Models for Systems Reliability
Added 7/25/2008
Benjamin Epstein, Ishay Weissman
Evolved from the lectures of a recognized pioneer in developing the theory of reliability, Mathematical Models for Systems Reliability provides a rigorous treatment of the required probability background for understanding reliability theory. This classroom-tested text begins by discussing the Poisson process and its associated probability laws. It then uses a number of stochastic models to provide a framework for life length distributions and presents formal rules for computing the reliability of nonrepairable systems that possess commonly occurring structures. The next two chapters explore the stochastic behavior over time of one- and two-unit repairable systems. After covering general continuous-time Markov chains, pure birth and death processes, and transitions and rates diagrams, the authors consider first passage-time problems in the context of systems reliability. The final chapters show how certain techniques can be applied to a variety of reliability problems. Illustrating the models and methods with a host of examples, this book offers a sound introduction to mathematical probabilistic models and lucidly explores how they are used in systems reliability problems.
|
The Engineer's Cost Handbook: Tools for Managing Project Costs
Added 7/25/2008
Richard Westney
Offers coverage of each important step in engineering cost control process, from project justification to life-cycle costs. The book describes cost control systems and shows how to apply the principles of value engineering. It explains estimating methodology and the estimation of engineering, engineering equipment, and construction and labour costs; delineates productivity and cash-flow analysis; and more.
|
Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics, Volume II
Added 7/31/2008
D.H. Stamatis
In all walks of life, at some point in time, we all use the process of problem solving. We all talk about it, we all use it, but chances are we all mean different things by it. Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics organizes the topic and provides a structured approach based on the scientific method. Specifically designed to address the issue of cognitive functioning this volume provides a generic approach to problem solving.
The Six Sigma methodology demands that problems be resolved in such a way that both the customer and organization benefit. Not a bad expectation. In this book, the author addresses what a problem is and systematically defines the process of resolving it. He stresses the importance of the team - people power - dedicated to solving a specific problem - process power - and how this combination leads to efficiencies that please the customer and enhance the bottom line.
Identifying the problem is only half the task. The next step is to resolve it. This book gives you a detailed rationale and a theoretical explanation of the problem solving process. It focuses on problem solving from a quality perspective and addresses key concepts in team dynamics. It provides an overview of the basic tools of problem solving. In addition, the author introduces the Global Problem Solving (GPS) process.
This strategic program brings the focus of quality programs back to eliminating mistakes, waste, and rework. The book highlights the basic mathematics used in all phases of quality control. It introduces each mathematical concept, gives an example, and proceeds with several exercises that demonstrate the solution. With Six Sigma and Beyond: Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics you get the techniques and statistical tools to go beyond theory to real-world applications and take quality management to the next level.
|
Six Sigma and Beyond: Foundations of Excellent Performance, Volume I
Added 7/31/2008
D.H. Stamatis
Cost reduction…productivity improvement…customer retention…enhanced bottom line…these are the promises of six sigma quality management. But what is six sigma? What are the secrets to six sigma success? By implementing the six sigma philosophy you can save millions of dollars in annual cost savings and product quality improvements.
Six Sigma and Beyond: Foundations of Excellent Performance provides a roadmap to successful six sigma implementation that you can adapt to your organization. The book gives you a model of six sigma and explains frequently asked questions in a Q & A format for easy application. It outlines the seven steps to six sigma and how to use them to give your organization the competitive edge.
Understand the seven steps to the six sigma philosophy:
· Establish the Quality System, Management, and Cultural Environment
· Define Mission of Each Component of the Organization
· Set Performance Improvement Opportunities, Goals, and Priorities
· Establish Improvement Projects and Action Plans
· Implement Projects Using Improvement Methodologies
· Evaluate Improved Performance
· Review and Recycle
The goal of all this? You can uncover potential improvements in your organization and bring all your resources together to identify, measure, analyze, improve, and control the process. Six Sigma and Beyond: Foundations for Excellent Performance defines quality and the elements that both management and non-management personnel must understand to achieve quality success.
|
Lean Performance ERP Project Management: Implementing the Virtual Lean Enterprise, Second Edition
Added 8/11/2008
Brian Carroll
Lean thinking is too often narrowly focused on physical processes, causing serious shortcomings, which limit Lean’s substantial benefits. Revised to consider the emerging global economy, Lean Performance ERP Project Management, Second Edition integrates strategy, people, process, and information technology into a project management methodology that applies Lean Thinking to all processes. It leverages Lean principles, tools, and practices to improve and then continuously improve management decision processes, information/support processes, and their linkages to Lean physical processes. New in the Second Edition— · Provides project managers an overview of lean benefits and challenges to present to Lean Sponsors and Lean Transformation Steering Committees · Presents a strategy for ERP project managers dealing with Chinese-based manufacturing · Includes a refreshed discussion of current events in the transition to lean in the global economy · Discusses new developments such as e-kanban, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Customer TAKT, and Operational TAKT · Features a case study of the Lean Commerce system implemented by Toyota North America Based on the author’s practical management and consulting experience, Lean Performance ERP Project Management: Implementing the Virtual Lean Enterprise clearly demonstrates that a lean tool kit requires the participation from all departments of an organization, from product development to fulfillment.
|
|
